Chocolate orange cupcakes

Page 231 - Chocolate orange cupcakes

"Definitely in the top three of recipes to date!"

I skipped ahead a little by making these.. they're actually on the last page. But my goodness were they worth it!

Adding a little orange to the sponge gave the cakes a beautiful smell when they came out of the oven. And the frosting is to die for - I could actually have eating the whole batch. Leigh ate four and the parents LOVED them too!

No improvements needed - I just need to make them again! I halved the recipe as I always do with cupcakes from this book, but for once I actually wish I'd made more!

How to make chocolate orange cupcakes

Ingredients:
70g unsalted butter
210g caster sugar
105g soft light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp finely grated orange zest
255g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
2 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk

Recipe
1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)
2- Whisk the butter and both sugars until pale and fluffy
3- Beat in the eggs one at a time, follwed by vanilla and orange
4 - Sift together the remaining dry ingredients,and add 1/3 with 1/3 of the milk, and whisk. Repeat twice more. Makes ure it's all mixed in and smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the chocolate frosting

Ingredients
600g icing sugar

60g cocoa powder
250g soft cream cheese, e.g. Philadelphia
100g unsalted butter
3 tbsp finely grated orange zest


1) Beat the icing sugar and butter until combined
2) Add the cream cheese and cocoa and whisk again
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth with a palette knife, or pipe

Boston cream cupcakes

Page 60 - Boston cream cupcakes

"A jazzed-up vanilla cupcake"

 

I was a little disappointed when I made these, simply because I'd expected them to be chocolate cupakes with chocolate frosting, but they're actually plain. However the frosting is quite rich and the custard inside gives them another dimension so they were actually really enjoyable.

As usual - the recipe says 12-16 cupcakes, but I halved the recipe and it actually made 11 "normal" sized cakes...


How to make Boston cream cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs

1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)

2- Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
3- Mix the milk, vanilla and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scrape from the sides. Add the remainder and mix until smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely 

 

How to make the vanilla custard filling

Ingredients

250ml milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 large egg yolks

50g caster sugar

1 tbsp plain flour

1 tbsp cornflour

1) Pour milk and vanilla into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile, mix the rest of the ingredients by hand until combined

2) Remove the boiling milk from the heat, pour 4-5 tablespoons of the milk in to the egg mixture to combine, and then add all of the egg mixture to the milk in the pan and stir

3) Bring it all to the boil, boil for at least a minute until flour is cooked

4) Once thickened, transfer in to a glass bowl, cover over with cling film and leave to cool for 30-40 minutes

How to make the chocolate frosting

Ingredients
400g icing sugar

100g cocoa powder
160g unsalted butter
80ml whole milkFood colouring if required 

1) Beat the icing sugar, cocoa and butter until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk, and whisk again until smooth and light
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth  with a palette knife

Yummy Boston cream cupcakes



Pistachio whoopie pies

Page 55 - Pistachio whoopie pies

"Marshmallow Fluff is the way forward...!"

I wasn't looking forward to making this recipe as my last two whoopie pie experiences haven't been great. HOWEVER - I bought Marshmallow fluff for this attempt and it made a huge difference. Previously I'd melted ordinary marshmallows bt it was too stodgy and just didn't work.

Also - I made half the recipe quantity and made the pies half of the size as they were just too big - much better this size. I know in the bakery they are approx 5cm in diameter but these were more like Viennese Whirl size.

I think I didn't leave the icing to set before filling them as it oozed everywhere and to be honest wasn't that pretty - noted for the next batch :-)

How to make pistachio whoopie pies

Ingredients
1 large egg
150g caster sugar
125g plain yogurt
2ml milk
2 tsp vanilla essence
75g unsalted butter
275g plain flour
1/4 tsp baking podwer
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
60g ground pistachio (I bought them shelled and chopped/ground them myself)

1 - Whisk the egg and sugar until light and fluffy
2 - Separately - mix the yogurt, milk and vanilla. Add to the egg/sugar mixture and mix on a medium speed
3 - Add the melted butter
4 - Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb. Add to the egg mixture in two batches, mixing thoroughly after each addition
5 - Stir the ground pistachios in by hand. Leave to set in the fridge for 30 minutes
6 - Pre-heat the over to 170 degrees centigrade and line baking trays
7 - Once chilled, spoon the mix on to trays, approx 3-5cm in diameter and spaced 2-3cm apart. Bake for 10-13 mins until golden and allow to cool completely

How to make marshmallow fluff filling

Ingredients
170g unsalted butter
280g icing sugar
220g marshmallow fluff

1 - Using an electric mixer, mix the butter and icing sugar until blended. Add the marshmallow fluff and mix until light and fluffy. Place frosting in the fridge for AT LEAST 40 minutes
2 - When chilled and firm-ish, spoon the filling on to half of the halves and piece together

Vanilla Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes for Sophie's birthday

"Another trusty recipe!"

