Lemon cupcakes and a review

Cupcakes are one my favourite things to bake. I definitely class myself as more of a baker than cake decorator so when I was asked if I wanted to review Cupcake Decorating Lab by Bridget Thibeault I said yes as I wanted to learn some new techniques. It's a beautiful book published by Quarry Books. It has 144 pages in total with lots of colour photographs.

The book is divided into 10 chapters

It starts with an introduction from the author and also covers materials that you will need. The chapters are then divided into

1. Icing basics - frosting with buttercream, piping with buttercream, tinting buttercream, striping with buttercream, chocolate ganache glaze
2. Sugared Fruit & Flowers - sugared berries, basket of peaches, candied flowers, candied citrus slices
3. Fondant - covering with fondant, silicone moulds, impression mats, stamping on fondant, stenciling on fondant
4. Royal Icing - piping on fondant, brush embroidery, royal icing decorations, sugar cookie topper
5. Flowers & Garden - single buttercream flower, buttercream rosettes, fondant rose bouquet, sugar blossoms, sugar flowers, butterflies in the grass, herb pots
6. Fun Themes - krispie S'more cupcakes, doughnut cupcakes, gone surfing, white chocolate snowman, cupcake cake, cupcake fondue, espresso cups tea party mojito
7. Kids & Babies - tutu cupcakes, ice cream cone clowns, movie night cupcakes, soft serve ice cream, owl cupcakes, egg nests
8. Weddings - tiered wedding cupcakes, monogram cupcakes, shot glass tiramisu, PBJ Mason jars
9. Cupcakes with a Twist - cheesecake cupcakes, cake truffles, cake push pops, rose bundt cakes, flourless chocolate cake
10. Presentation - pedestals & cupcake stands, ribbons, wrappings & packaging

Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with step by step photographs. There's a list of materials required on your left and a helpful tip box on each page. I chose to work with fondant as it still scares me and I also wanted to try something new. I bought some impression mats at a cake show last year but have not used them yet so this was a good opportunity.

I made my favourite lemon cucpcake recipe as I wanted something light and refreshing. I followed the instructions for using the impression mat and decorating the cupcakes and I am pleased with the results. 

My Verdict - I really like this book for the following reasons. It's clear and beautifully set out with lots of colour step by step photographs. It covers everything you need to know to decorate a cupcake from the basics of frosting a cupcake with a spatula to more complicated techniques such as brush embroidery. It also has cupcake recipes at the back in both metric and US measurements. If I did not receive this review copy, I'd put it on my Christmas wish list! 

 ingredients for lemon cupcake

 my recipe only made 10 cupcakes

 impression mats

 place fondant over the mat and press with your fingers or roll with a rolling pin 

 it works! 

 I also got to use my cute button mould

 These were the only colours I had but I think they worked out in the end 

 Place a small amount of frosting on top of the cupcake

 cover with fondant circle 

 ta-dah! 

 it could be neater but I think they look great

 I also decorated some with butterflies 

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Crystallised Ginger Biscuits

It feels like I've not baked for a long time so it was really good to get back into the kitchen and bake something. Last month was hectic and I do apologise for the lack of posts here and will try to post more frequently this month. As I'm hosting AlphaBakes this month, I thought I'd better get stuck in and make something before the end of the month. The letter this month is G which immediately made me think of ginger which I actually hate. However, almost everyone I know loves ginger so I knew there would not be a lack of taste testers for the recipe. 

I chose a recipe from Jo Wheatley's A Passion for Baking. She quizzed her team of biscuit tasters to find out which flavour they preferred and the response was ginger. I didn't know this but Jo doesn't like ginger either! I have to say I did taste one and it really was very good although it was very gingery! The biscuits are crunchy on the outside with a strong taste of crystallised ginger. I loved the chocolate bit on top! 

As mentioned I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is G for ginger. 

I'm also entering them to Feel Good Food hosted by Victoria at A Kick at The Pantry Door as the ingredient this month is ginger.

 lots of sugar and spice!

 crystallised ginger 

 the chocolate square did not melt into the cookie as I thought but remained whole and utterly delicious when you bite into it. 

