Cupcake Hero - Snowball Cupcakes

It is that time again people - Cupcake Hero time! The magic ingredient for the challenge this month was coconut - and when I think of coconut I think of Golden Rough (yummy chocolates), Bounty, Cherry Ripe, Lamingtons, coconut cream pie and yummy marshmallows covered in tasty toasted coconut. So many good things have coconut involved in them!

I figured that since I am an Aussie gal that I should make some lamington themed cupcakes, and if you don't know what a lamington is then you are missing out. It is a sponge cake cut into cubes or rectangles, dipped in chocolate glaze icing and then coated in coconut. Yeah it is good.

So my plan was to have a chocolate cake (because I think that is tastier than a plain old sponge), topped with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream (SMBC) and then coated in chocolate and rolled in shredded coconut. And I did follow that plan, but what I ended up with was not a lamington cupcake, but a snowball cupcake (a snowball is a marshmallow coated in chocolate and then rolled in coconut). Seriously when you bite in to this cupcake it feels like you are eating a snowball and for that reason these cupcakes are completely and utterly awesome. I think I might be making these again!


Chocolate Cupcakes
Makes 20

50g cocoa powder
125ml boiling water
185g unsalted butter, softened
330g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g self-raising flour
75g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
125ml milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases.
2. Mix cocoa and boiling water in a cup. Set aside to cool.
3. Cream butter and sugar, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
   
4. Sift flours with bicarbonate of soda and stir into butter mixture. Add milk and vanilla and mix well. Gradually add the cocoa and water, mixing constantly.
5. Divide into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
270g caster sugar
250g unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking. To test rub the mixture between your fingers and if you can't feel any sugar granules then it is ready.
   
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature. This should take about 10 minutes.
3. Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again. This should take about 4-6 minutes.
4. Add the vanilla and mix on medium speed until combined.

To Finish

350g milk chocolate
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 cup shredded coconut (approximately)

1. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler.
   
2. Add the vegetable oil and stir until completely combined. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly. Put the coconut on a plate.
   
3. Dip each cupcake in the chocolate mix and then roll in the coconut. Be careful - I had two cupcakes where the frosting came off completely in the chocolate - whoops!

Dipped in chocolate...

Rolled in shredded coconut...

Cut in half and ready to devour...

Yum...

Z is for Zebra cupcakes

Vanilla and chocolate striped cake topped with vanilla and chocolate swiss meringue buttercream

First of all I just have to ask - how could you not want fruity cocktail cupcakes? Especially when they are named zombie? I mean, come on, it was Halloween and everything! As you can probably tell I was really hoping the zombie cupcakes would win the poll last week, however, it was not meant to be, because Zebra cake won the poll in a landslide.

So what is a zebra cake you might be asking? Well it is simply a cake that has stripes of chocolate and vanilla - hence looking like a stripy zebra. The great thing about these cupcakes is that they are super easy to make and they have a great visual impact. Here is how you make them...

Zebra Cupcakes (adapted from Baking Bites)
Makes 20 cupcakes

4 eggs
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp almond extract (I just added extra vanilla extract instead)
2 cups plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/2 tbsp cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, mix together eggs and sugar until mixture is light and creamy and the sugar has mostly been dissolved.
   
3. Stir in the milk, vegetable oil, vanilla and almond extracts.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Pour into wet ingredients and whisk to combine.
   
5. Measure out just over two cups of vanilla batter and place it back in the medium bowl. Sift cocoa powder over the bowl and whisk until fully incorporated.
6. Put 1 tsp of vanilla batter into the center of each cupcake liner and let it spread slightly on its own. Put 1 tsp of chocolate batter in the center of the vanilla. It will push out the other batter and, as it sits for a moment, will also spread itself. Alternating spoonfuls of the two batters, repeat the technique until you fill each cupcake liner about 2/3 to 3/4 full (for me this was about 6 tsps).
   