These are similar to the chocolate cupcakes - the recipe seems to just "work" everytime I make them! They're really moist and I'm now making so many of these that I can generally judge the right amount to fill the case up so that they don't overfill but aren't too light.

Again - this recipe makes more like 20 cupcakes than the 12-16 the recipe suggests. I made 50 of these for a birthday and only needed to make two and a half times the recipe, with a couple to spare...

How to make vanilla cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 large eggs

1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)2- Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
3- Mix the milk and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scrape from the sides. Add the remainder and mix until smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the vanilla frosting

Ingredients
500g icing sugar
160g unsalted butter
50ml whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Food colouring if required 

1) Beat the icing sugar and butter until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk and vanilla, and whisk again until smooth and light
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth with a palette knife

Page 92 - Vanilla cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

Page 126 - Chocolate Cupcakes

"Such a versatile recipe"

I've made these cupcakes before out of the original Hummingbird book, but made these this time for a friend along with some lemon ones. As usual the recipe didn't let me down - they were so tasty! I especially like to icing from this recipe as it's really rich :-)

One thing - the recipe says this makes 12-16 cupcakes but I actually think it makes more than 20! So unless you do actually want to be eating chocolate cupcakes for the next month I suggest you half the recipe :-)

How to make chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
200g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
2 large eggs

1- Preheat over to 190 degrees centigrade and line one or two deep muffin tins (recipe says it makes 12-16 cupcakes but I found it makes about 20)
2- Whisk the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs
3- Mix the milk and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scrape from the sides. Add the remainder and mix until smooth
4- Pour mixture into cases and bake for 18-20 mins. Leave to cool in the tray and cool completely before adding frosting

How to make the chocolate frosting

Ingredients
400g icing sugar

100g cocoa powder
160g unsalted butter
50ml whole milk


1) Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk and whisk again
3) Spoon the icing on to the cupcakes and smooth with a palette knife

Chocolate and lemon cupcakes

Chocolate Guinness cake



Page 59 - Chocolate Guiness cake



"Leigh's rating: 9.9 / 10!"

I've been looking forward to this one for a while and I think it's lived up to expectation - Leigh marked it 9.9 out of 10! It's really moist, but only has a hint of Guinness which is good as I don't like the stuff much. The cream cheese frosting really compliments the rich chocolate but you wouldn't want a big piece!

I find it really hard to ice the sides of cakes - if anyone has any hints please do share as it never seems to look like the picture. I have a turntable and pallet knife but is there a trick!?

Leigh's highest scoring cake so far!

Apricot crunchies



Page 56 - Apricot crunchies

"Apricot crumblies, not crunchies!"

These are like flapjack-y cakes - lovely! They're more moist than I was expecting (based on their recipe title!) but the fruit in them gives them a lovely texture. Also, soaking the fruit in orange juice prior to baking does really give them an extra zing.

I'm not sure how to make these not fall apart if I made them again simply as there's so much fruit in them - however to be honest I don't mind as it just means more for me as it falls apart...!

Breakfast bran muffins



Page 48 - Breakfast bran muffins



"Ok but not the most interesting recipe"


These muffins are exactly as the title says. They taste nice, but are quote dull compared to all of the other goodies in the Cake Days book. They contain oats, wholemeal flour and raisins so feel quite healthy but I'm sure they're not really - If I'm going to eat a cake I'll have a hardcore one next time please!

These didn't seem to rise as much as I'd expected them too, and some of them seemed to sink in the middle - I think it could be because I opened the oven quite a few times while they were cooking. Or also perhaps I had the temperature too high... I'll have to use my thermometer next time!

Mixed berry muffins



Page 50 - Mixed berry muffins

 "Nicer than Tesco's finest!"

I wasn't sure about these as i thought they might come out like cupcakes rather than muffins. HOWEVER they came out perfectly! I've never thought to sprinkle sugar on top of cakes before baking, but again it gave them a lovely finish - a generally nice recipe!

