Recipe: Peach and Raspberry Cupcakes

Ok my promise to be a better blogger didn’t go particularly well... but in my defence after I wrote the last post the UK got hit by a serious heatwave! I know temperatures of over 30 degrees are normal in a lot of the world but here it really isn’t and the UK is not set up to deal with extreme heat (only shops and the like tend to have air conditioning for example) and I don’t cope well in hot weather. Seriously for the last month I haven’t been able to think about anything more intelligent than ice cream! If I could get to my ice cream maker easily (and had space in the freezer) I would have posted some ice cream recipes for something, but I haven’t been able to and my freezer is full. The only advantages of this crazy weather is that my potted herbs are growing nicely and the solar powered fountain in my garden is working! But all is not lost, last week there was a brief temperature drop and I was able to do some baking!

So here is my latest cupcake recipe, I know a recipe post on a Friday? Well I've decided to drop "Monday Recipes" and just post recipes when I have them to post! I’m afraid this post marks a return to the fruity cupcakes though.

For once these cupcakes were not made in the cupcake maker, but they should work in there though! Obviously they’ll be smaller and you’ll probably get more cakes than the stated amount. Please play around with the quantities of fruit to get the amount you prefer, the stated quantities arose from me using whatever I had lying around!

Makes 12

Ingredients
115g/4oz softened butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
115g/4oz self-rising flour
2 eggs
110g fresh raspberries
1 peach, approx 110g in weight

Method
Gently wash the raspberries put them to one side to dry out. Chop up the peach into small chunks, I left the skin on but feel free to remove it if you prefer that.

Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the eggs. Sift the flour and fold into the mixture, then fold in the peaches and raspberries. Divide the mixture evenly between 12 paper cases and bake in a preheated oven at Gas Mark 4/180 C for 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean.

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy. In normal temperatures these cakes should keep for a few days in an airtight tin, beware in hotter climates the cakes may spoil quickly due to the fruit content.

Monday Recipe: Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes V1

Wow that’s a mouthful! As a fruit hater, my brother is never impressed by all my fruit cupcakes. So he decided to set me some challenges and this is the first one I’ve actually completed! United by our love of American candy (especially Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups), he set me the challenge of making Reese’s cupcakes.  These are my first attempt at the challenge and were made to accompany his massive birthday cake.

This is Version 1 of the recipe, kind of a beta test really! I have 2 variations which I need to try next, but that will have to wait until he buys a jar of peanut butter (I actually hate the stuff so I refuse to buy any).  As usual this recipe is designed for use in a cupcake maker and will make 6 fairy cake sized cakes, the recipe can easily be scaled up and should work in an oven equally well.

Ingredients
1 large egg
30g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
20g/1oz coco powder, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
6 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups in miniature size (removed from paper cases!)

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour and coco powder, then put a small blob of cake mix into the bottom of each cake cases and put a Peanut Butter Cup in each case (obviously on top of the cake mix blob). Divide the rest of the mixture evenly between the cake cases and bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean! Try and avoid stabbing the chocolate when you check.
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

These are tasty as is but are also great topped with a cream cheese frosting. 

Monday Recipe: Inca Berry Cupcakes

Ok so this recipe isn’t particularly Valentines in theme, but now seems as good a time as any to post this.

I stumbled across Inca berries (also known as physalis) while reading James Wong’s new book, Homegrown Revolution. As the title suggests this book is all about growing your own foods but this book focuses on distinctly more exotic fare rather than the traditional (and not cost/space effective) crops like potatoes and tomatoes. I have never had an interest in gardening until I read this book and it has given me some great new cupcake ideas, including this recipe. Seriously I suggest checking this book out it’s amazing.

Anyway I discovered lots of interesting new foods, including Inca berries and before I invested in a plant it seemed sensible to find out if I actually liked Inca berries first. Luckily my local Tesco supermarket happens to sell them and for only £1 a bag! Happily I do like them and thus set about playing with them. The result was the following cupcake recipe.

I decided to top these cakes with a cream cheese frosting mostly because I made these at the same time as the Red Velvet Cupcakes and I had made an awful lot of frosting... James Wong describes Inca berries as having a flavour like a ripe gooseberry with a hint of tropical fruit, followed by a bittersweet aftertaste. And I find the creamy flavour of the frosting makes a great contrast to the tangy flavour of the berries.

