Eton Mess Cupcakes (Makes 12)

                                           

So, last weekend was my 2nd Wedding Anniversary, hence the lack of recipes posted (we had a weekend in Harrogate eating lots of cakes at Betty's tearoom!) So, in homage to my wonderful husband, I thought I would transform his favourite pudding, Eton Mess into a cupcake. 

So, the picture, these cupcakes look a little messy, and not my usual piping, however I used my meringue pieces (available on www.theshirebakery.com) which are barrier coated, which means they can be mixed in with icing, ice creasms, etc and they will not dissolve. As a result of using these pieces, I could not use a piping nozzle, so I just scooped the icing on (my attempt at the Hummingbird swirl!). If you are using broken meringues, it may be a better idea to spinkle these on top of your icing. 

Ingredients

(Cake)

120g unsalted butter

120g caster sugar

120g self raising flour

2 large eggs

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp baking powder

1-2 tbsp full fat milk

12tsp raspberry jam

(Buttercream Frosting)

175g unsalted butter

350g icing sugar

2-3 tbsp full fat milk

2 tbsp raspberry jam

2 meringue nests broken up (or 25g barrier coated merinque pieces)

So, first thing is first, line a muffin tin with liners (or if using baking cups as I did pop them on a baking tray), and preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 degrees fan or Gas Mark 4. 

Cream together your butter and sugar and add vanilla and combine.  Follow this up with the eggs and whisk, it will look a little curdled, but don't worry! 

Add your flour now and mix, then your milk. I have not added step by step photos as I usually would for the cake mix as it is the same process as the vanilla cupcakes. 

When this is done, fill your cake cases until two thirds full and pop into the oven for 18-20 minutes. When these are cooked, allow them to cool fully on a wire rack. 

Once cooled, you will need to carve a hole into the cake cases, using a knife like so: 

Now, pop 1 tsp of raspberry jam into the hole like so:

And then pop the little piece of cut out cake back on top, like so!

Now we can start to make the frosting! This can be made using an electric whisk, or a freestanding whisk, or even by hand. I made mine by hand to show that in can be done without the need for expensive equipment. 

Make sure your butter is soft, you can pop it in the microwave for a few seconds at a time to get it there if you need to. Gradually whisk in the icing sugar bit by bit, and when it feels a little too thick, add the milk and whisk until light and fluffy. Then add your raspberry jam:

And whisk to combine:

You can either pipe now and sprinkle with the meringue, or mix your meringue in like I did and scoop. 

These are the meringue pieces available online (www.theshirebakery.com)

And this is the meringue mixed in with the buttercream. 

Now to dollop your icing on and serve! (I would have liked to show you an inside picture, but these disappeared in less than an hour!)

Enjoy guys! xx

Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes!!

These cakes are amazing. There are no more words. Like strawberry milkshake? Then you will love these. 

Ingredients (makes 10)

35g softened unsalted butter

100g plain flour

125g caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch salt

100 ml milk

1 large egg

20g strawberry milkshake powder (Nesquick is perfect)

For the icing

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter, softened

50g strawberry milkshake powder

2 tablespoons of milk

Pink food colouring

I have a confession to make before we go into this. I didn't use this recipe for the icing. I tried the Sugar & Crumbs Strawberry Milkshake icing sugar, 100g mixed with 150g icing sugar and 80g butter and 2 tablespoons of milk. You can buy it on my website www.theshirebakery.com, along with the baking cups I used. It is a great icing sugar, but you can also make the buttercream using the Nesquick and icing sugar method. 

First thing is first, turn on your oven, 170 degrees, 150 fan or Gas Mark 4. Line your muffin tin with cases, or in my case, line a baking tray with baking cups. 

I love these cups, no peeling, great for a wet recipe like this one! 

In a bowl, mix together the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until it forms a sandy consistency. 

Now in a jug, mix your milk, egg and milkshake powder together. 

Doesn't look to appetising, eh? 

Now slowly pour the liquid into the dry mix, half at a time, until it is all combined. 

I'm not a fan of the colour of the mix, it reminds me of flesh! So I pop a little pink food colour in the mix, and it cheers me up!! 

You obviously do not need to do this, but I love the pink sponge when it is cooked. 

