Chocolate and caramel cupcakes

200g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
1 tbsp. baking powder
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
100ml sunflower oil
225ml milk
110g dairy toffees

Icing
100g milk chocolate (I used dairy milk)
200g unsalted butter
225g icing sugar

Caramel drizzle
100g condensed milk
25g unsalted butter
25g soft brown sugar

1. preheat oven to 190c and line a muffin tray
2. sift flour, cocoa and baking powder, then stir in the sugar
3. whisk together the egss and oil in a separate bowl until frothy then whisk in the milk
4. stir in dry ingredients until blended
5. spoon into paper cases until half full add a toffee and cover with more mixture
6. bake for 20-25 minutes until cooked

For the icing
1. mix the unsalted butter and the icing sugar together to taste, if it still taste of butter add more icing sugar
2. melt the chocolate and add to the buttercream and mix until blended through

For the caramel
1. place all the ingredients into a pan and bring to a slow boil
2. turn down low and simmer for 3 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent burning.

When all this is done pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cakes and then drizzle over the caramel.

This picture doesn't do them justice but they were brilliant!!

Katie

New cupcake design try-outs

I want to try some new designs for my decorated cupcakes, and this is what I ended up with:

Flowers

Hearts

Mickey and Mini Mouse

Not many designs but I had fun doing them!!

Katie

Waistcoat Birthday Cake

I was asked to make my one of my bosses birthday cake at the restaurant I work at. I was told to use my imagination on what to do with his cake. It took me forever to decide on what to do for him when the idea was staring at me straight in the face! He wear waistcoats to work as he works in the front of the restaurant... so I made him a waistcoat cake!

This was quite and easy cake to do as it was very simple design. It went down very well with my boss and his family!!

Katie

Dinosaur Cupcakes

I was asked to make some dinosaur cupcakes for my friends boyfriends 15th birthday. At first I wasn't really sure how they would turn out, because I'm not a brilliant artist and not very good at modelling anything! So I looked through the Internet and found some very comical dinosaurs and modelled my dinosaurs off them:

I was very pleased at how these cakes came out, and I believe my friend and her boyfriend were very pleased with them too!!

Katie

Awesome Face Cake

My brother asked for a birthday cake he's into the walking dead programme on TV and asked if I could make him a walking dead cake. I said yeah sure fairly easy design found and was ready to make it. He then (as he is a teenage boy) decided he didn't want a walking dead cake he wanted an awesome face cake. As the loving sister I am I changed my plans and made this very simple awesome face cake!!

Katie

Terry's Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

8oz margarine
8oz caster sugar
8oz flour
4 eggs
2 heaped tbsp cocoa powder
1 Terry's chocolate orange (chopped into pieces)

Icing
200g dark chocolate
200ml double cream

Decoration
Terry's chocolate orange

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 190c and line a 12 muffin hole tin
2. Cream the margarine and sugar together
3. Sift a bit of flour into the mixture and add one egg, continue to do this.
4. Add the cocoa powder.
5. Add the Terry's chocolate orange and mix.
6. Divide the batter between the cupcake cases and bake for about 15 minutes for until cooked
7. For the icing melted the chocolate and once it has melted add the double cream and leave it to cool.
8. Pipe onto the cakes and add a segment of Terry's chocolate orange.

1st Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a 1st Birthday cake for a friends niece. I was told she like giraffes, so she wanted a giraffe cake. I was given a picture of a cake she wanted but I wasn't quite sure whether I could do it or not, so I trawled the Internet for ideas and found a two tiered cake with a giraffe on top. I made three layers of vanilla 10" for the bottom tier and three layers of chocolate 8" for the 2nd tier, I cut each layer in half so it created six layers. I then sandwiched each layer together to create each tier. I then covered in fondant and then decorated it. For the giraffe I used pound cake in a spherical cake tin, I then carved it into the body and the head and then covered them in butter cream and then placed fondant over them and stuck them together.

I was very pleased with this cake!!!

Katie

Neapolitan Style Cake

I saw a recipe in a book that looked like a Neapolitan ice cream, of course I fell in love with it immediately as it was something different and had to make it!!! I change the ingredients to what I like to use, because it was so much easier and I had the stuff in the house. I just use my normal victoria sponge recipe and multiplied it by three because I did one vanilla layer, one chocolate, and one raspberry. I made three layers out of them in one tin, so vanilla in one cake tin, chocolate etc, from this I cut the layers in half so I had six layers, two of each. I then put butter cream between each layer and sandwiched them together, so it looked like a Neapolitan ice cream I did decorate because I was bored and people automatically thought I had made it for someone, I'll point out again I did not make it for anyone I made it for my own entertain because I had nothing better to do!!!! I say it was pretty easy to do and I'd definitely do it again!!!

