Easter Egg Cupcakes

I just had to share these with you all before Easter. With warm homemade hot cross buns digesting in my tummy and prawns on the way for lunch, I'm certainly enjoying the Easter food this year.

After picking up some delicious caramel filled chocolate mini eggs, I wanted to incorporate them into a sweet treat somehow. So I made up a batch of my favourite vanilla bean cupcakes and after filling cupcake cases ⅓ full, I placed a caramel filled egg in the centre of each and topped with a little more batter until cases were ⅔ full. Bake as per normal directions but when checking if done, insert skewer to the side so you miss the gooey egg.

So, so easy and to decorate I piped a buttercream nest, sprinkled with chocolate bits and nestled another caramel egg in the middle. That's 2 easter eggs in one cupcake! Hehe a guilty indulgence. Sorry I have no cross section photos as I was in a rush to take them to work oops.

                                                          Enjoy!

Christmas Snowman Cupcakes

Do you have room for a little more Christmas Cheer?

I hope so...

Our bellies are overfull, the gifts are unwrapped and we've spent so much time with our family that frankly we're getting a little sick of them. Hehe just joking!

I just couldn't help making one more last minute Christmas fun item, and after seeing a couple of versions of snowmen on Pinterest, I thought that would be just the thing. With some white and coloured fondant, a tooth pick through the middle and some sprinkles, these little snowmen were created in no time.

Merry Christmas everyone and thanks to all who have read my blog throughout 2012...Here's to 2013!

Enchanted Fantasy Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

I just want to begin by saying that these are the best vanilla cupcakes (taste and texture) I have made by far. After testing three recipes over the past week, this is the clear winner. I made these to celebrate a young lady's 18th birthday and was given free reign with design, so I went for some enchanted fantasy flowers in bright colours. Who said vanilla cupcakes are plain and boring?

The recipes tested include: 

Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes by Glorious Treats - great texture and moist, however lacked that delicious vanilla cupcake flavour even though I used real vanilla beans. If I tried this recipe again I would substitute the oil with melted butter.

A Better Vanilla Cake by Beyond Buttercream - not bad however taste and texture was not my favourite for the classic vanilla cupcake flavour.

Over the years I have also baked many of the traditional creaming method vanilla cupcakes (cream butter and sugar, add flour and milk alternately) - this results in great flavour but the texture can be a little dry.

The winning recipe for me is Billy's Vanilla, Vanilla Cupcakes. It uses the reverse creaming method(mix dry ingredients, then add butter) which helps keep the texture soft, and real butter for great flavour. The changes I have made are to substitute the milk with buttermilk to ensure moist cupcakes, and to use real vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste instead of extract. Oh and I always use Western Star Original butter which is salted, so I omit the salt.

Boozy Margarita Cupcakes

Who wants some boozy cupcakes?

Well, I certainly do.

I am a fan of cocktails, and these cakes contain the same ingredients that any good margarita has - tequila and fresh lime. They're mild enough for a morning or afternoon tea, but an adults only one mind you. Moist cake with delicious frosting, they certainly pack a flavour punch so sit back, squeeze the lime wedge and munch on a Margarita cupcake.

The Last of the Easter Bunny Cupcakes

 

Inspired by the fabulous Bella Cupcakes I created these little cakes today to celebrate Easter. The cupcakes were leftovers from a trial run of a marble mudcake recipe so some are marble and some are white chocolate mudcake. I wanted to try to recreate the cuteness of my inspiration with a white, pink and purple colour scheme.

I was also inspired the equally creative Bakerella to try her cute little chick cake pops. These did not go as well as I substituted white chocolate for candy melts as I didn't have any. The white chocolate did not colour very well, neither does it go on very smooth. It's still a little bit of cuteness to brighten up the day.

Divine Carrot Cupcakes

 Just last weekend I got a brand new camera and as soon as it was finished with its first charge, I had to spend some (or a lot) of time, having a play around with it. You see, I'm going overseas in just a couple of weeks, and the old camera was playing up just a bit too frequently for my liking. An example involves me standing in front of the 12 Apostles in Victoria, with the camera not working until it's been turned on and off again 10 times. I just cannot have this happen to me whilst in Europe.

My new camera is the Nikon coolpix S9100 which is a compact ultra zoom camera - apparently. Well, I'm really excited about taking this new toy overseas to capture some moments and memories of the adventure. I equally enjoy looking back through baking photos and the memories they're linked to. Some are linked to events, such as a brother's birthday, but others are linked to memories of the food itself and how good it tasted. When I look at the photos of these carrot cupcakes, I most definitely relate it back to how good they tasted and my mouth starts salivating craving one.

I looked at a few different recipes and in the end based mine on a carrot cake recipe with a few slight tweaks. I reduced the raising agent, increased the walnuts but finely chopped them up and also added crushed pineapple as I wanted the moisture without the flavour. And boy were these moist - I ate one 3 days after baking and it was still just as good as freshly baked. Also the carrot was grated using a microplane grater and this makes for a nice soft texture in the cake, although any grater will do. I'm so happy with how this recipe turned out that it will be my go-to carrot cake and cupcake recipe from now on.

The directions for decorating these cupcakes are in my previous post - Pretty in Blue Cupcakes.

Pretty In Blue Cupcakes

 Blogging is a very new hobby for me. It started from a love of baking, which then turned into a love of decorating, then photographing and finally recording my triumphs and losses in writing. Each time I decide to bake, a lot of thought goes into the flavour of cake to make, and how to decorate it. These can be two very separate things, or they can be tied together. This time I feel the decorating and the cake flavour baked are distinct, so they have been divided up. I am so happy with how these cupcakes turned out in both flavour and presentation, and they are my favourite so far.