Valentine's Cupcakes

I love it when there's an excuse to bake something really yummy and this time it was cupcakes for a Valentine's Cake Sale we had at school. I may have mentioned it before that in June we have a Leaver's Ball for reaching the end of our time in secondary school, and the prom committee and I are trying different ways to raise money to go towards the cost. We held a cake sale and everyone made (or bought) cakes and biscuits to sell and we made £92! So we were very pleased and it is definitely something we will do again- especially as it's an excuse to get baking! 

The vanilla cupcakes are made from half the mixture used in my Christmas Cupcakes, a recipe from The Great British Bake Off: How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers and the same method.

For the chocolate cupcakes, you'll need:

60g (2oz) Butter or Margarine, at room temperature

60g (2oz) Caster Sugar

1 Egg, lightly beaten

45g (1½ oz) Self-Raising Flour, sifted

15g Cocoa Powder, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/Gas Mark 4 and put 17 cupcake cases or 12 muffin cases into two cupcake trays. 

Beat the butter/margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the egg, a little at a item and beat thoroughly in-between additions. Fold in the cocoa powder and flour.

Spoon the mixture into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes. They should be springy and firm to touch. Transfer to a wire wrack and leave to cool.

 For the icing:
140g (5oz) Butter/Margarine, at room temperature
280g (10oz) Icing Sugar, sifted

Beat the butter/margarine until smooth and light. Add the icing sugar a little at a time and beat until well combined. The longer you beat it, the fluffier it will be! Split the mixture in half and add half a tablespoon of cocoa powder to the chocolate icing and a few drops of pink food colouring to the other.
Pipe onto cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles!

 Happy Baking! 

x

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Christmas Cupcakes

Christmas has really started for me now. At school, we've had the Christmas carol service, at my acting company we've had our Christmas party and I've finally broken up from school! I'm really looking forward to a Christmas break with my family and lots of food! 

This is from my new book, The Great British Bake Off: How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers. I was such a avid follower of the show that I had to have the book! So my good friend Beth bought me it for my birthday. This recipe is called English Summer Cupcakes.

For the cupcakes, you'll need:
125g (4½oz) Unsalted Margarine or Margarine, at room temperature
175g (6oz)Caster Sugar
2 Large Eggs, at room temperature
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
175g (6oz) Self-Raising Flour
Good pinch of salt
3 tbsp Milk

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/Gas Mark 4.  Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in the sugar and beat for 4-5 minutes so that it's very light and fluffy.

Beat the eggs with the vanilla and then add the mixture a little bit at a time beating well in-between each addition. Make sure you scrape the sides of the bowl to include all the mixture. Sift the flour and salt into the bowl and add the milk. Gently fold together.

Spoon the mixture into the cases and distribute evenly. Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and risen. Leave the cakes to cool in their tins for a couple of minutes, then transfer them to a cooling wrack. 

For the icing: 

125g (4½oz)Unsalted Butter or Margarine

400g (14oz) Icing Sugar

3-4 tablespoons of Milk

Red, Green and Blue food colouring

Christmas Decorations

In a bowl, beat the butter until it's light and creamy. Gradually sift the icing sugar in and beat in. When all teh icing sugar has been mixed, divide the mixture into 3. For the first batch of icing, colour it red and ice 4 cupcakes using a palette knife. I decorated mine with snow and snowmen. 

For the blue icing, I used an icing nozzle shaped like a cross and used to create a swirling spiral effect. 

With last batch of icing, keep a little bit spare as the normal colour. Spread a layer of this on the remaining 4 cupcakes. Colour the remaining icing green. Using a star nozzle, pipe a wreath in short bursts of icing. Using a small round writing nozzle, use some left over red icing (or a red writing pen) to create the ribbon and berries. 

Last Christmas I made a whole batch of wreath cakes: 

Happy Baking and Merry Christmas!

x

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P.S Here's a picture of me and my friends at my 16th birthday meal!

Mum's Chocolate Marble Birthday Cake

What a great 2 weeks I've had! The show, Half a Sixpence, was really good and I had a fab time! Then on the last day, Saturday, it was my mum's birthday so I made a big fuss of her and as she was doing the show to, she had a lovely birthday. Saturday becomes a very busy day as we do two performances, so I promised my mum that I'd make her a birthday cake on Sunday (despite being very tired from the after party on Saturday night). Originally, I was going to bake Lorraine Pascale's Crounching Tiger Hidden Zebra Cake:

but I didn't have time to buy the disposable icing bags, so I settled for a marble cake. 

And this week we had the Great British Bake Off Final! And John won!!! I was torn between John and James so I didn't mind if either if them won as they both fully deserved it. I did like Brendan but his bakes didn't appeal to me as much. Who did you want to win? 

For the cake you'll need: 

175g (6oz) Butter/ Margarine, At room tempertaure

175g (6oz) Caster Sugar

1½ tsp  Vanilla Extract

3 Eggs, At room tempertaure

150g (5oz) Self-Raising Flour, sifted

1 tsp Baking Powder, sifted

25g Cocoa Powder, sifted

Preheat the oven to 180^oC/350^oF/Gas Mark 5. Grease and base line 2 8inch sandwhich tins with greaseproof paper.  

Cream the butter and sugar together, until light and fluffy, with an electric hand mix. Add the vanilla extract and add the eggs one at a time with a tbsp of flour. Beat until each is egg is fully combined. Fold in the rest of the flour and the baking powder.

Split the mixture into two bowls and fold in the chocolate powder into one of the mixtures. 

Put half of the vanilla mixture into one tin, and the rest in the other. Do the same for the chocolate mixture. 

Use the the handle of a spoon to swirl the two mixtures into each other. Then bake for 20-25 minutes; a skewer should come out clean when inserted and when pressed, the cake should spring back. leave to cool in their tins for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and peel off the greaseproof paper off of the bottom. 

Due to my tiredness, I simply decorated the cake with chocolate buttercream and chocolate chips.

Happy Baking! 

x

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