White Chocolate & Raspberry Cupcakes

These are lovely summer-y cupcakes to go with the nice sunny weather we're getting at the moment in England! It does mean that you might get a bit warmer with the oven on and making the buttercream but it is definitely worth it. 

I love raspberries; I personally think they're better than strawberries just because they're so lovely and juicy and definitely a summer fruit so this buttercream is perfect for some summer baking. Raspberry and white chocolate is also a perfect combination so I couldn't resist these.

I'm not coping very well in the heat, but these only go in the oven for 20 minutes and at quite a low heat so it doesn't warm you up too much! And you should have some left over raspberries to munch on while you make them!

Ingredients

Cupcakes:-

115g salted butter

115g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 medium eggs

140g self-raising flour

1-2 tbsp milk

Raspberry buttercream:-

150g unsalted butter

225g icing sugar

7/8 raspberries depending on flavour required

White chocolate buttercream:-

150g unsalted butter

225g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp hot water/milk

Grated white chocolate

Recipe

Cupcakes:-

1) Preheat oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with cake cases.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3) Add the vanilla essence, egg and 1 tablespoon of flour.

4) Mix until well combined then gradually add the remaining flour, mixing well and adding the milk if the mixture is dry.

5) Divide between the cake cases and bake for 20 minutes until risen and golden.

6) Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Raspberry buttercream:-

1) Beat the butter until light and fluffy then beat into the icing sugar in small batches. Don't worry if the mixture looks dry as the raspberries will add some moisture!

2) Place the raspberries in a wire sieve then crush gently with a spoon to push the juice through into the buttercream. If you don't want a really strong raspberry flavour then add a couple less, or for an extra strong taste a couple extra!

3) Mix the juice into the buttercream thoroughly then place in the fridge for a few minutes before icing the cakes.

White chocolate buttercream:-

1) Beat the butter until light and fluffy then beat into the icing sugar in small batches with the hot water or milk.

2) Grate the white chocolate into the mixture, adding as much as required for your personal tastes.

3) Place in the fridge for a few minutes before icing the cakes.

To decorate the cakes, use a small star nozzle and a piping bag to cover the whole of the cake. If you want to dollop it on, go for it! I much prefer a bit of a messy buttercream decoration! Then sprinkle the raspberry buttercream cakes with grated white chocolate and place a single raspberry on the white chocolate buttercream cakes.

Cake Pops

I've never made cake pops before so this was a bit of an experiment. I have a silicone cake pop mould which has never been used until now (and I've had it around a year or so) so I figured I would finally use it! I couldn't manage to find any specific recipes to make cake pops with a mould as most of them involve baking a cake then mixing it up with frosting, but I find these kinds of cake pops a bit too heavy for my tastes so using the mould definitely works better for me.

I decided to use a Madeira cake recipe for the pops, as I figured the denseness of this cake would mean they could withstand being put on a stick and dipped in chocolate. I also had a lot of fun decorating these, due to my endless supply of sprinkles!

This recipe would make around 40 cake pops, which is quite a lot so you can reduce it to make as many as you wish. I made the full mix then made 9 cupcakes on the side as well.

These would make a really cute present for someone's birthday, and if you're feeling adventurous then you can ice "Happy Birthday" into individual cake pops. 

Ingredients

175g butter

175g caster sugar

3 large eggs

Few drops of vanilla extract

200g self-raising flour

50g ground almonds

Recipe

For the cake pops:-

1) Heat oven to 170C/Gas mark 3 and butter the cake pop mould thoroughly.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy then beat in the eggs one at a time.

3) Add the vanilla extract and almonds and beat until you get a thick batter. If it seems a bit dry then add a splash of milk.

4) Fill half of the cake pop mould to the top. Don't worry about overfilling it as you want it to rise fully to the top half and you can always cut around the balls if there's excess mix.

5) Place the top half on and bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes.

6) Allow to cool fully before removing the cake pops from the mould.

To decorate:-
150g milk chocolate
150g white chocolate
Sprinkles of your choice

I used chocolate to cover my cake pops, but you can use candy melts if you prefer. The method for decorating is the same whichever you use.

1) Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

2) Dip one of the cake pop sticks into the chocolate then into the cake pop. I thought I'd show a picture of what they're meant to look like here in case it's a bit confusing. Dipping the stick into chocolate first means that they stick to the stick a lot more.

3) Place the pops immediately in the fridge to allow the stick to fully set in the cake.

4) Carefully cover the cake pops with the melted chocolate then add sprinkles if required.
5) Allow to dry then store in the fridge to give them an extra crunch when you bite in.

Iced Vanilla Cupcakes

I decided to have a bit of a fun night off from the dreaded dissertation at the weekend and make some childish cupcakes! I realised I have a lot of sprinkles in my baking cupboard and thought this was a pretty good way of getting rid of a few of them. Everyone loves an iced cupcake as well!

Some of the decorations were done by my other half, so this is a really fun activity to do with friends/partners/kids as something a little bit different. Just be wary because the sprinkles do end up everywhere! The yellow cakes have lemon extract in the icing and some of the red ones have strawberry flavouring to give whoever gets one a bit of a surprise when they bite in.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:-

180g butter

180g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

3 medium eggs

210g self-raising flour

Icing:-

220g icing sugar

2-3 tablespoons water

Food colouring

Sprinkles

Flavourings

Recipe

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and line two 12-hole cupcakes tins. I managed to make 18 cakes out of this mix.

2) Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

3) Add the vanilla essence, eggs and 1 tablespoon of flour.

4) Beat until combined then gradually add the flour, making sure to keep mixing.

5) Spoon the mixture in the cupcake cases then bake for 20-25 minutes.

6) Leave to cool in the tin slightly then remove and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack.

7) Once fully cool, place the icing sugar in a bowl then add a tablespoon of water at a time until the icing is the right consistency. If you're using flavourings/colourings then make sure it is quite thick as the flavours/colours will thin it a bit more.

8) Divide into separate bowls for each colour of icing you need.

9) Decorate to your heart's content!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Buttercream

These were a bit of an experiment really. The plan was for them to be a "Hidden chocolate" cupcake, so there are Rolos, Minstrels and Malteasers in the middle of these cupcakes. However, they didn't stay in the middle and mainly just sank to the bottom and melted a bit! The salted caramel buttercream makes up for this as it lifts the cupcake and really brings it to life, whilst still being quite easy to make.

The vanilla cupcake recipe is great on it's own and is from the Hummingbird Bakery "Cake Days" book and the Salted Caramel Buttercream recipe is from the BBC Food website here. I'm definitely going to try and use this caramel buttecream recipe more in the future because it is actually delicious! I'm never normally a fan of buttercream because I can find it overpowering and too sweet, but I think the salt in this calms it down a bit.

Ingredients

Cupcakes:-

180g plain flour

210g caster sugar

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

60g unsalted butter

180ml milk

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Salted caramel buttercream:-

125g caster sugar

80ml double cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

160g salted butter

200g icing sugar
Chocolate to decorate

Recipe

Cupcakes:-

1) Preheat the oven to 170C/Gas Mark 3 and line a 12-hole bun tray with cupcake cases.

2) Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a large bowl and mix until everything is well combined.

3) Pour in half of the milk and beat until it is just incorporated.

4) Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together for a few seconds then beat into the cupcake mixture until smooth.

5) Spoon the mixture into the cases until two-thirds full. If you want to try the "hidden chocolate" cupcakes then just add half of the cake mixture to the cases and place a chocolate on top then add the remaining mixture.

6) Bake in the oven for 25 minutes then allow to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

Salted caramel buttercream:-

1) Heat the caster sugar and 4 tablespoons of water in a saucepan over a gentle heat until the sugar dissolves.

2) Increase the heat and cook until the mixture is golden and slightly thickened. My best tip for this part is to not touch the mixture; it's tempting to start mixing it but if you just leave it to boil away then it will become golden and come out as a nice smooth caramel.

3) Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cream. It will spit at you a bit but don't worry and just keep stirring. You should end up with a golden mixture.

4) Stir in the salt and vanilla and allow to cool completely.

5) Cream the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy then beat in the caramel.

6) Decorate the cupcakes.

Iced Cupcakes [Archive]

This recipe makes 12 cupcakes, but I doubled it as the other half wanted to make some as well :)

Ingredients

115g butter

115g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 medium eggs

140g self-raising flour

3 tbsp milk (this wasn't in the original recipe but when I made the mix it seemed a bit dry so I added it extra. It made the cakes really soft and moist!)

For the icing:-

225g icing sugar

3-4 tbsp water

Few drops of food colouring

Recipe

1) Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin.

2) Cream the butter and sugar together until it is soft and fluffy.

3) Add the eggs a little at a time with a tbsp of flour and whisk.

4) Add the vanilla essence and the milk, if needed, and mix thoroughly.

5) Fill each cupcake case between 1/2 to 3/4 full.

6) Bake for 25-30 minutes. You can tell when they are done if they are golden on the top and when you press down lightly on the top they bounce back up.

To make the icing, gradually add the water to the icing sugar with the food colouring. If you want a dark colour add around 5 or so drops; for the yellow colour I had to add quite a few drops as it was fluorescent before! You need to make sure the icing is quite thick to prevent it from running down the cupcakes.

Then decorate with whatever you fancy! One of my friends bought me some lovely decorating ingredients for my birthday so I used orange drops, small silver balls and then the classic hundreds and thousands!

Here's how mine turned out:-

As you can see, some of them did turn out a little bit runny! But I loved the snowflake one so I thought I'd give you a close up to show how I did it! 

Mini Egg Cupcakes

I thought I'd embrace some more Easter baking this week and chocolate is easily available around Easter! Adding the mini eggs to these cupcakes gives them a really nice sticky texture compared to just using standard chocolate chips. It definitely gives them a bit of an edge over standard cupcakes!

Ingredients

100g softened butter

100g caster sugar

2 large eggs

100g self-raising flour

2 tbsp milk

100g crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs (don't worry if there are some bigger pieces of egg. It's always nice to have different sizes to give the cakes more texture!)

Recipe

1) Preheat the oven to 190C/Gas Mark 5 and line a 12-hole bun tin with 12 cases.

2) Place the butter, sugar, eggs and flour in a bowl and beat together until smooth.

3) Add the milk if the mixture is a bit dry. I always like adding a bit of milk as it makes the cakes really moist.

4) Fold in the crushed Mini Eggs then spoon the mixture into the cases.

5) Bake in the oven for around 20 minutes or until springy to the touch.

6) Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.