As usual this recipe is designed for use in a cupcake maker and will make 6 fairy cake sized cakes, the recipe can easily be scaled up and should work in an oven equally well. The quantities given for the frosting should be enough to cover 12 cakes but this is dependent on how you choose to cover them.

Ingredients
Cake
1 large egg
50g/2oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5-6 Inca berries, leaves removed and chopped into quarters

Frosting
100g/4oz full fat cream cheese
50g/2oz softened butter
300g/12oz icing sugar, sifted
Vanilla extract

Decorations (optional)
6 Inca berries, leaves folded up

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar; then beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and then mix in the chopped berries. Divide evenly between the cake cakes and bake for about 10 minutes in a cupcake maker  or for about 15 minutes in the oven at Gas Mark 4/180 C. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

To make the frosting, first cream together the cheese and butter, then add the vanilla extract. I used about a teaspoon but add to your personal taste.  Then gradually add the icing sugar and beat it in, the frosting will look quite runny at first but it will thicken up. Once you’ve added all the icing sugar cover the cakes as you want and top each cake with an extra berry. If the frosting seems a little runny add a tiny bit more icing sugar or chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Well that’s it for now; if you try these out I’d love to know what you all think. Later in the year I hope to post some more recipes using crops I found through this book. 

Recipe: Chocolate and Caramel Cupcakes

Chocolate is a fundamental part of Valentine’s Day commercialism, but who wants plain chocolate when you can have chocolate caramels?

Yet again a flavoured hot chocolate that smells lovely but tastes kinda horrid has come into my life; this time it’s a caramel one. But like the raspberry one I’ve mentioned here before it’s basically just coco powder with flavoured sugar, so that means one thing, CUPCAKES!!! No pictures of these cakes as I didn’t bother to frost them before eating them, and un-iced they just look like normal chocolate cakes...

This one is currently available from Whittards, and can be acquired here.

As usual this recipe is designed for use in a cupcake maker and makes 6 fairy cake sized cakes. However it should work in the oven and can easily be scaled up to make more. 

Ingredients
1 large egg
30g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
20g/1oz Caramel Hot Chocolate, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour and hot chocolate, divide evenly amongst 6 cake cases then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean! Leave on a wire rack to cool.

The caramel flavour is quite subtle so when frosting these I’d suggest a caramel flavoured buttercream (I have a recipe for salted caramel buttercream, when I get the hang of making it I’ll share it here). 

Recipe: Red Velvet Cakes (Cheating method)

I love Red Velvet Cake, the contrast between the bright red cake and the white frosting always looks amazing. And it’s a chocolate flavoured cake so what’s not to love? And the colour is pretty appropriate for Valentine’s Day. Sadly I find making it to be a bit of a pain in the backside. I struggle to balance the ratio of coco powder to food dye, and more often than not I don’t use enough dye. The result is usually a chocolate cake with a vaguely pink tint if you squint a bit.

But Lakeland has come to the rescue, as they now stock Star Kay extracts. These extracts come in a huge range of flavours and include a chocolate flavour. The extracts are quite expensive, but I’m given to believe that they are a very high quality brand so I don’t mind paying so much for them (and Lakeland have them on 3 for 2 at the moment). So armed with this and some red gel food dye I went into battle and made some adorable cupcakes for Valentine's Day.

Check out my shiny new backdrop! Much nicer than my messy kitchen!

Star Kay Chocolate Extract is available here. I’ve also found some Star Key extracts in Tesco so if you have access to a large store I’d suggest looking there. However Tesco will have a fairly limited range of flavours.

Naturally these are topped with cream cheese frosting; the quantities given below should provide enough frosting to cover 12 cupcakes. Obviously this is dependent on how you choose to cover the cakes, if you pipe the frosting like I did you’ll probably need more. As for the cakes the usual rules apply, this makes 6 fairy cake sized cakes in a cupcake maker. This recipe can be scaled up to make more and also works in the oven. I’m not sure how well the colour will come out when baked in the oven though.

Now isn't that a fabulous colour?

