Baking Cups, The Low Down...

So, everyone reading this has probably had a look on my website www.theshirebakery.com, or possibly another website, and has come across the 'Baking Cup', not understood fully about these little things, and totally bypassed them.

Many people so often ask me how they work, so I figured it would be a good opportunity to do a little write up on them for you all, so you fully understand the baking cup, and it's many uses.

So, firstly - you can bake in them. Seems obvious really, but people do ask. They are fully ovenproof, and also, because they are made with a high grade greaseproof paper (which is thick like card), greasemarks will not come through.

They also will not peel...I use these for most of my cake mixes, but in particular the ones that come out moist, or wet bottomed, such as my pineapple upside down cupcakes.  They also hold their shape. They really hold their shape. They are so sturdy in fact, that you do not need to put them in a muffin tin while baking, you can simply put them on a flat baking sheet (although you can still put them in a muffin tin, they do fit).

Their size next. These are approx. 5cm diameter at the base, 7cm diameter at the top and 3.9cm high. These sizes may vary depending on where you make your purchases, but these are our sizes. This is the perfect size for your cupcakes and muffins. They also fit into a standard cupcake box, which is another thing our customers often ask us.

Another point I need to make here is how to get your cakes and bakes out of the cup. I watch so many people do this, and fail miserably, or people contacting me to tell me that they cannot get their cupcake out cleanly, that I feel it is my duty to inform the nation on how to do this! To get your delicious cake out, in one piece, simply push up from the bottom, or (and this is how I do it) unpleat the cup (the pleats just pull apart without tearing) and your 'cup' is now a 'plate'!

Other uses for this cups. You can use these for lots of different things, for example putting jellies and ice creams, etc in for parties. These have even been used recently to make alcoholic jellies (the cup keeps all the liquid in), and I also have a lady who makes fudge and uses these with cellophane and ribbon to wrap them up as gifts. 

I hope this helps everyone. There is lots you can do with these, and from £2 for a pack of 20, why not experiment! http://www.theshirebakery.com/shop/4581701648/Cake-Cases-Boxes

Cadbury's Creme Egg Cupcakes (makes 18)

These...cakes...are...divine!

So, it is Easter, and you need your Easter fix of Creme Eggs. Why not put them inside a cake, pile them high with icing and eat them? Just in case you fancied doing something a little different! This recipe makes 18 cupcakes, and I have used the baking cups from my shop, www.theshirebakery.com however you could use any cupcake wrappers for this. 

Ingredients

18 mini Cadbury's Creme Eggs

200g plain flour

40g cocoa powder

240g caster sugar

3 tsp baking powder

80g unsalted butter

2 eggs

200ml milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

pinch of salt

For the Frosting:

175g unsalted butter

350g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp milk

A few drops of yellow food colouring

Method

So, first thing is first. Freeze your creme eggs! If you do not freeze them, they will simply melt straight into the cake, which, although it will still taste great, won't be as good when you take that bite and realise that there is a creme egg hidden inside your cake! You want to freeze them at least 4 hours in advance, or do what I do, and put them straight into the freezer as soon as you buy them, to stop you having a cheeky nibble. When you need them, take them out of the freezer and unwrap them. I have used mini creme eggs, a whole large one would be slightly extreme! 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Now put your baking cases on the tray, or line a muffin tin with cases. 

Beat your butter  and sugar together until combined. Now add the vanilla extract and the eggs, one at a time. 

In another bowl combine your flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. 

Add alternatively the milk and flour mix, until everything is combined. 

Now for the messy bit; put a teaspoon of cake mix into each cake case. Now pop a mini creme egg onto the cake mix and cover with the remaining cake mix. You want each cupcake case to be approx 2/3rds full. 

Pop in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the cakes spring back when touched. Pop them on a wire rack to cool, and get to making your frosting. 

