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

Somehow I have managed to have no fewer than six conversations this week involving the dairy queen. I can’t explain it. It just keeps coming up. And we don’t have the good old DQ here, but I did spend nearly five years working the DQ line and I really can’t knock it. I worked at a total of four different stores, but the one where I worked for much of high school was just a pleasant place most of the time. Even if I wrote a college comp assignment on the supposed tragedy of working the fourth of July one summer.

When I first started working there, lifers told me I would stop liking ice cream pretty quickly. I laughed. Surely such a thing is not possible. When you like ice cream, you like ice cream. And yes, yes I do. I ate ice cream every day I worked there, without fail. I secretly loved the night shift because you ended up with a treasure trove of ice cream in your freezer…if someone made a mistake with a flavour or something, it would go in the freezer rather than the rubbish. Every night we had to clear the freezer, and taking it home was just as viable as throwing it, so why not? In the summer, friends would meet up with us at close to share in the mysterious flavour combinations; the rest of the year I took it home to share with the family.

The other day I was really in mood for what used to show up on my drive-thru screen as ORBZCC. That’s an Oreo Blizzard with Chocolate Ice Cream and Cold Chocolate Fudge. We used to make an unofficial blizzard that was half that and half plain old cookies and cream. Aside from the time we put Cherry Nibs through the Blizzard machine, our unofficial menu was fabulous, I tell ya.

Except we don’t have a Dairy Queen here. But we have cupcakes, you know. My kitchen smells just like that unofficial Blizzard. Perfect.

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients:
180g unsalted butter
400g brown sugar
250g dark chocolate
3 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla
200g plain flour
100g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
8 Oreo cookies, smashed to bits
1 3/4 cup milk

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Set aside but don’t chill.
Heat the oven to 180C and line cupcake tin with papers.
Beat the butter until it is soft, then add sugar and mix until fluffy.
Stir up the egg yolks, then add them to the butter and sugar.
Add the vanilla and the chocolate (just make sure it’s not so hot that it would cook the eggs).
Add the flour, baking powder, soda, alternating with the milk.
Stir in the bashed Oreos until evenly distributed.
In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites until peaks form.
Fold in the egg whites, until no more whites show.
Scoop into the cupcake liners straight away, filling them 3/4 full.
Bake for 20 minutes or until chopstick comes out clean.
Cool on a wire rack before icing.

Cookies & Cream Icing

Ingredients:
225g unsalted butter
400 – 600g icing sugar (to taste)
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3/4 cup marshmallow fluff (they have this at sainsbury’s now!!)
8 Oreo cookies, smashed to bits

Beat the butter, then add in the sugar gradually and mix well.
Add milk and vanilla and continue to mix.
Once this much is to your taste (a basic vanilla buttercream), stir in the fluff with a spatula.
Add the bashed Oreos until the texture is even.

This will go through a piping bag, but you’ll need the Oreos to be very fine! Otherwise, just use a knife. The tops of these cupcakes are a bit fragile and the icing is sticky, so take your time and make sure the cupcakes are fully cooled.

Add more Oreos on top if you like. How could you not like?

xlovesx

Comment [21]

it’s getting cooler (except not today) and i’m starting to embrace autumn. it’s a tough thing to do, but i’ll come around. even if the shoes are not as comfortable.

so the other day we had porridge for breakfast. which i still call oatmeal in my head but porridge aloud. ‘cause it’s england and all.

but my favourite thing about oatmeal (because it’s not the done thing with porridge, really) is stirring in chunks of brown sugar and then having the glory of eating one spoonful of hot brown sugar because the chunks haven’t melted into the oats just yet.

i wanted this in a cupcake. but i didn’t want oats in my cupcake. because a cupcake with oats to me…is a muffin. not a cupcake.

this is what i came up with. sugar rush, yes. but also yummy, we think.

