So if you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I like animals.
I like dogs, I like goats, I like alpacas, I like capybaras, I like elephants – I LIKE THEM ALL.
And cats too of course, because: cats.
I mean, look at these dumbies of mine. How can I not love them?
So when RSPCA asked if I wanted to become an online ambassador for their upcoming cupcake day, my answer was yes! Who can resist animals, cupcakes and good causes?
Ever wanted to have an epic pork feast? Here’s a recipe for the most epic pork feast ever:
What’s the best way of taking ice cream to a picnic? One option is to load up an esky (chilly bin) with ice and hope for the best. OR you could get a bit inventive – and make ice cream cone cupcakes.
Okay, so it’s not technically ice cream, but look at how cute they are!
I’d seen this idea on blogs before, and a recent Australia Day picnic was the perfect excuse to try them out. If you haven’t seen these before, the cupcakes are baked in the ice cream cones (no they don’t burn) before being topped with frosting so they look like ice creams. So. Cute.
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Cookbook Challenge 2011: Fortnight 11
Theme: Cup
Recipe: Peanut butter cupcakes
From: Primrose Bakery Cupcakes
On to fortnight 11 of the Cookbook Challenge. With the theme being “cup” I pulled out one of my cupcake cookbooks to make peanut butter cupcakes. I had a lightbulb moment when I realised that not only do cupcakes fit the theme, but I could also top the peanut butter cupcakes with a mini Reese’s peanut butter cup. Genius! (Thank you, thank you.)
Cookbook Challenge 2011: Fortnight 10
Theme: Blue
Recipe: Lemon and blueberry teacakes
Cookbook: Ottolenghi
I made a big order on Amazon over Easter, picking up cookbooks and food books that had been on my wish list for a while. The free shipping and insanely high Australian dollar was just too tempting to pass up! 😀 On Friday, the last of my order arrived, and one of the books I received was Ottolenghi, the cookbook.
I only had a quick flick through the cookbook, but the photos of teacakes caught my eye almost immediately. There were three recipes for teacakes, and with one of them being lemon and blueberry, I decided to bake them this weekend to tick off my Cookbook Challenge for the fortnight.
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The theme for the latest International Incident Party (hosted as always, by the lovely Penny) is nostalgia, and I love it! It’s such a great theme and sent me down memory lane trying to think of a dish to make.
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Cookbook Challenge: Week 27
Theme: Insect
Recipe: Carrot cupcakes
From: The Australian Women’s Weekly “Bake”
The theme for this week’s Cookbook Challenge is the most challenging one we’ve had yet – insect. YES INSECT! I racked my brain the whole week, trying to decide what to make.
In the end, I decided to bake something and decorate it to look like an insect. Carrot cake is one of my favourite cakes, so I decided to bake carrot cupcakes and make them into ladybirds. I made the carrot cakes on Saturday, doing so in a bit of a rush because we were heading out for dinner. I had an hour to do the baking from start to finish – but fortunately the recipe I chose was, with the help of a food processor, super quick and easy and I threw it together in 15 minutes.
Cookbook Challenge: Week 26
Theme: Green
Recipe: Pandan Cupcakes & Green tea cupcakes
Adapted from: Primrose Bakery’s Cupcakes
Wow, it’s week 26 of the Cookbook Challenge – and you know what that means, don’t you? We’re half way through the challenge! The theme for this week is “green” and I really like these kind of themes because it’s so open.
This week I really wanted to make something with green tea – but unfortunately I couldn’t find any recipes in any of my cookbooks. So I decided I would bake cupcakes and adapt a recipe for my purposes.
For the cupcakes, I thought that using matcha powder would be best. However, when I went to the Asian grocery store I couldn’t find it anywhere. Fortunately, I came across a bottle of pandan extract. Perfect – for green week AND cupcakes!
