Cupcake Minis

So I turned 21 this week which came as a bit of a shock to the system with officially being an adult and all that, but, I wasn't making the transition without one final almost tea party! Besides, what's a party without lots of cake? Along with my Chocolate Tower Cake, I decided to make a few batches of cupcake minis in a selection of different flavours for my party.  I went with a batch of vanilla, a batch of chocolate and a batch of lemon drizzle. The cake and buttercream recipes are both extremely easy to follow and I'd definitely recommend giving them a go. Just so you know, each recipe starts out the exact same and the flavours are added nearer to the end.

Ingredients

FOR ONE BATCH OF TWELVE

225g Butter

225g Caster Sugar

4 large Eggs

225g Self Raising Flour (sieved)

Rind of one lemon OR 2 tbsp Cocoa Powder OR 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract

Method

FOR ONE BATCH OF TWELVE

1) Preheat your oven to 180C/ 360F/ Gas Mark 4

2) Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until nice and fluffy

3) While the butter and sugar are mixing, line your small cupcake tray with mini cupcake cases

4) Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time, and continue to beat

5) When combined, add the sieved flour, one spoon at a time, and mix until light and fluffy

6) Add in the flavouring of your choice (the cocoa powder, lemon rind or vanilla extract) and mix again

7) Spoon roughly a tsp of the mixture into each muffin case and bake in the oven for 10 -15 mins (check the cupcakes after 10 mins and leave in if not yet golden brown in colour) 

8) Leave the cupcakes to cool fully on a wire wrack before icing - while you're waiting you can get cracking on the buttercream...

Ingredients 

FOR THE BUTTER CREAM

50g Butter (softened)

100g Icing Sugar

I tsp Lemon Juice OR 1 tsp Vanilla Extract OR 50g Melted Chocolate and 1 tbsp Cocoa Powder

2 tbsp Boiling Water

Method

FOR THE BUTTER CREAM

1) Cream the butter and icing sugar together in your electric mixer until light and fluffy (the lighter the better)

2) Add in either the lemon juice OR the vanilla extract OR the cocoa powder (if you are making the chocolate cupcake minis, add the cocoa powder first and when combined add in the melted chocolate, one spoon at a time)

3) Continue to beat and add the boiling water, again, one tbsp at a time

4) Beat for a further few minutes and you're ready to decorate

 You can then decorate the cupcakes however you wish. I piped the icing using different techniques on each of the different styles and used "Princess sprinkles" which I bought in Lidl. 

Spooky Halloween Cupcakes

So we had a spooky Halloween party this weekend in the Murphy house, and of course, me, being me, HAD to bake some sort of sweet treat for our guests. Besides, what's a party without cake?! After much deliberation I decided to go for bite size Ghostly cupcakes which were seriously quick and easy to make. These are perfect for Halloween parties or even to hand out to trick-or-treat-ers for something that little bit different.

Ingredients

225g Butter (softened)

225g Caster Sugar 

225g Self Raising Flour (sieved)

4 large Eggs

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder (sieved)

Method

1) Preheat your oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas Mark 5 and line a bun tray with mini muffin cases 

2) Cream the butter and sugar together until nice and creamy 

3) Add eggs one by one while the mixture is still beating 

4) Then add by the sieved flour, one spoonful at a time while mixing 

5) Finally add in the cocoa powder and when the mixture is light and fluffy fill each bun case with a tiny amount of the mixture 

6) Bake for approx 10 mins and leave to cool on a wire tray

While the cupcakes are in the oven you can make your butter cream by combining 200g of Icing Sugar, 100g of Butter and 1 tsp of Vanilla Extract until the mixture is light and fluffy.  

When the buns are fully cooled, you an pipe the buttercream. I used the open hole piping nozzle for the ghost effect. I then stuck on small decorative balls for the eyes and mouths.

 Here are a few pictures of myself and my spooooooky guests...