A special thank you to Paul, who gave me the advice of coating the berries in flour before mixing them in so they didn't sink to the bottom - it worked a treat! And another thank you to Jacquie and Paul too as the raspberries came from their garden :-)

Cranberry magic bars

Page 49 - Cranberry magic bars

"All of my favourite foods in one!"

Just looking at the ingredients for these made my mouth water! Cranberries, white chocolate, pecan nuts and coconut on a biscuit base - what more could you want out of a dessert?!

The pastry in particular was really nice and I'll defnitely use this recipe in other desserts, i.e. millionaire's shortcake. It's just butter and flour, but with 40g icing sugar so it's quite light and crumbly :-)

These are definitely in my top five of the project to-date...!

Rhubarb and almond loaf (to be re-visited!)

I haven't actually made the rhubarb and almond loaf on page 46 yet....

I'm going to cheat and skip this one for the time being. Not because I want to but because I don't think rhubarb is currently in season and I don't want to use the tinned stuff! So I'll come back to this one when I get my hands on fresh rhubarb - I hope no-one minds!

Grasshopper Pie



Page 45 - Grasshopper pie



"Not a grasshopper in sight!"

I didn't know what to expect with this one - just looking at the picture, I thought it might have contained lime. Its a chocolate biscuit base (which I made with bourbon biscuits as the recipe just said "chocolate flavour"), with a mint and marshmallow middle (sounds wierd but the marshmallow give it a nice texture) and whipped cream on top. The biscuit base in particular was really more-ish!

Tips for future reference:
#1 - Don't melt the marshmallows/milk in the microwave - I was lazy so did this in the microwave first-time round which was a disaster as it all separated. For my second attempt (this project is indeed costing me a small fortune in ingredients!) I actually did it on the hob and it worked much better, the texture is fab.
#2 - Ideally use white marshmallows only - I used pink and white marshmallows as I couldn't get a bag of white-only ones and it made the colour slightly faded rather than the bright green in the picture.
#3 - Dont overwhip the cream for the top layer - I think I did mine too much as it didn't sit s prettily as the picture looks!

Apple streusel cake



Page 42 - Apple streusel Cake

"Just like nan makes it"

Not a lot I can say about this one as I think it tastes really good! Really easy to make - simply making a sponge base, covering with slices of Granny Smith apples and then finishing with a streusel topping made of butter, flour and sugar.

Leigh's nan is German and this reminds him of cakes from her - good times!

Apple blossom cupcakes



Page 38 - Apple blossom cupcakes

"Tangy but tasty"

I thought it would be really hard to find apple iced-tea powder to go in these as per the recipe... But luckily I found "Turkish Apple Tea" at Whittard (http://www.whittard.co.uk/turkish_apple.htm). 

These have more flavour than I'd expected and the frosting has a really tangy taste which worked really well! The sponge had a hint of apple, but if I was making these again I might try and put some kind of fresh apple in for a bit of texture. 

Lemon and thyme loaf

Page 37 - Lemon and thyme loaf

"It shouldn't have worked... but it did!"

When I first read this recipe, I thought it sounded peculiar - putting thyme in to a cake! But it actually uses lemon thyme, which I was able to find in Tesco - result!

The sponge is really moist, and the syrup on top really tangy - a pleasant surprise :-)

The final test will be when dad tries some tomorrow as he's the king of all things lemony!

Apricot and almond cookies

"Crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside"

Page 34 - Apricot and almond cookies

Usually I bake cookies and they either turn out like buns or burn... These are cooked perfectly I think. If I made them again I'd put more almonds on top and perhaps a few more apricots in but actually quite nice :-)

Think a nice variation of these could be apricot and white chocolate - not sure if that's wierd or not but perhaps next time!



Beehive cake

Dad and his beehive cake

"Happy Father's Day!"

 



Not part of the Hummingbird project but thought I'd upload pictures of the beehive cake I made my dad for Father's Day!

Chocolate fondant cupcakes

Page 29 - Chocolate fondant cupcakes

"You can't beat a good ol' chocolate cake"

These ones were always going to be tasty - chocolate cupcakes with fondant icing made from chocolate and cream.

I made half of the recipe quantity simply because I'm using way too much sugar and butter these days, but it still made 9 cupcakes - They're Leigh's favourite so I think I'll let him have them all :-)

P.S. I decided I'm not selling my produce enought so check out the photography skills on these ones!!

