Buttermilk Mini Cakes with Passionfruit and Lime Frosting

I’ve finally risen from the dead after three weeks without posting anything on here, but it still feels as though there are cobwebs in the cracks and I cannot wait to get this “thesis”/”dissertation”/ life engulfing piece of shit out of the way so I can return to baking. Even if its just a crappy packet mix I’ll take it ! 

In aid of my non-existence recently, I thought I’d pull out some photographs that were hiding in my computer. In March I doused mini cakes in passionfruit and lime curd, the results basically confirmed why the mini cake trend has basically gone Pinterest viral. 

The recipe for the cakes is from my lovely boss at Fair Cake, she wrote a whole post about it here, it’s worth having a look at because a) her cake decorating skills are mental and b) the mini cakes sponges are laden with buttermilk. 

I used a simple crusting buttercream to sandwich the cakes together as well, this sorta frosting kinda gets more gross as I get older, which is a shame really, because sometimes it can create the perfect finish. 

I promise to come out of my cocoon soon! 

Love Em xx

Recipes

Buttermilk Cake Recipe 

Passionfruit and Lime Curd Recipe

Frosting

Mix 500 grams icing sugar with 250 grams softened unsalted butter, plus five tablespoons of curd. 

Methods

Bake the cakes in a rectangular baking sheet, cool and chill in the fridge overnight and then use your largest cookie cutter to cut the rounds. Layer with dollops of frosting, followed by more curd. 

Zucchini Pistachio Spice Cake With Lime Frosting

I know what you’re thinking. Is this food blogger a bag lady in disguise? Did she scatter birdseeds all over a cake that was served to her vertebrate guests? Yes, it’s true; the Central Park Pigeon Lady from Home Alone 2 has a strong desire for baked goods.

This is a mildly spiced zucchini (and I’m only calling it that because how fugly does courgette sound/look/read next to zucchini? Plus I love Italian food, so I think this grants me access to their terminology) cake studded with chunks of pistachio and the dust that accumulated from chopping said chunks, mixed with ground almonds.

Spiced Chocolate Cupcakes with Gingerbread Buttercream

Who has started their Christmas baking test-runs yet? Does anybody even do tests for such things? If you’re an inexperienced cook and you’re having the ol’ lot over, I’m guessing you’ve currently got a test-run turkey in the oven. That’s perfect because it’s a Sunday as well, just replacin’ the chicken for a turk really.  Here are my Christmas test run cupcakes, in unnecessarily copious amounts of pictures that I wish to share with you. Yes. You obviously wanted to look at every single picture I took that day. Obviously.

I’d otherwise slate the test-runner…what’s the point? Do you not have anything better to do with your time? Just chance it! But alas, I have become one of those weird test-run people. And boy, AM I GLAD. This chocolate cupcake slightly resembled a brownie (now would be a good time to mention that it was still delicious)! It was by no stretch of the word a light and fluffy cupcake, but a  kind of dense and dry topped brownie! Crossing THAT one off my Christmas baking list… next time I’ll go for a bitta stout in my liner, maybe even a bitta treacle, plus A LOT more spice in the batter. Don’t be afraid to be generous with the festive spices in a chocolate cake, it has a tendency to be masked by the intense flavours of chocolate you see.

Some good news – the buttercream was lovely, spicy and not too sweet. Rich, coming from a crusting buttercream recipe aye. But with a distinct lack of vanilla extract, and TONS of cinnamon and ginger, there is just this amazing balance of sweetness. The spices really do cut through all of that icing sugar! Still, I’ve got my eye on a mascarpone frosting, who knows how many more test-run’s my kitchen will see before the big day! 