Now pour the batter into the baking cases until approx 2/3rds full, and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes, and when cooked, leave to cool on a wire rack. 

Before the oven...

Fresh from the oven! 

Now, while these are cooling you can make your buttercream. 

Simply mix your icing sugar and butter, your can do this by hand, or use a freestanding or hand electric whisk. Mix your milk and milkshake powder together, and add to the mix, whisk for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy. 

I put just under half the buttercream in a separate bowl, and I coloured this a darker shade of pink, and put a little less food colouring in the other bowl. I then put the different butter creams on either side of the piping bag, so they mixed when piped. 

I did a candy floss pink and a baby pink. 

The nozzle I used with this was an open star nozzle, you can also purchase these in my shop. 

A lovely two tone effect! 

And now to enjoy...and impress!! Xx

Uber Cheesy Cheese Scone

Ah, the humble cheese scone. Yes, you can buy these in any supermarket, but there is nothing like having a freshly made scone, still warm from the oven, with served with lashings of butter. They are easy to make, but once you make the dough, you need to try and handle them as quickly as possible to stop the scone from being heavy.  My biggest tip would be very well prepared, and have everything out that you need so you can get these bad boys made and in the oven ASAP! Here goes!

Ingredients

225g plain flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder. 

1 pinch salt

1 level teaspoon mustard powder (or large pinch if the thought of a teaspoon makes you panic!)

50g butter, cut into cubes

140g extra mature cheddar cheese, grated

140ml milk

Milk to glaze

Firstly, preheat your oven to 200 degrees, 10 fan or Gas Mark 6. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, or you could grease a baking tray. 

In a large bowl mix your flour, baking powder, salt and mustard and rub the butter into the flour with your fingers until you get a breadcrumb consistency. Now add the cheese and mix it iin with your fingers. 

At this point you need to be prepared to work like a true ninja...lightly and quickly! 

Pour in the milk and stir briskly with a blunt knife. Without handling the dough too much, form into a ball. 

Ta-dah! It's like magic!

Now gently roll out or press out onto a lightly floured surface to a thickness of approx 2cms. 

Using a 5cm (approx) round cutter (which you can buy in my store, www.theshirebakery.com) cut out your rounds and place on the baking tray. Repeat this process until all the dough is used. Brush the uncooked scones with a little milk (if you like you can also sprinkle some cheese on top) and pop in the oven for 18-24 minutes. I like to turn mine halfway through for even cooking. 

Recipe is enough for 8 perfect scones, or four double decker scones if you put one on top of another!

They will come out like this...ready for you to spread with butter, and demolish!

White Chocolate and Fruit Flake Blondies

Most of us enjoy brownies, but I am genuinely suprised by how few people have actually had white chocolate brownies, or blondies, as some people like to call them. Call them what you like, they taste blooming lovely!

You can make these brownies without the fruit flakes, and they will be still be beautiful, and you can also use whatever flavour fruit flakes you like...the tropical goes well!

Ingredients

125g white choc

100g butter

3 large eggs

150g caster sugar

100g chopped white chocolate (or white choc chips)

1tsp vanilla extract

125g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 pack of fruit flakes (I used strawberry flavour)

Firstly, you will need to preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or gas mark 4, and line a 23cm square tin with baking paper. 

Put the 125g of white chocolate and 100g butter in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and melt gently - don't let the water touch the bottom of the bowl. 

The melted butter and chocolate does not look as glorious as when you make brownies with dark chocolate, it looks a little like it has separated, this is normal, do not think you have made a mistake.

When all the butter and chocolate has melted, take the bowl off the heat, and mix in your sugar. 

Again, this is so different from making dark chocolate brownies, white chocolate is a totally different ingredient!

Crack your 3 eggs in a bowl and whisk until they start to go pale. I normally do this while the chocolate and butter is melting. Then stir those in, and add the flour, until your mixture looks like so: 

Still looks funny, do not worry!

Now add your chopped white chocolate (or choc chips) and fruit flakes. 

Fold these in and pour into your baking tray, and bake for 20-25 minutes. 

Starting to look appetising now eh?!

YUM! 

