Angry Bird Cupcakes and Salted Caramel Cupcakes

I know I've not posted since September but with being extra busy with work and the Christmas rush I have not had chance to even think about making a cake! So with Christmas over and done with (finally!!) I've had more time on my hands to get bored and make cakes, so here goes...

I was asked to make some birthday cupcakes for one of my bosses son. He loves angry birds so it was a no brainer that I had to make angry bird cupcakes.


My mum informed a couple of days that I needed to be thinking about what I was going to do for her birthday cake (her birthday is in March!). She told me I had to up my game and beat last years birthday cake as I made her the pigs in mud cake, She also told me she wanted cupcakes as well as a single tier cake. I was just throwing some ideas around and I've always wanted to make salted caramel cupcakes and mum thought that would be one good idea to go for her birthday so I had a trial and everyone was very impressed.

Salted caramel cupcakes with salted caramel truffles

Caramel cupcakes
190g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
200g brown sugar
100g caster sugar
115g margarine (or unsalted butter, I like to use margarine in my cakes)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
120ml whole milk

Icing

60g salted butter

100g brown sugar

40ml double cream

1/4 tsp salt

165g icing sugar

Extra salt for decoration, optional

Salted caramel truffles, optional

 

1. Preheat the oven to 190c, line a cupcake tin with papers.

2. In a bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla, beat until well combined. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and combine well, add the milk and again mix until well combined.

3. Divide the batter between the cupcake case, and bake for 25 minutes or until done. Let the cupcakes cool before icing

4. For the icing, melt the butter in a saucepan. When its melted add the sugar and double cream, stir constantly over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and the add the salt. Allow to sit and bubble for about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat a cool. Sift the icing sugar into the butter mixture and keep adding until you reach your require consistency and desired taste. If the icing is too sweet add a little bit more salt. Ice the cupcakes and cut the salted caramel truffles in half and place both halves on the cupcakes, sprinkle some salted granules on the cupcakes for extra decoration.

 

This icing recipes ices about 12 cupcakes.

 

Katie



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

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

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.

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

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

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

Victoria Sponge

A lot of people ask me how I make my plain sponge cake. To be honest I'm not usually one for making a Victoria sponge because I usually make plain cupcakes, but this recipe is good as well for just making plain cupcakes. A Victoria sponge is very simple and easy to make, a lot of people I know are quite surprised at how simple it is to make. This surprised me because in my family baking is a life skill and is learnt from a very young age, many of these people have never made one in their life.

This recipe will show you how to make an 8 inch 2 layer Victoria sponge cake, or about 12-16 (if you use muffin cases you will make about 12 and if you use cupcake cases you will make about 16)

For the cake:
225g/ 8oz margarine or soft unsalted butter
225g/ 8oz caster sugar
225g/ 8oz self raising flour
4 medium sized eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence (optional)

Butter cream icing:
150g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar (I tend to use a bit more icing sugar but it depends on how you like your butter icing to taste!)
1 tsp vanilla essence

Your favourite jam

1. Preheat your oven to 180c / Gas mark 4. To line your cake tins, I use baking parchment to line my tins with but if you have other cake liners then use them, draw around the bottom of the tins that create circles cut 4 lines of baking parchment about 2 inches in height. With these four lines of baking parchment cut the bottom of them so they are frilled. With either margarine or butter grease the tins with a piece of kitchen roll with the marg or butter on it. With 2 lines of paper line the sides of one tin making sure that where the frills are they are on the bottom of the tin, then with one of the circles place it into the bottom so the bottom of the tin is covered. Do this with the other tin.
2. Cream the margarine/butter and sugar in a bowl until they are both incorporated together.
3. Add one egg and sift 1/4 of the flour into the butter mixture and beat it to incorporate it together, do this with the rest of the flour and eggs. I like to add vanilla essence to my cake but if you prefer not to you don't have to. Once everything added beat for a minute or two until you have a smooth batter.
4. Split the batter evenly between the two tins and put into the preheated oven. Cook for about 15-20 minutes. Once it has cooked or it looks golden brown and does not wobble test with a clean knife, if it comes out clean then it is done if not place it back into the oven for another couple of minutes until it is done.
5. Let the cakes cool for about 20 minutes in the tins and then take them out of the tins.
6. For the butter cream you will need to make sure that the butter is soft, if it is not soft then put it in the microwave for 10 seconds or leave it on the side until soften. Place the butter into a bowl add the icing sugar gradually while sifting (if there are lumps in it and you do not get them out it does not taste very nice), either mix with an electric whisk, hand whisk or a fork (personally I prefer to use a fork but an electric whisk is better but be careful when using an electric whisk and icing sugar because the icing sugar goes everywhere).
7. You must taste the butter cream while making it to test whether it is to your tastes or its finished. Butter icing must not taste like butter nor should it taste like icing sugar, if it tastes like butter keep adding icing sugar, if it taste like icing sugar add a little more butter. Once you think it is done add 1 tsp of vanilla essence (again my preference you do not have to add it) and mix together well.
8. When assembling the cake make sure you are doing it on a flat surface, on one of the cakes (preferably flat side down (bottom) add either jam to the bottom layer. On the next layer (with the curved side facing up) add the butter cream (if you have left over butter cream it can be stored in the fridge for a about 1-2 weeks), sandwich the two layers together and you have yourself a Victoria sponge!!!

When using the recipe of cupcakes they usually take between 10-15 minutes in the oven to cook and watch them carefully to make sure they do not burn.

I hope this will help some people with making a plain sponge cake and I hope you enjoy.

Katie