Peanut Butter & Jelly Cupcakes

Ah, peanut butter. It's a wonderful thing. Good on toast, great with chocolate. Who would have thought, eh?

My love for peanut butter is serious. I try it with everything. So, why not cupcakes, eh?

This cupcake recipe is great, but it does have a more grown up taste, it is not as sweet as other cupcakes. The saltiness from the peanut butter really comes through.

Ingredients  (Makes 12)
Cake
120g self raising flour
120g grams caster sugar
1/4 teaspoon of bicarb of soda
130g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 large eggs
50g peanut butter (smooth or crunchy, depending on which texture you prefer)
12 teaspoons or so of raspberry or strawberry jam
Icing
130g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
50g peanut butter
360g icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
Peanut Crumble
30g peanut butter
30g icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, 180 degrees fan, and line a muffin tin with cupcake liners (or baking cups).

In a bowl, mix your flour, sugar and bicarb of soda, before adding the eggs, butter and peanut butter. Whisk together for a minute or so.

Add the milk, combine and then split the mixture into the the cases, until two thirds full. Pop in the oven for 20 mins, or until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

While your cakes are cooling, it's time to make your peanut crumble. This is a totally optional part, but I love it, and keep any remains of this and sprinkle on popcorn (it's a popcorn game changer!). Get out your food processor, pop in the peanut butter and icing sugar, and blitz up for a minute or so until you see the little crumbs. Now simply pop to one side while you get to making your icing.

Now to make your icing, beat together your butter and peanut butter for a good five minutes with an electric whisk (or by hand), until it starts to look pale. Now add you icing sugar, half first and then when that is combined the other half. Pour in the milk and whisk until everything is combined.

Now, you need to fill your cakes with jam. You can do this many different ways, I have a piping nozzle, but you can cut the centre out and scoop some jam in before popping the cut out cake back on top, or you can poke a hole in the cupcake with the end of a wooden spoon, or a chopstick, widen the hole and pipe some jam in.

Now simply pipe or plop your buttercream on your cakes, followed by a little blob of jam and a sprinkle of the peanut butter crumb, and serve!

Quick and Easy Honeycomb

Who does not love honeycomb, (or cinder toffee, whatever your preference is)? I love it, crumbled into yogurt, on ice cream, on brownies, and so much more!

This recipe is a simple five minute recipe, that needs 3 ingredients, (of which most people will have in their possession) and tastes delightful. Oh, and keeps, for ages (if it can last that long!)

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe, and I have to share it with you. I use this all the time.

Ingredients
100g caster sugar
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda.

Now, you need to grease some foil, or use some greaseproof paper. You may find it easy to line a tin so the mixture cannot escape once poured out, especially since we are talking about melted sugar, or LAVA as I like to call it!

Pop all of your ingredients in the pan. Before you turn the heat on, mix your ingredients. You do not mix these ingredients while the heat is on, so now is your chance to.

Now, turn the heat on, and wait (without stirring) until your mixture is fully melted and is bubbling away nicely. This takes around 3 minutes. It should be this colour:

Now for the bit that I think is truly magical, adding the bicarbonate of soda.  Take the mixture off the heat, mix in the bicarb of soda, which turns the mixture light and airy and lovely, and then turn straight out into your greased foil/baking paper.

Now leave to set. I like to leave mine out for 10-15 minutes then put it in the fridge for an hour or so, but this is up to you.

When it has completely set, simply peel from the lining, bash it with a rolling pin, and either eat straight away, or put in an airtight container.

Enjoy making this, I know I do, every single time!

Red Velvet Cake with Simple Rose Buttercream

The Red Velvet Cake. This cake is a very, very simple cake to make. You can half the recipe to make approx. 10 cupcakes, but I think of the Red Velvet as a cake.

Now, this is my beautiful cousin Hollie in the picture here. She has recently graduated from a University in London, and so has missed out on a huge number of cake opportunities which my family are very much used to (you would think they would be sick of cake by now to be honest!). I have promised her a cake since April, and I finally got round to making one this week for her.

Now, normally when I make a cake, I do like to make it the day before, crumb coat and then finish and serve the following day. I had no such luxury when making this cake as I simply did not have the time. I had two hours from start to finish. I also whipped up a thai red curry and chicken satay sticks from scratch while this beauty was in the oven, I feel like I should have won an award! If I had more time, I would have crumb coated, and took more time over the piping to make it symmetrical, but the point of this blog post is to show you how to make a pleasing and very tasty cake in a small time frame.

Also, you will notice I used vanilla buttercream for this cake. This is because I think it tastes better. I find cream cheese frostings work best with fruit based cakes, like blueberry cupcakes, and cheesecake cupcakes (see previous recipes). But you can use a cream cheese frosting if you prefer.

