Maple and Pecan Cupcakes

Recently a friend asked me to make some cupcakes for her new man's birthday. I was told any flavour but not banana! I happened to be at Westfield Shopping Centre at the time of the phone call so I nipped into Lakeland to browse through the books quickly for inspiration and had these cupcakes baked and delivered within 3 hours! I got a lovely homemade chilli for dinner and we had these for dessert (I made 16 cupcakes so there was extra)

The recipes worked beautifully.  The cakes are full of nuts and the maple frosting was delicious! My friend brought them to the birthday two days later and they still tasted good. In fact I think these cakes actually taste better the next day if you can possibly wait that long!

As I didn't have the book I saw in Lakeland at home, I did a quick google search for recipes when I got home. I used a combination of 2 recipes - a Paula Deen recipe for the cupcakes and a Martha Stewart recipe for the frosting. As these are two big American baking gurus, I am submitting this to United Bakes of America hosted by Gem from Cupcake Crazy Gem.

I'm also entering them to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade

 I have to show you this cool tea towel I won in a giveaway from Chocolate Log Blog - thank you!! (sorry the lighting was very poor for the photo)

 Pecan nuts - lots of them and maple syrup 

 I love my nut grinder from Lakeland. It has a cup measure which is perfect when baking from an American recipe!

 Cupcakes waiting to be frosted 

 Looks a little plain... 

 sprinkle with chopped pecans. 

Recipe for cupcakes - I didn't have enough pecan nuts to make Paula's frosting which sounds heavenly so I used a Martha Stewart recipe instead 

Recipe for maple syrup frosting 

Secret Recipe Club: Chewy Brown Butter Espresso Chocolate Chip Cookies

I can't believe it's Secret Recipe Club Group D reveal day again. This month has really flown by and I'm barely keeping up with my blog posts. It's my fault for taking part in so many challenges this month! The secret recipe club is one of my favourite and I always have fun choosing which recipe to make from my assigned blog.

This month I have been assigned Healthy Delicious. Lauren and I have been paired previously for secret recipe club. She chose to make my earl grey tea banana bread and I'm really pleased that I now get an opportunity to make a recipe from her blog. She says she has been cooking for as long as she can remember and initially started her blog as a weight watchers blog. I love this quote from her blog "if it isn't delicious, it isn't worth eating" - definitely a motto I can live by! Most of her recipes take a maximum of 40 minutes to make so it's healthy, delicious and speedy!

I shortlisted quite a few recipes including crispy salted chocolate chip cookies, soft & fudgy chocolate peanut butter cookies, bruleed orange butter cookies, mini pineapple upside down cakes.  As you can tell I was in a cookie mood which is how I came to finally choose these chewy brown butter espresso chocolate chip cookies.

I love baking with brown butter as it has a slight nutty, salty flavour.  The espresso smells amazing here and it's choc full of chips, no pun intended ;) A really good recipe and one that I will definitely be making again. The only change I made to the recipe was reducing the sugar amount and increasing the chocolate chips as it was easier to use the whole bag than to weigh it out!

 brown the butter

 add espresso powder

 ready to go in the oven 

 I wish you can smell this! 

 Yum!! 

Recipe from healthy delicious

113g butter

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

250g plain flour

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

150g brown sugar

85g caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

200g dark chocolate chips (you probably only need 150g) 

• Preheat the oven to 185C.
• In a small saucepan, brown the butter over a medium heat. 
• Stir occasionally to prevent burning.
• The butter should turn a nice golden brown colour and will have a slight nutty aroma. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the espresso powder. 
• Set aside to cool slightly.
• In a large bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the brown butter mixture, sugars, and vanilla. 
• Beat in the egg.
• Gently mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients — the dough will be very soft but should hold its shape. 
• Stir in the chocolate chips.
• Drop rounded teaspoons of dough into a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes or until the centers are just set. 

Vanilla and Chocolate Mini Tea Cakes

The theme for this month's Forever Nigella is 'Afternoon Tea'.  I knew immediately that I wanted to use my Williams-Sonoma mini tea cake pan that I bought from America. I made 2 flavours - vanilla and chocolate as you just can't beat the classics. I used Nigella's spruced up vaniila cake recipe and old fashioned chocolate cake recipe both of which I've made previously with good success and this was no exception. The cakes were delightfully moist and tasty but the real wow factor came from the shape of the cakes. How cute are they?