I couldn't decide how I wanted to deocrate and I've always wanted to do a present cake so I tried and did a present cake because I have too much time on my hands obviously. I wasn't too pleased with the bow because after I'd done it and left it over night on the cake it cracked and fell apart!! But beforehand it looked pretty good. I thought it needed something else so mum said to pipe butter cream around the edge in rosettes:

I thought it needed something else just to brighten it up because it didn't really have a lot of colour to it (in my opinion!!), so I made some butterflies, made them look like they were flying and stuck them to the butter cream:

I was pretty impressed with how it turned out just for a 'I think I'm going to make a cake'.



I was very impressed at how it looked inside as well!! You definitely wouldn't want a very big slice because it was very tall and had a lot of layers!!!

Katie

Toblerone Cupcakes

I found a recipe for toberlone cupcakes and as me being me I wanted to make them (because I love toblerone). I was very proud with how they turned out, and of course they stayed in the house but didn't last very long either!!!!!

200g (7oz) plain flour

25g cocoa powder

1 tbsp baking powder

110g caster sugar

2 eggs

100ml sunflower oil

225ml milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

100g toblerone

Icing

125ml double cream

250g plain chocolate

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp unsalted butter

To decorate

Coloured sweets

Sparkling sugar

100g toblerone (small)

1. preheat oven to 180c. line a 12 hole muffin tin

2. sift the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into a bowl. Stir in the sugar.

3. Whisk together the eggs and oil in a separate bowl until frothy, then slowly whisk in the milk and vanilla

4. Stir into the dry ingredients with the chopped toblerone until blended together.

5. Spoon into the paper case and bake for 20-25 minutes, until firm and risen.

6. For the topping, heat the cream in a pan and bring to a boil. Immediately remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted, then stir in the vanilla extract.

7. Add the butter gradually and stir until blended. Allow to cool until the mixture is thick enough to pipe.

8. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe on top of the cakes.

9. Decorate with sweets and sparkling sugar and place a toblerone triangle on top. Leave to set.

Katie

Malteser cupcakes

Again, I fancied making something different and I've always wanted to make malteser cupcakes and I found a recipe that was very good so I decided to use it.

300g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
85g caster sugar
250ml milk
2 eggs
100g butter, melted
12 maltesers (or more depending on how many cakes are made, I made 12)
5 tbsp melted chocolate
Icing
300ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp icing sugar
The rest of the maltesers (I brought a big sharing pack and blitzed the rest of them)


1. Preheat the oven to 200c. Line a muffin tin, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl and then stir in the sugar.
2. Mix together the milk, eggs and the melted butter, then pour over the dry ingredients and mix.
3. Spoon into the tins to cover the bases and place a malteser on top. Spoon some melted chocolate over then cover completely with more mixture.
5. For the topping, whisk together the cream, vanilla and icing sugar until thick. Add the blitzed up malteser and mix.
6. Pipe the mixture onto the cakes.

Katie

Chilli Chocolate Cupcakes

My Dad wanted me to make a chilli chocolate cake for him to try, he didn't want a cake he wanted a big cake so I made cupcakes instead.

Ingredients:
250g Margarine
300g Light Muscovado
100g Plain Flour
100g Self-Raising Flour
4 Eggs
300g Dark Chocolate
1-3 Red Chillies (depends on your preference)
OR
1-3 tbsp Chili Paste/ Oil
ICING:
200g Dark Chocolate
200ml Double Cream
Method
1. Heat an oven to 190°C
2. Line a muffin tin with cupcakes cases.
3. Using a whisk, add the margarine to a mixing bowl together with the sugar. Whisk till light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
5. Melt the chocolate
6. Once cool, add the chocolate to the mixture and mix in.
7. Add the remaining flour to the mixture and stir till smooth.
8. If you are using fresh chilli/es finely chop them, and either add now or crush/blend them to a paste.
9. If using ready made chili paste or oil, add it to the mixture now, or the paste you mad yourself. Add slowly, checking it does not too badly overpower the mixture. Stir till smooth.
10. Split the batter into the muffin cases.
11. Bake for about 25 minutes or till fully cooked.
12. Take out the cake, and let it cool for 10 minutes, before taking out of the tin.
13. To make Chocolate cream, melt the chocolate as before, and mix together with the cream, and then cool until thickened. Ice the cupcakes.