The Recipe:                                   Makes aproximately 16 cupcakes 

The Cakes

100g dark chocolate, minimum 50%

4 eggs

100g self raising flour

2 and a half tsp cocoa powder

pinch of salt

225g caster sugar

175g soft butter

1 tsp vanilla extract 

Quertar tsp cinnamon
Quarter tsp ginger (optional)

The Buttercream

300g icing sugar

150g unsalted butter, soft

1 and a half tsp ginger 

2 tsp ground cinnamon 

1 tsp milk

The Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray.

Over a ban-marie, heat the butter and chocolate together till melted.

Take off the heat, add all of the sugar, mix together and then set aside to cool.

With a whisk, mix for 3 minutes until slightly fluffy, add the eggs in one at a time.

Fold all of the dry ingredients (including the spices if you wish) until just incorporated.

Lastly fold in the vanilla. Fill the cupcake liners two thirds full and bake for 25 minutes.

For the frosting, beat the butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer for half a minute.

Add the icing sugar bit by bit, lastly the spices until well incorporated.

Pipe and frost. I used a small french tip for these cupcakes.  

Expect a *possible* birthday cake  on the blog this week, as I'll be turning the big 20 on Wednesday. But let's not mention that again, just comment below and make me feel sane by telling me you also had a Christmas baking test-run today, please! Love Em xx

Peggy Porschen Heavenly Double Chocolate Cupcakes

For months I’ve been meaning to try out the mother of all chocolate frostings. The one that combines an ultimate taste explosion with absolutely every single fatty component you can possibly imagine. We’re talking butter, DOUBLE cream AND cream cheese - all in one semi technical recipe that is well worth the washing.

I’ve always felt positive about the fact that I am missing half of my brain, which making this recipe pretty much confirmed for me. The original ingredient list called for glucose and for some reason (the inadequate contents of my skull) I bought glycerin, after noticing the very moment the G was going into the saucepan that I bought the wrong stuff, I took a risk and just put it in and guess what? The results were still fabulous!

The Recipe:

Adapted from Peggy Porschen's Heavenly Chocolate Cupcakes

For the sponge (makes 20 cupcakes):

8g good quality cocoa

125g dark chocolate

160ml milk

100g unsalted butter

2 large, free range eggs

Half tsp baking powder

Half tsp bicarb of soda

285g light brown sugar

180g plain flour

For the topping:

450g icing sugar

200g cream cheese

200g unsalted butter

1 tbsp glycerin/glucose 

140ml double cream

160g dark chocolate

The Method:

Start with the frosting. Heat the cream until simmering in a small saucepan. Add the chocolate and glycerin/glucose into a bowl and pour the cream over the top, stir well until nice and smooth. Let cool. 

Put the cream cheese in another bowl and beat for half a second, until just smooth. 

Cream the icing sugar and softened butter in the bowl of a freestanding mixer until pale. 

Slowly pour all of the cooled ganache into the buttercream and mix until combined. 

Take a third of the chocolate buttercream and gently stir into the beaten cream cheese. 

Now add the chocolate cream cheese into the chocolate buttercream and gently stir till combined. Wrap in clingfilm and let set in the fridge. 

Preheat the oven to 160 C. 

For the cupcakes, using a saucepan (perhaps the same one as earlier?!) heat the milk, half the sugar and chocolate and bring to a gentle boil. Keep the chocolate on the lowest heat whilst get onto the next bit, occasionally taking it off heat so it doesn't burn. 

In the bowl of a freestanding mixer beat the sugar and butter till very pale. Add one egg at a time and mix till frothy. 

Put all of the dry ingredients into another bowl and stir together. Mix into the egg mixture till just combined. 

Pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, scraping the bowl, making sure to incorporate every little bit. 

Pour all of the mixture into a measuring jug and line 2 cupcake trays with muffin cases. 

Gently fill the cucpake liners two thirds full with batter.

Bake for 14 minutes, until they spring back to the touch. 

Let cool on a wire rack and ice with the cooled and scrummy frosting!

