Mini Victoria Sponges!

These mini Victoria sponge cakes are perfect for kids' parties or wrap them up for someone special in gift boxes. They're extremely versatile and can be simply adapted (e.g. to make chocolate sponges). These delectable little cakes went down a treat with my family and friends!

Ingredients

For the cake:

• 200g caster sugar
• 200g unsalted butter, softened, plus a little for greasing
• 4 medium eggs
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 200g self raising flour, sieved
• 1tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp milk

For the filling:

• 100g unsalted butter, softened
• 150g icing sugar, sifted
• A drop of vanilla extract
• 340g jar good quality British strawberry jam (or raspberry)
• Caster sugar to decorate

1. Heat oven to 190C (gas mark 5). Fill a cupcake tray with 12 cases.

2. Beat together the unsalted butter and sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon or preferably with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. This can take up to 10 mins.

3. Break the eggs into a small bowl and add the vanilla extract. Beat the mixture lightly with a fork. We decided to use a handheld, wheel-turner whisk.

4. Add the egg very gradually to the mixture. Do this slowly to avoid curdling. If the mix does curdle, add a tablespoon of flour. Once all the eggs are in, fold in the flour with a large metal spoon. The mixture should be of dropping consistency, if not add a little milk.

5. Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes ot until golden and the cake springs back when pressed. Remove cakes from cases and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

 6. To make the butter icing: Beat the unsalted butter until smooth and creamy, then gradually beat in the icing sugar. Beat in vanilla extract.

7. Cut the cakes in half with a sharp knife (horizontally through the middle of the cake). Spread the butter cream on the bottom half of the cake, followed by a teaspoon of jam. Sandwich the top half of the cake. Dust with a little caster sugar before serving.

8. Keep in airtight container and eat within 2 days.

These cakes were easy to make and the timings on baking gave a perfect sponge consistency! The jam and buttercream together, however, were slightly over-powering. So, I'd recommend adding a very thin layer of both fillings. 4/5

Happy Baking!

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.

Easy-Peasy Vanilla Ice Cream

Vanilla Ice Cream

If I'm honest, I wasn't sure that this would work.  The recipe didn't involve any techniques that I thought people did to make ice cream, it was essentially mixing egg whites with a cream mixture and freezing it.  However, it turned out perfect! The texture and taste were exactly the same as ice cream should be.  It was a great, refreshing treat to cool us down in this weather!

Ingredients

• 600ml double cream
• 250g caster sugar
• 6 eggs, seperated
• 1/2 - 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 large bowls

Method

1)  In the first bowl, whip the egg whites until stiff.

2)  In the second bowl, whip the cream with the vanilla until stiff.

3)  In the third bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar until creamy.

4)  Add egg yolks mixture to cream mixture and beat again.

5)  Fold (carefully and slowly passing a spatula down through the mixture, across the bottom, and up over the top. the egg whites into this mixture.  Folding reduces the amount of air lost, opposed to simply mixing.

6)  Pour into a container and freeze for a day.

This recipe is very quick to mix up and simple to do, certainly something I will be doing again! 5/5

Happy baking!

Quick n' Easy Ginger Nuts

Ginger Nuts

I've bought Ginger Nuts a couple of times, but never made them at home- and they are by far better home-made! The ingredients are common so are easy to find in the shops, and the method is brilliantly simple and quick- anyone can make them!

Ingredients
(Makes 16)

• 4oz (110g) self-raising flour
• 1 slightly rounded tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 1/2 (40g) sugar
• 2oz (50g) margarine
• 2 tbsp golden syrup

Method
1)  Preheat the oven to gas mark 5, 375°F (190°C).  Line with grease-proof paper or grease a medium or large baking tray.
2)  Measure flour, ginger, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a mixing bowl.  Then, lightly rub in the margarine (Tip: Putting the margarine in the microwave for a couple of seconds will help make it easier to use) until the mixture is crumbly.
3)  Add the syrup and mix until a stiff paste is formed.