They are easier to make as cupcakes rather than a big cake because it will take just over an hour to cook.

Katie

Raspberry and White chocolate muffins

8oz Unsalted butter/margarine

8oz caster sugar

4 eggs

8oz self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

55g raspberries

5 oz white chocolate

9oz icing sugar

3oz unsalted butter

25ml single cream

extra raspberries to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180c. Line a muffin tray. Cream together the butter and sugar

2. Add one egg and a little bit of flour and mix. Do this with each egg

3. Add the vanilla extract and raspberries and mix. Dive between the cases

4. Cook for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool.

5. For the icing, melt the chocolate and leave to cool. Mix together the icing sugar and butter, then add the cream and chocolate and mix.

6. Place into a pastry bag and pipe onto the cakes and add a raspberry for decoration.

Katie

Macaroons

I've always wanted to make macaroons but never had the courage to do so; until I saw them make them on the Great British Bake off, and got a few little tips on how to make them. So I found a recipe to make lemon macaroons which was fairly easy; for the filling however it did not go to plan. The recipe wanted to make our own lemon curd which I have done before and had no problem with it, however it was all going smoothly and then it began to burn and it wasn't near enough finished. So I rushed down tescos and picked up a jar to lemon curd!! I then decided that I want to make some coloured ones; so I made mint macaroons, which went down a storm.

I will be making them again as they were fairly easy to make and came out quiet well. Here are some pictures...

Recipe for lemon macaroons:
125g ground almonds
175g icing sugar
100g egg whites
75g caster sugar
yellow food colouring
3 lemons
140g sugar
3 eggs 1 tbsp cornflour

1. Preheat oven to 175c. Line a baking tray with parchment
2. Mix together the ground almonds with the icing sugar.
3. Whisk the egg whites until stiff. Add 1/4 caster sugar, then the remaining caster sugar.
4. Add the almond mixture into the egg whites and fold together. Finally add the yellow food colouring.
5. Fill a pastry bag with the macaroon mixture. Squeeze small rounds onto the parchment. The bag should touch the tray.
6. Tap the tray on a work surface and set aside for 15 minutes, then bake for 12-15 minutes. They are cooked when touched they are hard.
7. For the lemon curd, zest and juice the lemons and combine in a saucepan with the cornflour. Stir in the sugar. Cook on a low heat. Add the eggs. Increase heat and cook for 4 minutes.
8. Fill a pastry bag with the lemon curd and pipe on the flat side of the macaroon and then place another macaroon on top.

For the green macaroons I used the same mixture but changed the filling:
100ml double cream
200g white chocolate
1 tsp peppermint extract
green food colouring

1. Boil the cream and essence in a pan, take off the heat just as it starts to boil.
2. Pour over the chocolate and melt the chocolate.
3. Add the food colouring and place in the fridge and set.
4. Once firm put into a pastry bag and pipe into the macaroons.

Katie

Easter Cupcakes

I found a recipe online of how to make creme egg cupcakes, I absolutely love creme eggs so I had to make them!!

I made a chocolate cake mix and then the cream cheese frosting and then for the fondant I used golden syrup, butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and yellow food paste. I piped the creme cheese first and then piped the fondant around the swirl. I then cut the creme eggs (mini eggs) in half so it looked like the inside was coming out onto the cake .

If creme eggs where sold all year round I would make these cakes all the time!!

Katie

I found a book that was dedicated to decorating cakes, and it was on offer so I got it. I made some cake to try and make some of the ideas in the book.

                                                                               Sheep

Dragonfly

Elephant

Blue birds

Bunny

I traced the pictures onto a piece of baking parchment from the book and then cut the designs out from fondant and layered them up to make them look 3D, not all of them turned out very well but the others did. So I was quite pleased with some of these cupcakes and will definitely use the book again.

Katie

Baileys cupcakes

Our oven broke and we brought a new oven, it is pretty amazing its touch screen and is one oven but it is split so we can cook at one temperature in the top part and then another in the bottom part. So I wanted to use the new oven so I made some cake, I found a recipe for baileys cupcakes and thought they looked really good so I made them.

For the cake I used:
275g (9 3/4oz) self raising flour
275g (9 3/4oz) caster sugar
275g (9 3/4oz) butter
25g (10z) cocoa powder
6 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur

For the Butter cream I used:
750g (1lb 7oz) icing sugar
25g (1oz) cocoa powder
250g (90z) unsalted butter
100 ml (3 1/2 fl oz) Baileys or other Irish cream liqueur

Chocolate chips to decorate.