Brown Sugar Cupcakes

ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
400g sugar
200g self-raising flour
100g plain flour
50g dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup double cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 180C. Line cupcake tin with paper liners.
Use a mixer or electric whisk (or lots of arm strength) to beat butter until creamy and even.
Add white sugar and mix until fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
Add flours, milk and cream in stages to make it easier to mix. Mix until everything is smooth and even.
Then fold in the brown sugar—do not mix, just smash it through with a spatula to mix in the giant lumps, but you still want some little pockets of sugar that isn’t mixed. That’s the oatmeal effect.
Fill liners 3/4 full and bake for about 22 minutes (more time for big cupcakes, less time for minis).

Makes 30 regular sized cupcakes.

Brown Sugar Icing

75g dark brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
150g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix milk and brown sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then simmer for ten minutes to thicken. While this cooks, sit the butter in a bowl to soften.
Remove sugar mix from the heat and stir for about a minute, then add to the butter and mix in until the butter is all melted.
Add the vanilla.
Add the icing sugar in stages, mixing as you go, and tasting to see if it is too sweet for your taste.

This will be soft enough (in hot weather, too soft) to pipe but sets up quickly in the fridge. Pipe then stick them in the fridge and they will set as they are just melting down the edges of the cupcake.

After eating, be aware of crash to sugar low due in approximately 25 minutes!

xlovesx

Comment [5]

this week: buying real furniture (as in not out of the ikea catalogue), surprise {un}birthday parties and excellent electrical storms. life is good.

so is this recipe from chocolate & zucchini. if you have never made this, you must. it is super easy and super yummy with the most amazing melty texture. fabulous.

but i also have a penchant for almond slants on things. for months i could not find any real almond extract and the artificial stuff tastes of more chemicals than a neon pink bottle of panda pop. but bless williams-sonoma. they had the real stuff, and i have been waiting to open it. so patiently.

{seriously, it is a wonderful thing there is no williams-sonoma near me. i only have a small kitchen, after all.}

Chocolate Almond Kisses

Ingredients:
200g unsalted butter
250g dark chocolate
200g sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Heat the oven to 180C. Line cupcake tray with liners. These are mini sized.
Melt chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of hot (but not boiling) water. Keep stirring while melting.
Remove from heat and saucepan and add the sugar. Just stir it in—no need for a mixer or a whisk.
Let cool until not hot to the touch.
Stir in the almond extract.
Add eggs one by one.
Add flour and stir until the texture is even.
Fill liners just over 1/2 full.
Bake for about 12 minutes (mini), 18 (regular) or 25 (giant).
Let cool in pan for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack.
Once cool, place in the fridge over night. Remove an hour or two before serving, and add icing.

I’ve used two different icings on these—double cream whipped up with almond extract and icing sugar or buttercream with almond extract added. Today we had pink buttercream with a few sparkly sprinkles. But these pictures were prettiest.

Love that there’s no need to use the mixer for these and the melty factor adds a punch of almond. Eeeee.

xlovesx

Comment [4]

Getting back in the swing of things. Both the school day and the shared laptop. Haven’t heard anything from the insurance folk yet. Tedious.

But this week had a Thursday! So the first Cupcake Thursday of the academic year, then.

If you ask my grandmother what kind of cake mix I would pick for my birthday every year from basically the age of 8, she would reply, ‘Yellow – with pudding in the mix.’ Or at least I think she would. Although I am sure they achieved it with lots of chemicals, there was (is?) an American cake mix that claimed on the box to have pudding inside, and it was a very, very moist yellow cake. Something you don’t always get with homemade cake recipes. So with a bit of a brainstorm, I decided custard might work. And apparently it did. They were all eaten promptly and co-worker Adam – lover of many snack foods – claimed they were a particularly good variety of cupcake. So hurrah! Custard in cupcakes is a good thing, I think.