Ingredients
 130g unsalted butter, at room temperature
300g caster sugar
2 eggs
25g cocoa powder
1 big blob (1tsp heaped) of a red food colour paste (I used sugarflair, available from here).
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
300ml buttercream (or full fat milk with 2 tbsp. white wine vinegar, leave to stand for five minutes and stir before pouring)
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
3 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Buttercream
500g unsalted butter, room temperature
1000g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (no more, this is a red velvet cake, we just want a hint of vanilla)
3 tablespoons full fat milk

Method

First thing is first, line the bottom of 3 x 7" cake tins with greaseproof paper and butter the sides of your tins.  Now turn your oven to 170 degrees c, 150 fan or Gas Mark 3.

Using bowl and whisk, electric whisk or freestanding mixer (this can be done any way) cream together the butter and sugar until it becomes pale and fluffy, now add your eggs in 1 at a time, and mix.

Now add your cocoa, vanilla and red food colouring and mix again. You will now see the red come through. Now all you need to do is add your buttermilk and flour, adding a bit of each and mixing inbetween until it is all incorporated and evenly combined.

Now add your salt, followed by the bicarb of soda, and then the vinegar and stir. The mixture makes a slight fizz when the vinegar goes in, as it should!

You will now hopefully have a mixture that looks like this:

Now just pour the batter into the cake tins, as evenly as you can and bake for 30 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed. Take out and leave to cool slightly for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.

While these cool, you can set about making your buttercream.

My top tip, using your room temperature butter (leave out for 24 hours if possible) you want to beat this until it is as pale as you can get it. The better quality the butter, the paler it will go, but whatever your butter is, try to get this nice and pale. I use my freestanding whisk for this and beat the butter for about five minutes. This will make your buttercream much more white.

Simply beat your butter until pale, add your vanilla and then your icing sugar, a little bit at a time, loosening with the milk, which you also add bit by bit (you may feel like you do not need to use as much, it is up to you).

Now to make your cake.

I always put a little butter cream on the bottom of the cake board so that the sponge won't move.

Pop your first sponge on the cakeboard, and then, using a spatula or palette knife, spread a nice thing but even layer of butter cream. Follow this with your second sponge, another thin layer, and then your third sponge on top. Like so:

Sorry for the awful picture, I was in a bit of a rush!

Now for piping the roses. These are so easy to do, and they look so beautiful. A little bit of practice and you will have them down to a T. And what a perfect thing to practice on!

You will need an open star nozzle and piping bag. You can find these all on my website, here.

Now, fill your piping bag. You can keep topping it up, so do not worry about putting all your buttercream in here.

I use a tilted turn table to make my piping easier, but it isn't necessary. Starting from the bottom of the second layer of sponge, you need to pipe your first rose.  You start from the inside out. Simply start piping and turn your nozzle around clockwise keeping an even pressure, and then gently pull the piping nozzle away when you have made your final swirl.

 

Do this all over the sides of the cake and then do the top. Do not worry if you have any gaps, I had plenty. At the end just go over and fill these with the leftover buttercream in the bag.
 
Now, time to impress your guests

Strawberry & Vanilla Cupcakes (Makes 12)

It is Wimbledon season. And that means two things. Pimms and Lemonade and Strawberries and Cream. So, I have decided to post this recipe, which is for Strawberry and Cream cupcakes, as my homage to Wimbledon. Super easy to make, and extra easy to eat! Enjoy! 

Ingredients

Cake

120g butter

120g caster sugar

120g self raising flour

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

1-2 tbsp milk

12tsp strawberry jam

Icing

200g unsalted butter, softened 

400g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp milk (or cream)

4-5 strawberries (a handful)

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Line your baking tin with 12 cupcake liners, or baking cups. 

Cream your butter, vanilla and sugar in a bowl and whisk until light and fluffy.  Add your eggs, one at a time, then add your flour and baking powder and combine, followed by your milk. 

Now put your cake mix in your cases, until about 2/3rds full. 

Pop in the oven for 18-20 minutes and then allow to cool on a wire rack. 

Once cool, grab yourself a chopstick, and stick it in your cake, and wriggle it around to make a little hole. 

Like so!

Now using a piping bag, pop your jam in each one. Now for the icing sugar!

Firstly, your strawberries. Take the green off the top of them and using a hand processor, blitz them until they are pureed. You need 2 tbsp of puree (if you have any extra it is great on ice cream!).

Now to make the buttercream. Whisk your butter until it goes pale, then gradually add in your icing sugar, followed by your milk. Whisk until light fluffy and lovely! You can do this by hand, with an electric handheld whisk, or with a food mixer. 

Now, take about 1/2 of the butter cream and put in a bowl. Add your strawberry puree. 

