cranberry and orange cupcakes with white chocolate icing

January has been the "bake things I never got round to making in December" month. First the gingerbread biscuits and now these cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Home Sweet Home book.

There are some gorgeous looking baked goods in this book. HOWEVER... is it just me or are a lot of the cupcake/cake recipes basically their chocolate or vanilla cake batter with slightly different presentation or an extra ingredient/flavour thrown in? I hadn't noticed this in their two previous books, so I felt a bit disappointed, although I will undoubtedly bake more from this book.

One more gripe regarding Hummingbird Bakery recipes... is it just me or is 1 tablespoon of baking powder for a cupcake batter excessive? For a recipe containing 200g-ish of plain flour I would normally think 1 teaspoon or maybe 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder is sufficient. I have had mixed results with Hummingbird Bakery cupcake recipes (something to do with their baking powder ratio perhaps?) and these cupcakes certainly turned out interesting looking. I've never had a mixture turn out like this before. Have you?

In the interest of comparison I baked another batch using a standard victoria sponge mixture, adding in the same amount of orange zest and dried cranberries. I photographed the two batches side by side for your amusement.

After sampling both batches, dare I say, the pimple-tastic volcano cupcakes possibly win in flavour! They have a creamy flavour and soft, close texture whereas the victoria sponge cupcakes are much fluffier. It's a tough contest to call as both are very edible, but I really enjoyed the creamy sponge against the creamy, sweet icing.

 creamy volcano

fluffy cupcake

It was really lovely to bake with orange for a change. So often I bake with lemons, forgetting there are other citrus fruits. It's less in your face than lemon but still really fresh. I always find orange pairs very well with dried fruit, whether it's cranberries or sultanas.

And not enough words can express my love for white chocolate icing. It's just the most delightfully creamy, sweet thing to grace the planet. I must refrain from eating spoonfuls of it like a bowl of ice-cream.

Cranberry and orange cupcakes with white chocolate icing
Recipe from Hummingbird Bakery "Home Sweet Home" book

70g (2 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened

210g (7 1/2oz) plain flour

250g (9oz) caster sugar

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

210ml (7 1/2fl oz) whole milk (I used semi skimmed)

2 large eggs

60g (2oz) dried cranberries

1 tsp grated orange zest

white chocolate butter icing:
I would suggest halving this as it easily covered both cupcake batches. Unless you're happy to eat a bowlful of it like myself.

60g (2oz) white chocolate, chopped

500g (1lb 2oz) icing sugar

160g (5 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened (I used half unsalted half salted)

50ml (1 3/4fl oz) milk (semi skimmed)

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/Gas 3 and line a muffin tray with paper cases. To make the sponge batter mix together the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until it resembles breadcrumbs. In a jug, whisk together the milk and eggs with a fork. Pour half the eggy milk mixture into the flour mixture and whisk on a slow speed until everything is combined. Turn up the mixer to a medium speed and beat until there are no more lumps. Once smooth, slowly pour in the rest of the eggy milk mixture and mix until the batter is fully combined. Fold in the orange zest and dried cranberries until even dispersed.

Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases filling them about 2/3 full. I think I got 15 or 16 cupcakes from this mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until well risen (hopefully not like oddly formed volcanoes) and springy to touch. Leave to cool in their trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the icing, start by melting the chocolate in a heatproof bowl in short bursts in the microwave (or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, whichever technique you prefer.) Set aside to cool. Mix the icing sugar, butter and milk in a large bowl. Start off mixing by hand to minimise the dreaded icing sugar dust cloud, then continue whisking with the mixer for 5 minutes until the icing is light, smooth and fluffy. Add the melted chocolate and whisk until fully incorporated.  Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle (Wilton 1M tip) and pipe swirls on Mr Whippy style, working from the outside edge swirling in.

gingerbread dinosaur invasion

My friend Sarah gives the best Christmas presents, 3D dinosaur biscuit cutters!

I was a bit miffed that I hadn't got around to baking any gingerbread biscuits at Christmas, so these cutters gave me the perfect excuse to bake some this month.

 camouflage stegosaurus

The biscuits turned out more like super syrup-y gingersnaps than gingerbread as the dough needed to be rolled out fairly thin in order for the dinosaur legs to slot comfortably into the bodies. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it's worth noting they're crunchy rather than a chewy centred gingerbread. They're great tea dunkers, providing you're ok with the possibility of icing flaking off into your cup. (Part of the dunking thrill surely?)

 "Hey, what do you think of my Lord Nelson jug. Pretty groovy, right?"
"Fabulously retro, darling'"

Needless to say, I had a lot of fun making and decorating these dinosaurs and setting them around my dresser in crockery attack formations. They've certainly amused all the visitors to the house this week. Dinosaur fun for everybody!

Gingerbread/snap dinosaur biscuits
Original recipe from a recipe card in an Usborne baking pack (funnily enough, I think it was also a present from Sarah many years ago.) I've made a couple of tweaks/substitutions:

350g (12oz) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp mixed spice
100g (4oz) chilled butter
100g (4oz) light muscovado sugar 
75g (2oz) soft dark brown sugar
1 large egg
2- 3 tbsp golden syrup (enough to bring the dough together)

for the royal icing:
1 egg white (or 1 sachet of egg white powder)
1/2 tsp lemon juice
300g icing sugar

Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small chunks and rub into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the sugar. Break the eggs into a jug and lightly beat with a fork. Add the syrup and beat again. Pour the eggy syrup into the flour mixture and mix until it forms a dough. Wrap in the dough clingfilm and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Cut the dough in half. Sprinkle the (clean) worktop with flour and roll out one piece of the dough until it's about 3mm thick if you're making 3D dinosaurs (about 5mm thick is fine for ordinary biscuits). Cut out all your shapes and transfer to baking trays (make sure your trays have a dusting of flour to stop your biscuits sticking!) Roll out the rest of the dough and cut more shapes. 

