Island Style Wedding

This weekend I had the enormous pleasure of making a big showy display of cupcakes with a cutting cake for a guy that I've known for a while. He was our honored team-mate on our bike team, and I've ridden on teams with both his parents, so it was great to be involved in his wedding cake and to see him so healthy and happy.


The couple wanted a hawaiian theme to their wedding and it was more on the tasteful side, so I learned to make frangipane flowers and got some moulds to make little frangipane flowers and hibiscus for each of the cupcakes.


I was so happy with how well this theme came together, it all looked really professional and the flavors were just divine. It sounded like they were all gone with no leftovers so that is a success!! I can never find a general consensus on how many cupcakes should be provided for guests, my intuition tells me around one and a half per guests as some people often take a couple!


There were four flavors, mango macadamia with mango buttercream, chocolate mocha mudcakes with poured chocolate ganache, guava chiffon cakes filled with guava, and topped with guava buttercream and a delicious hummingbird cake packed with pineapple, coconut, pecan and banana, topped with cream cheese. The cutting cake was the mango macadamia flavor.

This cake is a wonderful cake, the original recipe is for strawberry, but I've made it with mixed berries, and it worked very well with mango and macadamia. Keep in mind that this is an extremely rich cake!

Mango Macadamia Butter Cakes adapted from Sky High Irresistable Triple Layer Cakes by Alicia Huntsman and Peter Wynne

Makes around 24 cupcakes

2 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
6 ounces (1 1/2 sticks) soft unsalted butter
1/2 cup mango puree
4 egg whites (100g)
1/3 cup milk
1 diced mango
1 cup chopped toasted macadamias

Preheat the oven to 350f and prepare cupcake pans

Sift the flour into a mixing bowl with the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix briefly. Add the butter and puree and beat for a couple of minutes until fluffy.

Meanwhile, whisk together the milk and the egg whites, adding to the batter in 3 additions. Mix for another 20 seconds until combined, then add the madadamias and diced mango, mix just to combine.

Scoop into cupcake wrappers until 2/3 full and bake for around 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Top with your choice of topping, I used a standard swiss meringue buttercream with mango puree added, and topped with a fondant flower!

Cupcakes cupcakes!

I thought I'd share some truly delicious cupcakes I've been creating recently. They arent terribly intricate or new recipes but I thought they were truly delicious combinations that I might mention.

The first is a black forest cupcake. I took my favorite chocolate cupcake recipe, from 'Confetti Cakes' by Elise Strauss. Its lovely and moist and rich from the sour cream.

I found some tart morello cherries in a jar at Trader Joes, scooped out the middle of the cupcakes and popped a couple in. A little drizzle of kirsch would probably go well here too. I then whipped some cream with a little sugar and topped the cakes with delicious valhrona pearls, chopped almonds and a sour dried cherry.

I think I'll be using more whipped cream toppings, its a lot lighter than buttercream and I much prefer the flavor. The only down side is its not as durable or long lasting, the cakes really need to be gobbled up in a few hours.

The other delicious cupcake I wanted to share was a chocolate hazelnut praline cupcake, I took the same delicious, moist chocolate cupcake, took a little scoop out, then popped a little nutella in the middle. I then topped with a praline buttercream, which is a little bit of a pain to make, but seriously the most delicious buttercream I've ever tried! The praline buttercream recipe comes from one of our daring bakers challenge from the filbert gateau, which was a truly delicious treat!

With such a decadent filling, I used a little lighter touch to pipe the buttercream with a new technique.

The third cupcake I've made recently is a lighter one too, a guava chiffon cake, I adapted from a strawberry chiffon cake on Jen's website , just subsituting guava for strawberries. I filled with a strawberry and topped with just a little vanilla buttercream for people who want something on the lighter side. With strawberry season upon us, this is a delightful summer treat.

