Cupcakes

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Wednesday, February 10th, 2010

I finally got around to making cupcakes this week – actually it’s the first time since Abby was born, which is not good enough!

Being summer, I thought a cocktail-inspired cupcake was in order, so I came up with the Pina Colada Cupcake. It has chunks of pineapple baked into it and topped with buttercream laced with Malibu.

The recipe is once again based on the awesome Scout’s Cupcake, tweaked for this variation.

Like eating a cocktail!

Like eating a cocktail!

Pina Colada Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients
  • 2 eggs
  • fresh whipping cream
  • 1/4 tsp of vanilla essence
  • 3/4 C caster sugar
  • 4 pineapple rings, chopped
  • 1 1/4 C standard flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
Frosting

This makes enough frosting to cover 12 cupcakes if spreading it on with a knife. Make twice the amount if piping.

  • 50 grams softened butter
  • 1 Tbs Malibu
  • 1 C icing sugar
Method
  • Break eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with cream.
  • Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric beaters for 1 minute.
  • Add vanilla essence and caster sugar.
  • Beat for another 3 minutes.
  • Stir in the chopped pineapple. (You could try adding in coconut essence or syrup from the tin of pineapple into the batter to strengthen the taste.)
  • Sift in standard flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt.
  • Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
  • Spoon into 12 cupcake cases (you can make a few extra if the cases are over 3/4 full).
  • Bake for about 15-18 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius until a skewer comes out clean.
  • Remove from tins (they can be quite fragile for a few minutes after baking) and cool on wire racks.

To make frosting, whip the butter until light and fluffy using an electric beater. Slowly whisk in half the icicing sugar. Add Malibu and whisk well. Keep whisking in small amounts of icing sugar until you get a good fluffy frosting.

I decorated mine with some dessicated coconut and yellow sugar.

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Cupcakes and cookies

Sunday, September 6th, 2009

I get excited when there’s a reason to bake, apart from just wanting to eat!

Last Sunday we were invited to Kiwi Wolf’s hubby’s surprise birthday get together.  Myhubby volunteered me to make the cupcakes – lucky for him I like making cupcakes and he knew it anyway.

I decided to make two flavours – lemon lime (based on the Coconut Lime Cupcake recipe but minus the coconut essence) with a zesty lemon butter cream, and a Black Forest cupcake with fresh cream flavoured with cherry liquer. They were both delicious and I was sad that I could only fit in one of each :[

Lemon lime cupcakes with lemon butter cream frosting

Lemon lime cupcakes with lemon butter cream frosting

Black forest cupcakes with fresh cream

Black forest cupcakes with cherry liquer flavoured cream

The hubby decided to make chocolate chip cookies. He managed to find the other recipe that we love. This one has coffee in it, and is a light cookie with a salty sweet scrumptiousness. I prefer it over the last chocolate chip recipe I posted. Unfortunately I didn’t get around to taking any photos before they were all eaten.

Chocolate Chip Cookies II

Makes 24

I’m not sure exactly where we got this recipe from or what we had altered, but it’s gooood.

Ingredients
  • 1/2 C (125g) butter
  • 1 C brown sugar
  • 3 Tbs castor sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbs vanilla essence
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 3/4 C flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp coffee powder
  • 225 g chopped chocolate (we use dark chocolate, and you could also use chips if you really have to)
Method
  • Preheat the oven to 190 C.
  • Cream together butter and sugars (use a wooden spoong or your electric mixer).
  • Beat in the egg.
  • Add in all other ingredients, sifting in the baking soda, powder and flour to get rid of lumps, and combine. You may need to use your hands to mix things together.
  • Divide into 20-24 cookies (depending on how large you want them) and bake on two trays for 8-10 minutes until lightly golden.

The cookies will still feel soft and spongy when done, but they will crisp up soon after.

Mmmm addictive!

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Put the lime in the coconut

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

I decided to be a bit adventurous this time and make coconut lime cupcakes with marshmallow icing.

The intention was to use the dessicated coconut that had been hanging around in the pantry since ages ago, but when it came to it I couldn’t find it anywhere. Maybe I’d already thrown it out because it was getting manky…

So I ended up using coconut essence, which isn’t the same, but it gave a nice subtle flavour.

We also bought a jar of Marshmallow Fluff when we were in the States a few years back. The hubby thought it was a great souvenir because it’s ’so American’, but we didn’t really know what to do with it. Then on an episode of Good Eats, Alton Brown made some marshmallow fluff-type frosting, so that gave me another reason for baking these cupcakes.

My recipe is as follows, and as always it’s based on the basic Scout’s cupcake recipe.

Coconut Lime cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff frosting

Coconut Lime cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff frosting

Coconut Lime Cupcakes with Marshmallow Fluff Frosting

Makes 24

Ingredients
  • 2 eggs
  • fresh whipping cream
  • 1/4 teaspon of vanilla essence
  • 3/4 cup caster sugar
  • zest and juice of one lime
  • 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
  • 1 cup of standard flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
Frosting
  • 50 grams softened butter
  • dash of vanilla essence
  • Half jar of Marshmallow Fluff
  • Icing sugar
Method
  • Break  eggs into a cup measure and fill to the top with cream.
  • Pour into a large mixing bowl and beat on high with electric beaters for 1 minute.
  • Add vanilla essence and caster sugar.
  • Beat for another 3 minutes.
  • Add the zest, lime juice and coconut essence, and beat for about 10 seconds to combine.
  • Sift in standard flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt.
  • Fold to combine taking care not to over mix.
  • Spoon into 12 cupcake cases (you can make a few extra if the cases are over 3/4 full).
  • Bake for about 15-18 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius until a skewer comes out clean.
  • Remove from tins (they can be quite fragile for a few minutes after baking) and cool on wire racks.

To make frosting, whip the butter until light and fluffy using an electric beater. Add vanilla essence and Marshmallow Fluff and whisk well. Add about 1/4 cup icing sugar, and whisk again until well combined. Keep whisking in small amounts of icing sugar until you get a good fluffy frosting. You could also add in some lemon juice for a lemony icing.

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Birthday Tea Party

Monday, May 25th, 2009

Yesterday I turned a year older – boo! But at least it was an excuse to throw a tea party.

I don’t know why I put myself through these things. Oh wait, I do. It’s all the food I get to have at the end :)

I made sure that everything I made was pregnant-woman safe. I really wanted sushi which is fine if made fresh. I needed to heat up the smoked chicken and prawns before using them though. No big deal. The sushi was definitely worth it!

And of course there were cupcakes. The brother-in-law’s wedding is next Saturday and I’ll be making about 65 cupcakes for that. Had to have a trial run, and all is deliciously well.

Fez was really well-behaved. He got bored after a couple hours and put himself to bed. The only thing we are still battling with is his peeing inside when the weather is crap. It makes no sense as he will still happily go outside afterwards to reload with a drink of water. Naughty boy! I am punishing him with the silent treatment, after a telling off and 5 minute time-out outside.

Cupcakes and tea

Cupcakes and tea

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