Custard Cupcakes
{makes 12 standard size cupcakes}

Ingredients:
2 medium eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
125g unsalted butter
1 cup Bird’s Custard (I have only tried the one that comes ready mixed in the tub—don’t know if the powder would mix up the same…or if you are in the states and can’t get this, my best bet would be vanilla pudding cups.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 if you are not a vanilla fan)
1 1/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda (baking soda in the states)

Heat oven to 180C. Prepare pan with cupcake liners.
Crack eggs into mixing bowl and stir to break yolks.
Add sugar and mix with mixer or electric whisk until colour lightens.
Add butter and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.
Fold in custard until evenly distributed.
Add flour, baking powder and soda and mix.
Fill each cupcake liner just over half full.
Bake for about 18 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. (I am sure other people do not use chopsticks for this. I find it more than useful, and Ariel will tell you, we really have way too many chopsticks in our kitchen anyway.)
Cool on a wire rack. Ice only when cupcakes are at room temperature.

For the icing, make up a basic buttercream by mixing unsalted butter with icing sugar and a little bit of vanilla. Then add custard a tablespoon or two at a time until you are happy with the consistency. The more custard you add, the less it will set, even if you refridgerate the icing. So be careful if you have to travel with them—I shall not be responsible for getting custard out of your upholstery! Thankfully, the new girl didn’t mind holding the tray in the car for her first Cupcake Thursday!

xlovesx

Comment [4]

You know, I really did start making cupcakes just because I liked them and I wanted to cheer up some coworkers. I ask my team to come to work ten minutes early every Thursday to discuss student progress, and I figure if they are all giving that ten minutes, the least I could give was a bit of a treat. And that’s how Cupcake Thursdays came to be.

But cupcakes can be pretty (well, if I manage to make the icing properly, anyway) so I started photographing them and sticking the pictures on my blog. Because, in case the pink wasn’t a dead giveaway, I have a great appreciation for photos of cute things. Like cupcakes. Some like minded friends do too. That’s what blogging is about, right?

And now, I get emails for my cupcake recipes! This humbles me so. I enjoy making cupcakes, but you ought to hear me slamming about and arguing with the batter sometimes. I am not quite at one with the cupcake. But usually they are yummy, so it’s all good.

What you really wanted: The Cupcake FAQ

Do you use a cake mix?
Very, very rarely. I keep one in the cupboard just in case. I think it just makes me feel better. This is partially because we just don’t have many quality cake mixes in the UK, partially because I try to eat (and therefore cook) things without lots of chemicals and stabilisers and partially because I feel more accomplished if I actually mix things myself.

What recipes do you use?
I try lots of different ones. I have a few that are favourites that go down well with everybody, and other times I try various different ones to add in some variety. Sometimes these work (like the mocha variety); sometimes they are very disappointing (like the cherry brandy variety). But I’ll share a few favourite resources.
Online Recipes

*Old Reliable Vanilla Cupcakes

*Billy’s Vanilla Vanilla Cupcakes

*Billy’s Chocolate Cupcakes

*Dark Chocolate to Die for

Books for your Collection

*More from Magnolia

*The Buttercup Bakeshop Cookbook

*Cupcakes!

Do you really make cupcakes every Thursday?
Technically, no. I usually make them late Wednesday night, and we have them with our Thursday morning coffee at work. Which means I only make them when school is in session. And sometimes Wednesday night is either too busy or too hot for baking. That’s when I cheat and go to Krispy Kreme. But it’s pretty rare.

Can you freeze cupcakes?
Yes, if you have a good freezer. I don’t—it tends to resemble a fake snow factory rather than a large subzero space. But yes, you can freeze them. Bake them and let them cool but do not frost them. Wrap in plastic and try to get as much air out of the bag as possible. The trick is in the defrosting—when you want to defrost the cupcakes, take them out of the plastic! Just sit them on a plate for a few hours at room temperature and they will be fine. Then frost them and eat as normal.

