Happy Halloween!

I don't usually do much with Halloween but these sugar-coated vanilla marshmallow ghosties were too hard to resist!

Freshly piped!

Looking good!

Basic recipe is here, just omit the cocoa and hot water.  Fill an icing bag with the mixture and pipe away.

Stuck in a rut

Just. Can't. Stop. Making. Marshmallows!

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Oreo Vanilla Cupcakes

I have spent most of my life not knowing what an Oreo tasted like.  For some reason they never really appealed to me.  I just thought that they looked like a dry chocolate biscuit with hard cream in the middle.

I always remember this TV advertisement years and years ago where this little boy is sitting on his doorstep when his mum brings him some milk and Oreos.  He then separates an Oreo on his doorstep and his dog comes up and licks half of it, which doesn’t bother the little boy as he eats both halves!  Obviously those Oreos are good enough to eat dog spit and all!

Anyway, I recently decided to try those Oreos and was pleasantly surprised!  Now I just can’t get enough.  I love the little packets of mini-Oreos, I like the packets of big Oreos, and I love Oreos in cupcakes. 

Oreos in cupcakes has to be one of the coolest ideas.  I think I came across it somewhere on the web or on Pinterest. 

Matcha (green tea) chocolate marshmallows

One healthy recipe here and now we’re back to sugar!  I’m addicted…to making marshmallows.  I find all that whisking quite relaxing and very satisfying for some reason.  I love that moment when the hot syrup hits the meringue and it all fluffs up!  Pure beauty!  Ok – maybe I’m getting a little too excited about hot sugar water!

Anyway, back to the marshmallows.  The green tea and chocolate balance out the sugar perfectly so that the sweetness doesn't overwhelm you.  These are my favourite so far!

Raspberry Chocolate Swirled Marshmallows

The weekend has flown past and Monday is poking its nasty head around the corner!  I have the Sunday night blues and there only one way to cure it!  Sugar! 

It’s been a month since my last marshmallow adventure hence, time for another one.

I don't like reinventing the wheel so this recipe is pretty much the same as the previous recipe that I used. 

Instead of a vanilla-chocolate combination, I used raspberry and chocolate.

The only extra addition was mixing in ¼ cup (approximately 60ml) of raspberry puree to the vanilla marshmallow mixture after Step 7 in this recipe.

And there you have it, swirls of sweet delight!

Little bit of sunshine

Where did January go?  It happens every year.  All of a sudden, it’s February!  The days are getting longer and summer is on its way.  Well, perhaps, that’s a little bit optimistic but we’re definitely getting more daylight hours!

I was feeling a little summery and hence wanted a taste of the tropics!  Coconut and mango!  England is a long way from the tropics, hence it was canned and dried coconut, and frozen mango!

I adapted my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe from Sweetapolita and added a little extra coconut filling to the batter.  Topped them with mango buttercream and voila, good to go!  A little burst of sunshine in my mouth!

Fluffy clouds of chocolate and vanilla aka. Home-made marshmallows

It’s not an addiction…really…but sometimes, I just feel like sugar. Sugar, sugar and more sugar. I know it’s bad but I just can’t stop myself. For times like these, there are home-made marshmallows, marshmallows that are so sweet that they make your teeth squeak!I came across this recipe a while ago and had been saving it for a special sugar craving day. I added some cocoa which brought the sweetness down a notch.

Keep in mind that I’ve never actually eaten or attempted to make home-made marshmallows before and so I wasn’t sure what to expect.  However, they came out as I expected: like a soft super sweet melt-in-your-mouth cloud of chocolate and vanilla.   

Don’t be put off by the long list of instructions.  There’s just a little bit of preparation, a lot of whisking and you’ll be rewarded with soft fluffy marshmallows.

Ferrero Rocher Topped Nutella Cupcakes

After weeks of indulging over the Christmas festivities, the 12 days were up and I decided to wipe out all traces of the jolly season by eating all the biscuits and chocolates that we had been given. (Well, you can’t start a new year with new resolutions while all these temptations are lying around) 

Trust me, this was no easy task but I managed it by nibbling slowly through the shortbread and the giant box of Celebrations…and then discovered that we had 2 left-over boxes of Ferrero Rochers. Shock horror! 

Instead of inhaling these mini golden balls at one go, I decided that the chocolate might go better with even more chocolate and sugar to top it off! 

Thanks to Pinterest, voila Ferrero Rocher cupcakes….well, more like Ferrero Rochers on cupcakes. 

Busy

It's been a while, but I've been busy.

Really really busy.

Hope you're all well!

The 7hr saga of a pig (dodgy photo alert!)

It wasn’t just any pig, it was Peppa Pig!  If you have a toddler and live in the UK, it is very likely that you have been acquainted with Peppa Pig.  An adorable little pig who likes jumping in muddy puddles (all the time to some very annoying music in the background). 