1. Preheat the oven to 190c/ Gas mark 5. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with 12 paper cases. Combine all the cupcake ingredients apart from the Baileys together in a food processor. (I don't have a food processor so I creamed the butter and sugar together and then added the rest of the ingredients). Drizzle the Baileys in last and mix until you have a smooth batter. Try not to over mix
2. Spoon the batter into the cases, bake in the oven for around 15-18 minutes. When the cakes are cooked, check they are cooked by either putting a cocktail stick or knife, if they come out clean they are done if not stick them bake in the oven for a couple more minutes.
3. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and allow to completely cool before covering with icing.
4. To make the icing, beat the butter and Baileys together with an electric mixer until soft and fluffy. Sift over the icing sugar and cocoa several tablespoonfuls at a time and incorporate. When all the icing sugar is mixed in add a tablespoon of milk if you think the mixture is still too stiff. Beat the butter cream with the mixer for several minutes, so it goes fluffier and lighter.
5. Either spread the butter cream over the cakes using a small palette knife or pipe it in spiral. Decorate with chocolate chips to finish.

Katie

Chocolate explosion cakes

I fancy making some cake so I looked at some different recipes and found one that looked really good. It was the recipe I used for my mums birthday cake, I made these before my mum's birthday cake and that is why she asked me to make her cake with this recipe.

For the cupcakes I used:

225g (8oz) unsalted butter

225g (8oz) caster sugar

3 medium eggs

2 tbsp condensed milk

225g (8oz) self raising flour

25g (1oz) cocoa powder

100g (3 1/2 oz) milk chocolate, melted

50g (1 3/4 oz) mini marshmallows

100g (2 1/2oz) chocolate chips

For the icing I used:

Vanilla frosting

Chocolate frosting

Assorted chocolate

1. Preheat the oven to 170c, gas mark 3. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Cream together the butter and sugar in a bowl, add the eggs and condensed milk, then use an electric whisk to mix on a high speed until you have a smooth batter.

2. Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix again until the batter is thick, then add the melted chocolate. Spoon about 1 tbsp of batter into the bottom of each case, then sprinkle over a few marshmallows and chocolate chips.

3. Cover with around 1 tbsp with batter and spread to the edges of the cases using the back of a spoon. Bake in the over for around 15-18 minutes, the makes may still be squidgy when you first take them out because of the melted marshmallows. Leave to cool.

4. Fill the piping bag with vanilla frosting on one side and chocolate frosting on the other side. Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cupcake, starting at the outside and swirling around until you reach the middle. Decorate according to your taste with pieces of chopped up chocolate.

A lot of people wanted this recipe so I thought I'd share it with everyone!!

Katie

My Mums birthday cake

I was shown a picture on facebook of a cake and it made me smile so I showed my mum it and she told me she wanted it for her birthday. So of course as the amazing daughter I made her the cake.

This was a rather fun cake to make, not because of what it was but because of the amount of problems I had with it that resulted in patching it up with chocolate!! I made a cupcakes during the week that had marshmallows in the middle of them and my mum liked them so she asked me to make it into a big cake so I did; thinking it was going to plan I made it with a lot of marshmallows in the middle. It came out perfect, until is started to set... it sank in the middle leaving a bit hole. Thinking I would just cover it up with the melted chocolate which was what I was meant to do, I thought it would fix it.

After I had covered the side with chocolate frosting I added the Kit Kat's and let them set into place. I had quite a bit of chocolate frosting left; I told mum I had the problem with the hole and a load of chocolate frosting left, mum being mum and her friends at work she suggested I fill the hole up with chocolate frosting. So I used the rest of the chocolate frosting (over half the tub) and filled in the hole and covered the top of the cake. I then melted the chocolate and covered the chocolate frosting with the melted chocolate. After the chocolate had set a little I added the pigs, the pig in the middle (lying down) started to sink, so I had a lot of hassle trying to save this pig from sinking which was apparently quite funny to watch.

So when I had finished the cake I couldn't really call it a cake because of there not being a lot there; it was really just lots of types of chocolate. Mum was very pleased with it and so where her friends at work, so I think it was job well done!!

Katie

I'm glad I have a kindle

I got a kindle fire HD just after Christmas and because you can buy magazines on there I brought one of the cake magazine and they have some very good recipes and some very good ideas for decorating cupcake. I was bored and decided to make some cakes (as I usually do) and decorate them. I took a few ideas from this magazine on my kindle fire and decided to change them slightly. I also brought some new cutters during that week so I had to try them out as well so this was perfect.

