Christmas Tree Cupcakes.

After putting up my Christmas tree this week I was inspired to turn a cake into a tree and it couldn't have been simpler. I made my usual cupcakes and whipped up a double batch of my normal buttercream, adding a blob of green food colouring paste a little bit of blue to make it darker. I then piped on the buttercream with a 2D nozzle, making a tree. To finish, I added a chocolate star (from Sainsbury's) on the top of each with various sprinkles to look like baubles.

5 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Christmas Cupcakes.

As mentioned in a post earlier this month, I wanted to make cupcakes as presents for my friends this year and that is exactly what I did...

You may notice some that my inspiration came from the cakes I found featured in that post but I tried to put my own spin on them all. 

1. At the top is a cupcake with light blue icing and white snowflakes with a pearl in the centre of each. I used the cutter featured in day 's post. 
2. The Christmas pudding cupcake actually has chocolate flavoured icing on top. I wasn't aware of this when I bought it but my friend seems to approve of it. I then added a splodge of white icing, two holly leaves and three berries.
3. In the bottom right corner is a more simple cupcake, red icing with white 'ribbon' and a red bow. I felt it was a little too bare so I added a 'gift tag' in light blue icing and dark blue edible pen and a little bit of holly to finish.
4. This is probably my favourite cupcake; embossed red icing with a generous amount of lustre spray. I didn't intend for it to look like this but the spray came out uncontrollably and hence I smothered it all over. However, I think it gives a nice shiny bauble-effect to it. 
5. The Rudolph is a little childish but just as intricate as the rest. Again, the brown chocolate flavoured icing with a bright red nose, brown ears (with a little white in the centre to add dimension) and a pair of eyes made of black writing icing with white in the centre. They eyes drooped (more like ran) by themselves but I still think they look just as good. I added cocktail sticks for antlers and a few markings for a mouth. 
6. Finally, the improvised cupcake. A bright green fondant base with two red and white candy canes joined by a bow. I was just messing around when I made the first candy cane - make two thin sausages with the red and white icing then twist together - but I thought it looked quite realistic so I made another and put them on the cake!

12 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Cake Release Review.

We've all had the nightmare of baking the most perfect cake but not being able to get it out of the tin. Before, I thought the only way around this was to use greaseproof paper which is quite a laborious task when you just want to get the mixture in the oven ASAP! My mom actually discovered this product on a routinely shop on Lakeland and ordered it for me as a surprise.

Essentially it's grease in a bottle and in liquid form. You squirt a tiny amount into your cake tin and spread it around evenly using a brush et voilà, your tin is greased and ready to go. It really is as simple as that.

What I really love about this product, aside from the speed and convenience of it, is that it can be used to grease really intricately shaped tins where normal greaseproof paper wouldn't be able to reach. Also, the cakes come out absolutely perfectly (as long as you apply it all over, which isn't difficult) and with such ease. No more keeping your fingers crossed that your cake will come out in one piece.

For only £3.99 there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would re-purchase this. I've had it it since around August and with regular use, it is actually still quite full - you really do only need a tiny amount for great results!

16 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

17th Birthday Cake.

Let's take a step away from the fact that it is Christmas in just 17 days and discuss a different birthday. I made this birthday cake this week with a slightly festive theme in mind - the blue and white (aka I was asked to make it at short notice and had to use whatever I had in my cupboard, which happened to only be blue and white icing), but I think it worked out quite well in the end. I covered the cake in an ivory icing which I had rolled over one of my lace impressions mat to get the swirly floral pattern and brushed with rejuvenator to make the design stand out. I then made a light blue rose accompanied by seven hydrangea flowers in the shape of a '17', all stuck down with edible glue.

Inside was a normal sponge cake with homemade vanilla buttercream and a slither of apricot jam, which I personally love but I know it's not for everyone so I decided not to put too much in. Of course, no cake of mine would be complete without a spritz of pearl lustre spray.

The flowers on this cake could easily be substituted for snowflakes and the floral icing for something slightly more festive.

17 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

My Favourite Chocolate Truffles.

I really do love making these all year round, but especially at Christmas. I find they're great if you suddenly realised you've forgotten to buy someone a present or if you're not sure what to buy for someone and I also love making them as after-dinner. These chocolate truffles are quick, easy, delicious and will go down a treat!

