Pina Colada Cupcakes

Ingredients - makes 12


25g (1 oz) grated creamed coconut (I used liquid creamed coconut, which worked ok)
125g (4 oz) butter
125g (4 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
150g (5 oz) SR flour
0.5 tsp baking powder
75g (3 oz) dried pineapple


Icing


150ml (0.25 pt) double cream
3 tbsp white rum
Fresh pineapple wedges

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C, and line a 12 section bun tray with cases. Chop the dried pineapple. Cream the butter and sugar, and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
2. Fold in the sifted flour and baking powder, creamed coconut and dried pineapple. Beat until light and creamy.
3. Divide the mixture amongst the cases and bake for 20 minutes or until risen and just firm to the touch. Cool on a wire rack.
4. Lightly whip the double cream with the rum and spoon over the cooled cakes. Decorate with a wedge of pineapple.

These cakes are a very special treat to anyone who enjoys pina colada (or coconut in general). It could probably be altered into quite a nice 8" birthday cake if desired. The creamed cocount (liquid) worked nicely, though I used a bit less than 1 oz. It kept the cakes nice and moist too, without an overpowering coconut taste. I added a bit of the creamed coconut to the icing too to add to the coconut flavour.

MMFC

Jaffa Cupcakes

As the name suggests, these are cakes very much like jaffa cakes (But better!)


Ingredients - makes 12


165g (5.75 oz) SR flour
30g (1 oz) cocoa powder
220g (7.75 oz) caster sugar
2 eggs
170 ml (0.25 pt) milk
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest


Icing


250g (9 oz) icing sugar
60g (2.25 oz) unsalted butter
2 tsps finely grated orange zest
2 tbsps orange juice
Orange cachous to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180*C and put out 12 cases out. Melt the butter.
2. Sift the flour and cocoa into a large bowl and stir in the sugar. Add the eggs (beaten), milk, melted butter and orange zest and beat with electric beaters until well combined.
3. Divide evenly among the cases and bake for 18-20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
4. Cream the butter, orange zest and icing sugar until smooth in a large bowl. Decorate each cake with buttercream, and cachous if wished.

One large orange makes enough zest for the whole set of cakes (just!), so if you are keen on oranges, get two. Very tasty cakes.


MMFC

Chocolate Cake

This is my favourite chocolate cake recipe. I've used it millions of times, and it makes a beautiful cake. Very chocolatey, very nice!


Chocolate Cake - one 8" cake roughly 2" deep

125g (4oz) semisweet or milk choc

3 tbsp milk

80g (3oz) marg

200g (7oz) sugar

3 eggs

200g (7oz) SR

1 tbsp cocoa

Icing - buttercream

3oz marg

6oz icing

1 tbsp cocoa

Icing - ganache

1 ½oz butter (must be butter)

1oz cocoa

4oz icing sugar

2 tbsp milk

  

1. Melt choc and milk in heatproof bowl.
2. Add to everything else in processor.
3. Process.
4. Bake at 180 °C for 35-40 mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Best to rotate it in the oven halfway through.
5. Cool on a wire rack in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out of the tin.
6. Cut cake in half when cold. 

If not using a processor, blend butter and sugar, then blend in eggs one by one. Fold in the flour and cocoa powder, and then add the melted chocolate. For best results, use processor.

Icing methods:

Buttercream – just blend everything together in a bowl until smooth

Ganache icing - melt butter in a pan, add milk and heat gently until smooth mixture formed, then sift in icing sugar and cocoa powder. Stir until smooth and glossy. Should be liquid enough to pour and spread on cake.

You should ice the middle of the cake with buttercream, saving about 1/3 or 1/2 to coat the outsides with. Put the top on the cake, and then coat the top and sides with buttercream. Leave to set. 

Now is a good time to make the ganache icing. Let it cool a little before actually pouring it onto the cake, as otherwise it will melt the buttercream and make a horrible mess. Spread the ganache icing all over the cake, being careful to not spread too deep and hit the buttercream. Once it completely covers the cake, get a wet pallette knife and smooth the ganache out to make a nice sheen.

The cake can then be decorated in a variety of ways - chocolate buttercream piped onto it, chocolate leaves put on top, leave it blank, or anything else you like!

Hope you enjoy this cake as much as I do. I've used it to make a Harp shaped cake, a radio shaped cake, and a number of other birthday cakes.

MMFC

Anniversaries galore...