Daughter no. 1 was obsessed with Peppa Pig when she was about 2 years old.  Daughter no. 2, slightly obsessed but not to the same level luckily.  Our house is filled with Peppa paraphernalia and various bits of Peppa plastic.

Needless to say, when it was No. 2’s 2^nd birthday, she wanted a Peppa Pig cake! 

Now, my attempt at a Peppa Pig cake for no. 1 looked like this. 

Not great.  I so wasn’t impressed with it that I only took about 2 photos of the cake.

I was determined to get it right this time around.  Absolutely determined. 

Don't buy these

One of my least favourite things in my kitchen at the moment are these white cupcake cases that I picked up at the local supermarket.  

They’re horrible. 

First of all they’re tiny.  I don’t know how they can call themselves ‘cupcake cases’ – they’re more like ‘thimbles’.  Look how tiny they are in my cupcake tray!  Tiny.  I put just over 1 tablespoonful of batter in each liner and that practically filled them up. 

 They also seem to separate from the actual cupcake after baking.  Not pretty.  I'm pretty sure it’s not my cupcake as I've made them in other cases with no problems.  So my conclusion is that these liners just seem to separate.  Perhaps they’re too waxy?  Who knows.

I know, the world’s not going to stop turning because I bought some dud cupcake cases, but I have 100 of them!  What am I supposed to do with them?

Well, I could just make lots of chocolate cupcakes (not a bad thing), but then I would have to eat them all myself.  Not good for my ‘diet’. 

Or I could just let my daughter make her ‘cupcakes’!

On another note, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone.  Enjoy the mooncakes!

Spark of vanilla

Coming back from holidays is hard.  Summer holidays are especially hard.  On this side of the world, the days are getting shorter, the mornings are getting cooler and I’m starting to think about having to sew those name tags on the uniforms for school – not for me, for my big little monster who’s starting school this year. 

It’s all kind of depressing really.

Then, a dim spark of hope lies in the form of VANILLA CAKE!  Okay, maybe I’m being a little over-dramatic but I love VANILLA CAKE!  I especially love VANILLA CAKE with SWISS MERINGUE ICING.  Sorry I’ll stop shouting now.

Sweetapolita is my go-to blog for vanilla cake recipes.  For this cake I used this recipe, which is what I would call a topsy-turvy method of making a cake.  I’m used to creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and then any other liquid and finally gently mixing in the dry ingredients.  This method calls for mixing the butter with the dry ingredients and then mixing the wet ingredients in.  It seemed almost easier than the standard creaming method with amazing results.  Amazing (had to say it twice). 

And the icing, oh the icing.  Not an overly sweet, slightly gritty buttercream but a light and smooth swiss meringue buttercream.  It takes a little longer to put together but the results are absolutely lovely.  It seems so light that you forget that it’s almost pure butter!

And the resulting cake?  Moist, light, a mouthful of vanilla-ey sunshine.  Definitely something to make the shorter days a little longer J

Notes for the cake: I replaced the cake flour by putting 2 tablespoonfuls of cornflour into a cup and then filling it up with ordinary plain flour.  I also only used a pinch of salt instead of the ¾ teaspoon of salt.

Notes for the icing: I halved the quantities in the recipe and still had some leftover.  This was my first time making swiss buttercream and I was a bit vary of using raw egg whites hence I used pasteurised egg white powder instead of fresh egg whites.  The buttercream still came together quite well.

5 giant yums for this recipe J

Warm belly

2 weeks in Brittany and I didn’t take a single photo of any form of food or food products!

However I did take a photo of this.  

Enough to warm any belly, and the heart above it.

Delightful vanilla-raspberry cupcakes

Sometimes I just want sugar.  Any form.  Any colour.  When there’s nothing in the cupboards, I absolutely just have to bake something.  Anything.  Anytime.  I’ve been known to make cakes at midnight…and eat them an hour later.  Sad I know.

One of my favourite vanilla cupcake recipes based on the vanilla fairy cake recipe from the Peyton and Bryne British Baking book.  It’s an easy and quick recipe which produces a light and relatively moist crumb.

I also threw in the squishy raspberries  from the back of the fridge that no one wanted to eat.

This is what I used:

100g softened unsalted butter
175g home-made vanilla sugar
2 medium eggs
150 self-raising flour
2 tsps vanilla extract (I like a strong vanilla hit)
60ml natural yogurt
Roughly 150g of squishy raspberries
12-hole cupcake tray lined with 12 cupcake cases

What I did:

1. Line cupcake tray with cupcake cases

2. Preheat the oven to 170C

3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale, light and fluffy using an electric appliance if you still want to have some feeling left in your arm after this

4. Add the eggs to the creamed butter and sugar and mix well

5. Add the vanilla extract and yogurt to the batter and mix well (lots of mixing going on…)

6. Fold the flour into the batter

7. Drop 1 to 2 raspberries into each hole in the cupcake tray.

8. Fill each cupcake case two-thirds full

9. Bake for about 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out relatively clean.  A few crumbs might cling to it but it should be fine.

