Sinfully Sweet Honey Cupcakes

So sweet and sticky! These cupcakes are quite rich, but taste so good! They're easy to through together and take no time to bake. The taste is so unique; the honey flavour is clearly there, but isn't too strong. These little sugar-packed delights are perfect for those with a sweet tooth!

Ingredients

• 125g clear honey
• 125g unsalted butter
• 75g light soft brown sugar
• 175g self raising flour
• 2 eggs, beaten

 Method
1) Preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare a cupcake tray with cupcakes cases.
2) In a small pan, weigh out the sugar, honey and butter. Place this on a low heat and stir until melted. Make sure to stir often, otherwise the mixture will stick to the bottom of the pan. When melted, take off the heat and leave to cool.

3) Next you can either pour the mixture into a medium bowl or leave in the pan. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until combined.

4) Pour the batter into the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 7-9 minutes. You can prepare the icing/decoration in this time. Remember to stick a skewer in the center to check if they are done; if it comes out clean, they are baked.  The cakes should be golden brown.

5) Take them out of the oven and leave in the tray for several minutes. Then place them onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
6) When cool, you can ice or decorate them as you please! I iced mine with buttercream- my favourite- and drizzled honey on top. However I would advise you to not put the honey on, it made them quite rich!

A little too sweet for me, but my friends loved them! Sinfully sweet and rather rich, sweet tooths will love these! 4/5

Happy baking!

Classic Victoria Sponge

 I wanted to make something to celebrate the end of the Olympics and team GB, so I made a classic Victoria Sponge. I know this is a day late, but I fell out with the icing yesterday. Firstly, I attempted to make a cream cheese icing but it completely flopped, who knew that simply butter, cream cheese and icing sugar would form a consistency of water? So today, I tried a sweetened cream. I was planning to colour it with food colouring and ice the Union Jack (for team GB) onto the cake, but apparently if you add food colouring to sweetened cream it separates and turns to curds and whey. Oh well! Learn from your mistakes.

 Victoria Sponge is not my favourite cake, as I don't particularly like jam. However this recipe has made me change my mind! Light, sweet, soft, fantastic. So easy to make and a great treat if you're feeling a bit peckish!

Ingredients

• 4 free-range eggs
• 225g/8oz caster sugar, plus a little extra for dusting the finished cake
• 225g/8oz self-raising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 225g/8oz softened margarine or butter, plus a little extra to grease the tins
• Cream and jam for filling and/or icing

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2) Grease and line two cake tins, making sure you get up all the sides so that when the cake is baked it will be easy to take out.

3) For this recipe, use the all-in-one method. This is simply putting every single ingredient into the bowl and mixing them together, in the order listed above. When everything is combined, the finished mixture should fall off a spoon easily.

4) Next, pour the mixture into the two cake tins. Try to get the same amount in each tin, but it doesn't matter if the amounts are slightly different.

5) Bake for 20-25 minutes. To test if they are baked, stick a skewer down inside the center of the cake and if it comes out clean the are ready.  I found that the cakes felt too soft and under-baked, however this is how Victoria Sponge is meant to be; it is a very delicate cake. The cakes also have to look golden-brown when they are done. Put the tins on the side and after several minutes move the cakes onto a cooling rack.

6) When cool, cover one half with the jam (you can also cover cream on top too or you can use it for icing at the end). Sandwich the other half upside-down on top of the covered half, so that the top of the cake is flat. You can use ay icing you want- a dusting of icing sugar, butter-cream, royal icing. I sweetened the cream (using this recipe) and used it as icing instead of a filling.

This cake has converted me to loving jam on my cake! I now also have a special love for delicate cakes like Victoria Sponge, opposed to dense chocolate fudge cakes.  4/5

Happy baking!

Credit: www.bbc.co.uk/food/

Simply Sweet Buttercream!

Shown above on our Rainbow Cupcakes. Click here to see the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 250g icing sugar, sifted
• 80g unsalted butter, softened
• 25ml whole milk
• a couple of drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Simply mix together the icing sugar and softened butter until combined. Next, add the milk in small measures until you reach your desired texture and a smooth consistency. Finally, add the reccomended amount of vanilla extract (optional). In the picture we have used, we coloured the icing with a small amount of blue food colouring.

Rainbow Cupcakes!

Rosa and I have been wanting to try these for a while, so were excited about how these pretty cakes would turn out. We weren't let down! Using a simple vanilla cupcake recipe and several food dyes, we have created the perfect party treat.  We are looking forward to sitting down with this tasty treat and a Harry Potter movie later on this evening!

Ingredients

• 120g plain flour
• 140g caster sugar
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• a pinch of salt
• 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 120ml whole milk
• 1 egg
• ¼tsp vanilla extract
• 1 quantity vanilla frosting
• hundreds and thousands or other edible sprinkles, to decorate
• a 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases
•  Food colourings of your choice

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3 and prepare a cupcake tray with cases.

2. Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and beat until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.

3. Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

4. Seperate the mixture into several bowls and add a small amount of food colouring to each bowl (each bowl a different colour). Mix until all dye is combined.

5. Add a spoonful of each coloured batter to each case one after another, in layers.

6.Leave in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

7. When cooled, decorate as you please.

Moist, soft, sweet, and definitely vibrant, the vivid colours would cheer up anyones' day! They taste amazing but a lot of effort is involved for such simple cakes. Overall, I would reccomend these; 4/5.

Happy baking!

Jaffa Cakes

I heard about this recipe from a friend, she made a video tutorial on how to make them. Click here to see it.
These are amazing! I thought shop-bought Jaffa Cakes were good, but these are better.  The dark chocolate compliments the zesty orange filling so nicely. They take a while to make, but it's worth it.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 50g/2oz caster sugar
• 50g/2oz plain flour, sieved
• 1x135g packet of orange jelly, chopped
• 1tblsp orange marmalade
• 125ml boiling water
• 200g/7oz dark chocolate

Method
1) Make the jelly first. To do this, chop up the packet of jelly into cubes and put in a medium-sized bowl with the marmalade. Then, add the boiling water. Stir until the jelly dissolves.
2) Line a shallow baking tray with cling-film and pour the dissolved jelly into it. Put in the fridge to set overnight.
3) The next day, when the jelly has set, prepare a bain-marie (fill a pot half-way with water and place a small bowl on top) on the stove, on a low heat so that the water starts to simmer. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.

Photograph source: afoodieabroad.blogspot.co.uk

3) The recipe says that when the water is simmering to add the eggs and sugar to the bowl on top and whisk until it light and creamy. However, when I did this the egg started to cook. So, I took the bowl off the stove and then whisked  it until combined. Then, I heated the mixture -back in the pot- until it became creamy.

4) Take this off the stove and sift in the flour. Do not mix in the flour, but fold it in.

5) Grease a cupcake tray and fill each section half-way with the batter. Put in the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes.

6) While that's in the oven, break the chocolate into blocks and use the bain-marie (wash it first!) at a low temperature to slowly melt it. Also, take the jelly out of the fridge and the cling-film.

7) When the cakes are out of the oven and cooled, cut circles out of the jelly with a cookie cutter (make sure the circle fits each cake!). Place a circle onto each cake.

8) When that's done, cover each cake with the melted chocolate and put in the fridge to set.

These are very rich and very orangey, so if you find normal Jaffa Cakes too much I wouldn't recommend these. However if you love a good tasty, zingy treat please try these! 4/5

Happy Baking

Confession #7

Tip: Over-beating a mixture containing flour will overwork the flour and make the cake more dense.

Plan for the 30th

Click here to see the recipe
On the 30th of July Tarryn will be making Jaffa Cakes! I am excited to make these because the results actually look better than the original.

Confession #6

Tip: When baking something in the oven, wait at least half way through the baking time before opening the oven.  The heat will escape and disturb the rising of what you are baking.

Children in Need

Click here for more info

Get baking for Children in Need! Raise money for Pudsey by possibly running a cake stall, making the largest cake or selling merchandise- whatever you want- for a great cause! Rosa and I may be helping out so send suggestions for what we could do please!

Confession #4

Tip: Don't over-beat the mixture, this can make the cake more dry and heavy.

Clementine Cake

This cake is similar to other fruity/vegetable cakes like carrot and banana, but is still totally different at the same time.  There is a subtle hint of clementine among the moist, soft texture.  Not too strong, not too subtle.  If you like banana cake, I strongly recommend this!

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups flour 
2. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
3. 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 
4. 1/4 teaspoon salt 
5. 2 eggs, room temperature 
6. 1 1/4 cups sugar 
7. 3/4 cup olive oil 
8. 4 clementines (zest, juice, and pulp)

Method
1) Preheat the oven to 190°C and line a 9" x 5" loaf pan with baking paper.
 2) Zest the clementines into a large bowl, as you will need to add ingredients to this further on.  Try not to get the pith (the white part) in the zest, as this can be bitter.  Then, add the sugar.
3) Peel the remaining skin off the clementines and process them so that they make 1 cup of pulpy juice, put this to one side.

4) Add the eggs and oil into the sugar-zest mixture.  Whisk together to make a light, runny mixture.
5) Add the juice to the mixture.
6) In another bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Gradually combine this with the wet ingredients.
7) Pour into the loaf pan and cook in the center of the oven for about 50 minutes.

I LOVE this cake! It has a perfect consistency and taste amazing.  5/5.
(credit to: http://www.youngidealisticbaker.com)

Happy Baking!

Confession #3

Tip: To make cakes lighter in texture and rise higher, add 1-2 tablespoons of meringue powder (simply powdered meringue!) to the batter.