Cinnamon and Pumpkin Spice Thumbprint Cookies

Someone I know is having a bit of a rough time in her personal life so I wanted to make something comforting. I thought about what would equate to a hug in cookie form and I think this is it! It's a warming and comforting cinnamon spice cookie topped with a Hershey's pumpkin spice kiss! She absolutely loved it and I hope it helped to make her feel better.

I saw these Hershey's kisses on my recent trip to America and couldn't resist trying them. They really do taste of pumpkin spice and complements the cookie perfectly. 

I'm entering them to Alphabakes which I am hosting this month and co host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter this month is C for cinnamon and cookie. Each month we generate a random letter and ask for entries with that letter as the main ingredient or name of bake.

I'm also sending it to Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes. The theme is Halloween and I think these would be perfect for a Halloween party.

And to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer.  They are asking for any bite sized treats with a Halloween theme.

Addendum 31/10/13
I'm also sending this to Let's Celebrate Halloween on Just Not the Cakes which is hosted by Shey who asks us to link up any Halloween related recipe.

 

indent cooking dough before baking

 place a Hershey's kiss in the centre once out of the oven

 

 Jar of cookies 

Makes ~ 42 cookies

225g butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
280g plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mixed spice
pinch of salt
42 Hershey's pumpkin spice kisses

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add in egg and vanilla extract.
• Sift flour, cinnamon and mixed spice and add to the mixture. 
• Scoop small balls of dough on to the baking tray spaced apart.
• Make an indentation in the centre with your thumb. 
• Bake for 9 - 10 minutes until lightly browned but still soft to touch. 
• Remove from the oven and place a Hershey's pumpkin spice kiss on top of each cookie and bake for a further 1-2 minutes. 
• Allow to cool on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Candy Corn Oreo Brownies

This is the first of my planned Halloween bakes this month. I love Halloween and try and bake something different each year. On my recent trip to America, I came across these limited edition candy corn oreos and decided to incorporate them into a brownie. I used my favourite fudgy brownie recipe and it worked a treat. The brownies have a crisp edge with a fudgy, gooey centre and the candy corn oreos add colour and crunch. These were given away as a gift and were very well received.

I'm entering this to several challenges this month. Firstly to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter is C for Candy Corn Oreo.

I'm also sending this to Treat Petite hosted by Stuart from Cakeyboi and Kat from The Baking Explorer. The theme this month is Halloween.

And to Calendar Cakes hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes and Laura from Laura Loves Cakes. The theme this month is also Halloween.

And to another new challenge this month called Flavors of USA hosted by Emma from Souperior and Nayna of Simply Food. These candy corn oreos came from America so I think this is quite fitting.

Addendum 31/10/13
I'm also sending this to Let's Celebrate Halloween on Just Not the Cakes which is hosted by Shey who asks us to link up any Halloween related recipe.

Addendum 22/11/13 - I've been awarded the best recipe award for the event "Let's Celebrate Halloween" - thank you!

 candy corn oreos 

 stir in sugar to melted chocolate and butter 

 whisk in the eggs 

 adding the candy corn oreos 

 ready to go in the oven

 freshly baked 

 yum! 

200g butter, chopped into smallish cubes
375g sugar
170g chocolate, roughly chopped
165g flour
80g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
approximately 17 Candy Corn oreo cookies (plus extra to munch on whilst baking), roughly chopped.

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• In a medium sized pan, melt the butter and chocolate.
• Then whisk in the sugar, salt and vanilla extract. 
• Continue mixing until you get a smooth mixture then remove from heat and set aside for a few minutes.
• Whisk in the eggs one at a time and then the flour and cocoa powder until you get a fudgy mixture as shown. 
• Stir in 12 of the chopped candy corn oreos, reserving the rest to sprinkle on top.
• Pour the mixture into a square baking pan and sprinkle the remaining 5 chopped candy corn oreos on top. 
• Bake for approximately 30-35 minutes until the top is crisp and the edges are cooked. 
• Allow to cool in the pan. 
• Slice and enjoy!