Ingredients
Cake
1 large egg
50g/2oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
2 teaspoons chocolate extract
Red gel food colouring

Frosting
100g/4oz full fat cream cheese
50g/2oz softened butter
300g/12oz icing sugar, sifted
Vanilla extract (to taste)

Decorations (optional)
Red/pink heart shaped sprinkles
Pink edible glitter

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar; then beat in the egg and chocolate extract. Fold in the flour and then mix in a little of the food dye. Gel dyes are highly concentrated so you don’t need much! Divide evenly between the cake cakes and bake for about 10 minutes in a cupcake maker  or for about 15 minutes in the oven at Gas Mark 4/180 C. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

To make the frosting, first cream together the cheese and butter, then add the vanilla extract. I used about a teaspoon but add to your personal taste.  Then gradually add the icing sugar and beat it in, the frosting will look quite runny at first but it will thicken up. Once you’ve added all the icing sugar cover the cakes as you want and decorate. If the frosting seems a little runny add a tiny bit more icing sugar or chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.

Guest Post: Spiced Banana Cake

Today marks the introduction of a new feature on Princess Cupcake, guest bloggers. This is the first of several posts written by my best friend Inthannon. Enjoy! All photographs are owned by Inthannon, so please do not use them without her or my permission.

Last week my friend Princess Cupcake asked me to do a couple of guest posts for her since I’m almost as much of a baking enthusiast as she is. This is the first and later on I will bring to the table my Finnish recipes for couple of Christmas goodies.

This first one however, is something I made last night because my fiancée’s sweet tooth was aching. ;) Since I know Cupcake doesn’t care for bananas and I really like banana cake and think it’s a brilliant way to use up over ripe bananas (if you have them in the house), here’s my favourite one with a Christmassy twist.

First thing about banana cake is that the riper the banana the better the cake. The best bananas for this kind of thing are the ones that you look at and think “That’s too dark and gooey to eat” (Obviously if the banana looks like it’s growing unspeakable things or about to walk out of the fruit basket, don’t bake it, bin it). One thing you’ll notice between the cake you’ll make and my pictures is that yours will be darker. This will be because you’ve done what I said and not what I’ve done and used properly ripe bananas... Hello from Miss Hypocrite ;)

Note on measurements: Since I’m weird and foreign, most of my recipes have these strange measurements of dl. This stands for decilitre, which is 100 millilitres. So if the recipe says 2dl of sugar, take a standard measuring jug that has millilitres on it and using the millilitre scale measure out 200ml of sugar. Or go to uncle google and search for a way to convert sugar volume to weight. Or a volume of your choosing.

Spiced Banana Cake (or about 24 cupcakes)

150g butter

2.5 dl sugar

2 eggs

4-5 dl flour (depending on how moist you want your cake, also depends on size of eggs)

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

3 crushed bananas

For a standard cake, heat the oven to 170C or Gas Mark 3-4. For cupcakes (unless using a cupcake maker) 180 C/Gas Mark 4. Cream together the butter and the sugar, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix together all the dry ingredients and then slowly add into the mix in turns with the crushed bananas. Mix until even. Pour into a buttered/floured cake tin (deep, 9”/23cm diameter) and bake for 50-60 minutes, or until cooked through. Cupcakes should only take 8-12 minutes in a machine or about 15 minutes in the oven. I used my cupcake maker for these mainly because I’ve only used it twice.

Figure 1 This is pretty much the ideal amount of mix for my cupcake maker.

Note: I tend to almost double the amount of spices since I enjoy spicy things, but there is no real need to do this (unless you’re like me). Also non-stick palette knife is the BEST at getting cupcakes out of the maker. Just slide it between the cake and the maker, apply a little leverage and hey presto, one free cake!

I decided against icing these, just because I find they are nice on their own (and I ran out of day) but I think a cinnamon buttercream might be really yummy with these. Or maybe something with ginger. This is the beauty of baking, we can all make changes to the recipe if we don’t like something in it.

Until next time,

Inthannon

Quick and easy Halloween Cupcakes

Halloween presents a great opportunity for specially decorated cupcakes for parties or just for fun. Themed cupcake decorations can be as easy or as complicated as you like depending on your level of skill, so in this post I’ve detailed a few quick and easy ideas for spooky treats. Some of which I will be posting tutorials for in the next couple of days. All of these ideas are great for children to try.

Keeping it simple
If you don’t have much time to decorate cakes the quickest way to just to make a simple water icing and throw some sprinkles at them. Cakes decorated in this way can easily be matched to an event or theme by matching the sprinkles and the icing colour to the event. So for Halloween try making icing in some spooky and unusual colours, bright green or black for example.  Orange and black strands are a popular choice for sprinkles but I really like using little bats and ghosts.  Oh and a touch of edible glitter is always fun! Another easy way to make creepy cakes is to colour the cake mixture, normally when I do this I make pink cakes but for Halloween why not try green or blue?