So, you can do your buttercream frosting by hand, but make sure your butter is nice and soft, or you may end up with sprained wrists! If you have the luxury of having an electric whisk, freestanding or handheld, then lucky you! I take my butter out of the fridge a few hours before, however I also pop it into the microwave for 10 seconds or so, so it is very soft.

Beat your butter, and gradually add your icing sugar until it gets very light, fluffy and smooth, adding milk if you need it. I decided not to put vanilla in the icing, it really is a sweet cake, and I didn't feel like it needed it, however if you want, by all means add it.

Take a little bit of the icing and put this in a separate bowl and colour it egg yolk yellow, using a few drops of yellow food colouring.

Now to ice, I piped mine with a round head nozzle, but you could spoon it on to get the desired effect.

I hope you enjoy these, and Happy Easter everyone!

Caramel Egg Brownies

It is Easter time. And these are perfect. Sorry about the picture firstly, it didn't even get the chance to cool slightly and be sliced, people came at the poor thing armed with forks and spoons, and it was demolished. This is the only picture taken of it, and so I have had to use it!

So, Cadbury's Caramel eggs. These are the miniature versions, and I used two bags, you could also use maybe 2 of the Cadbury's Caramel Bars instead. No point in droning on, lets get down to making these incredibly moreish bad boys...

  Ingredients
 200g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
 125g unsalted butter, cubed
 250g caster sugar
 3 eggs, beaten
150g plain flour
 2 bags of miniature Cadbury's Caramel Eggs, frozen.

  Method

Okay, first thing is first. Before you plan to make these, you need to freeze your chocolate eggs. This stops the whole egg melting in the oven while it is cooking, and makes the caramel ooze out. You need to freeze them at least 3 hours before they are due to be used, I threw these in the freezer the week before (it stopped me eating them, which I 100% would have done if they were sat in my cupboard). I used these eggs, you could of course use Creme Eggs.

Now, line a 23cm square tin (or thereabouts) with greaseproof paper, and preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Put the 200g of dark chocolate and your butter into a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, do not let the bowl touch the water. While these are melting, peel your frozen chocolate eggs from their foil wrappers and leave to one side (not near the cooker!).

When you chocolate and butter has melted, it will be super glossy, like so:

Now you can take it off the heat, and add your sugar. When this mixes in, it will look grainy. This is meant to happen, so do not worry. Now add your beaten eggs, combine with the mixture, and then add your flour and combine. Pour this mixture into your tin, like so:

Now for the caramel eggs. Pop these in, either strategically or randomly, it is totally up to you, and lightly press them into the mixture.

Now, simply pop them in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. It should be cooked around the edge and look slightly underdone in the middle. Leave these to cool (although not totally, they are amazing warm)and then slice up and serve!

Simple, and yet so satisfying! Enjoy making these!

Sugar & Crumbs Icing Sugars and Cocoa Powders

Back in January, when I was preparing to launch my website, I received a lovely email from a company called Sugar & Crumbs, asking about an opportunity to become one of their stockists for their amazing range of icing sugars and cocoa powders. I jumped at the chance! I loved the idea of natural flavoured icing sugars, and the flavours on offer sounded mouthwatering. I just had to become one of their stockists!

When the first order came, I was delighted. The packaging is simple, pink and white, and you can see the white icing inside...more on that later. So, the flavours. We currently stock 2 flavours of cocoa powder; cherry and coconut, and 11 flavours of icing sugar, from White Chocolate, to Strawberry Milkshake (my personal favourite) and Peach Melba!