Now leave it to cool in the tin before removing and slicing up. It tastes much more like a brownie the following day, but if, like me, you cannot wait until the next day, a little chunk of this with custard makes a great dessert (but leave some for the next day to try!)

Now to hide it where no one else can find it (ulnless of course you do not mind sharing!)

Enjoy! xx

Pineapple Cupcakes with Pineapple Frosting (makes 12)

These cupcakes are loosely based on the classic Pineapple Upside Down Cake, which was one of my favourite things as a child to eat. I wanted to bring back some of that childhood nostalgia, and turn them into cupcakes.

These cakes are gorgeous, but the pineapple at the bottom gives your cake a somewhat 'soggy bottom', meaning using paper cases will not work as well. I used baking cups, which you can purchase from my website, www.theshirebakery.com or you can use silicone cake cases, or even put the cake direclty into the muffin tin (make sure it is buttered first). 

Ingredients

1-2 tablespoons sugar

Pineapple chunks in juice (small tin) plus 3 tablespoons of the juice

100g plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

100g soft butter

100g caster sugar

2 large eggs

Buttercream Ingredients

125g unsalted butter at room temperature. 

125g icing sugar

125g Pineapple flavoured icing sugar (By Sugar & Crumbs and avaiilable on my website, www.theshirebakery.com)

2-3 tablespoons milk

Firstly, preheat your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4.  Pop your baking cups on a baking tray, and sprinkle a little bit of sugar into the bottom of them.  Now put the chunks into the bottom of the case like so:

Now cream together your butter and sugar, do this for a few minutes, until it turns pale and super fluffy. 

Now to add your eggs and whisk. It looks a bit funny, almost curdled, but this corrects itself when you put the flour in. 

This is what it looks like before you fold in the flour. Odd, but do not worry!

Now mix in your flour until just combined and add the pineapple juice.  The cake mix smells amazing, very tropical!

I wish you could smell this, it's immense!

Now pop into the cake mixes, until they are two thirds full. 

Now pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until they bounce back when lightly pressed. 

While they are cooling get to making your buttercream frosting. Mix your butter (if it is not soft enough, pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds) with a little bit of icing sugar and gradually add more, then add the milk tablespoon at a time until you get the right consistency.  I used 125g of icing sugar and 125g of pineapple flavoured icing sugar, available on www.theshirebakery.com. 

If you do not have this icing sugar, you could use normal icing sugar and add pineapple juice from the tin used for the cakes.

Then simply pipe onto your cakes. I decorated some of the cakes with tropical fruit flakes, but this is totally optional. 

All you need to do now is eat and enjoy! 

Double Chocolate Brownies (Sprinkled with Love)

It's nearly valentines day. And the best way to show love is with chocolate! A simple brownie recipe that makes fudgey, moreish brownies. 

Ingredients

200g good quality dark chocolate, min 70% cocoa solids

125g unsalted butter

250g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

150g plain flour

100g white chocolate chips

30g white chocolate

Heart Sprinkles (available on www.theshirebakery.com)

First, set your oven to 180 degrees, 160 fan or Gas Mark 4. Line a 20cm square tin with baking paper. 

In a bowl, break your chocolate up in small pieces and cube your butter and pop that in the bowl too. 

Melt your chocolate and butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, making sure the water in the saucepan does not touch the base of the bowl. 

It should look like this, super glossy! 

Now stir in your sugar until it looks like so:

It will be grainy, this is supposed to happen. 

Now add your beaten eggs, it does look strange, keep mixing it will come together. 

It may take a while to combine. 

And now add the flour until combined like so: 

Now for the white chocolate chips, mix these in and pour the mixture into your lined tin. 

Now pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes, it should be cooked around the edges and looking slightly underdone in the middle. 

Leave the brownie to cool completely in the tin, which is difficult as it smells delicious! 

When the brownie is cool,take it out of the tin, and melt your white chocolate, I popped mine into the microwave and blasted it for 20 seconds at a time. When melted simply drizzle over the brownie. 

You can be as artistic, or messy as you like! 

Before the chocolate cools, sprinkle over your love (or sprinkles!). Leave to cool and cut! 

Now to share them with your loved one. Or you can just keep them for yourself, love is selfish sometimes!! Enjoy!! Xx