Lemon meringue cupcakes

Page 107 - Lemon meringue cupcakes

"I need a meringue experts opinion"

 These look fabulous - and I had fun making them as I've not used a BLOWTORCH before (I only set one cupcake case on fire :-S).

Again, basic cupcake recipe with lemon mixed in, and lemon curd inside the tops of the cupcakes. I've not made meringue before - I was expecting it to be hard like the nests that you can buy, but it's considerably softer. I've been told that's ok - the taste test will tell!

(Oh yes - and sorry for skipping ahead in the book - I had egg whites to use up from the coconut cake!)

Caramel cupcakes

Page 28 - Caramel cupcakes

"My favourites so far...!"

Yum! The icing on these is lovely... although to be fair everyone is pretty lucky that the dulche de leche actually made it in to the cupcakes as I could quite happily have demolished the tin!!!

The cupcakes are the usual recipe but with the caramel mixed in before baking. The icing contains lots of lovely caramel... they remind me a little of Gold bars which I haven't had for years...

My favourites so far in the project as I love caramel - For the first time I might actually keep some in the fridge for me :-)

Coconut layer cake



Page 24 - Coconut layer cake

 "Not like the recipe picture...but hell I'm sure it tastes ok!"

What a random recipe! Cake is made of desicated coconut and coconut milk plus the usual cake ingredients. The "custard" around the outside is SEVEN egg yolks, cornflour, more coconut milk and other bits and bobs!

I haven't tasted the finished article yet but have sampled all of the individual elements and they taste nice.

Points for future reference: Learn how to decorate the sides of a cake neatly!!

Back to cupcakes for the next two recipes - much more in my comfort zone!!!


Caramelised fruit and nut tarts



Page 23 - Caramelised fruit and nut tarts

 "My guests even went back for more!"

I must say, I haven't been looking forward to making these but they turned out surprisingly nice! I burnt the first batch of caramel, but the second batch turned out to be rather tasty!

The recipe says that you should use eight loose bottomed 4" tins, but as I don't own these I just used a yorkshire pudding tin and made 12 smaller tarts instead.

My parents came round for tea and tarts, and mum ate three - so they must have been quite nice!!!

Coconut layer cake next... Its a two page recipe but hopefully not too difficult...

Exciting news!

The only way is up (not Essex)!


I've booked to attend a cake decoration course from 27th June. I'm VERY excited - Whilst I think my cakes are ok now, this will hopefully make them better and more professional looking...

The course I'm going on is a "Back to Basics" course in Barming in Kent, here's the link...

http://www.confectionperfection.co.uk/

Will rate the course once I've started it :-)

Cherry Cupcakes

Page 20 - Cherry Cupcakes



"Where does one buy cherries soaked in Kirsch?"

 

I made the cherry cupcakes and they were ok, although to be honest didn't actually taste of cherry! I really struggled to find cherries in Kirsch as the recipe said, although apparently larger Waitrose stores do stock Opies jars of them.

 



Lesley still enjoyed them...!



If I made them again I'd probably use Morello cherries as I think they have a stronger taste when cooked?! But here's a link as to the Waitrose ones in case anyones interested:



http://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Opies-Black-Cherries--Kirsch/40251011

Next are the Caramellised fruit and nut tarts - Now all I need to do is find a blow torch...!

Pirate hat birthday cake

Ad hoc baking - Pirate hat cake

"That be a charmin' cake!"

I made this pirate hat cake for a colleagues son's birthday - It was my first effort with sugar paste which made me a tad nervous. It turned out ok, although defnitely room for improvement!

Angel Food Cake

"What a disaster!"

I've had a couple of weeks away from my cooking challenge, partly as I wasn't looking forward to making this recipe. 10 egg whites - madness!



Page 19 - Angel Food Cake

Anyway I attempted to make this today and was really careful to FOLD in the flour and sugar but it was a disaster! I obviously didn't fold it well enough and there were pockets of flour exploding in the oven! Won't be making this again, but ticking it off the list.

On the plus side, I did make a nice Salami flan today :-) And cherry cupcakes are the next recipe... woop woop!





Whoopie pies - chocolate and vanilla

  "A cross between a Viennese whirl and a sponge cake..."



I made these having never heard of them before... They're tasty although not the most interesting cake I've ever made...

Pages 15-16 Chocolate & vanilla whoopie pies



The recipe said I should be using marshmallow fluff - not sure if this is an American thing but I weighed out marshmallows and melted them on a low heat in the microwave - worked a treat!