For the pandan cupcakes, I followed a recipe for vanilla cupcakes, but substituted pandan extract for the vanilla extract. The extract was really green, but I wasn’t sure how strong the colour would be after baking so I added a few drops of green colouring – it was for green week, after all!
For the frosting, I made pandan flavoured buttercream, piping it on in a rose shape. I didn’t really think it through – green roses?? Maybe I should have tried piping leaves!
Taste wise, I didn’t think that much of the cupcakes. I wish I had used this recipe for vanilla cupcakes which I have always had great success with. I found these cupcakes a bit dry, and they weren’t as fluffy as I would have liked. But the pandan in them was lovely – giving a vanilla-ish, nutty fragrance. I would definitely try using the pandan extract in cakes/cupcakes again, with other recipes.
For the green tea cupcakes, since I couldn’t find any matcha, I tried infusing milk with green tea. This didn’t work as well as I had hoped – when they were warm and not frosted, there was a faint taste of green tea But when they were cold and with buttercream on top, I couldn’t detect it at all.
Oh well! I’ll have to get my hands on matcha and have another go. Now, who wants some cupcakes??
See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.
Update: See the round up at My Food Trail.
Pandan cupcakes
Adapted from the vanilla cupcake recipe in Primrose Bakery’s Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
110g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour, sifted
125g plain flour, sifted
120ml milk, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pandan extract
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for several minutes with an electric mixer. Gradually add the sugar, beating well between additions, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.
Add a third of the flours to the butter mixture and beat on low speed. Add a third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added. Add the pandan extract and beat until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcakes cases. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cooked.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, ice with pandan flavoured buttercream – see recipe below.
Green tea cupcakes
Adapted from the Earl grey cupcake recipe in Primrose Bakery’s Cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes
125ml milk, at room temperature
4 teaspoons of green tea leaves (I used sencha)
110g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self-raising flour, sifted
125g plain flour, sifted
Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cupcake wrappers.
In a saucepan, heat the milk over medium heat until it just begins to boil. Remove from the heat and add the green tea leaves. Leave to infuse for about 30 minutes. Once infused, strain the milk into a measuring jug. You may need to top up the amount of milk, so do that if necessary.
In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter for several minutes with an electric mixer. Gradually add the sugar, beating well between additions, until the mixture is pale and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition.
Add a third of the flours to the butter mixture and beat on low speed. Add a third of the milk and beat again. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcakes cases. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until cooked.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, ice with vanilla flavoured buttercream.
Pandan buttercream
Makes enough for 12 cupcakes
250 grams unsalted butter, cut into cubes and very, very soft
3 cups sifted icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon pandan extract
Beat the butter in an electric mixer on high until it is very pale and fluffy.
Gradually add the icing sugar (I do this a tablespoon at a t
ime), beating well between additions. Beat until the buttercream is very fluffy – about 5-6 minutes.
Heat the milk in the microwave until it’s very warm. Add to the butter cream and beat on high for another couple of minutes. Add the pandan extract and mix to combine. Pipe on top of the cupcakes.
Note: This is a scheduled post – Alastair and I are currently on holiday!
When I told Twinsy that I was interested in making vanilla cupcakes, she lent me her Crapapple Bakery cupcake cookbook and told me to try the vanilla cupcake recipe. The book says that the vanilla cupcake is the biggest seller at the bakery. After making them, I can see why!
The cupcakes are really light and fluffy – even when it’s still at the batter stage you can tell how fluffy they’re going to be. I don’t like cakes and desserts to be too sweet, and these fit the bill. They’re not too sweet, they’re fluffy, and they have a strong vanilla flavour. They’re really, really good.
On top of the cupcakes is a vanilla buttercream. I didn’t follow the buttercream recipe from the Crabapple Bakery cookbook though – just reading the recipe made my teeth ache because it asks for 8 cups of icing sugar for about 200g of butter (For comparison, the recipe I use has 3 cups of sugar for 225g of butter and it is definitely sweet enough for me!).