Forever Nigella #16 is being hosted by Fleur from Homemade by Fleur. This month's challenge is to prepare and blog any Nigella Lawson recipe with the theme of 'Afternoon Tea'.  Forever Nigella is organised by Sarah from Maison Cupcake.

 My Williams-Sonoma Mini Tea Cake Pan

 I bought this mini ice cream scoop which is called a cookie scoop from the same store - it's perfect for filling these cakes, 1 scoop per cake! 

 ready to go in the oven 

 fresh from the oven... will they come out of the pan easily? 

 The chocolate version

 hurrah! no sticking to the pan at all 

 a dusting of icing sugar increases the wow factor :) 

Malted Chocolate Cake

It's Random Recipe time again! Dom from Belleau kitchen hosts this fabulous monthly challenge which I really enjoy as it gives me the opportunity to use my ever growing pile of books. The last challenge, we had to make the first and/or last recipe from our random book. It therefore follows that this month's challenge is to bake the recipe in the middle. I used a random number generator to select my book which is Make, bake & celebrate! by Annie Rigg. I have a few other Annie Rigg books so I was really excited to find out what I would be baking.

The book has 128 pages in total including the index so that means the recipe on page 64 is my random recipe and here it is....

 this is page 64, recipe is on page 65 which is Malted chocolate cake.

Hurrah! Love malted chocolate cake and this looks like such a pretty cake. It looks quite fancy and I started thinking if I could make this for a special occasion. As luck would have it, there was a round robin email at work later that week announcing a surprise birthday party for a colleague as it's her special birthday. Unfortunately, I couldn't go as I'd already made other plans but I immediately asked if I could bake a cake for the occasion and was met with a very enthusiastic yes especially when I mentioned the cake I had in mind :)

The only downside to this is that I did not get a chance to taste the cake as it would have been rude to present a birthday cake minus one slice!! I did get to try the frosting as there was some left over and it was delicious!! I'm just going to have to make this again so I can actually try it :) 

 I used ovaltine as my malt powder as that was all I had in my cupboard. I usually have a bag or two of maltesers so no shopping required! 

 3 layer cake - butter, sugar, eggs, buttermilk, malt powder

 chopped dark and milk chocolate for the frosting 

 cook double cream+malt powder+golden syrup until just boiling and pour on to the chocolate. 

 Add in butter, a little at a time and keep stirring to make a delicious chocolate malt frosting. 

 bottom layer 

 cover with frosting 

 sprinkle crushed maltesers on top and add second layer of cake 

 cover with more frosting and repeat for the next layer 

 frost the sides as well 

 My extremely shaky writing!! The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that the frosting is not smooth - I started writing her name but ran out of space (it won't fit) so I had to scrape it off and smooth some frosting and the covered it with lots of stars!  

 pipe small dots of frosting on the edge and on top of the cake between the maltesers. 

Addendum 24/6/12


I've just realised that 2 of the bloggers I regularly follow celebrated their birthday on Friday 22nd June So a special mention to:
Gem from Cupcake Crazy Gem
Louise from Months of Edible Celebrations

Happy Birthday to Gem and Louise - this cake is for you to share :)

Book review and homemade vanilla marshmallows

Have you ever thought about making your own marshmallows? No? Well me neither ... until now. I always thought it was difficult to make but it's really quite simple armed with a good recipe and instructions, a few bits of equipment and ingredients.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of marshmallows but I really wanted to try making my own. Since I've started baking and developing my baking skills, I really enjoy making things from scratch at home. The perfect opportunity arose when I was asked to review this book 'Marshmallow Madness!' by Shauna Sever. You can read more about the author here.

I LOVE the cover of this book. It's really pretty and colourful and it's puffy like a marshmallow! Yes it's soft and squidgy just like a real marshmallow :)

The book itself is divided into :

Introduction - do NOT skip reading this part. It contains really helpful and useful information on making marshmallows. It is clearly set out and divides the process into 3 key steps which are colour coded in each recipe - the bloom, the syrup and the mallowing.

The classics - vanilla and chocolate marshmallows. See below for my attempt at vanilla marshmallows. There's also a recipe for malt chocolate marshmallow (yes please!) and homemade marshmallow creme and homemade graham crackers - definitely on my to bake list.

Fresh and Fruity - adding twists of flavour with fruit puree, juices and oils. The strawberry marshmallows and key lime pie are on the to make list.

Happy Hour - cocktail inspired marshmallows.  Margarita and creme de menthe look delicious!