So as previously mentioned, it was my Aunt and Uncle's 20th Wedding anniversary this summer, for which I made a quite epic cake. Here are some photos of the cake:

This had a fruit cake base (using this recipe: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/2988/hot-toddy-fruitcake but used sweet sherry instead of whiskey - Thanks for the recipe Hannah!) covered in marzipan, and then ready-roll-icing, stuck together with home-made jam. Then I put a chocolate cake on top (my favourite choc cake recipe - to follow), iced with chocolate buttercream and then coated in ready-roll-icing. It was all stitched together with some piped royal icing.


THEN the big one - the cake pops. These use a basic 2 egg chocolate cake recipe (4oz SR flour/4oz Marg/4oz Sugar + 2 eggs + cocoa powder) mixed with 2.5oz Cream Cheese and 5oz of icing sugar. The cake is crumbed in a food processor, and then has the cream cheese/icing sugar mixed into it to make a moist "dough". This is then put onto a lollipop stick, coated in chocolate/cake covering and decorated. The result:

Combined with the cake....

Next up, it was my parent's anniversary today - and this week I've been preparing a cake for them. The same chocolate cake as my favourite one above, coated with chocolate buttercream, and then a chocolate ganache. I then covered the whole cake in chocolate leaves :D

Finally, for LINKS' teambuilding at the start of the summer, I made a cake for my friend Lorna for her 21st birthday. She is fascinated/obsessed by elephants, so that was an obvious choice of cake design. I gave her the tin afterwards, cos we bought a special shaped Elephant tin. I used the basic chocolate cake recipe from above (using cocoa powder), but just increased the size a bit to fit the tin.

That is all my photos for the summer - I shall follow up with the chocolate cake recipe.


MMFC

Watch this space.

Hey everyone/anyone,


I know I haven't written on here a lot this year (fail). Hopefully I'll remember to write on it more next term. I'm just writing to say there will be quite an epic update soon, with pictures of the cake I made for my Aunt and Uncle's wedding anniversary (along with a vast collection of Cake Pops - if you don't know what these are, GOOGLE THEM).


Other than that, hope you've all had a good summer!


MMFC

So it has been a while...

...That's not to say I haven't been baking lots. Plenty of flapjacks to keep me going during exams, a few birthday cakes and a few sets of cupcakes. Heres a selection of photos from my baking escapades since March...

Frosted Banana Cupcakes (very weird Yoghurt icing - tasty though)

This cake I made for a friend's birthday who unfortunately couldn't be there to have any (she was in Northern Ireland), so I had to eat it all myself... shame! A chocolate Giant Cupcake (tin courtesy of my brother) :D

Chocolate cake with leaf decoration and cream filling :D, made this one for another friend's birthday.

Chocolate orange cake (mk 1) with chocolate leaves decoration and white chocolate coating.

Chocolate orange cake (mk 2) with chocolate ribbon decoration and a white chocolate coating. Very chocolatey, went down a treat as a gift :).

I'll be sure to post some recipes sometime soon.. promise.

MMFC

Chocolate Toffee Cupcakes

As the name may suggest, these are very sweet and sickly. My favourite kind of cake!
They use a plain cake (though you could just as easily use chocolate flavour, or banana if you are feeling really adventurous) with a toffee sauce and them covered in melted chocolate. Mmmmmmm!!


Ingredients - makes 18 nicely

100g (4oz) butter or margarine

125g (5oz) sugar

150g (6oz) self raising flour

2 eggs

2 tbsp milk

½ tsp vanilla essence

Icing

1/2 can (200g) of sweetened condensed milk

50g (2oz) caster sugar

65g (2.5oz) butter

2 tbsp golden syrup

100g (4oz) plain chocolate

100g (4oz) milk chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 190*C. Line 2 bun trays with paper cases. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl, and add in the eggs. Beat until mixed.
2. Fold in the flour, milk and then vanilla essence. Divide into cases. Bake for 15 mins or until golden brown on top (and a skewer inserted comes out clean).
3. Cool on a wire rack. While cooking, start on the icing.
4. Put the condensed milk, sugar, butter and golden syrup in a medium heavy based pan and heat gently stirring until all the sugar is dissolved. Cook over a gentle heat for 5 mins or until a pale fudge colour.
5. Leave to cool until thick and spreadable. Then spread onto the tops of each cake.
6. Melt the chocolates (separately) in double boilers or in the microwave. Spoon the melted chocolate onto the tops of the cakes and make pretty patterns - i.e. swirl the two with a cocktail stick, or pipe one onto the other etc.
7. If you are like, decorate the tops with slivers (or curls if you can make them) of chocolate.

For chocolate cakes, add a bit of cocoa to the cake mix for chocolate (15 g (0.5 oz)), or for banana, remove 15 g (0.5 oz) of sugar and butter/margarine and replace with a mashed banana. Cook for roughly the same amount of time. Enjoy!


MMFC