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!

Cookie Monsters!

"Omm nom nom... cookies!"

I think the pic says it all... Not from the Hummingbird book but very cute.

I made these for a colleagues son's birthday this weekend - Covered in blue icing and dipped in desicated coconut mixed with blue food colouring. Fingers crossed the e-numbers in these didn't cause the kids to go TOO nuts!!!

Tiramisu & mocha cupcakes



Page 10 - Tiramisu cupcakes


 "The best cupcakes I've ever made"


My boyfriend claimed that the tiramisu cupcakes were the best I've ever baked - horray!!! And my work colleagues agreed. These are simple vanilla cupcakes, with a reduced concontion of Tia Maria, coffee and sugar drenched over the inside. The icing is a variation of vanilla icing, but again made with Tia Maria (the recipe says Kahlua).



Page 12 - Mocha cupcakes



I made two batches of the mocha cupcakes - my kittens ate the first ones! Despite me adding double the amount of coffee in the recipe, they only mildly tasted of coffee, although the recipe did say to use espresso power so perhaps that was why.... Tasty though and Lesley preferred these ones to the tiramisu :-) 

Candy-Cane Cupcakes



Page 208 - Candy cane cupcakes

  "Vanilla cupcakes... With a twist"


I made these to take to a netball tournament last weekend - substituted the red colouring for green and left out the mint from the icing. Really easy and the green/white icing looked fab with our new kit.

I think they went down well with the girls and the cakes were good for energy - it's just a shame we didn't win...!

How to make candy-cane cupcakes

Ingredients:
80g unsalted butter
280g caster sugar
240g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
240ml milk
1 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 milk, vanilla and eggs in a jug. Add 3/4 to dry mixture, mix and scape 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 candy-cane frosting

Ingredients
500g icing sugar
160g unsalted butter
4 tsp peppermint essence
50ml whole milk
2tsp food colouring
Transparent sugar for sprinkling

1) Beat the icing sugar, butter and peppermint until sandy
2) Gradually add the milk and whisk again
3) Divide mixture into two - add food colouring in to one batch
4) Fill piping bag with half coloured icing and half plain - side by side so they come out of the end like toothpaste
5) Sprinkle with transparent sugar

The Countrystyle netball girls with the cupcakes

The inspiration behind this blog

Starting from page 1 (page 10 technically) I'm going to bake every recipe from this book ------>

By the end, I'm hoping that:

#1 - Some of the recipes might have been quite tasty

#2 - I'll somehow be rich....

Let the baking begin :-)