Recipe reproduced with permission from the author Jo Wheatley. Taken from her book A Passion for Baking page 186

Makes 18-20

90g unsalted butter

110g demerara sugar

40g light muscovado sugar

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon flavourless oil (sunflower or groundnut) * 

75g crystallised ginger, chopped

10 squares of dark or white chocolate

* I found my dough to be quite crumbly so I added an egg which worked well. Jo says that there was a typo in the book and the quantity of oil should be increased - I'll update once I know the correct amount. 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cream the butter with the sugars until lights and fluffy.
• Sift the flour, ground ginger and cinnamon into the bowl and mix again. 
• Add oil and ginger and process until combined.
• Add an egg or more oil until you get a smooth dough.
• Scoop a small mound of dough into your hand and roll into a ball.
• Place on a lined baking tray and flatten slightly with the palm of your hand. 
• Repeat with the remaining dough.
• Cut each chocolate square in half and push one piece into the top of each biscuit. 
• Bake for 15-17 minutes until golden brown and firm.
• Cool on the baking trays. 

Nutella Orange Whoopie Pies and a review

Nutella is one of my favourite snacks so I was really excited when I was asked if I wanted to review a book of Nutella recipes. The book is by Jacqui Small and is called Nutella : The 30 Best recipes. It's in the form of a 3D nutella jar and is filled with a delicious collection of Nutella recipes. The recipes range from simple no bake recipes to more complicated desserts. There are 62 pages in total with a helpful conversion chart at the back.

The book is divided into the following chapters. I've included a selection of recipes from each section but there are a lot more in the book.

• Little Nutella Treats - nutella financiers, nutella souffles, mini nutella croissants
• Melt in the Mouth Nutella - nutella mousse, nutella creme brulee, nutella panna cotta
• Nutella for Sharing - nutella mini swiss rolls, nutella and chocolate terrine, nutella charlotte
• Amazing Nutella - nutella clusters, nutella macarons, nutella cigars

Each recipe is clearly laid out on one page and has an accompanying photo. There is a 1 line introduction to the recipe followed by information such as serving size and preparation time. The ingredients are listed in metric and cup measurements. The instructions are clear and easy to follow. 

It was difficult to choose to recipe to make as I wanted to make all of them but in the end decided on the Nutella and Orange whoopie pies. The whoopies pies were great - moist and crumbly with the chocolate hazelnut taste of nutella. The filling that I made was a little watery but it tasted good. The orange flavour was definitely there and it went well with the chocolate. 

My verdict - a cute little book perfect as a gift particularly for nutella lovers like me. The main plus points for me are the presentation (3D nutella jar) and that there is a photo for each recipe. 

The publishers have kindly offered my readers a special price for this book. Details are listed below. 

To order Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes at the discounted price of £7.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS229. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS229 and include your name and address details.

*UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.

If you fancy your chances and want to win a copy then complete the rafflecopter form below. Entries open to UK residents only. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 sample page

 main ingredients 

 adding the nutella 

 time to use my whoopie pie pan! 

 yum! 

Recipe from Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes published by Jacqui Small - reproduced with publishers permission

Makes 15 Whoopie pies (I made 12 large ones) 

 • preparation time : 30 min • cooking time : 10–15 min • chilling time : 1 hr

For the cream filling 

1 orange

75 g (5 tbsp) unsalted butter 

50 g (¼ cup) caster/superfine sugar 

1 egg 

75 g (¹/3 cup) philadelphia-style cheese

For the whoopie pies 

125 g (1¼ cups) plain/all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

40 g (3 tbsp) unsalted butter 

40 g (scant ¼ cup) caster/superfine sugar • 1 egg 

100 g (scant ½ cup) nUTELLA® 

20 g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder 

100 ml (scant ½ cup) semi-skimmed milk 

 a pinch of salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4).

2. Make the cream filling. Finely grate the orange zest and squeeze the juice. 

Melt the butter in a bain-marie or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Add 

the sugar, egg and the juice and zest of the orange. Beat continuously until the 

mixture thickens. Remove from the heat and leave to cool. Beat in the cheese 

then chill for 1 hour. 

3. Make the whoopie pies. Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. In 

a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugar. Add the egg, NUTELLA®, 

cocoa powder and milk. Mix well then add the flour and baking powder mixture.

4. Place 30 small spoonfuls of the mixture on a baking sheet covered with baking 

parchment. Bake for 10–15 minutes. Remove from the oven, leave to cool on a 

cooling rack, then sandwich together with the cream filling. 

Disclaimer:  I received a free review copy from the publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own.

