An Almost Grown-Up Christmas

As a child Christmas is very me, me, me but I am now 23 and, as my mother keeps telling me, this means I don't get the same amount of surprises as the little ones. Now I'm not bothered about amounts, I'm a quality over quantity kind of girl, but sadly Christmas usually means useless presents so this year I took charge and kindly requested a whole host of gifts from her. I was very clear, all I really wanted was some pyjama's, anything else would be a bonus, but I had listed a variety so that I wouldn't know what was coming. I thought this was a cunning plan and somehow, magically, even those who didn't have access to the gift gave me wonderfully thoughtful presents.

Some of my favourite presents, including a beautiful long chained gold bird necklace, a hand knitted headband 
and an Apple Magic Mouse to stop me getting RSI with my incessant trackpad use.

I loved spending time with my friends on our traditional Christmas Eve pub crawl, plus my family and my boyfriend. This is his first year out of university (he did Dentistry which is a 5 year course) and he didn't love his short 4 day break (that's very short when you're used to 2/3 weeks) but we crammed in seeing both of our families and the constant moving around felt very adult. Suddenly we weren't just sat in front of the television eating chocolate, we were in the car moving around and he was entertaining my five year old brother playing Halo on the XBox and competing over the noise of my family all talking at once. Seriously impressive if you take into account the fact my boyfriend is an only child who is not used to having lots of children around and my brother argues with everyone he plays with and even shoots those on his team.

Caramel Cupcake Recipe

On Saturday it was bonfire night and that for me brings up memories of sticky toffee apples that were always disappointing when you were only left with an apple, homemade treacle toffee that my Gran could never get right and being wrapped up in lots of layers to watch fireworks in the rain. I make it sound a bit rubbish but I loved it.

This year I really wanted to dust off my great aunt's treacle toffee recipe and give it a go but knowing the mess it makes my dad convinced me not to bother for fear I would mess up our new oven. Instead, I chose caramel cupcakes from The Humminbird Bakery Cake Days book, which is where the Malteaser cupcake recipe came from.

I read a blog post today by Joy the Baker who was giving general blogging tips, in which she said: "Work hard to make it look easy…. and just be ok with the fact that it’s totally not easy." I'm not going to do that. This blog isn't me trying to be an expert, it's just me sharing things I enjoy as I find them and that includes attempting to learn to bake. That's why there are always notes alongside the original recipes saying what I did instead. I do hope you don't mind.

Caramel Cupcakes

Makes 12-16

Malteaser Cupcake Recipe

My 'little' sister has just turned 13 and last week she started high school...we have a middle school here hence her not having gone at 11. It seems like she is growing up really quickly but despite the stroppiess and constant texting that comes with being a teenager she still wanted specially made cakes for her birthday. Malteaser cupcakes to be specific, so I enlisted a recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery's Cake Days book and got to work.

I got the book a few months ago and I really like it. The recipes are accessible, different and look amazing. The photographs in the book are fabulous and I love that it is set into occasions working from Valentines Day right through to Christmas, incorporating fruits such as raspberries and blood oranges according to season. I tried their basic vanilla cupcakes first and the cakes were beautifully light but I used my own buttercream recipe as 500g of icing sugar seemed a bit excessive. I plan on trying many more and will let you know how my first whoopie pies go when I finally get round to it. In the meantime, you should definitely try these... and let me know how it goes if you do!

Malted Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 12-16

Ingredients for the sponge:

• 150ml sunflower oil
• 75ml whole milk
• 75ml buttermilk (I actually couldn't find buttermilk in my local supermarket so I followed these instructions and mixed up a substitute using lemon juice.)
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 240g plain flour
• 25g cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 330g caster sugar
• 150ml boiling water

Ingredients for the frosting:

• 200g dark chocolate chips - minimum 70% cocoa solids (I chopped up a bar of Green and Blacks)
• 240ml double cream
• 115g malted-milk powder (When I opened our Horlicks it had set rock solid so I used Ovaltine instead, which had some cocoa powder in it too.)
• 50g full fat cream cheese
• 35g caster sugar
• 36-48 Malteasers to decorate (I brought a sharing bag and had some spare too. I normally gobble up Malteasers so fast I have no clue how many is in a bag.)

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C/gas mark 5, and line a muffin tin with muffin cases.

