Bakewell Tart Cupcakes

I love anything almond flavoured, my gran used to make the most beautiful almond buttercream when I was younger.  It is this that inspired my Victoria Sponge with a Bakewell Tart twist, something that is a regular amongst my cake repertoire.

So I decided to adapt the recipe into cupcake form for National Cupcake Week and as my entry into the Betta Living #bettabakeoff.

Ingredients (Makes 9-12 depending on cupcake case size. I used baking cups which are a bit bigger so only got 9 you can always double up the cake recipe):

For the cakes:
100g Self Raising Flour
100g Golden Caster Sugar
100g Margarine
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract.

For the icing:
500g Icing Sugar sieved
160g Unsalted Butter softened
1-1 ½ teaspoons of Almond Extract, add more/less depending on your taste
1-5 tablespoons milk

To decorate:
100g Raspberry Jam
25g Flaked almonds

Cake method:

1. Heat the oven to 180c/160c fan

2. Line a muffin tray with 12 cases or baking cups.

3. Place all of the ingredients (SR Flour, Sugar, Margaine, Eggs & Almond Extract) in an electric mixer and mix until smooth, alternatively if you don't have one then cream the sugar and margarine together until smooth, add in the egg a bit at a time and mix well, add in the almond extract and then add the flour and mix until is smooth and everything is combined.

2. Fill each of the baking cups or cases to about half way with the mixture, be careful not to overfill.

3. Place the tray on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 15-18 minutes or until cooked. To check if the cakes are cooked place a skewer in the middle of one of the cakes and it should come out clean.

4. Once cooked remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

For the Icing:

1. Mix the icing sugar and butter until combined, add in the almond extract and then a tablespoon of milk at a time until smooth and is the consistency of meringue (you should be able to make peaks).

2. Once mixed, place the mixture in a piping bag with your nozzle of choice, I am using a round nozzle but you could use a star if you prefer.

To build the cakes:

1. Once the cakes are cooled using a knife carefully cut a circle from your cake, should be about the size of a 10p piece and about 1-1.5cm deep. (NB leave a good edge between the edge of the circle and the edge of the cupcake, you can either eat the left overs or use in cake pops)

2. Place a teaspoon of jam into the whole and then pipe a swirl of butter cream on top.

3. If using sprinkle some flaked almonds on top of the swirl, if you have children who aren't keen on them then just leave the flaked almonds off.

Pour yourself a cuppa and enjoy, these are so light and would make the perfect accompaniment to an afternoon tea or picnic.

This is my entry into the Betta Living #bettabakeoff, more details can be found here.

My Pretty Spring Themed Cake

At the weekend I decided I needed cake and after seeing a couple of rainbow cakes around I decided to give one ago.

I didn't have time to pop to the cake shop to get some proper gel colours so had to use the silver spoon ones I had already.

The colours didn't come out too wishy washy and it looks really good, covered in a vanilla buttercream against the colours looks so effective.

All you need to do is add some food colouring until you get the colour you want, only problem with some food colourings is they do have a slight taste so you can't use too much, which is why the dark gels are better.

Searching on the internet the ones with proper gel food colours from the cakes shops look really good so I might get some next time I am in.

I really enjoyed making this and even got to use the new icing turntable I found in a charity shop, it works so well and makes icing super easy.

Happy times, and with spring getting ever better I will be dusting out the yellows and flower plungers to make some spring inspired cupcakes.

Victoria Sponge with a Bakewell Tart Twist

I asked the hubby what he fancied for pudding a few weeks ago and he said Victoria Sponge, I decided to try something a little different that would incorporate my favourite buttercream!

This stems back from the days when my gran baked, she made the best buttercream and although this isn't patch on hers it is still very yummy.

You will need to make two basic sponge cakes, I just pop all the ingredients in an electric mixer and blitz till smooth.

Sponge:

150g Margarine
150g Self Raising Flour
150g Golden Caster Sugar
3 Eggs

1. Add all of the ingredients into an electric mixer and blend until  smooth.
2. Split the mixture into two 7inch tins and bake for 20-25
3. Leave to cool

Spread with Jam, I chose my favourite Bonne Maman Raspberry Jam and then here is my favourite part, the butter cream!!