AlphaBakes August 2013

Welcome to the August AlphaBakes. If you've not already seen the amazing collection of "F" recipes then do head on over to Caroline's blog for the round up. I'm sure lots of people will be on holiday this month, myself included, but I do hope that you'll have a chance to make something for us. I think we've done all the easy letters now and there's not many more to choose from so after excluding duplicates, the random letter generator came up with... 

 G 

I guess I was wrong and this may the last easy letter left that we've not covered! So get your thinking caps on and give us a Great recipe! The usual rules apply which are listed below. Please make sure you email alphabakes@gmail.com by 25th August with your entry. 

1. Post your recipe on your blog and link it to The More than Occasional Baker and Caroline Makes, stating the relevant month's host. If you do not have a blog, email us a picture and a brief description of your entry which we will include in the round-up at the end of the month.

2. You can use your own recipe or someone else's recipe. The recipe can be sweet, savoury or a mixture! Anything goes as long as the random letter is predominantly featured in the recipe as one of the main ingredients or flavours or in the name of the bake itself (i .e . not as a garnish , or using 'flour' for the letter F!) You can also republish old posts/recipes but you must include the information for this challenge as stated in these rules.

3. Add the logo to your post and add 'alphabakes' as a label to your post.

4. Email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by midnight (GMT) 25th of each month. Please include:

Your name (that you want included in the round up or we will use the name of your blog)
Your blog post URL
Recipe title
Photo of recipe (to be included in the round up)

5. You can submit as many entries as you like.

6. You do not have to participate every month to join in.

7. You may submit your entry to other challenges as long as it complies with their rules.

8. If you use twitter, please use the tag #alphabakes and mention @bakingaddict and @Caroline_Makes. We will retweet all those that we see.

9. Have fun! :)

Secret Recipe Club: Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Firstly, huge apologies to my fellow Secret Recipe Club members for this late posting. It's been a busy, stressful month with work and travel and I just completely forgot although I did make this recipe quite early on in the month as I knew I would not have time later.

This month, I was assigned Oh! You Cook! which is a lovely blog written by Dena who is a librarian by day and a recipe blogger by night. Her recipes have step by step photos which I love and also publish on my posts. She has a vast array of recipes which are helpfully indexed and of course I headed straight for the dessert section. I spotted this recipe - chocolate sour cream bundt cake in the pies &  cake section and knew I had to make it. It sounded simple yet delicious and it was a definite hit at work. I didn't make the glaze in the end as the cake was good enough on its own. The sour cream made the cake really moist and I'll definitely be making this again.

Other delicious recipes that I've bookmarked to try are blueberry  banana bread, no bake mini chocolate puddings, strawberry shortcake and decadent chocolate mousse.

  melt butter,chocolate, cocoa powder and water 

 whisk the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture

 add the eggs, one at a time

 add sour cream and vanilla extract

 ready to go in the oven - my silicone tin does not require flouring but if yours does then use a mixture of 1 tablespoon plain flour and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder to coat 

 yum! 

Recipe adapted  from Oh! You Cook!
(I added chocolate pieces, reduced the amount of cocoa powder and sugar)

250g plain four
45g cocoa powder
60g dark chocolate pieces
225g butter
1 cup water
300g sugar
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Place the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate and water to cook over a medium heat.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar together.
• Carefully add half the melted chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk. 
• Add the eggs one at a time and continue whisking. 
• Then add the sour cream and vanilla extract.
• Pour into a bundt tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake has pulled away from the edges and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Fennel and pistachio cookies

If you read my blog regularly, you'll know that I love creating recipes. Sometimes they work and other times they don't. I usually start with ingredients that I want to use and make it up as I go along. This month's AlphaBakes letter is F. One of the ideas I brainstormed was fennel so I started thinking about flavour combinations that would work. I had some pistachio nuts left over from making my first AlphaBakes entry so I knew I definitely wanted to use those. One of my colleagues at work can't eat sugar but is ok with honey or agave so I started thinking about a healthy-ish, no sugar recipe that incorporates fennel and pistachio and came up with this. There was a bit of experimenting in the kitchen but I think I finally got it right. 

It's quite a soft, crunchy cookie which seems a little dry when you first bite into it but the flavours slowly come alive in your mouth and you are left wanting more. The fennel complements the pistachio very well and the honey added a very subtle fragrance and pleasant sweetness. The wholemeal and spelt flour made it feel healthy with a satisfying crunch. 