Ingredients:

125g plain chocolate

2 tbsp of your choice of liquor (optional)

40g unsalted butter

55g icing sugar

55g ground almonds

cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Method:

1. Put the plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and melt, make sure you stir it regularly so chocolate doesn't burn.

2. Carefully remove form the heat and stir in your choice of liquor (I like to use rum).

3. Beat in the butter, sugar and almonds until thoroughly combined.

4. Shape the mixture into balls, I usually use 1 tsp per truffle to ensure they are all of a similar size. This recipe should make on average 18 but it depends on how big or small you make them.

5. If you are going to dust them with cocoa then spread some cocoa powder onto a plate and simply roll the truffles around in it until they are coated all over. Be careful not to put too much cocoa powder on them as this can make them very bitter and have an almost furry texture. An alternative decoration, which I prefer, is melting some chocolate and either dipping them in or drizzling it over them. I would advise refrigerating them for a while before and after doing this.

19 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Christmas Cookie Inspiration.

I really do love decorating biscuits at Christmas, my earliest memory of this was when I was 7 and I went to Ikea with my mom and buying about 50 of their gingerbread biscuits in star and tree shapes. I decorated them all with festive writing icing and put the first letter of everyone in my year group's name on biscuits and giving to them in cellophane bags as presents. They went down well, despite the fact that I got angry at some people for opening theirs before Christmas day. Since then I've had an obsession with biscuits for the festive season. Here are a few which have inspired me this year...

20 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Quick Festive Haul.

After Monday's post (if you missed it click here), I just couldn't help going to my local cake decorating supplies shop and getting a few bits and bobs for my cupcakes so here's what I picked up...

I purchased a few packs of icing in the most festive colours I have ever laid eyes on. The brown is for Christmas pudding/Rudolph, then you can probably guess that the red is possibly for a Santa or Santa hat and the green is mainly for some form of Christmas tree (I don't want to give too much away).

I am so pleased with these holly and snowflake cutters. They're quite pricey but I truly think they're worth it when you see how well these cutters work. I'm also really excited that T K Maxx are now selling this brand of cutters, hallelujah! The holly is for the top of Christmas pudding or just holly in general and I'll be looking to use the snowflake on my baubles.

I'm also running out of my pearl lustre spray which is my holy grail item, I literally cannot recommend it enough. There is nothing (that I have yet discovered) that doesn't look even better with a spray of this over. I think it'll be really great for my baubles this year to give them a more shiny look - just like a real bauble. 

21 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

My Favourite Yule Log Recipe.

I absolutely adore this recipe and have been using it to make my yule logs for several years now. It's so delicious and the sponge is pretty much fat free - perfect for this time of year! I smother it in chocolate buttercream and then use a fork to create a bark-like effect before adding a sprinkle of icing sugar just to make it look a little more snowy and festive. The holly and 'Merry Christmas' sign were just odd plastic-y things that I found in the kitchen but I thought completed the whole festive look.

Ingredients: 

3 Eggs

75g Caster sugar

75g Plain flour

25g Cocoa powder

100g Butter

100g Icing sugar

75g Milk chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease and line a swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together and fold in the flour and cocoa powder. 
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes until it feels springy.
4. When baked, immediately turn the sponge out onto greaseproof paper dusted lightly with caster sugar and trim off the hard edges. 
5. Carefully roll up the cake with the paper still in the middle and leave to cool.
6. Combine the butter and icing sugar together and then stir in the melted chocolate. 
7. Unroll the sponge, spread half of the butter cream inside and up roll again.
8. Use the remaining butter cream to coat the top of the roll.
9. Using a fork, make marks in the butter cream as in the picture to make it look more like a log and sprinkle icing sugar over the top.

22 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Chrismas Cupcake Inspiration.

This year I'm really looking forward to making some proper Christmas cupcakes with proper icing! I think homemade gifts are the most personal and have the most thought and care put into them. It's easy to go around a shop and pick up presents that you think people might like but when presents are handmade, you can't help loving them (I hope). I wish I could make all of my presents but time is always an issue at such a busy time of the year so I'm hoping to make cupcakes for a few of my friends.

I'm absolutely in love with the idea of Christmas pudding cupcakes, mainly because it's so easy to create the dome shape just like a real Christmas pudding! I think these ones are so simply yet effective and I'd probably use a chocolate cupcake inside.

