Showing posts with label method. Show all posts
Showing posts with label method. Show all posts

05/06/2017

Unicorn Cupcakes

I found this Unicorn Cupcake recipe back in March and I've had my eye on it since then. The outcome of the cupcakes looked really cool and quirky and they were definitely something I wanted to try. 

I would say you need at least two people to make these cakes - I did it by myself and I end up with cake mixture and colouring absolutely everywhere, so at least two people would probably make it a lot easier. 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

430g of Plain Flour
3 teaspoons of Baking Powder
265g of Caster Sugar
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
125g of Unsalted Butter, softened
375ml of Milk
2 tablespoons of Greek Yoghurt (or use Sour Cream instead)
125ml of Vegetable/Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
2 Large Eggs
4 drops of Pink food Gel
2 drops of Blue food Gel
2 drops of Purple food Gel

Icing:

200g of Icing Sugar
100g of Unsalted Butter
1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract
1 tablespoon of Milk or Water
2 drops of Pink food Gel
2 drops of Blue food Gel
1 drops of Purple food Gel


Method:

Cupcakes:

1) Pre-heat the oven to 180C (356F) or 160C (320F) for a fan oven. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners
2) In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt. Use an electric whisk and whisk the mixture together for a few minutes of until all the ingredients are combined. Alternatively - if you don't have an electric whisk, try sifting the ingredients together to ensure their are no lumps. 
3) Add the unsalted butter, softened butter and mix the ingredients again until it resembles a very fine, sand like, texture.
4) After this, measure out the milk, yoghurt, oil and vanilla extract into a separate jug or bowl and whisk well until the ingredients are fully combined.
5) Next, slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in a steady fashion, whilst whisking the mixture, until you've completely combined the two mixtures. 
6) Split the batter equally between the three bowls. Then, colour one with 2 drops of blue gel, one with 2 drops of pink gel and the last one with 2 drops of pink and 2 drops of purple (or use as much gel as it takes to colour your mixtures). 
7) Transfer the batter in 3 separate piping bags and carefully pipe little blobs of each colour in the cupcake liners. Make sure you alternate which colours you use in order to create un-ordered but colourful cupcakes. For example, pipe a blob of pink, then blue, then purple and repeat until you've filled the cupcake liner 3/4 of the way. 
8) Bake the cupcakes for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick or knife inserted into the centre of a cake, comes out clean. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and allow them to cool.

Icing:

1) To prepare your icing whisk your unsalted butter until it is fluffy and completely softened.
2) Next, add your icing sugar and whisk the mixture until the butter and icing sugar are completely combined and you have a fluffy mixture.
3) Add the vanilla extract and milk/water, to softened down the mixture - you can always add more if need be, but ensure your icing retains 'peaks' (points). 
4) To add colour to your icing, use the same method as your cupcake mixture. Separate the icing into three bowls then add 2 drops of blue to one bowl, 2 drops of pink to another and 2 drops of purple and 2 drops of pink to the last (or use as much gel as it takes to colour your mixtures). 
5) Then transfer the mixture into ONE piping bag - trying to ensure the colours stay separated as much as possible.
6) The last part - of how you actually ice your cupcakes - is up to you. You can either:

  • Frost three blobs of frosting onto the cupcake. The bottom of being the biggest and top one being smaller. And then pipe little blobs around each blob - finishing with one final blob on top OR
  • You can use a star shaped piping head and ice the cupcakes in a spiral movement - for a simpler but still effective look. 
I used the second icing technique - just because I felt the first would create more icing than their was cupcake. I hope you enjoy these cupcakes if you make them! They're quite a lot of work, but totally worth it. 

"Be the baddest unicorn in the whole freakin' galaxy"

Until next time,

Alice x 

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17/04/2017

Salted Caramel Cupcakes

I've made these Salted Caramel Cupcakes twice now; the basic cupcake recipe is super easy to follow, however filling and icing the cupcakes is a bit more complicated and time consuming (however SO worth the yummy cupcakes you end up with), so if you decide to make these cakes make sure you have enough time and perhaps a bit of help to help you prepare the icing and the salted caramel.

The first time I made these cupcakes, me and Meg wanted to film a video and needed a recipe to do so, we found a salted caramel cupcake recipe online but we wanted to put our own twist on the cakes, so we decided to fill the cupcakes with salted caramel as well as creating our own icing to compliment them. If you'd like to check the video out, you can do so here.

The second time I made these cupcakes I had a bit of help from my mum; I attempted to make them by myself, however, honestly, a little bit of help goes a long way, and having someone to cut out the centres of the cakes and ensure the icing and salted caramel is the right consistency for being piped means you have a little less to do.

