Tiramisu Cupcakes

I'm so sad, I just didnt have enough time to get the Daring Bakers Challenge done. I guess my full time job, training for a century bike ride, and trying to raise $3000 by making cakes for friends for charity all caught up with me. There have been way too many late nights, and not enough leisure.

Thankfully I'm taking off for Australia this weekend to see my lovely family, so I'll at least get a bit of a break!

I recently made these tiramisu cupcakes, and since the Daring Bakers made a delicious tiramisu, I thought I'd share a spin on it. I'll try and revisit the challenge when I have more time, which will be soon, after March 13th when I finish my bike ride.

If you want to see real Tiramisu then check out what the other Daring Bakers got up to.

Tiramisu Cupcakes-makes 1 dozen cupcakes, or 3 dozen minis

Vanilla buttercakes

90g butter

110g sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla

150g self raising flour, sifted

40ml milk

Preheat the oven to 350f

Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Stir in 1/2 the flour, then the milk, then the rest of the flour, just until combined.

Scoop into cupcake wrappers and bake for 18-20 mins until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the middle. Cool.

Kahlua syrup

50g brown sugar

100ml water

50ml kahlua

Heat sugar in water until dissolved. Add kahlua and drizzle on cupcakes.

Marscapone cream

250g Marscapone cheese

1/4 cup (40g) icing sugar

1 tablespoon madeira/sherry

3/4 cup (180ml) heavy cream, whipped to medium peaks

Whisk together the cheese, sugar and madeira, then fold into the cream. Pipe onto cupcakes and shave chocolate onto them to finish

An inundation of kumquats!

My friend at work brought a heaving bag of kumquats in and I quickly had to work out what to do with them all before they started going off. I put them in the fridge immediately, then a few days later I got to them. Never keep kumquats out of the fridge, they will go off in a day or two!

I set about preserving a load of them, thanks to garrett, those will be delicious in a few weeks on salads, brightening up greens and maybe some stews.

I then made a big pot of marmalade.

I candied some of them, which was a massive pain, but very pretty.

The lovely molly, of orangette gave me an idea for another cup of them, marmalade cake. It also used up some of the giant stash of almond paste I had in the fridge from christmas.

I deviated so far from her recipe that I thought I'd share! This was such a quick cake to make, had a lovely crumb to it and was a nice change from all the boring chocolate and vanilla combos I've been making for other folks!

If you dont have almond paste, then you can use around 6oz ground almonds, which have been slightly toasted, and an extra 1/2 cup of sugar.

Kumquat Marmalade Cake

1 cup stewed kumquats (chop, remove seeds and heat for a few minutes)

12 oz almond paste

1 cup sugar

2/3 cup olive oil

3 large eggs, whisked lightly

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

Preheat Oven to 350f

Throw the almond paste and kumquats in a food processor. Pulse until combined. Add sugar, then turn the processor on and drizzle in the olive oil. Add the eggs and salt, process.

Add the dry ingredients and pulse a few times until combined.

Pour into a lined 9" cake tin and bake for around an hour, until a toothpick comes out clean, check after 45mins.

Serve decorated with candied kumquats on top and whipped cream with a little lemon zest and a touch of sugar.

Sweets for my sweet

Unfortunately, my sweet wouldnt be the least bit interested in these delectable treats since he doesnt have a sweet tooth, but I've been baking up a storm for my fundraiser for my upcoming bike ride, so this is what lots of other sweethearts will be getting, a delicious raspberry chocolate almond cupcake with a whipped raspberry chocolate ganache. Mmmm. Perfect for valentines!

Lots has been happening around here. I decided to create a facebook fanpage for my cakes, since I've had so much fun with them. Become a fan if you'd like and you can catch up with all my adventures in cake making!

I've been so busy I havent had a minute to think, let alone share fun recipes and information so my poor little blog has been sitting here waiting. Hopefully things will calm down soon, but the next few weeks will be a whirlwhind, what with training and fundraising for my bike ride, skipping over the pacific to see my dear brother in Melbourne (hopefully sneaking out to meet other cake enthusiasts!) and then the bike ride in Solvang I've been training all this time for.

I say I think things will calm down, but I know they wont. Thankfully I thrive on being busy and I'm pretty happy these days!

My New Years Resolutions

I thought I'd mention how I was doing with my New Years resolutions. Of course I joined up with many other people in trying to lose weight, and its been a steady decline, resulting in around 5lb lost in the month of January. I've promised myself a big shopping trip when I make it to 10lb as my clothes are horribly 'daggy' (as the Australians would say) and I need a change!

My other resolutions were to take a photo each day, here's a little collage of them. I've put them all on my flickr page to share. That has gone very well, I'm really enjoying being creative, and its really helped me with living in the moment, and seeing beauty in everything around me. Thanks to the lovely Barbara for getting me started on this!

A third resolution was to be more sociable. This has gone really well too, I've met up for lunch with a fellow cake enthusiast, jacqueline, I've joined the San Diego Cake Club and attended their meeting and I've been to a party with a bunch of people I'd mostly only met online. Each of these interactions has been extremely rewarding and has reminded me that I do like meeting new people, so hopefully this will continue as the year goes on.

If anyone else is interested in joining the San Diego Cake Club, meetings are held at 'Do it with Icing' in Clairemont, on the first Monday of the month. Its a great way to meet other cake enthusiasts, they also have demos, so its also a good way to learn and share.