Butter Cream

250g Icing Sugar Sifted
80g Softened Unsalted Butter
25ml Whole Milk
1-3 Teaspoons Almond Extract (depending on how almond flavoured you like it, add one tsp at a time)

I always spread the jam on and then pipe on the buttercream, just as it is easier, less mess and looks pretty from the side.  Otherwise just spread the jam on the upper side and the buttercream on other half and then sandwich together.

Et voila, a Victoria Sponge with a Bakewell Tart Twist

Jubilee Mini Cupcakes

I bought some Petit Four cases ages ago and have never got round to using them,  I thought they would be perfect for making some mini Jubilee Cupcakes.

Quite a difference from a normal cake case!

I had a go the other weekend as I am hoping to take some to a party one of our neighbours is having.

To start with I used my usual recipe for making the cakes halved:

50g Self Raising Flour
50g Golden Caster Sugar
50g Stork Margarine
1 Eggs
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Put everything in a food processor and blitz until smooth consistency, put about a teaspoon into the mini cake cases and cook for about 10 minutes!

Once they have cooled I iced with buttercream (I have my own secret recipe but if you need one this one on Baking Mad is really good) which I had split into three, added red to one and blue to another leaving one white.

Top Tip: If you are using a piping bag then a really useful tip is to put it in a tall glass and fold over the sides, you can then spoon the mixture in using both hands if necessary and it stops accidents!

Fold the bag over the top of a tall glass!

Using a Wilton 22 small star nozzle I piped little swirls onto the cupcakes in the three different colours, I decided they look like those mini gems you got when you were a kid. If you don't like too much cake then these are perfect, as well as for the kids!

Although they aren't bright red and blue I love them, if it's possible I think they look a little vintage!

Favourite Recipe Friday - Cupcakes

So in the past few months I must have made a batch of cupcakes every few weeks and so I thought it only appropriate this be my favourite recipe this week.

I use an all in one method, it is simple and easy and my son loves helping to measure out the ingredients and set the cases out into the tins.

The key is to make sure everything is at room temperature, I keep my eggs in the fridge as we don't have space anywhere else so always get them out a few hours before.

Ingredients:

100g Self Raising Flour
100g Caster Sugar (I always use caster sugar in my baking as it makes for fluffier cakes!)
100g Stork Margarine (I always use Stork as it makes them super fluffy too!)
2 x Eggs (I use large but medium are fine)

Method:

Place all of the ingredients in a food mixer/processor and blitz until smooth, you may need stop and scrape the sides using a spatula and then spin again to mix in.

Once it has reached a smooth consistency, spoon into your cake cases, this mix usually does about 14-16 but it depends on your cake case size.

Bake in a 160c oven for 15 minutes or until the cakes are a nice golden colour and spongy to the touch, you can also poke a skewer into the middle and it should come out clean.

 

Once cooled, decorate as required. Our favourite is some yummy butter cream and sprinkles, you can go mad with different colours, tastes and themes :)

Birthday Cupcakes

It is my daughters first birthday in a few weeks and I all I have ready is the church hall we are having it in.

So at the weekend I gave making some birthday cupcakes a go, they came out looking pretty good! Not as good as a professional by any stretch of the imagination but still for an amateur I think they look OK.

The recipes I used to make these masterpieces are:

For the cakes I use the basic Be-Ro Victoria Sponge recipe, super simple and usually works every time. I use the all in one method of just bunging everything in the food mixer.

For the icing I used a simple buttercream recipe, it needs to be a good piping consistency, too dry and it will crack too wet and it won't pipe and just run!

I then used a Wilton 1M nozzle and pipe to make a swirl, starting from the outside and working inwards, a demo of this can be found on the Wilton website.

I have found some sprinkles on a few websites but have been looking for some that don't contain any E numbers, last thing I need is loads of hyperactive children running about!

Anyway the result is this...