Bake in the oven for about 8 minutes. Keep an eye on them! The dough is rolled out thin so the edges don't take long to colour. Thicker (ordinary) biscuits will take longer, 12-15 minutes. Leave to cool on the trays for a few minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. 

For royal icing, beat together the egg white and lemon juice. (If using egg white powder, follow the instructions on the sachet to reconstitute the egg white before adding the lemon.) Gradually add the icing sugar, mixing well between each addition. Whisk the mixture until it forms stiff peaks. Add more icing sugar if you think it looks too runny. Divide the mixture into a couple of bowls and add a few drops of food colouring. Once you've reached  your desired shade dollop the icing into a piping bag fitted with a nozzle and have fun decorating!

2015 sewing plans

And just when everybody does a massive sigh of relief thinking all the "plans for 2015" type blog posts have finally rolled past here I come with mine. Ha ha!

I was a bit naughty a couple of weeks ago as I purchased some Happy New Year To Me sewing patterns. What initially was "I'll just buy a couple of new patterns to try out" turned into "I MUST HAVE ALL THE PATTERNS!"

It took me a few days to decide which pattern to delve into first as I was having serious Gollum "my precioussss" tendencies stroking all the packaging. Now that the stroking compulsion has subsided I've settled on the Emery pattern as I already have suitable fabric in my stash. I've made a toile of the bodice and the fit looks more hopeful than the darted dress bodice I had previously been working on which was riddled with fitting issues. I've also purchased Pati Palmer's "Fit For Real People" book so I can hopefully figure out what the hell's going on with my upper back/shoulders/armholes.

As well as getting to grips with my fitting issues I'd like to learn to sew with knits this year, especially since I now own a snazzy overlocker. Comfort ranks high in my day to day wear so I'd be delighted if I could make my own knit/jersey tops and dresses. Tilly's cute patterns look like an ideal place to start.

I got excited and prewashed a pile of fabric. Woohoo!

I'm also seriously swooning over the idea of making my own dungarees so I *needed* Pauline Alice's Turia pattern. I'm envisaging a funky, corduroy pair. Oh yeaaah! My brain is almost bursting with excitement just visualising it. Watch this space! Perhaps not too closely though, it'll probably be a while before I get to them as I'm a slow coach.

So that's my sewing plans. I'd better get to work then. GO JO, GO!

chocolate and coconut cake

It was my cousin's birthday last Friday so naturally I baked her a cake. She's a big fan of Bounty chocolate bars so I knew a chocolate and coconut cake would go down a treat.

Although I was initially miffed that I couldn't get my hands on some shredded coconut, toasted desiccated coconut made a pretty cake covering along with some chopped up chunks of Bounty bars. My favourite thing about using desiccated coconut to finish a cake is that you can be as messy as you like with the butter icing underneath. Nobody will know!

Word of warning though, watch your desiccated coconut like a hawk when it's toasting in the oven as it really doesn't take long to colour. Yup, you guessed it, I incinerated burnt the first batch.

This is definitely a grown up chocolate cake - dark, rich and almost fudgy in texture. It balanced nicely with the creamy, sweet, coconut icing. I think my cousin was delighted that a dark, chocolatey cake was hiding beaneath the light, fluffy exterior.

The cake recipe is from the Primrose Bakery, the same cake I baked for my sister in law a couple of years ago. The only change I made was swapping the milk for coconut milk. I also only used the two sponges as I didn't need to make a huge, triple layer cake (and it meant I got to keep a layer at home for myself, yay!) The recipe is a bit labour intensive and you end up with a lot of bowls to wash up, but it's definitely worth the effort for a fancier occasion.

For the icing I used 500g icing sugar, 115g butter (half salted, half unsalted as that's what I had to hand), 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extact and 60ml coconut milk - beat it together for a good 5 minutes until very light and fluffy and it easily fills and covers the cake. I used a couple of boxes of desiccated coconut to toast but probably only needed one as I had loads left over. The coconut was patted on by hand after icing the cake.

A fancy cake requires fancy china! I think my Aunty said that this gold china set belonged to my Uncle's Granny and dates around the 1880s. I've already forgotten the brand, I think it was Royal Albert, but it's a very stylish set. I love the square shaped side plates. I'm also a sucker for thin, shaped rimmed teacups.

Two birthday cakes baked and devoured in the first week and a half of 2015. Not bad!

"maybe that yellow one is a minion..?"

It's probably a bad idea to ask your Aunty and Granny to make a Star Wars themed cake when neither of them have seen any of the Star Wars films (yes, I know, sorry) but that's what my nephew requested for his birthday this year.  Why not start the year with a challenge!

After a quick image search Mum and I decided to roughly copy some cute little Star Wars themed cupcakes we'd seen floating around the interwebz to go around our planet cake. We thought the fondant faces looked easy enough to achieve but my god they were fiddly! Especially that black and red horn guy.

*I apologise to all the die hard Star Wars fans who are either shouting at me in disgust or quietly dying inside.*

Despite our lack of patience with fondant modelling and complete Star Wars ingnorance I think we did a pretty good job. The birthday boy was impressed by our efforts too, thankfully!

For the cakes we used a straight forward 3 egg victoria sponge recipe, dividing the batter between a 12 hole bun tin and a 7" round cake tin. Nice and simple. Except I burnt the first mixture. *Groan* At least it was easy to whip up a second batch.