Love Em xx

Sky Poker Chips and Cupcakes

It is so easy to turn a simple cupcake into something with much more depth and meaning behind it than it had say...10 minutes ago, when it was just a little light sponge with a rich and heavy buttercream and a 1m-attack perched & splurged right on top of it.

Sky Poker Dice 

So when I made cupcakes for Russell to take to work with him at Sky Sports (obviously, I wanted to make him look like an even bigger goodie too shoes), I was delighted to have been approached by the guys over at Sky Poker, asking if I’d be willing to do the same thing for them, but with a poker theme. At no point was I going to deny such a project, so I put my baking cap on and started drawing poker chips that I could eventually translate into cookies, and some cupcakes like the ones I mentioned above, only with rice paper carefully inserted into its soft and simple swirl.

Sky Poker Cupcakes and Dice

My first instinct for these bakes was to go for the initial Sky reds and blues as found in these cupcakes. But then I started to really think about it, and realised that I weren't just baking cakes for the broad spectrum that is Sky Sports, but instead was presenting bakes for Sky Poker, a less broad and more subject related area of Sky. So as long as I had some pungently coloured red and blue poker chips in there, I was happy (and hopefully so was Sky Poker!)!

Sky Poker Chips

Flavours are consistently vanilla based throughout both of these bakes; I went for the classic cupcake which can be found here. Then moving onto the cookies, I used Peggy Porschen’s Sugar Cookie (couldn’t leave my shiny new bespoke book hanging!) recipe, but, to be completely fair, much preferred Primrose’ version, it was much more crisp, without those milky notes that Peggy’s version boasts. 

Sky Poker Cupcake

Sky Poker Chips 

What did you think of my poker themed cupcakes and cookies? Do they live up to the standards of Sky?! I'd love to know! Lastly, watch this space for (hopefully) some Macarons in the next few days!

Love Em xx

Sky Sports Cupcakes

Americolor Electric Green rose swirls 

I’ve spent the last few months telling my boyfriend, with a promising look on my face, that I would bake some cupcakes for his work. After listening to myself consistently repeat the same sentence “I’ll make them tomorrow!” I knew it was time to stop procrastinating and start being a girlfriend that sticks to her word, it’s difficult, I must say. Luckily the time came around (with great luck) that I had a few spares baked up at work for the pirates and mermaids class, and since the class finished on time I had just enough time to get creative and still manage to leave the workshop at 6!

The most annoying thing about these cupcakes was deciding on decoration. Russell works for Sky Sports, so this meant something green and sporty, along with the clashing combination of red and blue? Yum. My fondant modelling skills are painfully dire, and I ended up moulding what I thought were rugby balls, but it turns out, they’re actually American footballs. This is the perfect misunderstanding of sports, considering Sky Sports doesn’t cover American football, so my modelling work was pretty much pointless.  Oh well, the cupcakes were still well received which in vanilla essence, is all that matters.

The recipe used for these cupcakes can be found in the Vanilla Cupcakes post, or if you cant be bothered to go all the way over there - just think to yourself, 3 eggs, 1 cup flour, half cup sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla and BP and voila. 

Sky Sports Cupcakes - Americolor Red Red & Navy Blue 

For the buttercream, I used Americolor Electric Green for the sporty cupcakes. For the more flowery counterpart; I used an Americolor Red Red for the flat tops, teamed with an Americolor Navy Blue.
Love Em xx

Double Chocolate and Peanut Butter Birthday Cake

Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Border

As most daughters with a baking obsession would, I took it upon my 'humble' self to bake my old papa's birthday cake. When I asked him what he wanted, he instantly requested chocolate so I went with lots and lots of the stuff. I wanted it to be extra special so I decided to incorporate all of the intensely delicious combinations of chocolate I possibly could. So obviously I'm thinking chocolate...cream cheese... and peanut butter!

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

 I searched around for a good chocolate cream cheese frosting but in the end I decided to whip up my own concoction, and it worked very well! Below you will find the recipe I used for the frosting! For the cake, I went for the age old legend Martha Stewart's Devils Food Cake. For the peanut butter piping and center, I resided back to my Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake for the recipe. 

