Painkiller Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

I celebrated my birthday a few days ago. It's nice to have someone else make the cake for a change and I had 2 delicious cakes - lemon drizzle and chocolate, both firm favourites of mine. Of course, I couldn't resist baking something myself hence these Painkiller Cupcakes. I initially planned on making pina colada cupcakes but came across these on Hazel's blog and decided that with a few tweaks, I could enter this to multiple blog challenges this month!  

A painkiller cocktail is made from dark rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, sweetened coconut cream and shaved ice, topped with nutmeg. It was originally invented at the Soggy Dollar Bar in the British Virgin Islands. I decided to make a coconut and pineapple cupcake filled with homemade orange curd topped with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting and a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. Unfortunately, the orange curd was a failure (should have stuck to my normal recipe for lemon curd) so I had to improvise slightly. The result was a really moist and fruity cupcake and the flavours worked well together. They were a real hit at work and even though I don't like coconut, I really enjoyed these cakes. 

I'm entering them to AlphaBakes which I co-host with Caroline from Caroline Makes. The letter for this month is "P".  You can use the letter in the name of the bake or as the main ingredient. It's a double whammy here with painkiller and pineapple. 

I'm also entering them to We Should Cocoa which is celebrating it's 2nd anniversary this month. Happy birthday WSC! Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog has chosen cocktail inspiration as the theme this month.  We should Cocoa is hosted on alternate months by Choclette and Chocolate Teapot. The idea is to make something with chocolate each month. WSC was the first blogging challenge I ever entered and I've not missed a month since then!

I'm also entering them to Calendar Cakes hosted by Laura from Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel from Dolly Bakes.  The theme this month is cupcakes as it's national cupcake week in September. 

I discovered a new blog challenge this monhth (thanks Caroline!) called Baking with Spirit. It's hosted by Janine from Cake of the Week who challenges us to bake or cook with alcohol each month. This month, she chose rum so these painkiller cupcakes are perfect. 

Finally, I'm entering them to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade. 

 key ingredients - pineapple, coconut milk, rum flavouring and dessicated coconut

 adding pineapple and coconut to the batter 

 ready to go in the oven 

 how cute are these? 

 view from the top

For the cupcakes - makes 11 cupcakes of size shown 

120g flour
120g caster sugar
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
40g butter
120ml coconut milk
1 egg
30g dessicated coconut
1 teaspoon rum flavouring (or real rum) *
5 pineapple rings, chopped
5 tablespoons of homemade unset orange curd - you can either fill the cupcakes with proper orange curd or use the zest of 1 orange plus 1 tablespoon of orange juice

* I used rum flavouring as these were for work, didn't want to get everyone tipsy!

For the frosting

30g white chocolate, melted
100g cream cheese
50g butter
1 teaspoon orange water
250g icing sugar, sifted

For the decoration
Ground nutmeg to sprinkle
Cocktail umbrellas
Cherries

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Combine all the cake ingredients except for the pineapple and dessicated coconut in a large bowl. 
• Stir in the pineapple and dessicated coconut by hand. 
• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-18 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely before frosting.
• To make the frosting, melt the white chocolate in the microwave or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
• Beat together the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar and orange water until smooth. 
• Stir in the white chocolate and continue beating for a few minutes. 
• Pipe the frosting on the cupcake. 
• Sprinkle with ground nutmeg.
• Decorate with half a cherry on top and a cocktail umbrella. 

Caramel Cake, Aztec Cookies and GBBO app/book review

Hands up who's been watching the Great British Bake Off? A brand new series with new contestants but the same judges and hosts. Don't worry no spoilers here! I want to talk about cake and cookies and baking! I love watching the Great British Bake Off and I was really excited when I was asked if I wanted to review their new iphone/ipad app and book. 

Let's talk about the book first. It's a hefty volume with 319 pages in total. It's called The Great British Bake Off How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers.  It has technical challenge and signature bake recipes by Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood. On the inside cover, it says "baking doesn't have to be complicated to be showstopping' and I completely agree! 

The book is divided into the following chapters 

Introduction

Cakes

Biscuits

Breads & Sweet Dough

Tarts

Pies

Desserts

Puddings

The Basics

The book has showstopping challenge recipes divded into 3 levels - easy, takes a little time and need a little skill. It also features best of the bake off such as sixpence cake and jubilee cake as seen in episode 1. As with the first book it has photos of the contestants throughout the book (don't worry the winner is not revealed in the book!). Interspersed throughout the book are showstopping techniques, for example, chocolate ribbons & bows, icing & stacking a cake, caramel & spun sugar - all of which have handy tips accompanied by pictures.