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the cupcakes are light gold and a tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
8. Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then cool on a wire racks.
   

Now to finish off these zebra cupcakes I thought I would get a bit smart and swirl some chocolate and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream together, and this is how you do it...

Vanilla and Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
270g caster sugar
250g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
100g dark chocolate, melted

1. Combine the egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking. To test rub the mixture between your fingers and if you can't feel any sugar granules then it is ready.
   
2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature. This should take about 10 minutes.
3. Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again. This should take about 4-6 minutes. A tip: for the first time ever my SMBC would not firm up! So I put the runny mixture into the fridge for 10 minutes and then beat it and it was fine. I have now learnt that SMBC does not like hot weather!
   
4. Now put half of the mixture into a separate bowl. In the mixer bowl add the vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until the extract is combined and you have a good piping texture.
   
5. Put the other half of the mixture into the mixer bowl and add the melted dark chocolate, mix on medium speed until the chocolate is combined and you have a good piping texture.
6. Now Grab two piping bags and put some vanilla SMBC into one bag and some chocolate SMBC in the other bag.
7. Then snip off the ends of the two piping bags and pop them in another piping bag.
8. Swirl your SMBC onto each cupcake.

Two bags of frosting...


Both bags of frosting together, ready to pipe with...


And finally the frosted cupcakes...


Now after all that hard work, time to taste the goods - first strip off your cupcake (how rude!) and admire the stripes...


I cut mine in half to fully admire the zebra stripes, so pretty...


The ratings?

Me - 10/10 - absolutely perfect, the cake is nice and moist, not too sweet and just perfect really. The SMBC was so nice and creamy - great!
Mat - 9/10 - a great way to finish off the A..B..Cupcakes project - a great tasting cake.

I'll post up a wrap up of the A..B..Cupcakes project tomorrow - until then have a lovely day!

First Decorated Cake

Last week I made plans, cake decorating plans. With Zoe's birthday party coming up very shortly I needed to practice my cake decorating skills to make sure that I can manage the vision I have in my mind. So last week I planned out a special cake to practice all the techniques I will need for Zoe's cake. On Sunday when I baked the Violet Crumble cupcakes I also baked a 6" chocolate cake, wrapped it up and popped into the freezer so that it would be ready to go.

Then on Monday night once little miss Z went to bed I cracked open the fondant and got busy!


May I present to you Clive - The Red Deer. I used modeling fondant to make a model of Clive and at first it freaked me out because the fondant dries so quickly, but by the end of it I was definitely having fun.

On Tuesday I got the cake out of the freezer so it could defrost. I then made up a batch of vanilla Swiss meringue butter cream and filled and coated the cake. Then I popped the cake into the fridge to set. Later that night once little miss Z went to bed I covered the cake in fondant and did a little decoration, to end up with this...


My very first fondant covered cake and fondant sculpture. Now I know that it is by no means perfect, but isn't it just so cute?!


I especially enjoyed putting the polka dots around the side of cake and rolling up those little balls of fondant - that was fun!


And in case you are wondering I needed long pieces of wire to hold up Clive's antlers they go from the tip of the antlers right down through his head - poor Clive!


Since this cake is just a practice run I thought it would best if I got a sliced photo, you know - for you, the readers.


And now that it is sliced I better try some... yummy!

Now that I kind of know what I am doing with this - next time I will take in progress shots for y'all!

First cupcake order

Today I baked my first ever cupcake order! One of the lovely ladies from Mat's work wanted some cupcakes for her daughter's 10th birthday party - and I was ever so happy that she asked me to bake them. The birthday girl wanted vanilla cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and sprinkles. The colour choices were left up to me, so I decided to do 12 yellow cupcakes with coloured sugar confetti and 12 pink cupcakes with sprinkles.

The pink ones are my personal favourite - they look so pretty...


I really like the look of the sugar confetti, especially on yellow frosting - classic cupcake style!


Here they are all packed up in my cupcake courier ready to go...