4)  Divide the mixture into small balls and place on the baking tray.  Lightly press them down with the back of a spoon, still leaving at least a 1cm gap between each one.
5) Put in the oven for 10 minutes.  When they come out, leave to cool for 10 minutes as well.  Bear in mind the will be very soft when taken out of the oven, so lift them carefully so that they don't break.  The will harden as they cool.

I love this recipe simply because it is so so quick and easy whilst giving great results! 5/5

Happy baking!

Gone like a chocolate scone

Classic Scones are out, and chocolate scones are in! These triple chocolate scones are encased in a thin, crispy shell that when broken reveals a delicate, almost chewy, center.  Every chocolate chip becomes a rich, chocolatey surprise in this chewy/chocolatey/crispy treat.

Ingredients

1. 1 3/4 cup flour
2. 1/3 cup sugar
3. 1 Tbsp. baking powder
4. 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
5. 1/2 tsp. salt
6. 1 tsp. vanilla
7. 6 Tbsp. butter
8. 7-8 Tbsp. milk
9. 1/2 cup chocolate chips
10. 3 Tbsp. chopped or grated dark chocolate (optional, I did not use these)

 Method
1. Preheat oven to 200°C.  Line one flat baking tray with grease-proof paper.

2. Sift first five ingredients and chocolate chips and/or grated chocolate into a bowl. Then, add vanilla and chopped up butter.

3. After you have done that, blend all of the ingredients together while gradually adding the milk; until the dough is moist enough to form a small ball, but not sticky. 

4. In this stage, be careful not to handle the dough too much.  Place the dough onto a lightly floured cutting board and carefully press down to about 1/2 an inch thick.

5. Cut into desired shapes, I just used a small rounded cookie cutter. Then, place onto your baking tray.  Leave a couple of centimeters space between each scone to prevent them from rising into each other.

6. Once you have used up all of your dough, put the scones in the oven to bake for about 8-15 minutes (depending on the size of each one).

I love these! They have the perfect amount of cocoa, and are a perfect texture for scones. 5/5

(Credit to: http://teapartyideas.wordpress.com)

No better place to start than with cupcakes!

Blueberry Cupcakes

Not the classic blueberry muffins, but blueberry cupcakes!  Daring, I know.  With these cakes, you will get a surprising glimpse of bursting berry-ness with every bite.  At first, you may think: "Oh, nice.  Some more vanilla cupcakes- that's OK."  But, delve deeper and you will discover more satisfyingly sweet flavour of blueberries and butter-cream.

Recipe

 Ingredients

• 150g Self Raising flour, sifted
• 150g margarine
• 150g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbl vanilla extract
• 20 blueberries, cut into quarters or halves

 Butter-cream Icing

• 300g icing sugar
• 250g butter, soft
• 1 - 2 tbls whole milk 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Food colouring (optional)

 Method

1. Firstly, preheat the oven to 150°C.  We used the all-in-one method for this recipe.  So, we simply weighed and measured our ingredients and threw them all together on a large bowl.  We then mixed the ingredients together using an electric whisk.
2. Secondly, we placed 15 cupcake cases into a baking tray and poured our mixed into each case.  Tip: Don't fill each case too high, this gives the cakes a flat surface and therefore makes them easier to ice (and you'll get more cakes!).
3. When your oven has heated up, put the tray(s) inside; preferably as close to the center of the oven as you can.  Put the timer on for about 20-25 minutes.  While they cook, you can make the icing!
4.  Measure out the icing sugar and butter (make sure it is very soft!) and whisk them together in a bowl until light and fluffy.  Add milk if the mixture is not fluffy enough.  Finally, add the vanilla and food colouring (we used a few drops of red so that it became a pastel-pink colour).
5. When ready, place the cakes onto a cooling rack to cool. Make sure that the cakes have cooled completely before icing, because if they are too warm the icing will melt.

We found these cupcakes very fun to make and delicious to eat! The icing stood out to us especially.  4/5

Happy baking!

Credits to: http://uktv.co.uk/goodfood/homepage/sid/566