Now mix this all together. I added a touch of pink food colouring to add to the buttercream, but you do not need to do this. It should look like this: 

This buttercream will be too wet to pipe, so using a palette knife or spoon, I put this on the cake like so:

Now, with the remaining white buttercream, pipe a little rose on top of your strawberry frosting to make it look like a lovely English strawberry and cream cupcake! 

And there you have it. Game, set, match! Enjoy! 

Marbled Millionaire's Shortbread

Millionaires Shortbread. Named because of the use of a number of rich ingredients. Butter, sugar, caramel and chocolate. What isn't to like? This is an easy recipe from a old cookbook, the Bero cook book, that I have added a few bits to. I love this recipe. You do need to set aside some time for doing this, but it really is an easy recipe, that is guaranteed to wow everyone who you make these for. I cut them in big slabs, but me and my family are a greedy bunch. You could very easily cut these in half and you will easily make at least 24 squares. 

Also, this shortbread is perfect for this recipe, as it is not too sweet, however I would not use it for shortbread on its own, as it would maybe taste a little bland. 

Ingredients

Shortbread

250g plain flour

75g caster sugar

175g butter, softened

Caramel
100g butter
100g light muscavado sugar
2x397g tins of condensed milk

Chocolate Topping
120g dark chocolate
120g milk chocolate
50g white chocolate
small knob of butter

First thing is first. Grease and line a tin approx 35 x 25cms in size, with greaseproof or parchment paper. This helps to lift it out of the tin, so when you slice the finished product you can take it out of the tin before you slice, so you do not risk scratching your tin (I have learnt from experience with this one!)

Preheat your oven to 180 degress, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Measure out your shortbread ingredients.

To make you shortbread, in a bowl put in your flour butter and sugar and rub together to form a breadcrumb consistency, and then knead until you form a dough. Press this dough into the base of your tin like so. If you wish you can prick it with a fork a few times.

Now bake your shortbread for 18-20 mins, or until firm to touch and very lightly browned. Like so:

Do not worry if it is not perfectly flat, this is homemade stuff! Now leave your shortbread to cool, and let's get cracking with your caramel!

In a pan (non stick is better if you have it), put your condensed milk, sugar and butter in.

Now, before you start to make the caramel you need to do something very important. Have a quick loo break, make a cuppa, glass of water, beer, wine, whatever. And put it next to your hob. You will not be leaving here for 15-20 minutes, so you need to be patient. I always put a cup or glass of something next to the hob so I can have a drink while I am stirring. Which you need to do constantly. So be patient.

Pop your pan on the hob and heat gently, until all the sugar has dissolved. Stirring constantly.

It should look like this. My husband says it is the colour of a Caramac bar. 

Now you need to bring this to the boil, stirring constantly again. Once it has been brought to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently, stirring constantly for about 15-20 minutes, or until the mixture has thickened slightly. It will go darker to, like this: 

Now leave it to cool slightly for five minutes, and then pour over the shortbread and leave to cool. This could take a good few hours. 

Looks great, but don't be tempted to dip your finger in! 

Once your caramel is cool you can get to making your chocolate topping.  In a glass bowl, chop your dark and milk chocolate up and combine. Add a small knob of butter and melt over a pan of boiling water, making sure that the base of the bowl does not touch the water. 

The reason I add a small knob of butter is for 2 reasons. The first reason is that it makes your chocolate lovely and glossy, and the second reason is that when you come to slicing your shortbread, it is less likely to crack. No idea why, but it seems to work! 

Look how glossy it looks!

Also, melt your white chocolate. You can do this in the same way (without the butter). You can also melt it in the microwave, for 10 seconds at a time, stirring in between until melted. The white chocolate does not need any butter added to it. 

So, with your milk and dark chocolate mix, simply pour this onto your cooled caramel, and using a spatula or palette knife, spread it out so that it covers all of the caramel.

Now for the creative bit! Splodge the melted white chocolate using a teaspoon onto the white chocolate, like so: 

Now run a cocktail stick over the chocolate to create a fabulous marbled pattern. Be as creative as you like! 

All that is left to do is to leave the chocolate to set. This again can take hours. A tip from me at this point would be to not put it in the fridge. If you set the chocolate in the fridge you may find that it melts very easily at room temperature. You could pop it in the fridge after it has set to finish it, but if it sets at room temperature it is much easier to slice also. 

So, once it has set, all that is left to do is to slice it and serve. Another tip for you. Use the largest sharpest knife you have. Don't worry about using a hot knife, a cold knife, blah blah blah. Use a large sharp one. 

Now all that is left to do is to serve and enjoy! 