My Verdict - Overall, I think it's a good book to have especially if you are a fan of the show. It has a wide variety of recipes which covers all of the chapters listed above. The recipes are clearly laid out and the steps are easy to follow. My main problem with the book is that there is not enough pictures of the bakes. It's a personal preference but I like my recipe books to be full of photographs, preferably one for each recipe. However, it's quite a bargain for only £8.86 currently on amazon. The photographs that are in the book are stunning. 

BBC Books in conjunction with Love Production (makers of the GBBO TV programme) have also launched The Great British Bake Off App which contains fifty recipes based on the books The Great British Bake Off: How to Bake and How to Turn Everyday Bakes into Showstoppers. 

It's no secret that I love my apple products - no not baking apples but iPhone, iPad, iPod.  The app allows you to search for recipes by occasion, ingredient or skill level. 

Each recipe gives you a quick overview including skill level, list of ingredients and method.  There are four icons at the bottom of the screen which you can see here. The star is to save the recipe as a favourite followed by option to email ingredients, share a photograph of your bake on facebook or twitter and finally to add ingredients to a shopping list. 

There is also a cool hands free feature which allows you to move from step to step without touching the screen. You need to place the device flat, tap the touch-free icon (top right of screen) and wave slowly from right to left to navigate.  It might just be me but I found this a little temperamental. It was great when it worked. What I liked best about this feature is that the ingredients required for that step is on the same page so you don't have to flip back and forth.  

My Verdict - It's a great app if you like your technology and have an iPhone/iPad. It has great graphics and is very user friendly. I particularly like the hands free function and obviously you get a photo for each recipe! However, it's a little pricey at £2.99 for 50 recipes especially as these are the same recipes as in the great british bake off books.  I already have both books so really I could just bake from the book!  If there was an option to update the app with new recipes, especially recipes that are not in the books at no extra cost then I think it would be worth having.

I've made 2 recipes from the app (which are also in the book) - Caramel Cake and Aztec cookies. Both recipes were easy to make and absolutely delicious! I made the Caramel Cake for a birthday which was very well received. Unfortunately I missed a step (user error!) and forgot to add butter to my caramel icing. I did wonder why it was setting as soon as I poured it onto the cake but it didn't look too bad in the end and still tasted great! The Aztec cookies are chocolate and coffee cookies which are perfect with a cuppa. The gold dust really makes it into a showstopper!

 bake 3 sponges 

 first layer is caramel icing, followed by chocolate caramel icing 

 my attempt at 'feathering' - would have helped if I'd remember to add butter to the icing! 

 Enjoyed by all :) 

 Aztec cookies 

 I love that the white chocolate pieces remain intact after baking 

Recipes have been reproduced with permission from the publisher. 

Caramel Cake

For the cake 

300g self raising flour

pinch of salt

300g caster sugar

250g unsalted butter, very soft but not runny

4 large eggs, at room temperature

4 tablespoons buttermilk, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling

225g unsalted butter, softened

450g dark brown muscovado sugar

175ml double cream

300g icing sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon sea salt flakes, or to taste