Following my intuition

I wanted to make some christmassy cupcakes, so I turned to Martha, her cupcake cookbook is very comprehensive, so I knew she'd have something great for me to try.

I decided on Mint Chocolate and Gingerbread cupcakes. Upon reading the recipe, I had a few qualms, but I thought 'that martha, she knows what she's doing, I wish I'd trusted my instincts a little more. There is plenty of talk about following ones guts, for instance in Malcom Gladwell's Blink, and in a blog post I read recently on a favorite blog.

The mint cupcakes only had 3 tablespoons of oil, they came out a bit chewy, not to my taste, and the gingerbread cupcakes had a whole 3 sticks of butter in, not surprisingly they were a bit greasy, and a bit dense too. I need to trust myself a little more when I'm looking at recipes like this...

They did come out cute, especially the mini ones, with a little bit of vanilla peppermint frosting with a red stripe for the mint chocolate, and some lemon cream cheese frosting and gingerbread man sprinkles, they were very festive. Back to the drawing board for festive ideas though!

Autumn is here!

I've been so busy I've not had time to write about how busy I am! I recently had a little get together to celebrate the fact that fall is here. I bought a copy of Martha Stewarts new cupcake book and I thought it would be fun to share some of the cupcakes from it, plus a couple of new ideas.

I was very happy with the book, lots of ideas and lovely presentations, the only downside is martha seems to have an awful lot more friends than I do, and her recipes often yield several dozen cakes, I prefer to make a dozen or two at a time.

I started with everyone's fall favourite, the pumpkin spice cupcake. I didnt have time for the cute pumpkin topper, so I mixed a little of the cream cheese with some caramel so that it created a pretty swirl. I think this was definitely the big winner of the day!

I was also lucky enough to get some meyer lemons at the farmers market. Although they are not in season he had a few extra on the tree. The cupcake was quite nice but not as dreamy and ephemeral as maybe the dorie greenspans perfect party cake is. Meyer lemons make a much less tart curd too, which is worth keeping in mind if you like a bit more zing.

I then got started on a pretty looking 'hummingbird cupcake. It was another lovely tropical treat. I've seen these lovely pineapple flowers before and wanted to recreate them myself. I found them to be a lot of work and it does seem like a bit of a waste of good pineapple as they are just a bit dried out and not as tasty.

I'd also been hoping to recreate smores in a cupcake form, so I had a try at martha stewarts recipe. Being me, I decided to only stick to the cupcake recipe, I topped with a whipped chocolate ganache and a swirl of seven minute meringue frosting, which was lots of fun to burn with my ridiculously large torch from Home Depot!

Last but definitely not least, I made a rich chocolate mud cake, scooped a little out and popped a filling of coconut with cream cheese frosting and topped with a decadent dark chocolate buttercream, topped with an almond to be an 'almond joy' cupcake. Most definitely my favorite, I think this would be a wonderful treat for anyone wanting something a bit more decadent!

I'm afraid I'm out of town, so I cant share any recipes, but I have to share that chocolate mud cake recipe on my return, it was delicious and very moist!

Whats your favorite cupcake?

Wedding cupcakes!

This weekend was very special, I made 130 cupcakes for a lovely couple of friends who got married. It was stressful, but thankfully they are so sweet and relaxed about everything that it was a really fun experience.

For their actual wedding day I made a banana choc chip cake with chocolate layers, bananas, caramel and it sounds like it went down very well.

For the cupcakes I made banana choc chip, red velvet with cream cheese, dorie greenspans perfect party cupcakes with lemon buttercream, and these mocha mud cakes

Mocha Mud Cakes -womens weekly cupcakes

makes 12 cupcakes

165 g butter

100g dark eating chocolate

290g caster (superfine) sugar

2/3 cup (170ml) water

1/4 cup (60ml) coffee liqueur

2 tablespoons instant coffee granules

150g plain flour

2 tablespoons self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 egg

Preheat oven to 300f/150c

Combine the butter, chocolate, sugar, water, coffee liqueur and coffee granules and heat on low, stirring until melted together. Whisk the flours and cocoa powder and the egg, and then put into cupcake cases, around 2/3 full.