For the Mallow Connoisseur - gourmet flavours and textures. Examples are maple bacon (?), sea salt caramel swirl (yum) and mango-chile-lime (interesting)

Kids in a Candy Store - my favourites are root beer float and bubble gum.

Fluffy, Puffy Desserts - This is a great section of desserts with marshmallows. Recipes that have caught my eye are ambrosia cake, s'more supcakes (always wanted to make one), minty mallow cookie sandwiches.

Desserts made drinkable - Drinkable desserts with marshmallow pairing suggestions.


The book consists of 94 pages excluding the index. It's got lots of lovely pictures which is always a plus point in my book. The recipes are clearly set out, usually on one page. There is a list of ingredients divided according to the steps required (the bloom, the syrup, the mallowing) I really like that the steps are colour coded so it's easy to follow. The measurements are given in American cups.

My verdict: I really liked the book and would have been happy to buy this book. It's well written, beautifully set out and has a good variety of recipes from the simple and classic to more complicated ones. There are also desserts and drinks which is a bonus. It's definitely changed my mind about marshmallows as homemade marshmallows taste quite different to commercial ones and they are not that difficult to make at home! They were also quite fun to make - I loved watching the mallowing process :)

I have a copy of this book to giveaway so check back next week for a chance to win your own copy! 

I was given the choice of a few recipes by the publisher but as it's my first time making marshmallows, I decided to keep it simple and go for the classic vanilla marshmallow. They were surprisingly easy to make but you do need to have a stand mixer and thermometer to make these. The end result was amazing - they were really soft and puffy and you can really taste the vanilla. I made it for a friend's birthday and she was beyond delighted with these! :)

 The original recipe says to use corn syrup but golden syrup is an acceptable alternative and it worked well for me. 

 boil the sugar, golden syrup and water. You need a thermometer for this. 

 The mallowing process - I honestly thought how can this become marshmallows? 

 10 minutes later... yes it looks like marshmallows!

 adding the fresh vanilla seeds 

 leave to set

 dust with classic coating 

 ready to slice - Shauna recommends using a pizza cutter- brilliant idea!! 

 I made these for a friend's birthday and found this cute box from Paperchase. 

 who wants a piece? 

 I also packaged them in little gift bags - they make great gifts! 

Recipe from Marshmallow Madness! by Shauna Sever - reproduced with permission from the publisher. The recipe is also available on the author's blog

Classic Vanilla Marshmallows
Makes about 2 dozen 1 1/2-inch mallows

To make Classic Coating for these (and any other marshmallow, for that matter) simply combine 1 1/2 parts confectioners’ sugar and 1 part cornstarch or potato starch. You can whisk or sift them together, or take them for a quick whir in the food processor. Make a couple cups at a time and store in an airtight container for months on end.

The Bloom:
4 1/2 teaspoons unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

The Syrup:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup, divided - you can use golden syrup as a substitute
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt

The Mallowing:
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract - I used seeds from 1 vanilla pod
1/2 cup Classic Coating (see note), plus more for dusting

• Lightly coat an 8-by-8-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
• Whisk together the gelatin and cold water in a small bowl and let soften for 5 minutes.
• Stir together the sugar, 1/4 cup of the corn syrup, water, and salt in a medium saucepan over high heat. 
• Boil, stirring occasionally, until the temperature reaches 240°F. 
• Meanwhile, pour remaining 1/4 cup corn syrup into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment.
• Microwave gelatin on high until completely melted, about 30 seconds. 
• Pour it into the mixer bowl. 
• Set the mixer speed to low and keep it running.
• When the syrup reaches 240°F, slowly pour it into the mixer bowl.
• Increase the speed to medium and beat for 5 minutes. 
• Increase to medium-high and beat for 5 more minutes. 
• Beat on the highest setting for 1 to 2 minutes more and beat in the vanilla; the finished marshmallow will be opaque white, fluffy, and tripled in volume. 
• Pour it into the prepared pan, using an offset spatula to smooth it into the corners. 
• Sift coating evenly and generously over top. 
• Let set for at least 6 hours in a cool, dry place.
• Use a knife to loosen the marshmallow from the edges of the pan. 
• Invert the slab onto a coating-dusted work surface and dust it with more coating. 
• Cut into whatever size pieces you wish (a pizza cutter works great for squares). 
• Dip the sticky edges of the marshmallows in more coating, patting off the excess..

Disclaimer: I was given this book free of charge to review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. 


As this recipe involves making marshmallows from scratch, I'm entering them to Made with love Mondays hosted by Javelin Warrior.