100g dark chocolate, broken up 

3 x 20.5cm sandwich tins, greased and the base lined with baking paper

disposable piping bag

• Preheat the oven to 180 C.
• Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl of a large free-standing electric mixer (or into a mixing bowl if you are going to use a hand held electric mixer)
• Add the butter to the bowl, in pieces.
• Whisk the eggs with the buttermilk and vanilla using a fork, then add to the bowl.
• Beat on low speed until everything is thoroughly combined and very smooth, thick and light.
• Divide the mixture evenly among the 3 tins and spread level.
• Bake for about 25 minutes until the sponges are springy when gently pressed in the centre and starting to shrink away from the sides of the tins. 
• Set the tins on a wire rack and run a round-bladed knife around the insides to loosen the sponges, then cool for 2 minutes before turning out.
• Leave to cool completely. 
• Meanwhile, make the caramel filling.
• Put 175g of the weighed butter into a medium-sized pan with the muscovado sugar and cream.
• Heat gently until the butter has melted, then bring to the boil, stirring. 
• Reduce the heat and simmer gently for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. 
• Pour the mixture into a heatproof mixing bowl and beat in the icing sugar, using an electric mixer. 
• When the sugar has been incorporated, continue beating until the mixture is fluffy and barely warm. 
• Gradually beat in the rest of the butter and the salt.
• Add more salt, if needed.
• Put the pieces of dark chocolate into a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of steaming hot (not boiling) water and melt gently, stirring until smooth. 
• Spoon about half the chocolate into another bowl, and stir in slightly less than 1/4 of the caramel mixture. 
• To assemble the cake, set one sponge layer on a serving plate and spread over one-third of the caramel mixture.
• Spread a second sponge layer with the chocolate-caramel mixture and set on the first layer.
• Place the third sponge layer on top.
• Cover the top and then the sides of the assembled cake with the remaining caramel mixture, working quickly before the mixture firms up.
• Spoon the remaining melted chocolate into the disposable piping bag and snip off the end. 
• From the centre, pipe a spiral on the cake, then 'feather' the surface by drawing a cocktail stick through the icing from the centre to the edge at regular intervals.
• Then, in between the feathered lines, draw the stick back to the centre from the edge. 
• To marble the icing, pipe random loops and circles of chocolate onto the caramel icing, then swirl the two together with the cocktail stick.
• Leave to set.
• The cake can be kept, in an airtight container, for up to 4 days. 

Aztec Cookies

140g espresso dark chocolate, broken into squares (or dark chocolate and 2 teaspoons espresso powder)

65g unsalted butter, diced

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

good pinch of salt

130g caster sugar

185g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

100g good quality white chocolate

edible gold dust, to finish

• Put the pieces of dark chocolate and the butter into a heatproof bowl set over a pan of steaming hot (not boiling) water and melt gently. 
• Remove the bowl from the pan and leave to cool for about 5 minutes until barely warm.
• Meanwhile, put the eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. 
• Using a wire whisk or hand-held electric mixer, beat for a couple of minutes until thoroughly combined,
• Stir in the cooled chocolate mixture.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and stir in using a wooden spoon. 
• Roughly chop or break up the white chocolate into chunks and mix in. 
• Leave the mixture to stand for 15 minutes to firm up a bit.
• Meanwhile preheat the oven to 160C. 
• Using a heaped tablespoon of mixture for each cookie, drop onto the lined baking sheets, spacing the spoonfuls well apart to allow for spreading. 
• Don't flatten the mixture. 
• Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes until just set - they will continue cooking for a few minutes after they come out of the oven.
• Leave the cookies on the sheets for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and allow to cool completely. 
• Store in an airtight tin and eat within a week.
• Dust lightly with edible gold dust before serving (I used gold lustre spray)

Disclaimer: I was provided a copy of the book and the app to try for free. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. The pictures of the app and book are supplied by the publisher with the exception of the touch free function photos which were from my own phone. 

As these bakes are from the Great British Bake off book and app, I'm entering them to a new challenge called Lottie's Bake Off Challenge, hosted by Lottie from Lotties World of Cakes and Bakes. Join in the fun with your Great British Bake Off inspired bakes!

Cookie Dough Stuffed Dark Chocolate Cupcakes and a Review

Do you ever lick the mixing bowl after baking cookies? There's something about cookie dough that is naughty and nice. Ben & Jerry's sell cookie dough ice cream so it's not a surprise to see that there is a whole book on cookie dough appropriately named 'The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook' by Lindsay Landis. Lindsay has a blog called Love & Olive Oil which she shares with her husband Taylor. It's well worth a visit as there are fantastic recipes with excellent photography. 

I fell in love with the book at first sight. I love the size of the book and the fact that it is spiral bound making it easy to have open pages in the kitchen.  The photographs are stunning and there is a photograph for each recipe (big bonus points from me) The cookie dough recipe is eggless so it's safe to eat. I think this page says it all  .... 

The book is divided into 

Introduction - useful section on different cookie dough flavours and variations (gluten free/vegan) and a section on key ingredients and equipment. 

Candy - mainly cookie dough truffles, cookie dough cups, fudge, marshmallow, bark and lollipops

Cookie and Brownies - includes whoopie pies and millionaire bars.

Cakes, Custards and Pies - cakes, cheesecake, bread pudding, creme brulee and tartlets. 

