cupcakes: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

So yes, cupcakes that I worry could result in a ‘cease & desist’ email, but I’ve done a bit of searching and I don’t think Starbucks have actually registered a trademark for the Gingerbread Latte, so hopefully I shall be fine.

In all seriousness, this is the thought process behind this cupcake:
1. Gingerbread = yum.
2. Coffee = yum.
3. If it works in a drink, surely it can work in a cupcake.

And all I know is this: normally, our tray of cupcakes on Cupcake Thursdays lasts right to the end of the day. Not like lots left over, but sometimes just one or two. This Thursday I walked into the office at 11am and they were all gone.

That’s really all the justification you needed, right?

Without further adieu then:

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes
with Ginger Spice Buttercream Icing

Cake ingredients:
350g unsalted butter
300g dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 double espresso (about 100mL)
200g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 tablespoons dark treacle // moleasses
100mL double cream
1 tablespoon gingerbread syrup (optional)
Ginger preserves (optional)

Heat oven to 180C and line cupcake tin with papers. This made 24 standard sized cupcakes.

Make a double espresso and sit aside to cool. If you can’t make espresso at home, use about a half cup of strong black coffee.

In a mixing bowl, beat room temperature butter until soft and fluffy, then add sugar and mix well. Add each egg, mixing in between.
Stir in espresso.
Add the flour and other dry ingredients and continue to mix. Fold in cream and treacle and mix until even, making sure the treacle isn’t just stuck to the bowl or the beaters.

If you are a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte addict, you can add their syrup to make it taste as close to the drink as possible. If you just like ginger and coffee, then this is totally optional.

Once this is mixed, it should have a mousse-like texture. Scoop into the cups, filling just over halfway. Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. Let cakes cool on a wire rack.

When totally cool, use a melon baller to scoop out the centre of a cupcake, then fill with a teaspoon of ginger preserves (found with the jams at the supermarket) and replace the top of the cake. It’s not too sweet and will keep the cakes moist longer…in theory. I didn’t get to test that, really.

Icing ingredients:
300g unsalted butter at room temperature
Icing sugar to taste—around 300-400g
1 teaspoon ginger extract/flavouring
1 teaspoon gingerbread syrup (optional)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon…plus extra for dusting
2 tablespoons marshmallow fluff
food colouring (optional)
crystallised ginger pieces for the top

In a mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Mix in part of the icing sugar until consistency is even. Then add all the rest—same thing as above for the gingerbread syrup—and mix well. Continue to add more icing sugar until it reaches the sweetness and thickness you like.

As British butter is very yellow, I sometimes find it’s tough to get icing to a nice colour without food colouring. I actually just added a little brown to this one so it would tone it down from the happy yellow and look a bit more gingery. You could make it any colour you like, but just remember the flecks from the cinnamon will show, even if you decide to make it neon green.

Spread on cooled cupcakes with a knife or a piping bag, and dust with more cinnamon. Add crystallised ginger to the tops of some cupcakes and you’re done!

xlovesx

Comment [133]

Is it really Thursday? Where are the days going, exactly? I’d quite like to find the abyss where they seem to be landing lately. It’s okay though. Things are busy and crazy but happy and good.

I think these cupcakes are actually my most derivative recipe, but everyone has a few dishes that they wouldn’t have gotten just right without help from someone else right? Many a cupcake fan knows Chockylit’s recipes. I love her site for the methods she uses as well as the photos, which are always gorgeous. She uses ingredients one might never think about including in cupcakes and her explanations make big culinary words nice and simple.

Thing is, we’re on two different continents, so we have slightly different ingredients from time to time. This definitely looked like the best chocolate/mint recipe I’d found, but it’s nigh on impossible to get fresh mint this time of year in this part of the world. And I wanted it to complement an After 8 mint. And I cook with different chocolate…that sorta thing. So there’s just a bit of changing here and there…but it’s all good.

Mint Chocolate Christmas Cupcakes
{adapted from Chockylit’s Rich Chocolate and Mint Recipe}

Cake Ingredients:
200g dark chocolate (72% min)
400g unsalted butter
500g sugar
8 large eggs
200g flour
50g cocoa powder
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
1.5 teaspoons peppermint flavouring
pinch of salt

Okay…it feels wrong to even type these instructions out in my own words because these I made just like hers and she explains it very well. I did add the peppermint just after the eggs…wow for a big change there.