The array of cakes I made

Bumble bee

Rose

Bow

I played for hours on these cakes and I was quite pleased with them, my favourites were the bumble bee and the rose. This was the first rose I had made, I had tried before but they didn't turn out very well. I had looked all over the Internet at how to make a rose and I finally found a way of making them that was easy for me.

I also had played around with some other ideas I had found on the Internet earlier that month and this is what they looked like

I saw the Mario cupcakes and just had to make them! The rose in this picture is not as good as the previous one but with trial and error I found one that worked for me.

Katie

Dirty Birthday Cake

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friends birthday party, we joked around saying that I should make her a dirty birthday cake and started looking at some cake ideas not thinking anything of it. We then actually decided that she wanted a dirty birthday cake and decided on a cake that we found in a book. And this is what it looked like:

This proved to be a very difficult cake to make (well for me anyway). I made a 10 inch square sponge cake, I cut it in half and then sliced the two pieces of cake in the middle to make four layers. I dirty iced three layers together and then with the fourth layer I cut about 1 inch in and cut the inside out to make a place for the guy to sit in, then I dirty iced all of it.

I then cut out squares to make tiles for the bath and stuck them on the cake. I found the body very difficult to do because I hadn't done a body before and I couldn't get the sizing right and he was too big to sit in the bath. Finally when I got the torso the right size, I put the torso in and then I did the legs and arms. Once they had been done I attached them to the cake and the torso. I then made the bubbles for the bath to cover him up; I rolled out some white fondant in a few pieces and then with a clean pan scourer and pressed it onto the fondant and made a bubble effect. Even though it is not very clear in the picture it was very effective. I then made the extras for the cake, duck, taps, pans, socks and towels. I then added the writing and stars because the cake board was a bit to big and it looked like it needed something else.

This was a very fun cake to make and definitely went down well at the birthday party!!

Katie

Christmas cakes

Every Christmas my family gets together on Christmas eve and have a big family meal. I make a cake every year for us to have. Over the first couple of years of doing this I made a chocolate fudge cake, but the year just gone I decorate my own cake. These were the chocolate fudge cakes:

This Christmas just gone I decided to do my own cake, I looked around on the Internet to see what I could do and decided to use some ideas and make my own cake. I decided to do penguins on my cake because they seemed the easiest to do.

My brother was doing another cake stall around Christmas to raise money for his world challenge trip, so I was asked to make some Christmas themed cupcakes to sell. These went down fairly well because of the characters I made on them.

I enjoy making cakes around Christmas because being stuck inside in the cold it means having to much time on my hands with nothing to do. Meaning I have time to make cakes and share them with my friends and family.

Katie

Cookie Monster Birthday Cake

After seeing the cupcakes with the sesame street characters, I was asked to make a birthday cake with the cookie monster on it. They wanted it plain and simple with a big cookie monster face on it.

I brought some alphabet cutters, they are not brilliant but they do the job. The cookie monster face was a big fluted pastry cutter and then half a round pastry cutter for the mouth and two smaller circles for the eyes. For the cookies I used 2 sizes of circle cutters and cut out brown circles. I used an edible pen and drew dots on it to look like cookies.

They were very pleased with their birthday cake when it was given to her and was more than she expected!!

Katie

Angry Birds and Sesame Street Cupcakes

After playing around with big cakes I decided to try making cupcakes because I find they generally go down better than a big cake. My brother was having a cake stall with his friends to raise money for their world challenge trip to the Himalayas and they wanted me to make some cakes. So I had a look on the Internet for some inspiration as to what to do and then I came across some angry birds cakes and sesame street cakes. I thought these might be good to do as they might sell quicker because kids will want them and parents will buy them. So I had a go at them and this was the finished product:

I did most of the angry birds but they are not pictured, and the sesame street characters pictured where the only ones had made. For the cupcakes I used the same principle as making a big cake, I dirty iced the top of the cakes with butter cream and then cut out a fondant circle with a pastry cutter. For the sesame street characters I used a fluted pastry cutter to make their faces and then cut out the extra bits to make their faces. I did the same for the angry birds but used a normal pastry cutter and then cut out the rest of the pieces.

The lady bird pictured was fairly easy, instead of cutting out a white fondant circle I cut out a black piece and put it on. I then did a red circle and cut out a triangle to form the wings and then I cut out an oval shape to make the head. I then added eyes and black dots.

These went down very well at my brothers cake sale and they were the first to go, together they raised about £150 to go towards their trip between the four of them which was pretty good considering they were outside in the pouring rain!

Katie