Frozen Treats - ice cream, ice cream sandwiches, milkshakes and ice pops.

Indulgent Breakfasts - pancakes, french toast, crepes, doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, waffles and granola bars. 

Fun Snacks and Party Fare - crispy treats, cannoli, S'mores, pizza! 

It has a 160 pages in total. Each recipe is set out clearly with a brief introduction and then the ingredients with each section highlighted. It gives details of how many it makes, active time and total time. There is also a quick tip box on some pages which is helpful. The main problem I have with this book is that the recipe measurements are in cups. I know it's an American book so I really can't complain but I do wish it had metric measurements as well! 

My verdict - I think it's a brilliant book and would have bought myself a copy if I saw it in in the shops or online. Major plus points for me are a photograph to accompany every recipe, spiral bound book,  good range of recipes which are beautifully set out. Minus point is the cup measurement. There is a 'cookie dough lover's cheat sheet' on the inside front cover which converts cups to tablespoons/ sticks of butter to cups and weight to cups which is still not very helpful to me. The temperature chart is handy though. 

After shortlisting quite a few recipes, I decided to make cookie dough stuffed dark chocolate cupcakes. I'm so glad I did as they were delicious!! Dark chocolate is my favourite and the addition of cookie dough in the buttercream plus the hidden chocolate chip cookie dough inside brought it to a whole new level. Everyone who tasted the cake agreed and there wasn't a single crumb left! 

 This is an easy, mix all in one cupcake recipe. 

 chocolate chip cookie dough and plain cookie dough on the right (reserved for the frosting)

 Core the cupcake and eat the ends! 

 Fill with chocolate chip cookie dough

 Cover it back 

 Pipe frosting on top 

 sprinkle with chocolate chips 

 Yum! 

Recipe reproduced with permission from the publisher.

I have converted the measurements to metric by weighing the ingredients on my scale. 

Makes 12 cupcakes; Active time: 30 minutes; Total time: 1 hour

For cupcakes

125g/1 cup all purpose flour

40g/ 1/3 cup cocoa powder

56g/ 1/4 cup caster sugar

100g/ 1/2 cup light brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

180mls/ 3/4 cup whole milk

125mls / 1/2 cup vegetable oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs, lightly beaten

For cookie dough

113g/ 1/2 cup/ 1 stick butter, room temperature 

56g/ 1/4 cup caster sugar

100g/ 1/2 cup light brown sugar

60mls / 1/2 cup milk or cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

125g/ 1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

120g/ 2/3 cup chocolate chips, divided

For buttercream

170g/ 3/4cup/1.5sticks butter, room temperature

250g/2 cups icing sugar

• Preheat oven to 350F/180C.
• Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
• Ina mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs.
• Stir until just combined, scraping bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula to incorporate all of the flour
• Fill cupcake liners with scant 1/4 cup of the batter (<2 full="full" li="li">
• Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

• While cupcakes cool, prepare the cookie dough. 
• In a large mixing bowl, beat together butters and sugars with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. 
• Beat in milk and vanilla. 
• Add flour and salt and mix on low speed (or by hand) until incorporated. 
• Set aside 230g/1 cup of the dough for the buttercream.
• Stir 60g/ 1/3 cup chocolate chips into the remaining dough. 

• To prepare the buttercream, cream butter with an electric mixer until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. 
• Slowly add icing sugar and beat until smooth. 
• Add the reserved plain cookie dough and mix on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes.

• Using a paring knife (I used a melon baller), cut a cone-shaped piece from the top of each cooled cupcake; pinch off and dispose of (ie eat!) the tip of each cone. 
• Fill cupcakes with the remaining cookie dough and replace tops. 
• Generously spread or pipe on frosting, being sure to cover the seams. Sprinkle with the remaining 60g/ 1/3 cup chocolate chips. 

Baker's notes - I ended up making 1.5 batches of these cupcakes as the recipe makes enough cookie dough filling and buttercream for 18 cupcakes. 

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

AlphaBakes "T" round up

Time for another AlphaBakes round up. We had an easy letter this month so it was great to see some creative and unusual entries amongst the usual suspects.  Huge thank you to everyone who sent in their entries.  All eligible entries have been counted and I used a random number generator to pick the winner. Scroll to the bottom to see who the lucky winner is. Big thanks to dotcomgiftshop who have kindly sponsored a set of 4 botanical measuring cups.