I also adore these bauble cupcakes. Again, a lovely domed cupcake makes these the perfect shape. I would use a lace embossing mat, some lustre spray and then finish with the hanger (and maybe even a piece of festive thread for authenticity). There are also so many designs and colours you could put on these, the possibilities are almost endless.

If you're not a fan of the modern colours and symbols of Christmas, I'm sure you'll love these snowy blue and white cupcakes. They're so much more sophisticated - perhaps suitable for a more mature friend or family members but nonetheless festive. I particularly love the one in the centre.

Similarly, the lady whose cupcakes courses I go on (Mrs Mac) made these absolutely exquisite Christmas cupcakes. I'm so sad that I can't go to the course to make these ones but I would highly highly recommend her.

And finally, after an overdose of fondant icing, there's The Hummingbird Bakery's festive cupcakes for this year which they have been posting on twitter repeatedly since the start of November which I think has lead to an obsession. I love the signature buttercream swirl on top and I just can't get over how effective they look with such a small amount of effort. I particularly love the gingerbread man with the read crumbs around the edge, I assume this signifies a red velvet cupcake. Yum!

23 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Rhubarb, Blueberry and Damson Pie.

After this year's 'Harvest' we had a huge surplus of produce. With no jars left to fill with jam or chutney, this surplus headed for the freezer but I'd had enough of playing a game of tetris everytime I wanted some bread or fish fingers so I decided to defrost and use some of our Rhubarb and Damsons. 

I've never ever made a fruit pie before, until now, so I was a little nervous about how it would turn out after seeing how many things could go wrong on Great British Bake Off to bakers which are far more knowledgable than myself. However, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy this pie was to bake and how well it turned out.

Ingredients:

200g Plain Flour

25g Ground Almonds

100g Unsalted Butter

1 Egg Yolk

100g Sugar

3 tbsp Milk

100g Blueberries

325g Rhubarb

325g Damsons

100g Caster Sugar
4 tbsps Plain Flour

Method:

1. I always like to make my pastry first as it needs to chill in the fridge. To do this, sieve the flour and ground almonds into a bowl and mix them. Then rub in the butter until it looks like breadcrumbs before adding the egg yolk, sugar and milk.

2. Knead the dough on a floured surface for a few minutes then wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

3. Wash the fruit and put it in a large saucepan with the sugar. Cook for around 5 minutes until all the sugar has dissolved.

4. Drain the majority of the juices from the mix and transfer to a mixing bowl. Then add the plain flour and combine thoroughly. (I do this to ensure the mixture isn't too wet, otherwise it will soak the pastry and you'll end up with a 'soggy bottom')

5. Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll it out onto a floured surface. Then line a greased pastry dish (I like to use a pyrex one) with around two thirds of the dough. Ensure that the dough is pushed well in and remove the excess from the edges.

6. Spoon the fruit mixture into the pastry, ensuring it is evenly distributed.

7. Roll out the rest of the pastry and use it to cover the top of the pie. Trim the edges and crimp them using a fork to ensure the bottom and top are joined.

8. Put a few slits in the top of the pie and brush over the pie with a little bit of milk, this will help it to be a nice golden brown colour when baked. If there is any excess pastry you may wish to put a design on top of the pie, leaves are traditional.

9. Bake for around 40 minutes at 190˚C. Once baked, dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

Cupcake Decorating.

It seems like forever since I clicked that 'new post' button and started typing but I think I'm back from my hiatus. Since my last post I've been busy with work experience, then a party (which I made a tonne of cakes for and then lost all the pictures of them) and before I knew it I was off to Uganda on a mini community project holiday. It took me about a week to recover from that and settle back into everyday life (it was more of a culture shock coming home than going out there) but this week I got back into my usual baking routine.

My auntie recently went on a cake decorating course and as I was staying at hers this week, we spent a lot of time practising her new skills and evidently passing them on to me. For the first cupcakes we added Sugarflair's Dusky Pink to the buttercream and for the second bunch we added a small amount of Grape Violet from the same brand. I highly recommend these food colourings because, although they are more expensive, you only need to use a tiny bit to get great results which means they last a really long time. We finished the cupcakes off with silver/pearl balls and various sprinkles which are readily available at most supermarkets.

Left - normal piping pattern, right - rose piping pattern

Today I attended a vintage cupcake decorating course at a local cake craft shop. I am absolutely astounded by the results and will be doing more in-depth tutorials on how to create the various decorations in the near future.