Also don’t forget, even the simplest cake can be made to match a theme by using special cake cases, shops are full of Halloween inspired designs right now so shop around to find your favourite!

Vampire blood cakes
These are also very simple but can look pretty cool. Simply cover any flavour of cake (Red Velvet works a treat) with white icing or buttercream, then make a really runny red icing and dribble it over.  

Ghosts
These are taken from the book “A Zombie Ate My Cupcake” and are very effective (book review coming soon). Starting with whatever cake flavour you prefer make an Italian or Swiss meringue then put a small blob of meringue on each cake, top with a marshmallow then spoon more meringue on top. Use the back of a spoon to shape it into a ghost shape, let it cool then add facial features with an icing pen.

Gravestones
Again start with any flavour cake you want and a batch of chocolate biscuits. Try and make your biscuits gravestone shaped, rectangles and crosses also work well (at this time of year it’s fairly easy to find biscuit cutters in these shapes). Use a piping bag or an icing pen to write messages onto the biscuits, the classic RIP always works well! To assemble the cakes cover them with green buttercream (not to bright, try and make a grassy green) and stick a biscuit into the top of each.
Optional extra: to suggest a fresh grave dust coco powder or chocolate biscuit crumbs (Oreo cookies crushed in a food processor are perfect for this) in front of each biscuit and add a few icing flowers.

Spider websCover any flavour of cake with black buttercream or water icing, then using either an icing pen or piping bag; ice a spider web pattern onto each cake. Add a touch of white edible glitter because why not?

So there you have it a few quick and easy decorating ideas for Halloween cakes, stay tuned for some in depth decorating tutorials for a couple of these and some other simple designs.  If you have any other ideas for simple cake designs I’d love to hear them!

Monday Recipe: Lavender Cupcakes

Monday Recipe: Lavender Cupcakes

As much as I love making fruit flavoured cupcakes there comes a time when all my favourite fruits are out of season and I have to stop. But that just means it’s time for some new flavours, and my current experimentation is with flower flavoured cakes!

I love using flower flavours, they are sufficiently different to intrigue people but not weird enough to freak them out! Rose is actually my all time favourite macaroon flavour, mostly because I love the smell of roses and when used in cooking it actually tastes the way it smells. Which I know sounds mad but try it and you’ll see what I mean! I know eating flowers is weird, but quite a lot of flowers are actually edible. At some point I will do some more research into this and post a list of edible flowers, but that shall have to wait.

So imagine my excitement when last summer I found Lavender Sugar available in Waitrose, naturally I had to buy some and I’ve finally figured out what to do with it! Hello cupcakes! These cakes smell divine and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that lavender (like rose) tastes the way it smells.

As this is an experimental recipe, all quantities are designed for use in a cupcake maker and will make 6 fairy sized cakes. However as always this recipe can easily be scaled up and (should) work when baked in the oven.

Sadly I can't find lavender sugar on Waitrose's online shopping, but this would be easy to make yourself. I'll write a tutorial on that later!

The little "spots" are actually lavender flowers!

Ingredients
1 large egg
50g/2oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Lavender Sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine

Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg.  Fold in the flour and divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

The lavender in this recipe is quite a strong flavour, so I’m working on adapting this recipe somewhat. Personally I like the strong flavour but my family weren’t so keen, when I perfect this recipe I shall re-post with the new version. And given that this recipe is still in the experimental stages I have no idea what icing to suggest for these. That is something I shall figure out during further experiments.

Monday Recipe: Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes (no fruit)

This is another variation of my fruity cupcakes; however this one is different in that there is actually no fruit in it at all! The raspberry flavour actually comes from a Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate powder that I brought from Whittards. I don’t like it as a drink since I found the chocolate flavour to be a bit bitter and I couldn’t taste the raspberry, however I noticed that it’s just coco powder with raspberry flavouring added so I decided to add it to my baking ingredients. I find the raspberry flavour comes through much more strongly when used in cake mixture and has the advantage of allowing for raspberry cakes even when the fruit isn’t in season!

Sadly Whittards don’t currently stock this particular hot chocolate flavour so I can’t link to it. But I’m sure if you shop around it may be possible to find something similar, and if you do go into a Whittards I seriously suggest trying some of their other hot chocolate flavours. I find most of them to be very tasty!

As usual this is the cupcake maker version of the recipe, it makes 6 fairy cake sized cakes and can be scaled up to make more. Also works when baked in the oven.