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
210g Plain Flour
1 3/4 Teaspoon Baking Powder
200g Caster Sugar
2 Medium eggs, beaten
170ml Milk
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
112g Butter/Margarine
Salted Caramel Sauce (or anything similar)

Icing:
200g Icing Sugar
100g Unsalted Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Tablespoon Milk
Salted Caramel Sauce (or anything similar)

Method:

1) Preheat the Oven to 175/180 degrees Celsius. Line a cupcake try with 12 paper liners (you can always add more if you have additional cupcake batter).
2) Using a mixing bowl, cream together the sugar and margarine until they're fully combined.
3) Beat the eggs together in a jug and add in the vanilla extract. Gradually whisk the eggs into the sugar and margarine mixture, adding a little at a time and beating well after each addition.
4) Using a separate bowl combine the flour and baking powder. Then carefully fold in the flour mixture alternating with the milk, in several additions.
5) Half-fill the paper cases with the batter and bake them for 20 to 25 minutes (or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cupcake)
6) Once cooked transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool.

Filling

1) Once the cupcakes have cooled cut out the centre of the cakes. Make the hole circular and about half way down the cupcake (a small to medium size).
2) Once the centre of the cakes have been removed start piping the salted caramel into the centre of each of them.
3) Replace the centres of the cakes as you go. Cut off the bottom of the centres only leaving the top part remaining - do this so the salted caramel doesn't overflow out of the middle of the cake.

Icing

1) Weigh and combine the icing sugar and the unsalted butter together by whisking the mixture together.
2) Add in the vanilla extract and milk and stir them into the mixture. The icing should be light and fluffy and should drop off a spoon without any force, but not run off a spoon otherwise it is too runny. 3) If you want to add some colouring into your icing you can do so now. To only colour part of your icing remove a small section and place it into a separate bowl. Then add in a drop of your chosen colour.
3) Put the icing into your piping tube and pipe it in a circular motion onto the top of each cupcake. If you have coloured icing too try to place it directly next to your white icing in the actual piping tube.
4) Once you have iced all of your cupcakes return to your salted caramel piping tube and follow the lines of your icing to ensure your salted caramel follows the structure of your icing.
5) Then ENJOY!  

"You can't be sad when you're holding a cupcake"

Until Next Time,

Alice x
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15/06/2016

Weetabix Breakfast Smoothie

Deciding to go on another health kick, I was getting kinda bored of having the same old cereals and fruit for breakfast and I wanted to try something new; eating the same old things was making it difficult for me to be healthy and I wasn't enjoying what I was eating.

Spotting this recipe on the back of a weetabix box, I thought I'd give it a go and see if I enjoyed it - I thought it was the answer to trying something new and mixing up my breakfast routine a bit. Safe to say it was both enjoyable and filling - perfect for a breakfast time. The smoothie just tasted like eating a weetabix for breakfast except it was in drink form than a solid form. It's also a really good recipe to follow if you haven't got time for breakfast in the morning - it's a great thing to have on the go, as well as being really healthy, nutritious and full of vitamins.

Sumptuous Smoothie:

With this recipe I used my Kilner Drinking Jar, and I filled it to the top with some leftover mixture as well, so if you want to make this smoothie for two or more people I'd probably double or triple the batch.

Ingredients:

1 Weetabix
A Handful of Raspberries
A Handful of Strawberries
150ml of Yoghurt (For this I used No Fat Greek Yoghurt)
200ml of Milk

Method:

1) Measure out the yoghurt and milk and pour them both into the blender
2) Put your weetabix into the blender with the yoghurt and milk
3) Grab a literal handful of raspberries and strawberries and place these into the blender with all your other ingredients.
4) Blend all your smoothie together until it is smooth, tip it into a glass and enjoy!
(It doesn't really matter which order you put all the ingredients into the blender as long as they're included.)

Tips

I used Greek Yoghurt for the smoothie, however I would recommend either including honey as well as the yoghurt or using a honey yoghurt as using Greek Yoghurt alone made the smoothie a bit bitter. OR
Including less greek yoghurt and more milk may be the answer - as this would make the smoothie a bit thinner as well, as including so much yoghurt did make it quite thick.

If you don't like Raspberries/Strawberries, only include one or the other. Both are only included to add more flavours to your smoothie.