I hope the birthday girl liked them :)

Baking Mondays - T is for Toblerone Cupcakes

Vanilla cake with chunks of Toblerone, filled with Toblerone Swiss meringue butter cream, and topped with Toblerone Swiss meringue butter cream & a piece of Toblerone.

Now I have to be completely honest with you. This week I was really hoping that tropical would win the polls because I didn't want to make chocolate cake this week - and what else can you make if you are making Toblerone cupcakes? So when Toblerone won I was a little disappointed, but then I thought of making vanilla cupcakes with Toblerone pieces in the batter. Much better - we still get to enjoy the awesome flavour of Toblerone chocolate, but I can also get away with making something other than chocolate cupcakes.

Vanilla and Toblerone Cupcakes (adapted from Planet Cake)
Makes 15 cupcakes

175g unsalted butter, softened
160g caster sugar
1 tsp natural vanilla extract
1 tsp grated lemon zest
2 eggs
160g self-raising flour
100g plain flour
200ml milk
50g toblerone, chopped into small pieces

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line 2 12-hole muffin trays with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla, lemon zest and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Sift the flours together. Using a wooden spoon, fold the flour and milk alternately into the creamed mixture.
4. Fold in the chopped Toblerone.
5. Spoon mixture into the paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Leave in tray for 5 minutes and then transfer to wire racks to cool.
   

Now while those babies are cooling off, start off your Toblerone Swiss meringue butter cream...

Toblerone Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

270g caster sugar
4 egg whites
250g unsalted butter
200g Toblerone, roughly chopped

1. Follow the directions for Almond Swiss meringue butter cream but omit the vanilla and almond essence.
2. Microwave the Toblerone in 30 second intervals, stirring between each interval until melted. Allow to cool slightly.
3. Beat the melted Toblerone into your SMBC until you reach the desired consistency.
   

Now that you have your Toblerone SMBC and some cooled cupcakes it is time to get filling! First if you have an apple corer use that to cut out some cake from each cupcake. If you don't have one you can always just cut out a well using a small knife.


Now using your piping bag with a normal round nozzle fill each hole with yummy SMBC...


To finish off your cupcakes pipe a swirl of the Toblerone SMBC and finally put a chunk of Toblerone on each cupcake. Don't they look yummy...


Just a quick note, cupcakes are so much easier to bake when you have a little helper continually trying to pull down your pants - here is my helper...

Pretty cute huh!

The ratings?

Me - 9/10, the SMBC on these is amazing - it is like a Toblerone mousse with yummy chewy bits of nougat through it. I also quite like the vanilla cake recipe - the texture and moisture level of the cake is perfect.
Mat - 7/10. good cupcake - perfect size. Just not as flash as a few of the past cupcakes (coming off snickers is pretty hard).


Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Baking Mondays - Q is for Anzac cupcakes with 'Q'uick oats

Anzac cake topped with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and an Anzac biscuit.

I think that any Australian would straight away associate oats and baking with Anzac biscuits. For those of you that don't know Anzac biscuits are made from rolled oats, flour, coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup and bicarbornate of soda. Sound good? Yeah I thought so. There is also a bit of background associated with these little beauties, since the ingredients do not easily spoil they were sent with the men in the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) during World War I. So they hold a special meaning to us all in Australia and we like to consume them on mass on Anzac day (April 25th). So yeah, when oats won I knew straight away I was going to make some Anzac cupcakes and here is the recipe I used...

Anzac cupcakes (from Best Recipes)
Makes 16 cupcakes

125 g unsalted butter
250 g golden syrup
6 eggs
120 g self-raising flour, sifted
120 g rolled oats (I used quick oats)
150 g desiccated coconut
80 g icing sugar, sifted

1. Preheat oven to 170°C; line 2 12-hole muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. Melt butter and golden syrup over low heat, set aside to cool slightly then beat in eggs.
3. Combine flour, oats, icing sugar and coconut in a bowl, stir in butter mixture.
4. Spoon into prepared muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes, test with cake skewer.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Follow the directions for Almond Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but use 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract and omit the almond essence.