Apple Cinnamon Crumble Cake

There's a definite autumnal feel in the air which means crumble time! My colleague brought in bags of apples from her garden for us to enjoy. I decided to make an apple cinnamon custard crumble cake mainly because it contains a lot of  'C' s which is the letter for this month's AlphaBakes. Unfortunately, my custard split and I didn't have anymore milk to make a second batch so I had to leave it out. It would have tasted much better with a custard layer but it was extremely good on its own. The cake smelt amazing whilst baking mainly due to the cinnamon. The apples in the cake made it lovely and moist but my favourite part was the crunchy crumble topping. This is the first time I've used wholemeal flour for the crumble and it worked. Definitely a recipe to make again and again.

I'm entering this to AlphaBakes which I am hosting this month and co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter as mentioned is C for cinnamon and crumble.

 

I'm also sending this to Made with Love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior where the idea is to make everything from scratch. It's been a while since I've entered anything so I'm pleased to join in this week.

And to a new blogging challenge called Shop Local hosted by Elizabeth from Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary. These apples came from my colleagues garden so it was definitely locally sourced - not many carbon miles there :)

 I used a food processor to make my crumble 

 apples tossed in cinnamon and brown sugar 

 adding to the sponge batter 

 I placed some slices of apple on top - if you are using custard, add a layer here before adding the crumble mix 

 ready to go in the oven 

 freshly baked 

 yum! 

An original recipe by bakingaddict
Makes 1 x 23cm cake

For the sponge cake
225g butter
225g caster sugar
225g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
3 apples - peeled, cored and cut into small cubes
(+1 apple cut into slices to arrange on top of the cake - optional)
4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 tablespoon brown sugar (or to taste)

For the cumble topping
120g butter
80g wholemeal flour
120g brown sugar
80g jumbo rolled oats
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Make the crumble topping first by blitzing butter and flour in a food processor until it resembles breadcrumbs. You can also do this by hand.
• Next add in the sugar, oats and cinnamon and pulse gently until mixed. 
• Place in the fridge whilst you make the cake. 
• To make the sponge, start by preparing the apples. Peel, core and cut them and then toss in cinnamon and brown sugar. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time
• Mix in the flour and baking powder.
• Finally stir in  the apples. 
• Pour the cake batter into a 23cm springform tin and level it off.
• Arrange slices of apples on top.
• If you want to add a custard layer - either homemade or shop bought then add it now.
• Pour the crumble mix on top. 
• Bake for approximately 45-50 minutes until golden brown and well risen. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. 

Tennis themed cake and cupcakes

I was asked to bake for a tennis tournament charity event to raise money for charity - half to Macmillan Cancer Support and half to a homeless charity. Initially, I thought I'd bake some brownies, biscuits and possibly a Victoria Sponge cake. However, one sleepless night, I started thinking about themed cakes and as it's for a tennis event I decided to make a tennis court cake and tennis cupcakes! Cake decorating is definitely not my strong suit but I tried my best and was pleased with the final result. It definitely needs a lot more work (especially the icing) but it did the job and raised a fair bit for charity! The tennis court cake sold for £58!! All the cupcakes were sold as well at a suggested donation of £1 per cupcake. 

I've just watched this week's episode of the Great British Bake off and I have no idea how they created their showstoppers in 4 hours as this took me longer than that and doesn't even come close to what they produced! Just as well I'm not in the show! 

Anyway back to the cakes- the tennis court cake is a vanilla sponge sandwiched with vanilla buttercream and strawberry jam. It was then covered in buttercream and placed in the fridge to set before being covered with green fondant icing. The finishing touches were made with royal icing. You will notice that the icing is terrible as I decided to use egg white powder (instead of fresh egg whites) for the icing and ended up with clumps which prevented me using a smaller tip. The tennis ball cupcakes are lemon cupcakes covered with a thin layer of buttercream followed by a circle of yellow fondant icing. Royal icing was used to pipe 2 lines to resemble a tennis ball. 

 I baked a square cake as I didn't have a rectangle tin and didn't want to 'cut and paste' 

 Spread vanilla buttercream on one half 

 and strawberry jam on the second half 

 covered in vanilla buttercream 

 finally covered with green fondant

 I made some tennis racquets using fondant icing and decided to pipe the netting later 

 

 lemon cupcakes 

 covered in yellow fondant icing 

 the finished product! If you don't look too closely - they don't look too bad :) 

For vanilla sponge

250g butter

250g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

4 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vanilla paste 

For vanilla buttercream

250g butter

500g icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 -2  teaspoon of milk 

Lemon Cupcakes

Makes 10 cupcakes - I tripled this recipe

110g golden caster sugar
110g self-raising flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
12g cornflour
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