I have been speaking to many people about these products, and I have had some interesting conversations, hence the reason for this blog post. Yes, of course you can flavour your own icing sugars, but can it be done naturally? And with flavours such as Pear Drop, where on earth would you start? I know, I know, I can hear you all shouting at your screens that it is lazy, and honestly, I would have agreed with you until I tried these flavours. It saves on buying a tonne of different ingredients that you may not use regularly, and it is so easy to work with! And the colour of the icings. All of the icing sugars in the range are white, so you can colour them yourself, or leave them white and give everyone a suprise!! This whole range from Sugar & Crumbs has multiple uses. I made a pineapple trifle a while ago and used the pineapple flavoured icing sugar to flavour the cream. I also used the Key Lime flavour to make key lime macarons. Both of these dishes turned out great! One thing I enjoy informing my customers about is the intense flavour of all of these products. When I use these for a buttercream, I use half Sugar & Crumbs icing sugar and half normal icing sugar. And the flavour is still intense. It also makes your pack of icing last much longer, so you get much more for your money. This is the same with the cocoa powders, use half and half. Thise guys at Sugar & Crumbs do like to give you a huge burst of flavour! So, if you like something unusual, and time is sometimes precious - give this range of icing sugars a try...we promise, you will never look back! From £2.95 per pack, available from www.theshirebakery.com

Carly's Soft & Chewy Cookies Makes 24

These cookies are great. They are soft, chewy and ultra moreish. This is not a joke. The first batch I ever made, we made 20, and I ate six pretty much straight out of the oven. What I love about these cookies, is that they stay chewy the day after baking them, which is great, and there is no need for anything such as keeping them in bread to keep them soft (apparently this helps?!) Also, the dough will stay chilled in your fridge for a few days, although I tend to freeze half of the dough so I always have some to hand. One other thing, you can substitute the choc chips and Mini Eggs for any kind of toppings. I like dark chocolate and orange zest, have a play around with the flavours, it may really pay off! 

  Ingredients 

 250g unsalted butter, softened 

250g caster sugar 

200g light brown sugar 

2 lightly beaten large eggs 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

480g plain flour 

1 tbsp baking powder 

100g chocolate chips 

Small bag of mini eggs (or approx 60g of any other topping, ie smarties, peanut M&Ms, more chocolate chips) 

  Method 

 Cream your butters and sugars together. This seems a little impossible at first, but stick with it, it will go soft and well combined and fluffy.

It should look like this. 

 Now to add your beaten eggs and your venilla extract. Mix this well to get a thick and gloopy consistency, like so:

Now pour in your flour and baking powder and mix in to get yourself a dough, before adding your chocolate chips and stirring well. It will now look like this:

At this point you need to roll out some cling film and place it on a flat surface. Now plop your dough (sorry but 'plop' is the best way to describe this)on the cling film and cover it up. If, like me you are looking at halving the dough and you want to put the other half in the freezer, you can try to make, as best you can, a sausage shape. I do this by forming a rough sausage shape with the dough while it is uncovered and laying on the cling film, then as I am covering it with the clingfilm, keep rolling until I am happy with the shape using the ends of the cling film. That did not type very well, I hope it makes sense (if not try You Tube!) But here is a picture so you get roughly what I mean!

Now, chill this dough, for at least two hours. I like to make this on a Friday Night and use it the next evening, but as a minimum, leave it for two hours. If freezing, freeze straight away, and I will tell you what to do with the frozen dough later. Now all you need to do once the dough is chilling is line some baking trays with greaseproof paper and preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Uncover your dough, and taking pieces in your hand roll them into small balls before flattening them on the baking sheet. I made the balls about golf ball size, and when flattened they were about 1cm thick, like so:

Make sure you leave lots of room for the cookies to spread. I got 6 to one sheet (and my sheets are pretty large!). Place the cookies in the oven for 8-10 minutes, then bring them out and place your mini eggs/smarties/choc chips in them.

Pop them back in the oven for about 4-5 minutes, or until you notice the edges starting to go golden in colour. Bring them out of the oven and allow to cool slightly. They will be soft, they are meant to be. Now you can pour yourself a big glass of milk and tuck in!

Now, if you are using frozen dough, take it out of the freezer and leave for 5-10 minutes, and simply slice (hence the sausage shape) press lightly and pop in the oven as normal! 

Enjoy guys! xx