10. Dust with icing sugar or decorate as you please

The cupcakes smelt beautiful while cooking and came out a little sunken due to the moisture in the raspberries – so I hid them under a mountain of …raspberries!

Heaven. 

Anyone else with a sugar addiction?

Gourmet snacking

I know, the title might be a little bit misleading! This might not be your idea of a gourmet snack but after a week of healthy eating, meaning no chocolate or sugary snacks, this simple sandwich hit the spot.

It’s amazing how a thick slice of cheddar cheese smothered in strawberry jam can be so satisfying. YUM!

Ps. If you think the slice of bread looks a little odd that’s because it’s the last slice, the edge of the loaf that everyone seems to not want to eat so it’s always up to me (and the ducks at the local park).

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake...

I think I’m going to have to admit it. 

I’m addicted to eating cake! 

I’ve been eating cake almost non-stop for nearly a month.  At the rate I’m going, I will have to go on a lettuce and water diet for the next 6 months to counter the negative effects of too much sugar and fat.

My daughter wanted a chocolate cake for her birthday cake.  I have never been able to make a decent chocolate cake, one which is moist yet firm enough to carve.  Most of my chocolate cakes turn out relatively dry when they come out of the oven and extra dry by the next day so it almost feels like you’re eating a mouthful of dust! 

After experimenting with at least 4 different recipes (and yes, eating most of the products despite the mouthfuls of dust!), I finally stumbled across the the perfect chocolate cake recipe by Lindy Smith.  Perfect for me anyway.  This recipe came out moist and stayed moist for nearly a week!  Plus it was really easy to make.

I tried adding glycerine (1 teaspoon) to the cake after reading that it can help keep the cake moist for longer on Cake Central somewhere (don’t really know how this works scientifically – too lazy to search), but I found that it didn’t seem to make that much of a difference for me.  Keep in mind that I tried 4 recipes – each recipe twice - once with glycerine and once without.  That’s 8 chocolate cakes!  Ok – maybe I’m a little bit obsessed…just a little.

Anyway, here’s the chocolate cake all prettied up for the party.

The Kitty

After the blood, sweat and tears that I shed over the Penguin, these Hello Kitty cupcakes only required some sweat.  Just a little.

No blood or tears involved at all. 

However I was armed with a secret weapon. 

The penguin

I’m not a talented baker.  I’m not even really a very good baker.  I am however, an obsessive baker.  Once I start, I just can’t stop.  I have to get things right even if it means that I have to make the same chocolate cake over and over again until I get it to a texture and taste that I want.  However this isn’t about chocolate cakes (that will come later).  This is about Peso the penguin.

Peso peso peso.  Why did I make Peso?  Well my 4 year old was sharing a birthday party with one of her little friends.  As I was making a load of Hello Kitty cupcakes for my 4 year old (her favourite character) I felt it was only fair that I made cupcakes for the other little girl as well.  And she chose Peso!

Briefly, this is how I made them. (Ps. excuse the dodgy photos.  I was working late at night under dim kitchen lights).

First things first.  

Sugarpaste.  To buy or not to buy?  I didn’t buy.  I made.  Extra work, but bought ready-made  sugar paste, in my opinion, has a weird smell and aftertaste.  So I had to make my own.  From scratch.

After a long hard search through the internet, I found this recipe.  It’s a bit of work but so worth it!  I ended up with a nice big lump of off-white sugarpaste – roughly 2 kgs of it!  That’s a lot of sugar.

Next thing. 

Black sugarpaste

I tried to colour the off-white sugarpaste black but ended up with a big grey mess and sticky grey hands.  So I made chocolate sugarpaste – also from the same recipe.  I then mixed half of the chocolate sugarpaste with black ready-made sugarpaste that I bought.  This ended up a nice dark nearly black colour with a decent flavour.

Then the easy bit, I rolled the black sugarpaste, cut round circles using a cookie cutter and stretched the circles slightly so they became ovals.

Here’s the hard part.  I then found a Peso face on the internet, printed it and then traced it onto greaseproof paper and cut it out.  I manually cut out 16 (yes, sixteen!) faces…and 32 eyes…and 16 noses…and 16 hats…and rolled 32 eyeballs.

Once all of this was done, I put it all together with some sugar water. 

And voila, there you have it.  16 freaky little Peso faces staring at you.  Just pop them on a few cupcakes and you're ready for a party.

Party time!

…not for me though.  I was up all week making these little cuties.  (The penguin is Peso from the Octonauts and I’m sure everyone is familiar with the other little lady!).

Inspiration deficit

Lack of inspiration L

Off to eat this (it’s a whoopie pie!) in the hope that it comes back.  Wish me luck.