Filling Ingredients:
100g dark chocolate (72%)
100ml double cream
30g unsalted butter
6 marshmallows
4 peppermint tea bags
75g sugar

Heat the cream on low in a saucepan with the peppermint tea bags, stirring frequently. Don’t let the cream boil, just thicken. On my cooker this took about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and remove the tea bags.
Melt the chocolate, marshmallows and butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Once this is about half melted, add the cream and sugar and stir to combine. Heat until all melted, then remove from heat and allow to cool for about 15 minutes. Stir again to make sure the sugar melted in rather than sinking to the bottom, then sit it in the fridge to set until you need it.

Icing Ingredients:
350g unsalted butter*
1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring (I couldn’t get extract…but I’ll be on the lookout!)
3 tablespoons double cream
Icing sugar to taste (at least 300g)

In a mixing bowl, beat room temperature butter until fluffy, then add the other ingredients and mix well. Add icing sugar gradually and stir in with a spatula before turning on the mixer. Remember the sweetness of buttercream fades in a few hours, so make it a bit sweeter than you want or it will taste like butter tomorrow morning. I did use a bit of food colouring to make these a minty green…that is optional of course.

Putting it all together…

This week I invested in a melon baller. For ages I’ve been cutting divets in my cupcakes with a knife and, well, I’m not so great with a knife. I had actually thought about asking for a melon baller for Christmas, but when I saw one yesterday for an entire £1.99, I decided to just go for it. Turns out this is perfect and I am entirely childish for not trying it before. There ya go.

Use the melon baller on the top of each cupcake…spoon in a bit of filling and replace the cake. Ice with a knife or a piping bag. Chop After 8 mints in half and add to the top, then add a few chocolate sprinkles.

*I’ve been searching high and low for how to get the consistency I want in a buttercream, but I kept getting something that was too soft and a bit too oily. I kept trying different English butters and such…and I’ve finally found it. It’s Countrylife. It’s not organic…but if I’ve already gotten into a food colouring, marshmallow and flavouring binge, I think I can let go of organic butter for just a little bit. I suppose. Seeing as it is apparently the best selling butter in the country, let’s not discuss how I missed its wonders all this time.

I blame the layout of the shelves at my local Sainsbury’s, clearly.

xlovesx

Comment [6]

Last month I got a few emails asking if I would be posting any Christmas Cupcake recipes in December. I would not be lying if I told you I am worried that I will not have enough cupcake baking opportunities in December to cover all the Christmas cupcake recipes I want to try. So I started this week. Forgive me.

These are probably the most autumny of the bunch anyway—halfway between Thanksgiving and Christmas, if there could be such a thing here in England.

Pumpkin Christmas Cupcakes

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
100g sugar
250g dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
300g fresh pumpkin, cooked and cooled.
250g self-raising flour
3 tablespoons dark treacle/moleasses
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Heat oven to 180c and line cupcake tin with papers. Makes 18-24 standard sized cupcakes.

Beat softened butter until fluffy, then add sugars and beat until the consistency is even. Add the eggs and continue to mix, then mix in the pumpkin until no large pieces remain. Pour treacle into the mix – not onto the beaters – and mix through.
Add dry ingredients gradually and mix until well incorporated.

Fill cupcake papers just over halfway and bake for 18 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. Leave in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack and cool completely before icing. They are fine just kept in the fridge overnight and iced the next morning.

Brandy Butter & Cream Cheese Frosting

250g unsalted butter
200g brandy butter (storebought or make your own)
100g cream cheese
icing sugar to taste
2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus more to dust

Let the butter and cheese come to room temperature, then cream together with the mixer. Mix in icing sugar until it is as sweet as you want it, then add the cinnamon.
Spread or pipe over cooled cupcakes, then sprinkle with cinnamon just before serving.

xlovesx

Comment [21]

These are so much like some other recipes I’ve shared, so I wasn’t going to post them. But Hannah asked me nicely to put the recipe online. And I always like to encourage baking that involves tiny pieces of cookies.

If you’re not familiar with Bourbon biscuits: chocolate cookie, chocolate cream. Similar in consistency to EL Fudge cookies in the states, actually. Served here with tea.

Bourbon Biscuit Cupcakes

Ingedients:
200g dark chocolate
250g unsalted butter
250g brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
200g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 pack bourbon cream biscuits
1 cup whipping cream

Heat the oven to 170C. Line baking tin with cupcake papers. This makes enough to feed my Year 10 class. That would be 27.

