Readers, due to the madness of the festive season, it’s been
near enough impossible to find the time to blog. But I’ve been spreading
Christmas cheer recently… making festive gifts for the office.
I started my first batch of festive cupcakes using a
standard vanilla sponge (can’t go wrong, recipe below) and then varying the
toppings.
I made a series of red buttercream frosting cakes first and
finished them with home-made chocolate reindeer. The reindeer were really easy to make using
two colours of Wilton Candy Melts and milk chocolate. Firstly, I laid down the coloured candies
using a fine paint brush to mark out the eyes and mouth.
I then let the colours set in the fridge, before pouring in
the melted chocolate and letting the reindeers fully set in the fridge for
several hours. I used a silicone mould
purchased at the BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham
last month. The reindeer shapes then popped out of the mould really easily. They
were a great talking point at our group Christmas Jumper Dinner!
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Here comes Santa Claus... on a vintage saucer. |
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The finished article |
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Happy Holidays! |
The second batch of Christmas cupcakes was produced for my
colleagues. This time I went all out making Christmas trees. These were a bit
of a challenge and I have to admit that some of my trees were more alpine like
than others, but overall, they went down a treat. I piped each one in green. The biggest challenge was trying to bring the
colour up… no matter how much colouring I used; they remained more mint green
than tree green. I then decorated each
with coloured sugared balls and finished off with a chocolate star on top of
the tree. I used a selection of Dr Oetker
chocolate stars and also their coloured candy balls.
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Ready to be bagged up and given to colleagues! |
So, these are really easy to recreate at home. Here’s the fail safe recipe I use, taken from
a magazine called Baked and Delicious (from Issue 1)
Basic Cupcake Recipe
Ingredients-makes 12 cupcakes
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g caster sugar
125g self raising flour, sifted
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons milk (I use semi skimmed)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Buttercream
Approximate ingredients to pipe 12 cakes
125g unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
Food colouring of your choice.
1 x disposable piping bag
1 x Wilton
1M nozzle (my favourite)
Method
- Preheat oven to 190c/Fan 170c/Gas 5, then fill a muffin tin with 12 cupcake cases.
- In a large bowl, cream softened butter and caster sugar. I use an electric mixer for this part. Cream until light and fluffy.
- Whisk in beaten eggs a little at a time and a teaspoon of flour with each addition. This helps to stop the mix curdling.
- Once all eggs are added, use a metal spoon and fold in remaining flour. Add the milk and vanilla extract. The mix should have a dropping consistency.
- Spoon the mix evenly into the 12 cases and put the tray in the oven.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden in colour and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Remove from tray and cool on a wire rack.
Buttercream Method
- Beat the butter until smooth and slowly add in the icing sugar, creaming into the mix as you go. Add a little vanilla extract if you wish. I tend to taste as I go, to make sure it’s not too buttery. You can add more icing sugar, to your taste, but make sure it’s still smooth enough to be piped (not too thick)
- Add in a teaspoon of vanilla extract if you like. This also loosens the mixture.
- Add your colouring of choice and mix to combine fully.
- Spoon the mix into a disposable piping bag, fitted with a nozzle.
- Make sure cakes are cool, then pipe swirls over each cake, in an upwards movement, to create the tree shape.
- Decorate with further cake décor if required.
- Serve immediately or store in an airtight container for a couple of days
Claire’s Tips
- Make sure you buy unsalted butter, or the cakes will taste odd!
- If your butter is too hard, grate into a bowl. It makes it easier to cream and soften.
- Be careful with food colouring – too much can leave an unpleasant aftertaste.
- Don’t be afraid of store bought decorations. They are a simple way to make your cakes look beautiful.
- Buy disposable piping bags in bulk online if you pipe a lot. It’s much easier to bin them at the end, than trying to clean them!
Treat Petite
I am entering my cupcakes into Stuart and Kat’s baking
challenge Treat Petite this month, hosted by Cakey Boi, with
the theme Happy Holidays! Kat will host on alternate months at: The Baking Explorer.
Claire, I meant to say thank you for a great entry! Happy New Year and hope to see you soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Stuart. Some really great entries last month. Brilliant that so many people are taking part.
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