Lemon Cupcakes

These cupcakes are easy peasy lemon squeezy (excuse the pun) and take no time at all to make. The recipe is adapted from a Baking Mad orange cupcake recipe to make lemon cupcakes with a lemony frosting.

Just like any other cupcake recipe, first cream together 200g butter with 200g caster sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the zest of one lemon and the juice of half a lemon.

Once combined add in the 4 eggs - a top tip (which I must confess I found on the Baking Mad website) is to add a tablespoon of the flour to the eggs to prevent it from curdling. Then tip in the remaining 200g of self-raising flour to the mixture.

Place 24 cupcake cases into two muffin trays before spooning in the mixture. A great way to make sure all of the cake mixture is evenly distributed amongst the cupcakes is to use an ice-cream scoop to make sure each cupcake is the same size.

The cupcakes need to go in the oven at 180oc (fan 190oc) for 15-20 minutes or until brown.

Whilst the cupcakes are cooling, you can begin making the frosting; combine 200g cream cheese, 100g butter, 600g icing sugar and the remaining lemon juice. Then place it into a piping bag, wait until the cupcakes are cool and ice onto the cupcakes.

These cupcakes were made to celebrate Just Pootling's 1st birthday! So it was only right that they were decorated accordingly (with lots of glitter). The bunting and flags were made from Washi Tape and cocktail sticks.

Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

These have been on my list of things to bake for a long time and this weekend (being the hottest weekend in a long time) seemed like a good time to try them out.

I used a simple BBC Food recipe to make these, so simple in fact you just throw all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. This includes; 200g butter, 200g caster sugar, 200g plain flour, 4 tbsp custard powder, 1 tbsp vanilla essence and 2 eggs. I halved this recipe to make 6 cones but in the end it made around 9.

Then spoon the mixture into flat ice cream cones which need to be placed into a muffin tin to make sure they stay upright whilst baking. Fill the cones 2/3 of the way with mixture so that the cakes rise to the top of the cone.

They will need to go into the oven for about 30 minutes but I found mine needed to come out before then, so keep an eye on them and take them out when they are golden brown in colour (use a cake tester to make sure it comes out clean).

To make the butter icing combine 350g of butter, 350g icing sugar and 2 tbsp of vanilla essence. Then spoon it into a piping big, ideally one with a star shaped nozzle or a relatively big one.

Once the cakes are cool, you can pipe the icing onto of the cones, starting from the edge into the centre.

Then you can decorate them with whatever you fancy, I went for the traditional 99p cone as you can see, only with added sprinkles (obviously)!

Cadbury Mini Egg Cupcakes

Everyone loves a good vanilla cupcake, especially an Easter themed one with a butter cream icing topped with crushed Cadbury Mini Eggs. The good thing about this recipe is each ingredient requires the same quantity (4oz). 

First combine 4oz of butter with 4oz of caster sugar until it makes a creamy, fluffy mixture. Then add in two eggs (one at a time) before adding in 1tsp of vanilla essence.

 

Then add in 4oz of self-raising flour (and if you think it is a needed, a few drops of milk to loosen the mixture) before spooning into the cupcake cases. The mixture makes exactly 12 cupcakes - whilst it may not seem as if there is enough in each they will raise and it also allows for room for the icing on top. 

 

To make the butter icing, combine 10oz of icing sugar and 5oz butter (it will always be double the amount of icing sugar to butter). If it seems too thick, you can add a small amount of milk but I found 

it wasn't needed for these. 

Then place the icing into a piping bag before piping onto the cupcakes.

 Then take a handful of mini eggs and place them in a sandwich bag before giving them a good bash with a rolling pin. Then sprinkle the crumbs on top of the iced cupcakes before placing a mini egg on the top of each. 

Then all that is left to do is sprinkle them with gold glitter (obviously).

Carrot Cake Cupcakes

Carrot cake cupcakes are perfect for any occasion, this occasion being Christmas of course! I used the Hummingbird Bakery Carrot Cake recipe for these which I separated into individual cupcake cases.

Unlike usual cupcake recipes, which use butter, carrot cake requires (sunflower) oil. So to begin; add the oil, light brown sugar and eggs together. Once combined, add in the vanilla extract and dry ingredients (plain flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger & salt). Followed by the grated carrot.

Then place them into the oven until they are golden brown, and leave to cool before icing. 

The carrot cake frosting is taken from Lorraine Pascale's carrot cake recipe which is made using icing sugar, butter, lemon zest, vanilla extract and cream cheese. I also tend to add in some of the lemon juice too for extra flavour.  

Once combined, you can begin spreading the icing on top of the cupcakes before adding the decorations. Normally I would decorate them with miniature white chocolate carrots (which you can find in Sainsburys), but as it is Christmas, it only felt right to use a few santas and reindeers instead.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes

It's National Baking Week! So I figured a bake would be compulsory this week, something I hadn't tried before.

That was when I came across the #nationalbakeoff, a competition which you enter by baking one of five given recipes and sending in the picture, where I discovered John Whaite's (previous GBBO winner) Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes recipe.

I've never tried Peanut Butter and Jelly together before, nor have I ever used them in a cake batter, but the cupcakes were a scrummy alternative to the usual vanilla sponge. 

 It's a very simple recipe which just requires you to weigh out all your ingredients and mix them together in the bowl at once.

Once you've baked and cooled your cupcakes, the icing is simply butter, (smooth) peanut butter, icing sugar and raspberry jam mixed together.

I'm not the best cupcake decorator that ever existed but I thought this week was as good a time as ever to give it a go. 

So fingers crossed! 

(Hidden) Heart Centred Cupcakes

These cupcakes were inspired by an episode of the Great British Bake Off, which saw each contestant bake a celebration cake with a hidden centre. I wanted to try this out myself but on a smaller scale...that was when I stumbled across this 'hidden shape cupcakes' recipe.

You might think that is a lot of faff for a cupcake but you'll find it is surprisingly simple and makes for an impressive cupcake at the end (my Nan rang me especially to let me know just how much a lovely surprise it was). There are two steps to making these cupcakes.

Firstly, to make the hearts in the centre, mix all the ingredients together (caster sugar, butter, two eggs, self-raising flour, corn flour, milk, vanilla extract and pink food colouring), then place the mixture into a square tin until baked. Once cooled, place it in the fridge to allow it to set further, then use a heart cutter to cut the hearts out of the sponge with.

These can then be put to the side whilst you make the cupcakes, which are made the exact same way as the first batch, only they are put into individual cupcake cases. However, refer back to the recipe for the quantities as they vary from the heart mixture. 

Add two tbsp of the mixture to each cupcake case and then place a sponge heart in the centre (this may be easier to do one at a time as they tend to fall over) and pour the remaining mixture into each cupcake case - make sure you cover the tops of the heart shapes.

A top tip to make sure that the heart is facing forward when you cut into the cupcake is to mark each cupcake case on the sides with a pen. Then once out of the oven and cooled, decorate the cupcakes with butter icing to disguise any sign of something hidden inside and then wait for the surprised faces when people cut them open!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I'd never actually tried red velvet cake before making this batch of cupcakes, but I'd seen a number of different recipes online. So I thought I'd try it out...turns out they are delicious rich cupcakes with a chocolatey aftertaste. In fact they were so delicious...I forgot to take any other photos than the one below (once I'd taken a bite first).

I used a Hummingbird recipe from the Goodtoknow website to make this batch. I noticed a number of the reviews were from people questioning which brand of food coloring to use as some didn't give a deep enough (red) color and some didn't taste as nice as others. I personally found the Silver Spoon red food coloring to be the best as it gave the perfect colour but with no added taste.