Can I find cupcakes on the internet?
Well, yes. I think so. If you want to just look at cupcakes, you’ll want to check out Cupcakes Take the Cake often. If you want to make beautiful, cutting edge cupcakes, check out Chockylit and if you want to eat cupcakes, you might try Eve here in London, Star Provisions in Atlanta, Cupcake Royale in Seattle or BabyCakes at the River Market in Kansas City. {As for other cities…it’s not that I don’t like your cupcakes…I just haven’t tried your cupcakes. I promise.}

...and there ends the ridiculous idea of a cupcake FAQ. Unless you email me with more questions, clearly.

Happy baking.
xlovesx

Comment [2]

i swear i do things other than make cupcakes. i do. why, over the past week, i have gone to work, pulled through minor health drama and poorly assembled some poorly manufactured flat pack furniture. see? the cupcakes are just more fun.

so much fun that at the weekend, anita in the netherlands emailed me for cupcake info. by the time the weekend was out, she’d made some gorgeous cupcakes in white and dark chocolate, with little chocolate hearts on top. i hope she will post the picture on her blog, as they look super yummy and, after all, i am all about the sharing of good cupcake photos, right behind the sharing of cupcakes.

sorry to cut this short, but i have to go be stern with the annoying neighbours who have left their dogs barking in the flat all night, which explains why i’m posting now. when did i become such a grown up? anyway, i must be awake in five hours and since i have actually learned to sleep, i will go complain and then go. to. bed.

i’m sure you wanted to know.

xlovesx

ps: 9 days!

ten more school days. it’s to so-close-you-can-taste-it level. next week is all workshops and trips and special guests, and then i have just one final week of regularly scheduled lessons to get year 9 to do something coursework worthy on wuthering heights. then it’s summer. {which means i need to do the lesson planning for summer school, but let’s not talk about that right now. it’ll ruin the mood.}

this week we discovered there is a very sensible reason for the rejection of july as national frosting month. wednesday night was exceedingly hot and the butter kept splitting from just stirring it. now i understand why there is crisco in kansas. this was the third try, with much refrigeration and an ice pack under the mixing bowl. sheesh.

purple because we were finishing this year long leadership course that is so corporately branded in purple, it’s just amusing. the course has been worth it just for the entertainment value—it was a lot of familiar american total quality management theory and analysis of emerging styles of leadership. the reading list included 7 habits and that book i can’t remember the name of that is all about a family owned coffee cart chain in seattle. at the start of every course workshop, we had to go through our ground rules. these started with everything is confidential and nothing leaves this room. it’s probably a good thing i was never called on to review the ground rules, because i don’t think i would have had the will power to say anything aside from the first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club, and the second rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club. this was immensely funny between two of us on the course and no one else even pretended to get the connection. as part of the finish, we had to present our work, and my work included cupcakes, so i brought evidence. evidence is important when giving a presentation, right? and it’s better when the audience can eat the evidence quite happily. oh yes, and the other part of the entertainment value? it’s not a presentation, it’s a learning conversation. yes, a conversation in which one person must speak for ten minutes from their own outline. i can see so much conversation in that.

actually, it wasn’t as rubbish as i make it sound…but i did find it comical from start to finish. and now i have a certificate to prove i made it through. it’s purple, of course.

plus, i need your help
i’ll be in atlanta from the 25-30 of july.
tell me where i need to shop, please.
thank you.

and this is especially for cheryl:

and here i was, still believing that elvis lived in salina. turns out he emigrated. and he had a girlfriend! i’m sure the presley girls would not be impressed.

xlovesx

Comment

i’m still not too sure where last week went. but that is okay once in a while. saturday was a bit more civil, as we trucked off to leeds castle for the open air concert they do in the summer. it was surreal to see it from this side of things…the last time i went i was singing with the brighton festival chorus who i dearly miss but then again i don’t live in brighton anymore! we had a divine picnic including these cupcakes {click through for recipe info} and butternut quiche and pimms. there were hot air balloons, fireworks and spitfires in the sky to join up with the 1812 overture and a very pretty sunset.

all these things are silly but lovely and pretty much i just wanted to say hi.

and there are now just four more weeks of school.

xlovesx