First off the mark is Laura from Laura Loves Cakes who happened to be posting a Yorkshire Gold Tea Loaf for Yorkshire Day when I announced that the letter for AlphaBakes is T. Lucky coincidence! Looks perfect with a cup of tea :)

Fiona from Let Them Eat Cake has had her eye on these marshmallow teacakes for a while and I'm so pleased she made them as they look delicious! She was worried about having to eat them on the same day as advised but I can't imagine why that would be a problem :)

Next is my entry with chocolate hedgehog cupcakes using Twirl bars. This is a choc-a-holic's dream as it is a chocolate mud cupcake with chocolate sour cream frosting decorated with even more chocolate! 

Fleur from Homemade by Fleur had a brilliant time at the Olympics (do check out her pictures). It inspired her to create these Wenlock and Mandeville gingerbread men. The "T" ingredient is treacle.  She gives a short history about Wenlock and Mandeville plus an excellent decorating guide so make sure you click on the link. 

Olivia from Liv a Little Bakery sent us these gorgeous toffee apple cupcakes which have a toffee baked in the middle. I love the matching green cases too :)  

Gill from Tales of Pigling Bland baked to support team GB (check out her olympic torch popcorn and olympic velodrome cake) and decided to make tennis ball cake pops to support Andy Murray and Laura Robson. I'm sure that helped with the gold medal! 

My co-host Caroline's mum made some thimble cookies that she found on the internet but said they tasted more like cake. You're supposed to press your thumb in them and fill the indent with jam but they spread too much when baking. She wasn't too impressed with them but I'd happily eat a few :) 

Choclette over at Chocolate Log Blog sent in this beautiful chocolate & rose summer fruit tiramisu/trifle. I don't care what she calls it as long as I get to try some - it has chocolate sponge, caramelised nectarines (yum!), vanilla and rose mascarpone cream.. need I go on? Just head over there to see for yourself. 

Dom from Belleau Kitchen has typically gone slightly left of field and came up with this purple gooseberry, lemon and rhubarb cake after raiding his neighbour's larder (it's ok - they have an agreement!) Where's the T I hear you ask? Well, it's a Tart cake, and that's "tart with the letter T!" 

Becky from Mintcustard sent in these chocolate tiffin biscuits that her mum used to make to keep them happy! Her mum used the crumbs from the bottom of the biscuit tin to augment the bought biscuits which is a genius idea and one that I will be stealing from now. 

Welcome to Helene from I cook with butter who sent in some tropical pineapple cupcakes which have little pieces of pineapple in them. She found the icing a little runny and overly sweet but the cake tasted good. I have a major sweet tooth so send them over :) 

Kat from Life of a Cupcake Baker decided to make Tiffin her way having never made them before. She used digestive biscuits, bourbon biscuits, sultanas, plain and milk chocolate in hers. 

Lucas from CoverVersionsTV has done it again with yet another brilliant video entitiled Jalousies or fancy jam turnovers. It's simple and versatile and looks delicious! A word of warning from Lucas - choose your jam carefully - you have been warned :)

Alida from My Italian Kitchen sent us breakfast in the sunshine : peaches tart. She says that when it's hot you need plenty of fruits and vegetables and the best way to use fruit is in cakes and tarts. Definitely can't argue with that! :)

Me again with cherry chocolate thumbprint cookies. I made a cherry and almond cookie and placed a Hershey's kiss in the centre after leaving a thumbprint with my thumb hence the name.

I also made some Toblerone cupcakes with a honey buttercream frosting which was too sweet for some but perfect for me. 

I was hoping that someone would make a dessert with tofu when Mich from Piece of Cake sent in these amazing Tofu and soya bean cheesecake. Mich says that the tofu and cheese layer has a melt in the mouth texture and goes well with the springy chiffon cake underneath. I love her presentation as well - they are neat, perfect squares!

Time for a cup of tea? Janice from Farmersgirl Kitchen has a Yorkshire Barm Brack with Wensleydale cheese to share. A traditional Yorkshire tea loaf made with Yorkshire tea! A lovely moist fruit cake with a hint of whisky flavour. 

Sally from Piggy Bakes also had the brilliant idea of making marshmallow teacakes which were not as tricky as she thought they might be. Look at that shiny chocolate coating - yum! 

Our first savoury entry comes from Eira from Cookbooks Galore who baked a salmon, mustard and rocket tart. The pastry has lemon zest and crushed black peppercorn in it which gives it a nice zing! 