Madeira Cake

The humble Madeira Cake. My apologies for the awful picture. This cake was made for friends I had coming over, and I had two hours to make something for them, and to quickly take a picture before it was demolished. Which it was, about 5 minutes after I took this picture. 

This cake is a great cake to have in your back pocket for when you need it, it is a very basic simple cake mix, which stores great for a few days (and I think is even better if you can leave it a day before you eat it). It also welcomes flavours, so you could include orange or lemon zest, cherries, chocolate chips, etc.  

You need a loaf tin and also some loaf tin liners. You could grease your loaf tin and try without lining it, but I wouldn't recommend it! You can get your loaf tin liners for £1 from my online shop, here. 

I like mine with jam on, my husband likes it plain with a cup of tea. You decide what works best for you!

Ingredients

175g unsalted butter

175g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

150g self raising flour

100g plain flour

2-3 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees, 140 fan or Gas Mark 3, and line your loaf tin with a loaf tin liner, or greaseproof paper. 

Either by hand or using an electric mixer, beat your butter and sugar until it goes pale and fluffy. Now add your eggs, little by little. Sift your flour on top of the egg mixture and gently fold these in, followed by your milk and vanilla. Your mix should look something like this: 

Now if you were to add another ingredient, you would do it now. 

Now simply spoon your mixture into the your tin and level the top as best you can. 

All you need to do now is pop it in the oven for an hour. 

It should come out looking like this: 

Simple. Let it cool on a wire rack, before popping into an airtight container until you need to slice and serve. 

Blueberry Cheesecake Cupcakes (Makes 12)

These cupcakes are special. Very special indeed. They have a biscuit base, a lemony sponge, filled with blueberry jam, followed by a cheesecake icing, which is perfect, not to sweet, and super tasty, and finished off with more blueberry jam. I made my own jam, however you do not need to do this. I am also pretty sure this would go great with many other flavours of jam, so mix it up and make something special!

WARNING: These will last five minutes, as they are so super gorgeous!

Ingredients:
Biscuit base:
30g unsalted butter, melted
90g digestive biscuits
1 tablespoon  golden syrup
Cake Mix
135g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
125g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
zest from 1 unwaxed lemon and 1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice
1-2 tablespoon milk
12 teaspoons blueberry jam
Cheesecake Icing
75g unsalted butter, softened
120g mascarpone
420g icing sugar
A few teaspoons blueberry jam

So, pop your oven to 190 degrees, 170 fan or Gas Mark 5. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases, or baking cups, both can be purchased from here.
Set to making your biscuit base. In a food processor, blitz your digestive biscuits while the butter is slowly melting in the pan.

When the butter is melted, take the pan off the heat and add the crumbs, and the golden syrup. Mix to combine, and then put a spoonful (I used a dessert spoon) of the biscuit mixture into each paper case, and press down to make your cheesecake base!

Now for your cake mix. You can use either hand and whisk, electric handheld whisk, or freestanding food mixer.  I used my freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment.
 Combine all the dry ingredients and mix, then add your eggs, butter, lemon juice and zest and mix until combined. Now add your milk and blitz again for 10 seconds or so, making sure all your cake mix is combined.

Divide your cake mix between the 12 biscuit lined paper cases. They should be about 2/3rds full. Pop these in the oven for 20-25 minutes. The sponge should bounce back when touched. When cooked, leave to cool on a wire rack.

Now for the fun bit. Getting the jam in the cake. You can do this a few ways. I have a piping nozzle which you pop into the sponge and pipe the jam in, or you can use a knife and cut a little round out of the cake, insert the jam and pop the little piece of cake you have removed on top of the jam, or you could use a chopstick (or something similar), poke a hole in the cake and wiggle a bit to widen the hole, and then with a piping bag you can pop the jam in (you won't need a nozzle). However you wish to do it is up to you, the end result is a delicious jam filled cupcake, however it is done.

 Now for the icing. Again, by hand with whisk, using a handheld whisk, or a freestanding food mixer. Again, I used the freestanding food mixer, and you could use the whisk attachment, but I used the paddle attachment again.

Whisk together your butter and mascarpone, for a good 2-3 minutes. It should go pale and fluffy. The mascarponse may release a little liquid, this is fine.  Now add half of your icing sugar and beat until combined, before adding the remainder and whisking for a minute or two.  If your icing seems a little wet, add more icing.

Now pipe your icing. I used a round nozzle, but you can get that icing on however you wish, blob it on with a spoon, make swirls, whatever!

Now for the grand finale. Pop a little blob of jam onto your cupcake, and using a cocktail stick, swirl the jam around the icing to get a lovely little effect.

Now eat, and enjoy! Try not to eat them all at once! I would also love to see your creations! You can either find us on Facebook, The Shire Bakery, or on twitter or instagram, @shirebakery. We will give you a little share and mention!