2. Using an electric whisk beat together the oil with the milk, buttermilk, egg and vanilla essence on low speed until well blended. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, then stir in the sugar. Add a third of the boiling water, followed by another third of dry ingredients to the oil and milk mixture and beat slowly until evenly incorporated.

3. Beat in a third of the boiling water, followed by another third of the dry ingredients then repeat with the remaining ingredients, mixing together until they are all combined. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl after each addition, to ensure well-mixed batter. (I didn't read this properly, their instructions can be a bit lengthy - I like short and snappy - so I ended up pouring the boiling water in after all the dry ingredients. Still tasted good though.)

4. Divide the mixture between the paper cases, filling each by two thirds. Any remaining batter can be used to fill one to four more cases in a separate tin. Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes or until springy to the touch. Allow to cool a little before removing from the tin, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. To make the frosting, place the chocolate chips in a bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water to melt, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

6. Meanwhile, using the electric whisk, whip the cream with the malted milk powder until it forms soft peaks. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese with the caster sugar until combined, then add the cooled chocolate and mix again.

7. Carefully fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture, adding half the whipped cream at a time. Divide the frosting between the cupcakes, smoothing and swirling with a palette knife, then decorate each cupcake with 3 Malteasers. (I almost wished I'd crushed them and sprinkled to add to the Malteaser taste overall but they were divine none the less and looked pretty all arranged on top.)

Voila.

The End of Summer

I think it's fair to say that summer is officially on the way out, which is a shame as it always seems to be when I'm happiest and I feel like I've spent most of it doing work for my MA.  However, I have also done other things...I've been to Portugal, I've been to Wales where the boy tour me on a tour of many many castles (my favourite was Pehrhyn), I've baked A LOT, drank copious amounts of red wine, I've done some writing for Fused, prepared their AW Fashion Guide, wrote a short story for Cellardoor's wonderful End of Summer Issue (p84), got my little sister prepared for high school and waved the boy off to live bloody miles away.  Oh and I've more or less finished my MA.  It's been a busy one.

Barmouth Beach

View from the Caravan

We may complain about British summers but even when it's pouring it down a 99 from the ice-cream man and chips on the beach front make me reminiscent of summers when I was younger.  As a young girl I spent many summers in a caravan/apartment/posh hotel depending on our finances at the time but to me it didn't matter where we were.  I once adopted a seagull who I called Sammy, I fed him every day whilst we were away with my aunties and cousins and every one.  I only realised this year whilst telling the boy that story that Sammy was probably multiple seagulls.  Naive I know, but it shows how much I believed in the magic of summer - as a tiny girl I had a pet seagull.  So don't give up on British summers - they may be shorter, come at strange times of the year and be largely interspersed by rain but they're our summers.  Make sure you make the most of them.

My mother and I, Newquay, aged 2. 

Raspberry and Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

The raspberry portion of the Graduation Cakes went down best with everyone but my little siblings...but I expected that and it's exactly why I made some chocolate fudge cakes too.  The recipe was an adaptation of the Bling and Buy recipe found in the Cupcakes and Muffins book.  Not surprisingly, I didn't think the boy would appreciate cupcakes decorated with jelly rings and icing handbags. In fact, I'd have completely skipped over the recipe for myself if I hadn't noticed the use of raspberries.  They were light, moist and really really easy.

Raspberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 175 g/6 oz softened butter or margarine
• 200 g/7 oz caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 150 g/5 1/2 oz raspberries
• 225 g/8 oz self-raising flour
• To decorate I used one quantity of buttercream, for which you can find various recipes online and in basically every baking book there is, and added 1 tsp of vanilla extract.

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

2. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with 10 paper cases. (I actually got 14 cakes from this recipe and used 12 silicone cases and 2 paper cases.)

3. Place the butter an sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy, then beat in the vanilla extract. (I'll be honest, I forgot to add vanilla extract to the cake mix but the flavouring in the buttercream and the raspberry flavour in the cake meant you didn't really notice.)

4. Gradually beat in the eggs, then fold the raspberries and flour into the mixture. (The raspberries will break up slightly but that's ok, just be careful to ensure some raspberries remain whole as they taste great when you discover them in the middle of the cupcakes.)

5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases. (I tried to make sure the raspberries weren't all at the bottom but spooning the mixture into the cases in various stages.)

6. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 - 25 minutes, or until golden brown and springy to the touch.

7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

8. To decorate, mix up a batch of vanilla buttercream and pipe onto the cupcakes using a star nozzle.  Add sweets/other decorative aspects as required.  Whilst the recipe suggests handbags, shoes and jelly rings, accessorised with those little silver decorating balls, I opted to use the extra raspberries and giant chocolate buttons.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcake Recipe

I did promise that I would put up the recipes I used for the Graduation Cakes so today I'm starting with chocolate fudge.  These are more hard work than the raspberry cupcakes but they are extremely rich in chocolate flavour and all dense and gooey.  I should warn you that I'm not the best baker, this was probably way more experimental than it needed to be with me adding extra water and syrup just because I thought it needed it.  I don't think they were quite supposed to look like they did, but they tasted good despite the fact the frosting was way too sticky and thick really to be piped...as you can see.

The recipe was taken from the old faithful Cupcakes and Muffins book and was one half of their Dark and White Fudge Cakes recipe.  The boy doesn't like white chocolate, but if you do make the frosting following the recipe below but replace the plain chocolate with white.

Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes

The following recipe is supposed to make 20 cakes, frosted half and half with white and plain chocolate fudge frosting.  Whilst the frosting recipe is therefore only for 10 cakes when I made this I only got 12 cupcakes and the frosting covered perfectly.  However, you may want to make extra and/or experiment first to see how far you get.

Ingredients:

• 200 ml/7 fl oz water
• 85 g/3 oz butter
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 225 g/8 oz plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa

Frosting:

• 50 g/1 3/4 oz plain chocolate broken (I used a 85% cocoa fair-trade chocolate)
• 2 tbsp water
• 25 g/0.9 oz butter
• 175 g 6 oz icing sugar

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Line two 12-hole bun tins with 20 paper cases. (As previously mentioned I only got 12 and used silicone cases.)
3. Place the water, butter syrup in a saucepan and heat gently, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved.  Bring to the boil, reduce the hear and cook gently for 5 minutes.  Leave to cool.
4. Meanwhile pour the milk and vanilla extract into a bowl.  Add the bicarbonate of of soda and stir to dissolve.
5. Sift the flour and cocoa into a separate bowl and add the syrup mixture.
6. Stir in the milk mixture and beat until smooth, then spoon the mixture into the paper cakes.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until well risen and firm to the touch.  (Whilst most cakes in silicone cases take less time this one did need the full 20 minutes but keep on eye on them.)
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. To make the frosting, place the plain chocolate in a small heatproof bowl, add the water and butter, set the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and heat until melted.  Stir until smooth.
10. Sift the icing sugar into the bowl and beat until smooth and thick.
11. Top each cupcake with frosting and leave to set.  Decorate with chocolate shavings.  (Or a giant chocolate button in my case.)

Graduation Cake and a Trip to Portugal

Finally the boy has graduated.  I am very proud.  He is almost a fully fledged dentist, soon to be earning a lot of money whilst I plod on with finishing my MA and hope to God that I can get a job this autumn.  Cross your fingers for me.

This comes after a wonderful holiday in the Algarve where we did absolutely nothing but lounge by the pool, hide from the sun so I wouldn't burn, get covered by sand on the beach (and break my sisters Kindle there too as I dropped it on a rock - eek!) plus eat a lot.  Eating become the main activity...we would discuss where we would go all day and then savour three courses with a bottle of wine/sangria and topped off with some deadly cocktails.

We walked for miles on the one cloudy day we had, following a map that was not to scale.  At all.  Tourist maps, you would think, show key things that you should see so we trekked to see a statue.  The following is the statue in question...not really a statue more an island with religious connotations.

Our first holiday and our first graduation (we weren't speaking when it was mine) so to celebrate I baked cake, various cupcakes in fact: vanilla with raspberries and chocolate fudge.  Thankfully the deserts in Portugal weren't that great so my cake didn't have much to live up to.  If I'd been cooking ribs/steak/any kind of fresh fish it would have been a different matter, they were amazing in Portugal.  The old faithful Cupcakes and Muffins book came out, as did my mothers wonderful silicon cupcake cases.  They went down an absolute treat, which I'm glad of because I was too poor to buy anything better.  The raspberry is particularly amazing so I'll make sure to put the recipes up for you to try another time.