 

Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

Great news! Thanks to my new blog design, you can now follow me on GFC to stay updated on new posts!

Orange Cupcakes with Chocolate Fudge Icing.

I generally like to find recipes for the ingredients that I already have instead of buying ingredients for a specific recipe, unless it's a special occasion or something I really want to try. I've been tempted by orange cupcakes for a while but usually I only have tiny tangerines which just wouldn't work. Therefore, I leapt at the chance to make them when I had some proper oranges.

Ingredients:

85g butter

85g caster sugar

1 egg

85g flour

25g ground almonds

1tsp vanilla extract

Juice and grated rind of 1 orange

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C. 

2.Cream the butter and mix in the sugar.

3. Lightly beat the egg and then add to the butter and sugar.

4. Fold in the flour and ground almonds.

5. Add the vanilla extract, orange juice and grated rind and combine thoroughly.

6. Distribute the mixture between 12 cake cases and bake for 20-25 minutes or until lightly golden.

This is where I got a little adventurous. Everyone knows how perfectly chocolate and orange go together *cough* Terry's Chocolate Orange *cough*. Melting chocolate and drizzling it on top was an option, but a little too safe for my liking. I decided to use this chocolate fudge icing recipe and was slightly mislead by the piped icing in the picture. I was under the impression that the consistency of it would be thick enough to pipe on but it most certainly was not. I followed the recipe exactly (in fact, I only used 70% of the milk otherwise it would've been a complete disaster) and it was quite runny.

I removed the cases from the cakes, dunked the base and sides of the cakes into the icing and put them upside down on the plate. I then left them to set in the fridge for a few hours before realising that if I turned the back the right way round then they look like cake cases made of chocolate!

You may or may not have noticed an increase in the quality of my photos in this post as I got a DSLR this week. It's the Nikon D5100 with the standard 18-55mm lens. So far I'm very impressed with it but I'm still learning what are the best settings/ways to use it so bare with me! I've found a variety of online resources to get the most out of my food photography but I found this guide from Sally's Baking Addiction particularly useful.

I'm also now on Google+! I've had it ever since it began but never understood it as I have no friends who use it. However, I have now discovered that if you set it up correctly then it's a fabulous way to find like-minded people as well as discover and share some wonderful recipes and blogs. I found Chef Dennis Littley's post on 'How to be a Good Plusser' exceptionally useful, as well as his various other posts about Google+. You'd be a fool not to jump on the bandwagon now!

Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

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GUEST BLOGGER: The Mixing Bowl's Cookie Dough Cupcakes!

It's Monday here on Cakes for Dorothy so that means I get to introduce you to another blogger! She works in a cupcakery (which I would one day love to do, and possible own one but that's another story for another day) so all of her cakes are absolutely immaculate! Also, I am still looking to continue this every other Monday so if you are a blogger who is interested in guest blogging on here then feel free to email me on: cakesfordorothy@gmail.com, even if you are unsure what it's about. 

This is my first guest blog post so please bear with me – I don’t really know how it all works! I usually blog at mixingbowlmagic.blogspot.com – a similar blog to this one.

I work in a cupcakery and my colleague and I came up with the idea for this cupcake one Friday afternoon when we wanted a new ‘special’ for the weekend.  They are inspired by cookie dough ice cream, which is so popular that we knew a cupcake version would be a hit! They are now one of our staples in-store and a big seller so I thought they were the perfect choice to share with you all!

They take a bit longer to make than regular cupcakes as there are several elements but believe me, it’s worth the wait! As the dough is not cooked before eaten I use an egg free recipe. You can use the same mixture to make the mini cookie on top but I find them quite greasy and prefer to use a regular recipe.

I have tried to scale down the recipe to make about 18-24 cupcakes but you may have excess cookies or dough (I’m sure this won’t be too much of a problem!). How many cakes you end up with will obviously depend on the size of your cases/muffin trays but I find that no matter how many cakes you have, they never last long!

Vanilla sponge:

200g self-raising flour

200g caster sugar

200g margarine

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 160C. Cream the margarine and caster sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla essence. Gently fold in the flour and baking powder until well mixed. Use an ice cream scoop to divide between cupcake cases or fill the cases two thirds full.

Bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Vanilla buttercream:

250g softened butter

800g icing sugar

1.5 tsp vanilla essence

Using an electric whisk or stand mixer beat the ingredients together until very light and fluffy. The get the best buttercream whip it up for 3-5 minutes. You should see the colour get lighter – a sign that it’s almost ready to be piped J

Egg-free cookie dough:

125g plain flour

100g brown sugar

56g caster sugar

85g softened butter

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

30ml milk

150g milk chocolate chunks

Cream together the butter and sugars. Beat in the vanilla and milk and then mix the flour until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chunks.

Cookies:

125g butter

125g caster sugar

100g brown sugar

225 self-raising flour

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g milk chocolate chunks

(You will have some dough spare so why not bake some big cookies – just roll into balls, flatten slightly and then bake for 8 minutes at 180C)

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugars. Once fluffy and well-mixed, beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour until you have a smooth dough.

Roll out half the dough into a big piece and transfer it onto a greased baking tray. Sprinkle the chocolate chunks onto the dough and press in. Bake for about 8 minutes. As soon as it comes out of the oven use a small round cutter to cut out the mini cookies before they cool.

The assembly job:

Using a small cutter or another device, remove the center of the cupcake. Fill with the cookie dough. Pipe the vanilla buttercream on top and finish with one of the mini cookies.

As you can see they are really quite easy and you end up with yummy cupcakes and some gooey choc chip cookies! If you do make these delights, I would love to see photos of your creations – send to mixingbowlmagic@hotmail.co.uk or tweet me at @Mixingbowlmagic. 

Don't forget to check out mixingbowlmagic.blogspot.com! Enjoy!

CakesforDorothy xoxo

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Berry Muffins.

It is Bank Holiday Monday, so what do I do? I bake, of course! We had some blueberries that needed to be eaten, but not quite enough for my usual Hummingbird Blueberry Muffin recipe so I decided to make up the rest of the weight in white chocolate chips. However, this recipe is so versatile that you could add any berries you want! Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries or you could even turn this into a chocolate chip recipe. As long as your added ingredient(s) weigh 250g!

Ingredients:

360g plain flour

370g caster sugar

1tsp salt

1.5tsps baking powder

1.5tsps bicarbonate of soda

375ml buttermilk

1 egg

1.5tsps vanilla extract

70g butter (melted)

250g other ingredient(s) - (in this case I used 200g blueberries and 50g white chocolate chips)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170˚C.

2. Put your flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl (please note the fact that it needs to be a large bowl, there's a lot of ingredients) and combine them using a wooden spoon.

3. In a different bowl, lightly whisk together the buttermilk, egg and vanilla extract. 

4. Slowly pour this mixture into the dry ingredients, constantly beating. 

5. Once all of that is thoroughly combined, add the melted butter and beat the mixture until it is even and smooth.

6. Finally, fold in the blueberries and chocolate chips.

7. Spoon the mixture into muffin cases (the ones pictured were a birthday present from Olivia Ellen, I think she bought them off ebay - similar here ) and bake for 20-25 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown colour and you have done the skewer test. 

8. Allow to cool before eating. 

Enjoy!

Cakesfordorothy xoxo

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World Baking Day 2013 - Coffee Cake.

Sorry this is a little late, I had 7 fairly demanding exams this week and so if I wasn't sleeping or eating then I was revising. This meant that I didn't find time on Sunday to participate in World Baking Day (boohoo) but I wasn't going to let that stop me from making my coffee cake as I was really looking forward to baking something new. Therefore, I baked it today instead! 

I used Jennie Brotherston's (all the things I eat)'s level 58 recipe from the World Baking Day website. It wasn't particularly difficult and I wasn't expecting it to be but it was one of the few recipes that appealed to me and that I had the ingredients to bake it with. 

Firstly I baked the cake as directed. There was so much mixture and the cake turned out quite thick so you may wish to half the ingredients.

I then cut the cake into two halves and sandwiched them together with coffee buttercream (that contained a dash of rum flavouring which I found to be very subtle but bought out the coffee flavour very nicely). I used the remaining buttercream to cover the top of the cake too.

Finally, I sprinkled some cocoa powder over the top to finish it off. Et voilà!

Overall, I'm really happy with how the cake turned out. The ratio of buttercream to cake is perfect and the cake itself was light and fluffy.
Enjoy!

Cakesfordorothy xoxo