As mentioned, I am entering this to AlphaBakes as F is for fennel. It's hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes this month and co-hosted by myself on alternate months. 

I'm also entering this to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make everything from scratch. 

As fennel is a herb, I'm also entering it to Cooking with Herbs/Herbs on Saturday hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. 

 olive oil, fennel seeds, honey, wholemeal flour, pistachios

 blitz the pistachios briefly until it's coarsely ground. Add all the other ingredients and mix well. 

 top with a sprinkling of chopped pistachios

 

An original recipe by bakingaddict

Makes 26 cookies

200g wholemeal flour
50g spelt flour
80mls honey
60mls olive oil
1.5 tablespoons water
1 heaped teaspoon fennel seeds
70g pistachios
1 egg

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Place the pistachios in a food processor and blitz in 10 second bursts until it's coarsely ground. 
• Set aside approximately 2 tablespoons to sprinkle on top of cookies before baking.
• Add the remaining ingredients into the processor and blitz until you get a dough like consistency - the dough will be quite sticky. 
• Place a small scoopful of cookie dough spaced apart on a lined baking sheet. 
• Sprinkle some of the reserved chopped pistachios on top of each cookie and bake for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until it's golden brown at the edges. 
• Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Fig, yoghurt and walnut cake with pomegranate and pistachio

July is a busy month for me as I am off travelling ... again! So I wanted a versatile recipe that I could enter into multiple blog challenges and came across this amazing recipe on dailydelicious. I modified the recipe a tiny bit and the result was sheer perfection. The cake was moist and flavourful and I love the toppings on this cake! It's visually stunning and would be perfect for a party as it looks like you've spent hours in the kitchen but in reality it's fairly simple and straightforward to put together.

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which is hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes and by myself on alternate months. The letter this month is F for figs.

Next to Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage and Kate from What Kate Baked. Karen who is hosting this month chose Fresh Fruit Treats as the theme for this month. This cake contains figs, pomegranate and lemons so I think it definitely counts!

Fortunately for me, Calendar Cakes hosted by Laura from Laura loves Cakes and Rachel from Dolly Bakes chose fruity bakes for their theme this month. As mentioned the cake is full of fruit so I think it would definitely qualify.

As this cake is made with fresh ingredients and with plenty of love, I am also sending it to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior.

Addendum 4/8/13 - Fiona from London Unattached has created Fabulous First Fridays - a linky to share your special/significant/favourite post from the previous month so in this case July 2013. I'm submitting this lovely cake as it's really quick and easy to put together especially if you need something with a wow factor but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen.

 main ingredients 

 ready to go in the oven 

 cooking the syrup for the cake 

 cooking the pomegranate syrup 

 fresh from the oven with syrup glaze

 with toppings - love the vibrant colours! 

 Perfect for my glass cake stand :) 

Recipe modified slightly from dailydelicious

75g plain flour
80g fine semolina
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g walnuts, roasted, finely ground
2 eggs
260g caster sugar (divided into 110g,110g & 40g)
70g unsalted butter, melted
30ml  vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
150g plain yoghurt
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Juice of 1½ lemons

90ml + 2 tbsp water
1 stick of cinnamon
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
4 green figs, quartered

1-2 tablespoons of pistachios to decorate 

• Preheat the oven to 170C. 
• Roast the walnuts in the oven for approximately 8-10 minutes then set aside to cool. Grind the nuts into fine pieces. 
• Sift the flour, semolina, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
• Whisk 2 eggs with 110g caster sugar until thick and pale.
• Add in the flour mixture then the ground walnuts. 
• In a jug, mix the butter, oil, vanilla extract and yoghurt and pour into the egg and flour mixture and mix well. 
• Pour into a greased and lined cake tin and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Now make the syrup by placing 110g sugar, 90mls water, zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 cinnamon stick in a saucepan over medium heat.
• Stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved.
• Allow to simmer for 5 - 10 minutes.
• In a separate saucepan, place 40g caster sugar, juice of 1/2 lemon and 2 tbsp water and stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Add the pomegranate seeds and continue cooking for a few minutes.
• Once the cake is ready, remove from the oven and prick holes all over the top with a fork or skewer (do not remove from cake tin yet).
• Gently pour the spiced syrup all over the cake and allow to cool in the tin. 
• Once completely cool, place cake on a cake stand and slowly pour the pomegranate syrup on top.
• Sprinkle with pistachios and place the quartered figs on top.