The Cupcake Miracle/Peanut Butter Cupcake Recipe

I love cupcakes.  In fact, I love cake of any kind but unfortunately I am terrible at baking without supervision.  Oddly, I've been told this is because I follow the recipe too much... I think it's more I'm inpatient, rarely have every ingredient and the oven at home likes to burn everything on the right hand side.  I like to try to counteract the last aspect by turning things regularly but of course this means my cakes are usually flat as a pancake.

Today I decided to bake at my moms house.  I was armed with a good oven, all the ingredients and a peanut butter cupcake recipe that I was determined to follow to the letter... When I took them out of the oven they had risen, cooked to perfection and tasted divine.  It was a cupcake miracle.

My yummy cupcakes :) - I didn't say they looked professional, I said they baked perfectly.

I'm no Astral when it comes to decorating but I promise they're amazing!

As a baking retard if I can make this recipe I'm sure anyone can.  It's from the book Cupcakes and Muffins: A Collection of 200 Delicious Recipes, but I have shared it with you here so you can try right now.  The recipe is apparently for 16 but that must be for massive cupcakes... I got 21 so decided to do half chocolate and half frosted.  There was an absolute tonne of frosting left over.

Frosted Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 55 g/2 oz butter, softened, or soft margarine
• 225 g/8 oz soft light brown sugar
• 115 g/ 4 oz crunch peanut butter (I used smooth because that's what was in the cupboard.  They still tasted yummy but didn't have the crunch...obviously.)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten (Apparently I should have beaten by eggs before putting them in with everything else - I didn't.)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 225 g/ 8 oz plain flower
• 2 tsp baking powder

Frosting:

• 200 g/7 oz soft cream cheese (I used ricotta.)
• 25 g/1 oz butter, softened
• 225 g/8 oz icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4.
2. Line two 12-hole bun tins with 16 paper cases.  (I used silicon cases and cooked in two batches.)
3. Place the butter, sugar and peanut butter in a bowl and beat together for 1-2 minutes, or until well mixed.
4. Gradually beat in the eggs, then add the vanilla extract.
5. Sift in the flour and baking powder, then fold them into the mixture, alternating with the milk.
6. Spoon the mixture into the cases.
7. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.  (15-20 minutes with my moms small cases and fan assisted oven.)

8. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
9. To make the frosting, place the cream cheese and butter in a large bowl and beat together until smooth.
10. Sift the icing sugar into the mixture, beat together until well mixed, then spread the frosting on the top of each cake.  (My mom has no sieve.  God knows why.  This of course meant I had to massively beat my frosting, and the more you beat the cream cheese the softer it gets.  This is why my icing is a lot runnier than the one in the book, so it was more pour than spread.  Still tastes amazing though!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes

The ingredients are exactly the same as for the cake above but all you need is chocolate spread (I used Nutella) instead of any frosting ingredients.

1. Follow the above method until step 5.

2. Spoon half the mixture into the paper cases then place about 1/2 a teaspoon of chocolate spread into the centre of each.

3. Carefully spoon the remaining mixture into the paper cases so that it completely encloses the chocolate spread.

4. Bake as before.

5. Cool and cover with more chocolate spread.

Voila :) both batches taste absolutely yummy.  The chocolate cupcakes are much stickier, with the frosted cupcakes coming across lighter even though they're the same cake.  The peanut butter makes the mix rather sticky and heavy but I promise they are divine.  If you give either recipe a go let me know!

Cupcakes: Do I Dare?

 
I can't bake.  When I try the fact our oven is broke inevitably means anything on the right hand side burns.  That, or in my attempt to shift them round enough to prevent even cooking means that any cake drops and lacks all life.

This is particularly difficult for me at the minute because I pine for cupcakes.  I'm absolutely, wholeheartedly in love with them.  Fed up of paying £3 per cupcake I figure it's about time I give it a go.  I may force my mother to bake with me tomorrow as I know full well her oven works!

In preparation I called out for a wonderful lemon cupcake recipe.  Liberty London Girl, ill as she is, so nicely gave me advice via Twitter.  After finding a wonderfully simple basic recipe to work from and jotting down her lemon-related alterations I am now fully ready.  And now I'm scared.  What if I butcher them?  This is completely irrational but I just don't like to fail.

Baking advice anyone?