Sarah from Sarah Bakes made a thank you cake for her son's swimming teachers and it comes complete with a horse 'woggle', arm discs and a float! It's a Madeira cake with a filling of homemade strawberry and vanilla jam.

Laura from Credit Munched had a genius brainwave of an idea for Alphabakes - mini toffee cheesecake cupcakes. I have a weakness for desserts in miniature form, you can feel less guilty about eating a whole one yourself!

I've been on a roll this month with AlphaBakes. This is a low fat coffee tiramisu cake I made to thank a friend who was very kind and generous to me. She's watching her waistline so I found this on weight watchers. It's a really tasty cake and would be a nice treat if you are counting the calories. 

Mich from Piece of Cake is back with egg tarts. Look at that golden yellow filling - yum! They have been listed on the World’s 50 most delicious foods compiled by CNN Go in 2011. They are very popular in Asia but the best she has tried was from San Francisco - I wish I knew before my trip earlier this year! 

Helene from I Cook with butter is back with a Dorset Apple Traybake as she didn't like the way her tropical pineapple cupcakes turned out. She served it warm with vanilla ice cream and it was so good, she forgot to take a picture of that but luckily she has this to share with us :)

Great minds think alike. Suelle from mainly baking made these cute Toblerone brownies which has honey, ground almonds and almond extract to replicate the flavours of toblerone. I especially like the triangular shape!  

Have you heard of tamarillo? They are also known as tree tomatoes and Mel from Sharky Oven Gloves has incorporated it into a tamarillo and walnut cake. She was worried that they would be bitter but the tamarillo flavour was subtle and the walnutty tastes comes through well and is well balanced with the lemon icing. Definitely one to try if I can get my hands on some tamarillos. 

Kimmy from Cooking Pleasure made a Lipton Tea Loaf Bread for us. It's a soft, fluffy and moist loaf with a mild tea flavour. 

Caroline's mum is back with a toblerone cake. She made a normal victoria sponge and melted toblerone on top. She cut them into triangles and tried to stand them up to resemble a toblerone bar but it didn't work. I can just imagine the taste of sponge cake with melted toblerone :) 

Angela from Garden Teacakes and me made some lovely Yorkshire Tea Cakes. They look so tempting covered in melted butter! They are from one of her favourite cookbooks - The dairy book of home cookery. 

My co-host Caroline from Caroline Makes made apple, pear and chocolate tarte tatin to use up some brown apples. Caramelised fruit with melted chocolate and pastry? Yes please :)

Yorkshire Tea Breads have been very popular this month and here's another great looking one from Cake, Crumbs and Cooking. This recipe came from a Waitrose recipe card and although it curdled quite badly before baking, it turned out to be very tender and delicate.

Elizabeth from Tango Like Raindrop has sent in not one, not two but three entries to AlphaBakes this month! Starting off with roasted trout with thyme - a lovely double T entry! She's never had trout before even though she goes fishing but never eats what she catches. Thanks to her lovely neighbour who supplied the trout, she tried this recipe and loved it!

Next up is a chocolate berry torte from Green & Black's chocolate recipe cookbooks. She reckons this is one of the best chocolate torte recipes she's come across and I have to say it looks very impressive.

Finally a healthier, low fat alternative to a fried beef burger, Elizabeth made a turkey burger with garlic & herb potato wedges. She recommends a local Shetland cheese with the burger - I love the thick slab of cheese!

Kimmy from Cooking Pleasure is back with a Lipton Tea Chiffon Cake. The cake is light and soft and you can see the tea leaves in the cake. 

I was quite intrigued by this Thousand Layer Chocolate Chip cookie made by Cookie Sleuth.  It's time consuming to prepare the layers but sounds like its well worth it as the cookies are soft on the inside with crispy edges and plenty of chocolate!

Kit from I-Lost in Austen has created this beautiful banana and tapioca pudding with raspberry coulis. She says it does not look very appealing but she was amazed by the texture and taste. It looks pretty good to me from here :) 

Another newbie to AlphaBakes, Achu from Tangy Minds sent in this tricolor flag tart to celebrate India's Independence day. She used saffron for the orange, cashews/almonds for the white and pistachio for green. 

Back to me again this time with a nectarine summer berry tart. It's my first time making pastry and I'm wondering why I've not made it sooner. The tart was delicious especially with all the lovely summer fruits.