For royal icing

1 sachet egg white powder

10 teaspoons water

250g icing

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

• Preheat oven to 180C
• To make vanilla sponge - cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in the flour and vanilla extract and paste.
• Pour into a baking tin and bake for approximately 45-50 minutes or until risen and golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool before decorating.
• To make the lemon cupcakes - cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix in flours, zest and juice of lemon. 
• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for approximately 15-18 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• To make the buttercream - mix all ingredients in a mixer until smooth. 
• To make the royal icing - mix egg white powder with warm water until smooth. Beat in sifted icing sugar and lemon juice. You may need to add more water or icing sugar to get the right consistency. 

Triple Chocolate Cupcake

Recently I was asked by Dr Oetker if I wanted to participate in their Great Chocolate Bake which is a cupcake/decorating competition hosted on the Dr Oetker Facebook page.  UK bakers who enter their most creative chocolate cupcake will be in with the chance of winning a trip for two to New York City, the home of the cupcake.

Entries are made by submission through the facebook page or by email. There is a public voting system but the winner will be chosen by a judging panel (the promoter and an independent adjudicator) so it does not rely solely on votes but they will be taken into consideration. Entry is free and the only criteria is that it is a chocolate cupcake (giant cupcakes are not allowed), baked by yourself and uses at least one Dr Oetker baking product. The judges are looking for cupcake recipe creativity and originality and aesthetic look of the finished cupcake. The closing date is 17th October 2013 so get baking! 

Having said all that I had great plans for my cupcakes but all didn't go to plan. I recently came back from America and I bought a two tone cupcake insert. I thought I'd make a triple chocolate cupcake using dark, milk and white chocolate to create the different tones and adding in different coloured chocolate chips to each batter and frost with a two tone chocolate icing. I know it's not the most original of ideas but the competition is entitled the great chocolate bake so I decided to incorporate as much chocolate as I could! However, I found the insert difficult to work with as the batter stuck closely to the insert and it was impossible to get my cakes looking like the advertised picture. I ended up putting a spoonful of each batter and let the oven work it's magic. 

 a selection of Dr Oetker goodies - I didnt use the chocolate chip/chunks in the end 

 plain vanilla cake batter with melted white, milk and dark chocolate 

 chocolate batters 

 cupcake insert at work ... unsuccessfully! 

 I tried a few different types of icing - two tone using a special piping kit I bought from lakeland, freehand two tone icing and plain chocolate icing 

 You can definitely see the marble effect in the cake 

For the cupcakes

250g butter

250g caster sugar

3 eggs 

250g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

75g white chocolate

75g milk chocolate

75g dark chocolate

For the icing

200g butter

380g icing sugar

75g dark chocolate, melted

75g white chocolate, melted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Preheat oven to 175C. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Add the eggs one at a time and continue beating.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder.
• Finally add the vanilla extract.
• Divide the cake batter into 3 equal portions.
• Add melted white, milk and dark chocolate respectively into each portion. 
• Spoon alternating mixtures of white, milk and dark batter into a cupcake case
• Bake for approximately 12-15 minutes.
• Allow to cool completely before decorating.
• To make the icing, beat the butter and icing sugar until well combined and smooth.
• Divide the mixture into half - add melted white chocolate to one half and melted dark chocolate to the other half.
• Decorate as desired.

Disclaimer : I was sent a selection of Dr Oetker chocolate and cake decorating products free of charge in exhange for promoting this competition and to help me create my own entry to the competition. I was not given any other compensation nor does it affect my entry competition. 

AlphaBakes October 2013

Welcome to October's AlphaBakes Challenge. Last month was slightly tricky with the letter Q hosted by Caroline. Do check out the lovely selection of Q recipes on her blog. I'm sure you'll all breathe a sigh of relief like I did when you see what letter we are using this month. It's the last easy letter left which is .....

C 

Same rules apply which are listed below. Please make sure you email your entries to alphabakes@gmail.com by 25th October 2013.

Important edit 3/10/13 

Please note that for this month only, we will be limiting entries to a maximum of FIVE per blog/person as C is extremely easy and we are unable to cope with hundreds of entries! Please keep to the deadline as I will be unable to add your entry after the 25th October 2013. Thank you and I look forward to seeing all your delicious entries. 

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! :)