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!

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.

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