Assembling the cupcakes

1. Once cupcakes have cooled pipe a swirl of SMBC.
2. Top each cupcake with an Anzac biscuit (I bought mine - because I am lazy, but you could use this recipe from Best Recipes instead).

The ratings?

Me - 8/10, the cake really does taste like an Anzac biscuit (yum!), but it is a bit dense. I love the vanilla SMBC and Anzac combination, and can't complain with a biccy as well!
Mat - 9/10, just like an Anzac biscuit, only more cupcakey.

Also don't forget to enter my little giveaway - you have until tomorrow :)

And with that I am off - there is a crazy storm here at the moment and the lights keep flickering - scary!!

Baking Mondays - G is for Guinness

Chocolate Guinness cupcake filled with dark chocolate ganache, topped with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and sprinkled with green sugar crystals.

This week Mat was very excited about the prospect of Guinness cupcakes and it looks like quite a few of you were also excited about it - because Guinness won the polls with a landslide 21 out of 44 votes. I scoured the web for a Guinness cupcake recipe and all the recipes I found seemed to be pretty much the same. I figured if that many people were blogging about the same recipe that it had to be good, and I was right! I used the recipe on the Confessions of a Tart blog, with a few small changes.

Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes (taken from Confessions of a Tart)
Makes 20 to 24 cupcakes (24 for me)

1 cup Guinness
1 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 cups plain flour
2 cups caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners.
   
2. Bring Guinness and butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
3. Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend.
   
4. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend.
   
5. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine.
   
6. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined.
   
7. Divide batter among cupcake liners, filling them 2/3 to 3/4 of the way.
   
8. Bake for approximately 15 minutes
   

Dark Chocolate Ganache

226g dark chocolate, in small pieces
2/3 cup thickened cream

1. Place chocolate into a bowl.
2. Bring cream to boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat immediately and pour over chocolate.
3. Stir until chocolate melts.
4. Place ganache in fridge and stir every 10 minutes until you reach a good piping consistency.
   

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Follow the directions for Almond Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but use 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract and omit the almond essence.

Assembling the Cupcake

1. Let the cupcakes cool.
2. Cut out a well in each cupcake (eat the cut out piece :D).
3. Fill the well with dark chocolate ganache (pipe in the ganache).
4. Pipe a swirl of vanilla swiss meringue buttercream on top.
5. Sprinkle with green sugar crystals.
6. Marvel at the beauty of the cupcake.

The ratings?

Me - 9/10 - the cake was soooo good, moist, chocolatey, awesome! The ganache was a great surprise lurking inside the cake and the buttercream was great as always. Loved it. Guinness and chocolate = awesome!
Mat - 10/10 - beer to the rescue again! Best chocolate cake ever.

Nuff said!


Now before you go please take a moment to vote for the next cupcake in the A B Cupcakes project - we are up to letter H and these are your options...

Hi-Hat
Hot Chocolate
Honey

Baking Mondays - E is for Eskimo Pie

Chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla swiss meringue buttercream, drizzled with melted chocolate and sprinkled with 100's and 1000's

This week Eskimo Pie won the poll, which is lucky because I was actually a bit of afraid attempting the egg nog cupcakes. I would of liked to make these more attractive - but Zoe wasn't very happy while I was baking so I kind of had to hurry it along. So please excuse the messiness of these.

Boiled Chocolate Cake
Makes 35 cupcakes ;)

500ml water
660g caster sugar
250g butter, chopped
35g cocoa powder, sifted
1 tsp bicarb soda
450g self raising flour
4 eggs

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line 3 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake liners.
2. Combine the water, sugar, butter, cocoa and bicarb in a medium saucepan and stir over heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil then reduce the heat, simmer, uncovered for 5 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl.
3. Add the flour and eggs to the bowl and beat with electric mixer until mixture is smooth and pale in colour.
4. Pour mixture into the cupcake liners and bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Follow the directions for almond buttercream but leave out the almond essence and use 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract instead of 2 teaspoons.