Empty your bag of chocolate cream biscuits into a zip plastic bag and bash them to small bits with either a rolling pin, a meat tenderiser or other bashing tool of your choice. Set aside.

Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl on top of a saucepan of simmering water. Remove from heat.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter until soft, then add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, mixing after each one.
Pour in the vanilla and cooled chocolate and continue to mix (the chocolate must cool a bit or you will scramble your eggs).
Add in the flour, powder and soda and continue to mix.
Stir in the biscuits and the whipping cream.

Fill cupcake liners just over halfway full and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean.

Ice with chocolate frosting of your choice: I used more melted chocolate, butter, icing sugar and cream stirred together until thick.

There ya go, Hannah!

xlovesx

Comment [5]

Apparently, almonds are like marmite: love or hate.

I love.

Adam, chief Cupcake Thursday cupcake consumer and work colleague, hates.

It was really quite funny. And totally lost here, I know.

If you’ve ever had a traditional British sponge with a layer of marzipan and rolled fondant…perhaps this is my twist on that? Actually, I often find that type of cake to look beautiful but taste less than ideal. There is a tendency for British cakes to be far too dry for my liking, but then again that probably means they are far healthier, as I buy enough butter to make the check-out girls worry about my cholesterol.

We Love Almonds Cupcakes

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
150g sugar
100g brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract (synthetic almond flavouring is weaker and has a more chemically taste, so look for the real stuff preferably!)
70g ground almonds
150g self-raising flour (you may need a little more)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
100mL cream
50mL milk
Raspberry jam

Heat oven to 170c and line cupcake tin with papers. This recipe makes about 18 average sized cupcakes.

In a mixing bowl, beat softened butter with an electric mix/whisk until fluffy. Add sugars and continue to beat.
Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat. Stir in almond extract.
Add dry ingredients gradually, mixing throughout.
Stir in cream and milk until texture is consistent.

Spoon into cupcake papers, filling just over half full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean.
Cool in the pan for a few minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Use a melon baller or a knife to remove part of the top of the cooled cupcake, and spoon in raspberry jam. Replace top and add frosting.

Ice with almond buttercream (unsalted butter, icing sugar, almond extract and a little milk). Roll out some marzipan and cut shapes with a cookie cutter. Marzipan, too, is a love/hate thing, so just place marzipan on a few cupcakes and everyone will be happy.

xlovesx

Comment [8]

Is it really Saturday already? Time is playing tricks.

Also it is really cold.

So make some hot chocolate cupcakes, turn on the heating and knit a new sweater, okay?

Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

ingredients:
125g unsalted butter
125g sugar
100g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa)
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
75g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
1 packet instant hot chocolate (sachet for a single cup)
150ml sour cream
50ml milk

Heat the oven to 170C. Line cupcake tin with papers—makes 16-18 average sized cupcakes.
Place chocolate in a glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and melt. Remove from heat.
Place softened butter in mixing bowl and beat until light.
Add sugar and mix until fluffy.
Add chocolate and mix until even.
Add eggs and vanilla and continue to mix, scraping sides of bowl with a spatula.
Add flour, baking powder and soda, mixing until well incorporated.
Add sour cream and stir through until no white streaks remain.
Sprinkle the hot chocolate packet across the top of the bowl, then add the milk and mix in. Depending on your hot chocolate, you may need slightly less or more milk, so just watch as you stir and add a little more if the batter is excessively thick.

Fill the cases just over halfway and bake for about 18 minutes, until a chopstick comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for just a minute or two, then remove to cool on a rack. Beware—these cupcakes will sink in the centre as they cool. In fact, you can actually see this happen as you take them out of the oven. Once they are iced, it doesn’t matter anyway. But don’t let that think you’ve done something wrong. You haven’t.

You can ice these with vanilla cream (whipping cream, 1 tsp vanilla and sugar mixed to taste) which really suits the hot chocolate feel, but I just fancied buttercream this week because I’ve been using fresh cream quite a lot recently. Ever since my local shop started carrying that random bit of americana called marshmallow fluff, I’ve been adding two big spoonfuls to my buttercream (which is just unsalted butter, icing sugar, a tiny bit of milk and a tiny bit of vanilla extract all mixed together) and it is smooth and sweet without being marshmallowy. So there ya go.

xlovesx

Comment [9]

Preconceived notions are such interesting topics. How student A looked challenging on paper but is a dream in real life (or vice versa, of course). How a movie looks good from the trailers but dreadful in person (or thankfully, sometimes the other way around there too). How things can generally be different than they seem. Hmmm.

