Iron Cupcake Earth - January Entry

The 3rd round of ironcupcake earth is on now and this month the theme was 'Winter Warm Up'. The idea was to make anything that can warm you up so I decided to make hot chocolate cupcakes......in my opinion there's nothing better than a cup of hot chocolate on a cold day! To make the cupcakes look authentic, I baked them in an oven proof cup, then added a swirl of chocolate and rum buttercream frosting to the top and two little marshmallows.....YUM!

If you want to recreate these cupcakes, here's the recipe:

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

• 375g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 350g brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 250g plain flour (sifted)
• 2 tsp baking powder (sifted)
• 50g cocoa (sifted)
• 200ml skim milk

Rum and Chocolate Buttercream

• 120g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 200g icing sugar (sifted)
• 3 tbs skim milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 100g milk chocolate
• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 tbs dark rum

Preheat the oven to 190C. Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer for 7 minutes until light and fluffy. Next add the eggs one at a time mixing well after each addition. In a separate bowl, mix the sifted dry ingredients together and then fold them into the sugar/butter mixture before adding the milk. Mix all of the ingredients well then spoon the mixture into oven proof cupcakes or cupcake cases (about 3/4 full to leave room for the mixture to rise). Bake the cupcakes for ~20 minutes then leave to cool on a wire rack before frosting.

To make the buttercream, beat the icing sugar, butter, vanilla essence and milk with an electric mixer until the mixture is fluffy and light in colour (takes about 10 ninutes). In the meantime melt the dark and milk chocolate together and allow to cool slightly before adding to the rest of the mixture and beating well to combine all of the ingredients. Lastly stir in the rum, then pipe or spread the frosting onto the cooled cupcakes.

Voting will be held from 28th January- noon on the 3rd February at http://www.ironcupcakemilwaukee.com/. Be sure to stop by at the website and check out all of the great entries and vote for your favourites! We're all competing to win some fantastic prizes, including:

The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
Hello Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
Bella Cupcake Couture
Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne

Thanks for your support!!!

And some more gingerbread

The baking marathon continues......I made some more gingerbread hearts and mini men today as a Christmas gift for some friends. I took the opportunity to practice my piping skills by decorating the cookies with piped lines, dots and simple designs. Here's how they turned out...


I had a lot of fun staging a Christmas scene with the mini gingerbread men around my little Christmas tree.......they are just so cute :)

Merry Christmas!!

Gingerbread House

Yesterday I made my first gingerbread house. I found some great templates on Gingerbread House Heaven for castles and victorian mansion gingerbread constructions but decided to stick with a simple elf house this time. After assembling the house with royal icing, I decorated it with a selection of lollies and gingerbread biscuits I made. Finally, I put a Lindt chocolate santa at the entrance. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out....

More Gingerbread

I've been on a gingerbread baking spree over the past few days. Here are some simple cookies I made for my work colleagues. I used snowflake, reindeer and heart cookie cutters, then decorated the cookies with piped royal icing.

If you want to make some, here is the recipe. They are really simple to make!

Gingerbread (makes about 24 cookies)

Ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (~110g)
• 2 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 cup golden syrup

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C (fan forced). Beat butter, dark brown sugar and egg yolk in a bowl with an electric hand mixer until smooth and all ingredients are well combined. Stir in golden syrup, sifted flour, biocarbonate of soda, ginger and mixed spice in two batches to ensure all ingredients are mixed together properly. If the dough is slightly crumbly, add a little more golden syrup.

Knead the dough on a floured surface then roll it out to approximately 5mm in thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, then transfer cookies to lined baking trays. The cookies do not spread too much during baking, however it is best to ensure the cookies are evenly spaced on the tray. Bake thems for about 15 minutes until they are light brown in colour, before placing them on wire racks to cool. Cookies will harden once cool and can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Decorate with royal icing if desired.

Happy baking x

Gingerbread Wreath

I love gingerbread - it's possibly my favourite food and over the next few weeks I plan to make a ton of it for Christmas. Here's a Christmas wreath I made by joining gingerbread men in a ring. To make your own, join the hands and feet of the gingerbread men together with water before baking.

Stay tuned for more gingerbread creations!

Christmas Pudding Cake Balls

I made a chocolate cake recently which didn't rise properly, so I decided to turn it into cake balls. They are a great way of turning a potential disaster into something lovely. To make a cake ball, crumble up a cake, then mix buttercream or your choice of frosting through the cake crumbs to help them stick together. Roll little balls of cake then leave them to set in the fridge on a lined baking tray. You can dip them in melted chocolate, or roll them in sprinkles, whatever takes your fancy.

I dipped mine in white and dark chocolate to make little christmas puddings then decorated them with holly sprinkles. Yum!

And here's one on a stick - a pudding pop!

Happy baking!

Ironcupcake London - December Entry

Tonight was the last round of Ironcupcake London for the year. The theme for this month was 'Christmas' and there were 46 amazing entries - the largest number of entries to date. Everyone went to so much effort - the flavours and decorations were all superb. Here are some photos I took of the night:







So many cupcakes to try!!!

My entry was Spiced Eggnog Cupcakes with Bourbon Buttercream

Here's how to make them:

Ingredients

Eggnog

• 2 large eggs (separated)
• 75g caster sugar
• 100ml bourbon
• 200ml full cream milk
• 150ml whipping cream
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg

Cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 115g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 3/4 cup eggnog
• 1/4 cup bourbon
• 2 1/4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp all spice
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Bourbon Buttercream

• 2 tbs brown sugar
• 2 tbs whipping cream
• 1 tbs unsalted butter
• pinch salt
• 3 tbs bourbon
• 250g unsalted butter (softened)
• 500g icing sugar

Method

Start by making the eggnog. Whisk egg yolks and caster sugar with an electric beater until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Whisk in boubon gradually and then add the milk. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold it into the egg yolk mixture. In a separate bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form then fold it into the mixture. Stir the nutmeg through the mixture then leave in the fridge until needed.

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 175C. Beat caster sugar and butter together until light and fluffy using an electic mixer. Then beat in the eggs until well combined. In a separate bowl, mix eggnog, boubon and vanilla together. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, all spice and nutmeg. Alternate adding dry ingredients and wet ingredients into the egg mixture until the all combined. Spoon mixture into lined cupcake tins (only fill about 1/2 of the cup) and bake for 20-25 mins. Once cooked, leave the cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the bourbon buttercream, whisk brown sugar, cream, 1 tbs unsalted butter and salt in a saucepan over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Pour in bourbon and stir to combine, then remove sauce from heat and allow to cool. Using an electric mixer beat 250g unsalted butter until soft and fluffy then gradually add icing sugar, ensuring it is mixed in well after each addition. Stir through bourbon caramel sauce.

Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost them with the buttercream and decorate as desired. I used edible silver balls and sugarpaste snowflakes I made in advance.

Enjoy xx