Cupcakes to Cornwall

I've just taken a short break with a friend to St Ives in Cornwall.

My Favourite Place!

We stayed at Little Leaf, a great B&B at the top of town which has the most stunning views.

Brilliantly run by Lee and Danny, a couple who escaped London to start a new life.  I have followed their blog since they started their new venture and now in their second season I finally got to meet them.

And of course I had to take Cupcakes .... with little leaves on!

I can really recommend staying there, they have thought of everything, and they make the most amazing breakfasts, huge and delicious. 

St Ives gave us 3 beautiful days of sunshine.  Red skies at night over Porthmeor Beach, bright turquoise and blues followed us on our coastal walk from Zennor to St Ives, and there was crystal clear water in the Harbour on our final morning.

I'm now refreshed and ready to start the Cupcake Term!

I'm looking forward to our "Class Trip" to the Cake and Bake Show on Sunday, I'll blog next week to let you know how we got on!

Raspberry Cupcakes

My Raspberries are finally ready for picking.

These Cupcakes are delicious, I made a vanilla cupcake and popped a raspberry on top before baking.  I didn't cover it, I just left it on the top of the mixture, it sinks into the middle during the bake.

I found some natural raspberry flavouring to beat into the buttercream and they tasted delicious.

Another option would be to use some raspberries to make a natural puree; push the raspberries through a sieve and stir into the buttcream, either fully to make a lovely pink colour, or as a marbly pattern.

Pinky Hen Party

We had a great afternoon on Saturday for Bex's Hen Party.

Wonderfully and secretly organised by Chief Hen, who had even made these stunning aprons for them all.  (I loved them, very pink, very me!)

Hard at work, they made some stunning Cupcakes, taking advantage of all the decorations, sprinkles and fresh raspberries on offer.

Here are the finished boxed Cupcakes ready to go.

I hope you enjoyed the rest of your weekend! 

Dalmation Birthday Cupcakes

Here are some cute spotty dalmation puppy cupcakes I made this week for a birthday girl.

The humidity this week has made it quite difficult for baking.

I made 75 yesterday and tried to make them either as early in the morning as possible or later on in the day.

I try and keep the kitchen cool and wash my hands alot in cold water which helps when handling the buttercream icing and cupcakes.

The batter doesn't like to sit around when the weather is like this, so avoid making up big batches that sit around and wait for their baking slot.  

Mix and bake as quickly as possible.

Chocolate Overload!

Recently every time I go into our local Budgens, there is a "special-offers" pile of Cadburys Chocolate Fingers for £1 box. 

It made me think of a cake in this style, similar to sponge fingers around a cake or trifle.

So this afternoon, with help from my 12 year old, which you can imagine he was quite happy to volunteer, we put this cake together.

Using a delicious chocolate cake recipe baked in an 8" cake tin, we coated the baked cake in melted dairy milk chocolate.

We had to just chop 1cm-2cm from the bottom of each biscuit, stuck them around the edge and then piled the maltesers on top. 

Recipe:

100g self raising flour

2 tbsp Bournville cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

100g unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

25g maple syrup

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 free range large egg

4 tsp milk

Large Bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk

3 boxes of Cadburys Chocolate Fingers (you use 2.5)

2 big pouch bags of maltesers

Method:

Cream together the butter, sugar, syrup and extract until light and fluffy.

Add an egg and large spoonful of flour/cocoa powder mix

Mix together

Add the other egg and flour/cocoa.

Fold in the remaining flour and milk.

Bake in a moderate oven (180c/350f/Gas4) for 35 minutes.

Let cool slightly and then turn out to rest on a wire rack.

Enjoy decorating!

Mini Marshmallow Cupcakes

I made these this morning, I find early baking very therapeutic. 

Everything smells even more delicious.

The cupcake was a vanilla choc chip and the buttercream was vanilla with mini marshallows and dark chocolate.

Very Yum!

Little Bunny Cupcakes

I LOVED making these cuties this morning.

Little Bunnies for a birthday celebration.

I used back to front chocolate drops for the eyes, a jelly heart sweet for the nose, rice paper cut into whiskers and pink fondant cheeks with fondant ears.

They looked so funny in their box ready to go.

They were joined by 16 sprinkled Vanilla Cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Beth

(a.k.a Bunny Rabbit!)