Un iced as I was feeling lazy

 Ingredients
1 large egg
30g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
20g/1oz Raspberry and Dark Chocolate Hot Chocolate, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine

Method
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour and hot chocolate, divide evenly amongst 6 cake cases then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Since the raspberry flavour is quite strong, I’d suggest topping these with a chocolate buttercream

Monday Recipe: Rhubarb and Custard Cupcakes

The rhubarb season is just coming to a close, but since I had some lying around and its way too hot here to be making a crumble it seemed like cake was the best option! So we have these lovely vanilla cupcakes filled with stewed rhubarb and custard, topped with a custard butter cream. 

I like to use pre-made custard for these, mostly because I’m too lazy to make my own custard! The ginger in the stewed rhubarb is optional, but I do recommend it, it helps to cut through the sweetness of the custard in the cakes and the custard butter cream. This recipe makes 8-10 cupcakes. I don’t suggest making these in a cupcake maker as you need a big cake for these and cupcake makers make rather small cakes!  

My favourite sweets!

Ingredients
Cake
115g/4oz butter
115g/4oz caster sugar
115g/4oz Self-rising flour, sifted
2 eggs, beaten
½ tsp vanilla extract

Custard Butter cream
75g/3oz butter
175g/6oz icing sugar, sifted
½ tsp vanilla extract
3 dessertspoons custard

Finishing Touches
Custard
Stewed rhubarb with ginger
Rhubarb and Custard sweets

Method
Make the stewed rhubarb by chopping up 2-3 sticks of rhubarb and placing it in a pan with a couple of tablespoons of sugar, a splash of water and about 1 teaspoon of powdered ginger. Cover and cook on a low heat for 15mins, stirring occasionally until the rhubarb breaks down. Leave to cool.

Make the cake by creaming together the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs and vanilla extract. Fold in the flour and divide between the paper cases. Bake in the oven at gas mark 4 or 180 degrees C for 25mins until golden brown and cooked all the way through. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Once the cakes are cooled, cut a hole in the top of each cake. Trim the piece of cake you removed so you get a flat piece of cake. Put a spoonful of the rhubarb into the hole, then a spoonful of custard and then place the flat piece of cake over the hole. Then cover with the butter cream and top with a rhubarb and custard sweet.

To make the butter cream, cream together the custard and the butter. Then beat in the vanilla and icing sugar until smooth. Chill before using!

I find these cakes are best served chilled, keeping the cakes cool helps to bring forward the flavour of the custard in the butter cream. The downside is that this does suppress the ginger flavour somewhat, but the ginger is only there to cut through the sweetness of the icing anyway!

Monday Recipe: Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes

Lemon drizzle is one of my favourite cakes, it’s tasty and easy to make. And it works pretty well as a cupcake. However speed is of the essence here, the lemon syrup must be added while the cakes are still hot! The usual rules apply, these quantities are designed for use in a Cupcake Maker, but the recipe can also be baked in the oven. This amount will make approximately 6 fairy sized cakes, but can easily be scaled up to make more.

I suggest leaving these on a plate to cool as the syrup can get everywhere!

Cake Ingredients:
1 large egg
50g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
Zest of ½ a lemon

Syrup Ingredients:
Juice of 1 lemon
approx 2 tbsp’s of caster sugar

Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg.  Then fold in the flour and lemon zest.
Divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!

While the cakes are cooking place the lemon juice and caster sugar into a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar is dissolved. Once dissolved taste and if desired add more sugar to taste, keep the syrup warm until the cakes are done. When the cakes are cooked, poke a couple of holes into the surface of the cake with a cocktail stick and immediately spoon over the lemon syrup.  
Leave on a wire rack (or plate!) to cool.

I find the best topping for these cakes is a plain water icing, just mix some icing sugar and water together until you are happy with the consistency and spoon over the cakes.

Monday Recipe: Honeycomb Cupcakes

I admit it, a lot of my baking is fruit based at the moment as all my favourite fruits are in season. But not everyone likes fruit in their cakes so here is something a little different.  These cakes are made with honeycomb (also known as cinder toffee), sounds odd but it works very well in cakes. The heat of the oven causes the honeycomb to melt and turn into toffee, very tasty!

As per usual these quantities are designed for use in a cupcake maker and makes 6 fairy cake sized cakes. However they also work baked in the oven and can easily be scaled up to make more.
I normally use a 40g Cadbury’s Crunchie Bar for these but a handful of honeycomb pieces also works as would homemade honeycomb!