Here’s a light-hearted preconceived notion for you: chocolate should be dense but vanilla should be light and fluffy.

I did say it was light-hearted.

So I figured you have to try these things to learn if the notion is true. Dense vanilla cake then. Like pound cake and yet…not. Not crumbly at all. And the chocolate is very, very dark. Not sweet.

They’re not for everybody. They’re for grown-ups.

Grown-up Cupcakes

Cake Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
200g sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking powder
200g plain flour
200g self-raising flour
1/4 cup runny honey
1 cup plain greek-style yoghurt
1/2 cup whipping cream

Heat oven to 175C. Line trays with cupcake liners – makes about 22.
Beat butter until it is fluffy, then add sugar and beat a further 3 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating each one until even.
Add vanilla and mix again.
Add the remaining ingredients, alternating between the wet and dry. Mix until all flour is incorporated evenly.

Fill liners just over half-way and bake until a chopstick comes out clean – about 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, then place on a rack to cool.

Filling ingredients:
100g 70% dark chocolate (the really dark stuff you can find in the baking section)
200g dark chocolate (more like the quality of a dark chocolate candy bar rather than what you find in the baking section)
125g unsalted butter

Break the chocolate into small pieces. Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl. Place bowl on top of a saucepan filled with water just under the boil. Melt the chocolate and butter but don’t let it burn. As soon as everything is melted (or actually a little before), remove from the heat and stir with a wooden spoon. Let cool but not set.

Crack the cooled cupcakes by placing a knife in the centre of each one. Fill this with the chocolate, and leave to set.

Topping ingredients:
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
50g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Place all in a bowl and whisk until peaks form. Spoon onto cupcakes or place in a piping bag to decorate.

A little apology for the lateness of the Christmas info. Just ironing out the last few things—sign ups will start tomorrow, Saturday the 4th.

xlovesx

Comment [3]

It’s Thursday. So it’s my second favourite topic to discuss. {Which reminds me I need to email Relly about her Christening Cupcakes. Cute!}

It’s gone suddenly cold, the leaves have gone from green to the ground and I am craving warmth. I’m getting odd looks for wearing my hoodie when walking between buildings and I’m typing wrapped up in Icelandic wool. This must mean it is autumn. Which also means it is time for spiced baking.

I wanted to bake the apples for this myself but last night we had a professional development evening at work (after-school training with a more polished name!) and ya know…those are the times when even someone who tries to avoid canned foods remembers that they do serve a very important purpose. So these are the no-mess shortcut. But they do have more preservatives than cooking them yourself. Not that much though.

Apple Spice Cupcakes Long Winter Cupcakes

Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
400g sugar
5 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup milk
170g self-raising flour
170g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tin apple pie filling (or 350-400g stewed apples)

Heat the oven to 160C. Place liners in cupcake pan and set aside.
In mixing bowl, beat softened butter until smooth, then add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well distributed.
Stir in the self-raising flour until consistent.
Add the milk and vanilla and mix again.
Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix until even.
Fold in the apple pie filling. If your filling is too solid and the batter seems excessively thick, add milk or apple juice to thin slightly.
Fill cake cases 3/4 full and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a chopstick comes out clean.
Makes about 32 average sized cupcakes.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:
500g cream cheese
175g unsalted butter
150g light brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cinnamon, plus extra for sprinkling

Soften the cream cheese and butter in a bowl and mix with a spatula or mixer until there are no lumps.
Add remaining ingredients and mix until even in colour and texture.
Chill overnight in the fridge to thicken and improve the texture of the sugar (brown sugar is crunchy until it sets).
Pipe or spread over cupcakes.
Sprinkle with cinnamon to garnish.

And although I don’t normally reveal my little lyric subject lines, I will point you toward this one because it’s so bloody brilliant. I never tire of this song (it’s the fourth one on their player…cinnamon, aptly). I think I will call these my Long Winter cupcakes from now on. They are playing Europe with Keane and…well…this may actually be something that would make me go to a Keane gig. Scary.

xlovesx

Comment [20]