Phil from As Strong as Soup sent in a different tart - Tarta de Santiago. This is a traditional cake but Phil has made it in his own way without butter or flour! It's moist, simple, flourless and a little fragile. I wish I could have a slice now :)

 Cupcake Crazy Gem had a baking epiphany whilst in the queue in Tesco and came up with this triple toasted coconut rocky road. If you read our blogs regularly, you will know that she is a huge fan of coconut and I am not. She claims that you need to make this for your coconut hating friends because she guarantees that no one can turn down this level of deliciousness. Bring it on I say!

Guess who's back? Yes its Mich from Piece of Cake with lower calorie chocolate whoopie pies with green tea cream. I've grown rather fond of whoopie pies so I'm pleased to see a healthier version here made with mashed bananas, wholemeal flour and low fat milk. The green tea cream filling looks delicious too!

Clare from Under the Blue Gum Tree made a little trip to London for the Olympics and wanted to bake something quick and easy on her return.  She made a tomato and almond tart, using a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi which can be found in the Guardian.  There's a cheese/almond layer between the tomatoes and pastry so there's no soggy bottoms! Mary would be proud :) 

Caroline's sister Clare also joined in the AlphaBakes fun with these Tia Maria and Coffee cupcakes. There is Tia Maria in the cake mixtures, then soaked into the cakes once they had come out of the oven and Tia Maria in the icing!

Anuja from Simple Baking sent in this Tri Colour Tart made with fresh fruits and pastry cream to celebrate India's 65th Independence Day. There was supposed to be blueberries in there as well but they disappeared from the fridge! Her daughters' giggling faces told her where they had gone :)

Another first timer to AlphaBakes - welcome to Stuart from cakeyboi who made Trifle Cupcakes which were born after spotting some Scottish raspberries in the supermarket.  If you're not convinced, imagine biting into fresh raspberries, yummy vanilla sponge, with the coolness of the jelly and creamy custard, and a topping of cream and flake! Yes please!! As Stuart says "Remember trifle is for life, not just for Christmas"

Mich from Piece of Cake has been on a roll with T entries this month! She has another 2 entries for us, starting with a Thousand Layer Cake. It is made up of many very thin layers of cake piled on the top of each other. It is very rich for its size as it consists of large amounts of butter and sugar and egg yolks (22 of them!!). She made this for her kids' teachers for Teacher's Day to thank them for their hard work. 

Final entry from Mich is a Sun-Dried Tomato Polenta Pistachio Cake. Just look at the vibrant colours! She reckons it's more like a cornbread and was best served warm. 

Daisy from Never Too Sweet stayed up till 2 am to make these for AlphaBakes - thank you! She wanted to make something quirky so she chose Tomato Soup Cupcakes. They taste similar to a carrot cake and the reviews from her regular taste testers were better than expected! I would love to try one of these. 

Last but not least is Ruth from The Mixing Bowl with Toffee Apple Cake Pops.  She made an apple cake, crumbled it and mixed it with apple buttercream and then dipped it in toffee. She was unsure about how desirable it is to snap through hard toffee for a moist cake but she actually found it enjoyable if a little unusual and reckons it might be a marmite! I'm sure I'd love it! :)

A latecomer to add to the pack - Lovely Leanne from My Little Life of Scrap forgot to email us her Twix brownies. She used a pack of fun sized twix sandwiched between brownie layers - the twix remained intact after baking giving it a lovely crunch - yum! 

And another one from Kate Makes Cake with Gin and Tonic Cupcakes. Gin & Slim is Kate's tipple of choice and luckily for us, she decided to incorporate it into a cupcake.  There's tonic water in the sponge and tonic, gin and lime in the filling and frosting. Optional extra - drink version of G&T. 

And another one with huge apologies for missing her out from the round up! Karen who blogs at Lavender and Lovage made Australian Crunchies Traybake - School Lunch Box treats. Karen has started Sepia Saturday: Eighty years of baking with  Be-Ro which is a weekly bake along so do check it out if you are interested. She found this Australian crunchie which has cornflakes, coconut and cocoa powder and a chocolate topping! 

And now for the winner of the 4 botanical measuring cups.... 

Congratulations to Sally from Piggy Bakes! 

Make sure you check out Caroline's blog on 1st September for the next challenge and a very, very exciting prize :)