Left un-iced so you get an idea of the toffee made by the melted honeycomb



Ingredients:
1 large egg
50g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
40g Crunchie bar or other form of honeycomb

Method:
Using a rolling pin, break the honeycomb bar into pieces. You want small pieces but try and avoid turning too much of the bar into dust!
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg, then fold in the flour and the smashed up honeycomb.  
Divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool. When cool top with melted chocolate.

I like to mix some popping candy into the chocolate for a bit of fun, however if you don’t have any try sprinkling some more crushed honeycomb on top. Oh and a word of caution, make sure you break the honeycomb into small pieces, if you use large chunks when it melts during cooking you might get rather large holes in your cake!

Monday Recipe: Double Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcakes

Raspberries go fabulously with chocolate, better I think than strawberries. So last summer I came up with these. I normally use dark chocolate but if you don’t like dark chocolate you can substitute whatever chocolate you prefer.

Please note these quantities are designed for use in a Cupcake Maker, but the recipe can also be baked in the oven. This amount will make approximately 6 fairy sized cakes, but can easily be scaled up to make more.

Ingredients:
1 large egg
30g/1oz Self-rising flour, sifted
20g/1oz Coco powder, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz Softened butter or margarine
approx 25g/1oz of dark chocolate chips
a handful of raspberries

Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg.  Fold in the flour and coco powder.
Put the raspberries in a small bowl and crush them lightly with a fork, then add to the cake mix along with the chocolate chips and gently stir them in.
Divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Just a quick warning, the whole fruit inside these means they are very soft when removed from the oven/cupcake maker. So be careful when putting them out to cool as it’s very easy to get a misshapen cake!
I like to leave these cakes plain mostly, but they do go very nicely with a chocolate or vanilla butter cream. Or better yet, top with melted chocolate, preferably the same type as the chocolate chips!

Monday Recipe: Apple and Blackberry Cupcakes

Opps, late post. I wrote this post but forgot to schedule it!

Normally I try and keep my fruit cupcakes seasonal as I prefer to use British fruit, but as I have lots of cupcake recipes but not many photographed examples for the moment we’ll go with what I have until I have time to make some more! So for today we have a slightly unseasonal recipe, apple and blackberry cupcakes.

This recipe is designed for use in a cupcake maker but can easily be cooked in the oven and will make approx 6 fairy sized cakes. It can however easily be scaled up. When I make them in the cupcake maker these cakes usually come out a pretty purple colour, so bear that in mind if you make them in the oven!

Sorry for recycling the picture.
The ones with pink sugar are raspberry and white chocolate.

Ingredients
50g/2 oz butter or margarine
50g/2oz caster sugar
50g/2oz self-rising flour, sifted
1 egg
2-3 tbsp blackberry puree
1 small eating apple, chopped

Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg.  Fold in the flour and carefully mix in the apple pieces and blackberry puree.
Divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

These cakes are lovely as is, but I like to top mine with some vanilla butter cream and a couple of whole blackberries.

Monday Recipe: Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes

I love raspberries, especially Scottish ones, those are the best. And while raspberries are in season I thought it would be an excellent time to share the recipe for my raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes. These are very popular with my family and friends!

It's the one with the pink sugar, the others are apple and blackberry!

Please note these quantities are designed for use in a Cupcake Maker but the recipe can also be baked in the oven. However if you do bake them in the oven you may wish to omit the food dye or add more! This amount will make approximately 6 fairy sized cakes, but can easily be scaled up to make more.

Ingredients:
1 large egg
50g/2oz Self-rising flour, sifted
50g/2oz Caster sugar
50g/2oz softened butter or margarine
1 tsp raspberry flavouring
2-3 tbsps raspberry puree
approx 25g/1oz white chocolate chips
a few drops of red food dye (optional)

Method:
Cream together the butter and sugar then beat in the egg.  Mix in the raspberry flavouring, and then fold in the flour. Finally carefully mix in the chocolate chips, raspberry puree and food dye.
Divide between 6 cake cases and then bake in the cupcake maker for approximately 10 minutes  or in the oven at Gas 4/180 C for about 15 minutes. The cakes are ready when a skewer inserted into the thickest part of the cake comes out clean!
Leave on a wire rack to cool.

These cakes are lovely as they are, but are equally nice topped with a vanilla butter cream or some melted white chocolate!