Chocolate Drizzle

340g dark chocolate
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Melt the chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cool before using otherwise the buttercream will melt ;)


The ratings?

Me - 7/10, yummy! The cake was really moist and the texture was great, however, it wasn't very chocolatey - so it isn't the best chocolate cake recipe. The buttercream is good as always and the chocolate + 100's and 100's makes for crunchy goodness.
Mat - 7/10, not as good as the peanut butter cupcake, but still good.

Baking Mondays - Neapolitan Cupcakes

Ah what a disaster. The plan was to make rocky road cupcakes. I chopped up the cherries, marshmallows and peanuts, covered the bowl in cling wrap and then went out to visit some friends. When we got home I was all psyched up to finish the cupcakes but soon discovered that ants had gotten into the rocky road mix! It was extremely disappointing and I nearly gave up there and then, but when I realised that I had all the necessary ingredients for neapolitan cupcakes I was in business again. So without further ado...

Neapolitan Cupcakes (from The Australian Women's Weekly - Cupcakes)

Makes 12

125g butter, softened

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

150g caster sugar

2 eggs

185g self-raising flour

80ml milk

pink food colouring

strawberry essence

1 tbspn cocoa powder

2 tsps milk, extra

1. Preheat oven to moderate. Line 12 hole muffin pan with paper cases.
2. Beat butter, vanilla, sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Stir in the sifted flour and milk, in two batches.
3. Divide mixture evenly among 3 bowls. Tint one mixture pink and flavour with strawberry essence. Blend sifted cocoa with extra milk in cup, stir into another mixture. Leave third mixture plain.
4. Drop alternate spoonfuls of the 3 mixtures into cases. Pull a skewer through the mixtures to give a marbled effect.
5. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool.
6. Decorate with butter cream.

Neapolitan Butter Cream

125g butter, softened

240g icing sugar

2 tbsps milk

pink food colouring

strawberry essence

1 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tsps milk, extra

Beat butter with electric mixer until as white as possible. Beat in sifted icing sugar and milk in two batches. Divide mixture into 3 bowls and flavour butter cream in a similar style to the cupcake mixture.

Note: I added the strawberry essence to give it a true neapolitan flavour, the original recipe just used pink food colouring.

So the verdict?

Me - 7/10, pretty good - I think I would add a tad bit more strawberry essence to the cake and I would like to decorate it differently next time.

Mat - 8/10, sugary goodness - he is looking forward to having another one tomorrow.

One more photo of the cupcakes, this is the inside of the cake...

Baking Mondays - Vanilla Raspberry Cupcakes

I was a very slack blogger over the weekend - but I am back on the blogging wagon today because it is Baking Monday! I planned to make these cupcakes a week ago for Valentines day, but with our short trip back to Mildura I didn't get the time to go to the shops to get all of the necessary ingredients - so here they are a week late.

I used the recipe for Magnolia's Vanilla Cupcakes and was planning to swirl some raspberry flavoured syrup through it to give it that extra burst of raspberry flavour. However, when I opened the syrup jar and it didn't make that lovely 'pop' sound to say that it was fresh I knew that dream was over. So instead we just have plain vanilla cupcakes - and it was lucky that they turned out! When I had finished mixing the ingredients I thought the batter looked incredibly dry - so I reread the instructions and whoops I forgot to add the eggs! I blame it on my silly mummy brain, thankfully they still turned out okay.

For the raspberry butter cream I used the recipe from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody. However, I put in a full cup of raspberry jam and it wasn't seedless because apparently that doesn't exist in my local shopping centre. Also I only used five and a half cups of icing sugar.

So the ratings?

7/10 from both Mat and I - these are definitely yummy, but they don't blow your socks off or anything.