The recipe makes a large amount – I made about 28 cupcakes out of one batch. If you don’t want to make as many, try halving the recipe, although I’m sure you wouldn’t have any problems sharing them amongst friends if you made the full batch. I must stress again how good they are – the best cupcakes I’ve ever made according to my friend Rukiye.
On my last day at my old job, I took a batch of mini cupcakes into work for my colleagues. I halved the recipe and managed to get 47 mini cupcakes. I thought they were very cute and they went down a treat. 🙂
Vanilla cupcakes
From the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook
Makes 24 cupcakes
2 & 3/4 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g unsalted butter – softened
1 & 3/4 cups caster sugar
4 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
Preheat oven to 170°C. Line two 12-hole muffin trays with liners.
In an electric mixer, cream the butter on high for a couple of minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the caster sugar a third at a time, beating for several minutes before the next addition.
When the mixture is light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, beating on medium for a minute after each one. Add the vanilla extract and beat until combined.
Add the flour and milk alternately to the butter mixture in several batches and beat on low speed until just combined.
Spoon mixture into the cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Remove from the trays immediately and let cool completely on a wire rack before icing/frosting.
Vanilla buttercream
Thanks to Maria
250 grams unsalted butter, cut into cubes and very, very soft
3 cups sifted icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Beat the butter in an electric mixer on high until it is very pale and fluffy.
Gradually add the icing sugar (I do this a tablespoon at a time), beating well between additions. Beat until the buttercream is very fluffy – about 5-6 minutes.
Heat the milk in the microwave until it’s very warm. Add to the butter cream and beat on high for another couple of minutes. Add the vanilla extract and mix to combine. Pipe on top of the cupcakes.
After all the cupcaking over the past month, you would think that I would want to take a break from cupcake baking. Erm… nope! After reading Maria’s post, lemon meringue cupcakes have been on my “to bake” list for a while… a rather long while, I’m afraid. But I finally got around to it last weekend – and now I wonder why it took me so long!
I started off making the lemon curd, following a recipe that I found on taste.com.au (I have rewritten the overly complicated recipe below – there is enough curd there to make two batches of cupcakes). Next I baked the cupcakes, which is fairly easy, and waited for them to cool before I tackled the meringue. The meringue required a sugar thermometer and a stand mixer to make, but the end result was light, delicate, and delicious. I confess to eating rather a lot of meringue…. erm, let’s just say
I was cleaning the beaters prior to washing up. Finally, after I had gorged on enough meringue, the cupcakes were assembled – I cut a small hole in the middle of each one, filled the holes with lemon curd, and then piped the meringue on top. Alastair expertly blow torched the meringue for me (and we won’t discuss how he set a couple on fire!).
And the result? Ohmygod! They were amazing – heaven in a mini cake form. The cupcakes were really moist, and delightful with the gooey, sourish lemon curd and sweet fluffy meringue on top. Swoon!
If you like lemon based desserts, try these. It may seem like a lot of effort, but it’s totally worth it!
For the cupcakes, see cuisine.com.au for the recipe.
Basic lemon curd
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind
½ cup lemon juice
200g caster sugar
3 x 60g eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
100g unsalted butter, cut into 1cm cubes
This recipe makes more than you’ll need for 12 cupcakes so have a sterilised jar handy for the rest of the lemon curd (if you need instructions for sterilising a jar, go to the original recipe).
Place the lemon juice and sugar in a stainless steel bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir to combine.
Pour the eggs through a sieve into a separate bowl, and use a wooden spoon to gently push the egg through.
Add the strained eggs to the juice and sugar mixture. Mix to combine. Bring the water to a gentle simmer and stir the mixture for about 20 minutes or until it thickens and thinly coats the back of the wooden spoon.
Remove the bowl from the pot and add the butter, a couple of pieces at a time, stirring until the butter melts and mixture is combined.
When you have stirred in all the butter, add the lemon rind and pour into sterilised jars. Cool to room temperature before storing in the fridge.