Each element of the cake made for a scrumptious birthday treat. It also made me realise that buttercream's are a subjective matter, as there is no initial baking (or science) involved you can literally whip to your taste's desire! What a revelation. 

Mbakes Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

The Recipe:

1 packet cream cheese (150g)

2 tbsp cocoa powder 

1 packet 60%  dark chocolate, melted (150g)

200g butter (at room temperature) 

500g icing sugar

The Method:

• Start by mixing the butter for at least half a minute and then gradually add all of the icing sugar until completely smooth. 
• Throw in all of the cream cheese till you have a pale frosting. 
• Alternately add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder and mix until well combined and you have a glossy thick-ish frosting ready for icing your cake!

Mbakes x

50th Birthday Vintage Cupcakes

These cupcakes were made for my sisters friend's aunt, I used Bitter Lemon and Lime Sugarflare colouring for the domed tops, and just a touch of Ruby for the decorations. Chocolate flavoured cupcakes were requested, so I used a Devils Food Cake recipe, which you can find a version of here. A simple vanilla buttercream was used to decorate some of the cupcakes also, this consisted of 500g icing sugar, 250g unsalted butter and a tsp vanilla extract, simple simple simple! I've yet to gain any feedback from the cupcakes but I hope they went down well!

I'd like to thank Chris from Baked Clouds for helping me so much with the photography! 

I picked up the idea for the design of these cupcakes at work. We had a week of Boutique, Vintage and Wedding Cupcake classes and I had the honour of photographing them, below is one of the pictures I took (beginning to LOVE food photography!), which was then edited by the ever famous Shikhita.


Mbakes x

Devils Food Cake Cupcakes with Peanut Buttercream

The idea to make these cupcakes was quite a spontaneous one, I knew I just had to incorporate my Italian goodies into a baked treat pretty damn soon, and what better day for baking to fall on but a rainy, miserable English Sunday? Provided that it was a successful bake, these cupcakes were destined to taste great. Simply because it is a universally known fact that chocolate and peanut butter are a match made in heaven, please eat a Reese's peanut butter cup before you objectify! I adapted Nigella Lawson's Devil's Food Cake recipe for the sponge, and whipped up my very own peanut buttercream for the topping, please be warned that it is VERY heavy on the palette.

Kenwood Mixer

The Recipe:
2 eggs
Half tsp baking powder
Half tsp bicarb of soda
50g good quality cocoa powder
2 tsp chocolate liquor
250ml boiling water
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g dark muscovado sugar
125g stork margarine
250g caster sugar
225g all purpose flour (or plain)
The Buttercream
1 whole tub of smooth peanut butter, aprox 300g
1 tsp vanilla extract
500g icing sugar
200g unsalted butter at room temp
The method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line 1 muffin tray.
• In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, muscovado, liquor and boiling water and set aside. 
• In a freestanding mixer, begin to whisk the margarine and sugar until light, and slowly add in each egg. 
• Whilst the ingredients are mixing, pour in the vanilla extract. 
• Now reduce the speed and throw in flour, baking powder and bicarb and mix lightly to incorporate air. 
• Lastly pour in the chocolate mixture and beat sparingly till the mixture is consistently dark in colour. 
• Fill your cupcake liners with chocolatey goodness and bake for 18 minutes. 
• For the frosting - whisk the butter and vanilla till smooth and add the icing bit by bit till thick. 
• Now slowly add the tub of peanut butter tbsp at a time, and continue to add until you get your desired flavour. 
• Once the cupcakes have cooled, ice them as you like!

Level amount of cake batter each time

Wilton 1M Piping Nozzle

One last thing, I am very honoured to say that my Jubilee Celebration Cake was given a special mention in the Jubilee Baking Competition run by Homemade By Fleur! How exciting!

Mbakes x