If you have a Kilner Drinker Jar, I would recommend using it and a straw for your smoothie - it makes the drink feel a lot more summery and it makes the idea of drinking a healthy smoothie a lot more exciting (for me anyway - but I am a bit strange)

"In life, much like smoothies, you get out what you put in"

Until Next Time,

Alice x
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21/04/2016

R - Rocky Road Recipe


Getting given a rocky road recipe was probably one of the best things ever. My family have used this recipe countless amounts of times, whether its just for a family treat, for a birthday party, a cake sale or a 'bring and share' event at school, Rocky Road is the perfect thing to bake. It doesn't take very long and it's a bit different to your typical chocolate cupcake, so it's unlikely anyone else will have bought or thought of the same idea.

Rocky Road:

With this recipe it all depends on how big a dish you use, and how many pieces you cut it in to once its been refrigerated - however I will say you don't want the pieces to be too large as it's quite rich so small amounts at a time is plenty.

Ingredients:

125g of Soft Butter (Such as Stork)
300g of Dark Chocolate (Own brand is fine)
3 x 15ml tablespoons of Golden Syrup
200g Biscuits (Rich Tea or Digestive are best)
100g of Mini Marshmallows 

Method:

1) Melt the butter, chocolate and golden syrup in a small bowl over a pan of boiling water. Put aside some of the melted mixture.
2) Crush the biscuits in a sealed bag with a rolling pin so you get both crumbs and pieces.
3) Fold the biscuit pieces into the melted chocolate
4) Add in the marshmallows and continue to combine the mixture
5) Press down into a baking pan or dish and spread the mixture so it covers the entire bottom of the pan/dish.
6) Dribble the put aside melted butter, chocolate and golden syrup over the top of the mixture.
7) Refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight.
8) Once the mixture is solid, remove from fridge and cut it up into fingers. Then store in the fridge.
9) Enjoy!

I hope you love Rocky Road as much as me and my family. Alternative versions are Creme Egg Rocky Road which me and my best friend Meg, created a video tutorial of on our YouTube channel, click here to watch it!

"A balanced diet is chocolate in both hands"

Until Tomorrow,

Alice x


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08/02/2016

The Perfect Pancakes!

With Shrove Tuesday looming, I thought posting the simplest and easiest pancake recipe would help guide along anyone who has absolutely no idea where to start with making their pancakes. This is the recipe we've used in my household for years, it's from one of my mum's really old cookery books and I find it really easy to follow. I can't make pancakes without following a recipe, I just get confused over how many grams you need of each ingredient and the order in which you put them into the bowl - so hopefully this recipe will help you out too.

This recipe makes around 2-3 pancakes - so enough for one person to eat. However, we just multiple the ingredients by how many mouths we need to feed (in my house that's 5 so if we're meant to use 100 grams we use 500 grams), but beware, with pancakes you can end up with making more or less than you thought you would - it's a bit of a guessing game really as as you can never use the same amount of batter in one pancake as you do in another so each one turns out differently (we always end up with 2 or 3 more pancakes than we expected to have)

Equipment:

Mixing Bowl
Whisk (Preferable electric but handheld is ok too)
Ladle
Frying Pan
Spatula/Fish Slice

Ingredients: 

100g (4oz) of plain flour
A pinch of salt
1 egg
250ml ( ½ a pint) of milk or a mix of milk and water

Method:

1) Mix the flour and salt together, and then add the egg.
2) Beating well, gradually add all of the liquid until smooth. 
3) Wipe your frying pan with a small amount of oil (ensuring you do this in between cooking each pancake - before you pour more batter into the pan)
4) Using a ladle, fill it with pancake mix and pour it into the frying pan - slowly moving the pan around in order to spread out the pancake mix so it covers the bottom of the frying pan
5) When the pancake begins cooking the yellow batter will become a slightly darker colour and air bubbles will start to appear in the middle of the pancake. 
6) Using a plastic spatula or fish slice gently separate the pancake from the edge of the frying pan by running the utensil around the edge of the pan. 
7) Once you're satisfied the underneath of the pancake is cooked either flip the pancake by throwing it up into the air in the traditional way or slide your kitchen utensil underneath the pancake so the pancake sits on the spatula or fish slice and then flip it over. 
8) Once the pancake is cooked, slip it from the pan straight onto a plate and begin the same process again - ensuring you wipe the pan with more oil each time. 
9) Finally, serve your pancake with your favourite things and bask in pancake heaven - Some examples are Caster sugar, Lemon juice, Chocolate sauce, Toffee sauce, Maple syrup, Golden syrup and of course, nutella. 

I hope this recipe helps make your pancake day more stress free and little bit easier. Let me know whether you use this recipe, and what crazy and wonderful things you like to put on your pancakes! 

"Try not to be like pancakes and get all flipped out, be like syrup, and go with the flow" 

Enjoy!

Alice x

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