Bake for 30-40 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean when put in the cakes.

Ganache topping

100ml cream

100g dark chocolate, chopped

Heat cream until nearly boiling. Add chocolate, leave for 5 minutes then stir until melted. Refridgerate until a little thicker

Freeze the cupcakes for 5 mins, then pour a little chocolate onto them until it reaches the sides of the cake.

Bling Cupcakes

This was a real fun little project. Someone asked me to make them some cupcakes with an 'old skool' theme. I'm not really very well versed with that kind of stuff, so I had to ask for some images, and then got to work on some fun little toppers for the cupcakes. The hats were really fun, and then the 'bling' medallions were cool. Yellow and grey fondant covered with a little bit of gold and silver .



The cakes themselves were delicious too, a raspberry chocolate cupcake with a totally addictive chocolate raspberry ganache. These would be a perfect addition to any valentine's day celebration!


Double Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes from Womens weekly cupcakes (Australia)

60g dark chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup (125ml) water
90g butter, softened
1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2/3 cup (100g) all purpose flour
2/3 tsp baking powder
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup (40g) almond meal
100g frozen raspberries

Preheat oven to 325 f. Line a muffin pan with 12 cases
Heat the chocolate and water in a pan until melted. Set aside
Sift together the flour, cocoa and baking powder
Beat the butter and the sugar until fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, beating in between.
Add the flour mix and almond meal and mix just until combined, add the chocolate mixture and the raspberries and mix.
Scoop into the cases and bake for about 40 mins, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Whipped Raspberry Chocolate Ganache adapted from Rose Levenbaum's Cake Bible
8 oz whipping cream
2 oz dark chocolate
3 oz milk chocolate
2 oz frozen raspberries
3 oz raspberry jam
water

Heat the cream until almost boiling, add the chopped chocolate, remove from heat and stir until melted.
Boil the raspberries and jam with a little water for a couple of minutes and put through a sieve.
Stir into the chocolate mixture and chill for around an hour.
When the ganache is chilled, whip until stiff. Pipe onto cupcakes

Life's a beach cupcakes!

After getting back from a lovely holiday in Melbourne I wanted to try out my new cupcake book. It was a friend's birthday, and I know he loves the beach, so some tropical cakes with a beach theme seemed perfect.

These lime-coconut cakes rise to a perfect little dome and retain a nice bit of moisture. I added lime to the frosting for a bit more of a tang.

Life's a beach cupcakes adapted from Womens Weekly Cupcakes
makes 24 cupcakes

Lime Coconut Cakes
250g butter, softened (I'll assume that is salted butter)
2 teaspoons coconut essence
1 tablespoon finely grated lime rind
1 1/2 cups (290g) caster/superfine sugar
4 eggs
2/3 cup (160ml) milk
1 1/2 cups (120g) dessicated coconut
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder

Coconut Cream Cheese Frosting
60g butter, softened
160g cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons coconut essence
3 cups (480g) icing/confectioners sugar
Optional: juice of 1 lime

Decorations-fondant flowers/trees, crushed graham crackers for sand

Cakes:
Prepare 2 muffin tins with 24 cupcake cases. Preheat oven to 350f
Beat butter, coconut essence, lime rind, and sugar until fluffy
Add eggs, one at a time and beat
Meanwhile, sift flour and baking sugar
Add the coconut, stir in, then half the flour mixture, stirring gently until just combined. Add the milk, then the rest of the flour. Mix gently just until combined.

Scoop the mixture into the cupcake cases until about a third full. Bake for 25 mins or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean

Frosting: Beat together the butter, cream cheese and coconut essence. Add icing sugar and mix slowly until incorporated, then beat. Add lime juice, if desired and beat.