Saturday, 31 March 2018

Creme Egg Cupcakes


Following on with the Easter theme, here is a really fun little bake to use some of those delicious Creme Eggs I'm sure you've now got lying around (if not you'd best dash off to get some before they disappear until next year)! If you don't like mini Creme Eggs, or can't manage to get your hands on any, you could always use a different chocolate of your choice; something with a soft centre definitely works best. 

 I'm sorry I haven't been able to get more posts up in time for Easter, but I've got lots more recipes planned so I'll definitely be sharing them with you very soon!

Ingredients

(Makes 12 large cupcakes)

8 tbsp freshly brewed coffee*
160g self raising flour
160g caster sugar
175g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
3 eggs
50g cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
12 mini Creme Eggs** frozen

For the buttercream

100g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Yellow food colouring
Mini eggs to decorate

*coffee is optional, you could use 8 tbsp boiling water instead. But I think the coffee really compliments the chocolate without being overpowering.
**by freezing the Creme Eggs, it means that they don't just melt into nothing when they're in the oven!


Method

- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with 12 paper cases.

- Sift the cocoa powder into the coffee and mix until you get a thick, smooth paste.

- In a separate bowl cream together the butter and sugar, then sift in the flour and add the eggs, salt, vanilla and baking powder. Combine all of this together, I used an electric whisk as I find this much easier, but doing it by hand is just fine too.

- Add the coffee and chocolate mix and beat everything together to make a smooth cake batter.

- Divide half of the mix equally between the 12 cupcake cases, and place a mini creme egg in the middle of each one.


Top with the remaining mixture so that each creme egg is covered.


- Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 12/15 minutes (I actually put mine in for a little bit longer and felt they were slightly over baked so I think 12/15 minutes will be perfect).


- Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave them to cool completely, preferably on a wire rack. As hard as it is, don't be tempted to eat them before they cool as the Creme Egg filling gets VERY hot!

- To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and vanilla. Gradually mix in the icing sugar, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the milk, and continue to mx until you have a smooth, fluffy butter cream. 

- You can just add the buttercream straight onto the cupcakes at this point if you like, but I decided to run some yellow food colouring in thin streaks down the inside of my piping bag first, this meant that when I piped the icing onto the cakes it gave a slight marble effect.

- I then topped them with a small chocolate egg and tried not to devour them all in one go...

I loved the texture of these cupcakes, they were almost like brownies. Let me know if you try them out, I'd especially like to see if you use any different chocolates instead of Creme Eggs.

Happy Easter!

🐰


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Sunday, 25 March 2018

Perfect Carrot Cake


Here we are, finally a new blog post. I had hoped to get back into it slightly earlier into the New Year, but I've been suffering badly with migraines so blogging has had to be put on the back burner. Hopefully I'll be able to get back into a routine with it over the next few months.

I've wanted to post a good carrot cake recipe for AGES now as  it's one of my absolute favourites. This recipe is usually foolproof, but I did manage to chuck the cake on the floor mid-bake this time which led to a few problems, but I think I managed to salvage it. Carrot cake makes a delicious Easter Sunday dessert, so I thought that this was a good time to share this recipe with you.

Ingredients

175g self-raising flour
175g light muscovado sugar
140ml vegetable oil
100g raisins
60g chopped, toasted pecans (optional) 
3 large eggs 
3 medium carrots, grated *
zest of 1 large orange,grated
juice of half an orange
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg **

For the cream cheese frosting

125g cream cheese
50g unsalted butter ***
300g icing sugar

* I decided not to peel my carrots before grating them as I feel this takes away a lot of the flavour, if you decide to do the same then make sure you wash the carrots well before hand.

** I used freshly grated whole nutmeg rather than ground as I prefer the flavour, but it is a little fiddly so ground nutmeg will work just fine.

*** I leave my butter out of the fridge to come to room temperature, then softened it using a wooden spoon to prevent lumps in the frosting.


Method

- Begin by heating the oven to 180C/160C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line an 18cm square cake tin or a 20cm round cake tin.

- In a large mixing bowl lightly beat the eggs, then tip in the sugar and oil and mix well.

- Add the grated carrot, raisins, chopped pecans, orange juice and orange zest into the bowl and combine everything together.

- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into the bowl and fold into the mixture, the mixture will be a little runnier than regular cake batter but don’t worry, this is just because we’ve used oil as our fat.



- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and lightly tap the tin on the work surface to level it out. Bake for 40-45 minutes in the centre of the preheated oven, or until cooked through and springy to the touch. * Don't do what I did and take the cake out too soon, then accidentally burn yours hands on the tin and drop the cake upside down on the floor... oops!

- Meanwhile, make your frosting by sifting the icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add the butter and cream cheese and beat together until smooth. 

- Leave the cake to stand in the tin for a few minutes, the carefully remove it and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

- Once the cake is completely cool, top with the frosting and decorate however you’d like. I’ve used extra pecans, but you could also use candied carrot swirls or piped icing carrots.

I think that this cake tastes best a couple of days after baking, when all of the flavours have developed, but it is also delicious fresh out of the oven! It freezes well too if you wrap it tightly in cling film and put it in the freezer before adding the frosting.

I'm planning to do another Easter recipe next week so keep an eye out for that... it involves lots of chocolate!


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