Vanilla & Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes

I've been so caught up with returning to college and continuing to work in The Coffee Shop that I haven't written a blog post in an entire month! So right now my main aim is to write as many posts as I can about all the baking bits 'n' bobs I've been getting up to over the past few weeks. I'm going to start off with these Vanilla & Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes which I baked last week for my boyfriend Dave who is a total chocolate monster. He absolutely LOVES these bad boys, so, seens as he hadn't been feeling the best I baked a batch for the patient to attempt to cheer him up :)

* PLACE A LARGE BOWL IN THE FRIDGE BEFORE DOING ANYTHING ELSE *

Ingredients

50g Butter (softened)

Half Cup Caster Sugar

2 Cups Self Raising Flour (sieved)

1 tsp Baking Powder (sieved)

1 Egg (beaten)

1 Cup Milk

80g Dark OR Milk Chocolate (broken into pieces)

80g White Chocolate (broken into pieces)

Drop of Vanilla Extract

1 tbsp Cocoa Powder

** TIP: You may not have taken your butter out early enough to soften, if this is the case, simply grate the butter into the mixing bowl so it softens much more quickly. **

Method

1) Preheat your oven to 190C/ 375F/ Gas Mark 5 and line a muffin tray with bun cases

2) Cream your butter and sugar together in a bowl until slightly fluffy in consistency

3) Add the beaten egg and milk into the mixing bowl and continue to beat

4) Add in the SIEVED flour and baking powder and continue to beat the batter.

5) When fully mixed, divide the batter in two.

6) To one half, add the cocoa powder and dark/milk chocolate chunks and mix

7) To the other half, add the white chocolate chunks and the vanilla extract

8) Half fill each bun case with the white mixture and then top with the brown

9) Bake the muffins for 20 mins and when done, leave to cool on a wore rack while you prepare the mousse topping...

For the Mousse Topping...

You will need...

700g Heavy Whipping Cream

350g Icing Sugar

180g Cocoa Powder

Pinch Salt

1) Place all your ingredients in your chilled bowl you placed in the fridge earlier and whip together until the mixture holds a peak

2) Put the mixture back in the fridge for a further 10 mins

3) Pipe the icing onto the cupcakes in whatever fashion you wish

Easter Cupcakes

I decided that I definitely needed to make some sort of cupcakes this year for Easter and despite having made my Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream and posting about them before, I couldn't resist baking them again :) I thought they'd be a good flavour for Spring time and that the yellow coloured butter icing would look well with Mini Eggs for decoration. I also thought about baking Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla flavoured buttercream so as I go along I'll show you how to make the two flavours :)

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE MIX

225g Butter (Softened)

225g Caster Sugar

225g Self Raising Flour (sieved)

4 Eggs

Rind of 2 Lemons OR 1 tbsp of Vanilla Essence

Method

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

2) Cream the softened butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl

3) When the mixture is light and fluffy, add in the eggs one at a time and continue to mix

4) If you're making the Vanilla Cupcakes, add your spoon of vanilla essence in now

5) Spoon the flour into the mixing bowl - one spoon at a time, until all the flour is in

6) If you're making the Lemon version, add in your lemon rind and continue to mix

7) Once the mixture is light and fluffy stop mixing and leave it to sit while you line a muffin tray with bun cases

8) Put one to two spoonfuls of the mixture into each bun case and bake in the oven for approximately 15 minutes until they are golden brown

9) Leave the buns to cool on a wire tray while you make your buttercream frosting

For the Buttercream...

YOU WILL NEED....

775g Icing Sugar

250g Butter (softened)

1 tbsp Lemon Juice OR Vanilla Essence

1) Cream the butter and the sugar together in your mixing bowl again 

2) When the mixture is light and fluffy add in either the lemon juice or vanilla essence and continue to mix

To assemble the Cupcakes...

Either using a piping bag or simply a spoon, ice the cupcakes and stick as many Mini Eggs on top to decorate.

I used this piping nozzle to ice my Easter Cupcakes