Valentine themed cupcakes

Oh, we’re really in the Valentine’s theme aren’t we? Why not some cupcakes too?
I made these for a party of my father and sisters birthday which happened to be celebrated on the 14th of Febuary, so they got a Valentines theme.





For the cakes themselves, you can look up the recipe here:
Valentines cream-filled cake
Basic cupcakes

Before I baked the cupcakes, I hid little chocolate eggs in the middle of the batter and on some I put a little chocolate cup on top. And some had a chocolate covered nut suprise in the middle. I really felt like making it a bit special!
In the corner of this picture you can see one with a chocolate cup on top, that I didnt decorate yet.



I used different types of decoration on the cakes, but basically I had fondant and cream. I used the fondant on the Valentines cream-filled cake as well. It was a bit dry somehow and kept breaking on the cake, but on these cupcakes it was fine. I couldnt add butter or water though, to make it less dry, cuz then it would stick to everything!



For the marshmallow fondant the basic recipe was:
450 gram marshmallows
900 gram powdered sugar
3 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
colouring as much as needed

You start off with dubble-boiling the marshmallows with the water. Then you mix the rest in. I found it easiest to just put it in the breadmachine on the kneedingcycle. But a mixer with special hooks for dough should work just as well.
I ended up needing loads more powdered sugar though. So you might want to start out with a little less of marshmallows! There are great video’s on youtube that can help with this. Just look up “marshmallow fondant”. Until I can provide a better recipe or even a video myself, you’re going to have to do with that!

I can help you with the cream though! The amount of the ingredients are just a rough indication for what you need. If you want it to taste more sweet, add more powdered sugar, if you want it less sweet, less. For the pink cream you’re going to need:
250 gram mascarpone or other cream cheese
half a cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
food colouring, as much as wanted

This one is really easy: mix! My favourite electric mixer works for everything! Then spread it on cupcakes and smoothen it with a knife or so.





This one was an attempt to something that looks like what they call a Topsy Turvy cake. I guess it just doesn't work for cupcakes that well. Admitted I didn't look into this that much yet. It's something I'm gonna have to work on!

I had a lot of little things for the decoration I used on these.
Strawberry marbled chocolate buttons
M&Ms
Little ball candy
Heart sprinkles
Shapes I made of candymelts
The fondant
And the cream

Then it was a matter of decorating. I made sure not two cupcakes looked the same! I was really proud of the results! My family gave me a lot of compliments about it as well, but somehow that just makes me suspicious...!
I hope it’s of any use, or you at least enjoyed the pictures and it can help with some inspiration for your parties! I’ll make sure to blog soon again!



What do you think of my easter-themed cupcakes up front?







This is the guy that was protecting aaalll the little cupcakes and the one that I thought was totally brilliant! I love him! His mouth was kinda hard to paste on, so he looks a bit grumpy!

Valentine's bonbons

I made this recipe on my feelings so to say. I saw some cool picture and decided I would make it. Since they were called cakepops, I quickly figured they were made of cake, which was obvious from the picture as well. I thought mascarpone was nice and creamy and would let it stick together. Then there was chocolate and candy-melts for decoration. I could’ve also used candymelts on the wole, but that would’ve seemed too sweet. Since Valentine was coming and I had pink candy-melts, it seemed a great idea! The whole recipe was easily figured out, but Im afriad I can’t be quite too sure about the amount of which ingredients I used.



The whole process is very easy and they don’t take that long to make either. The waiting time might take a bit longer. I made the cake first, and rolled the balls the next day. I took them out of the freezer three days later to do the chocolate and candymelts.
I send the bonbons in colourfull packages to my friends and they were quite pleased with it! I’m glad I could even find the packages. Next time I want proper boxes! I’m afraid I’ll have to make them myself though. But then they’ll be all the more personal!



A note for the recipe: in step 3 you’ll need to use greaseproof paper or cling wrap. This part is not so important then yet, but later greaseproofpaper and clingwrap will prevent the chocolate-covered balls to stick to surfaces from which you cant get them off! They both give a different effect to the bottom of your bonbons though. Greaseproof paper gives a matte look while the cling wrap makes it very shiney and leaves trails of folds if you dont flatten it well enough. Any flat plates or low tins will prevent the balls from rolling around all too much!

Ingredients for about 40 bonbons:
half a cake or 6 cupcakes
250 gram mascarpone or other cream cheese
dark and milk chocolate
candymelts: pink

1. Start with crumbling the cake. This is easiest with a kitchen machine, but you can also use a fork.
2. Mix the mascarpone in, spoon by spoon. Make sre the micture is thick and doesn’t stick too much. You may have to add more cake or mascarpone.
3. Roughly line a brownietin, other low tin or plate with greaseproof paper or cling wrap. Roll balls of the batter and put them on whatever you decided to use.
4. Leave them in the freezer for at least an hour or until you need them.



5. Dubble-boil the chocolate and dip the frozen balls in the liquid chocolate one by one. Roll them in the chocolate until they are completely covered and leave to cool on clingwrap or -preverably- greaseproof paper.
6. Leave them in the fridge to cool for about half an hour or until the chocolate is hardened.
7. Dubble-boil the candymelts and decorate the bonbons,. I used the tip of a knife for this, but a fork, toothpick or anything else you can think of, will work just as well.
8. Leave to cool again. If you want to speed up the progress you can leave them in the fridge and withing about 5-10 minutes they’re done!

Valentine's cream-filled cake

Because Valentine was coming up, and I wanted to make some nice suprise I decided on a Valentine’s cake! A pretty basic cake and the only thing Valentine about it was the look, but everyone really liked it, which prooves that even simple things can be great! My mom complained that the cake might’ve been a bit sweet, yet my sister thought that was the best thing about it! Perhaps I should use a bit less jam next time or a different type of fondant. Though I really loved my fondant! The first time I made it myself as well! (and what a pain in the ass!)
The cake batter used for this cake is also really good to use for cupcakes, like I did in my 'basic cupcakes' which you can decorate in all the creative ways you can think of!
Depending on the colour you want your cake to be, add more food colouring or less. Do keep in mind that the flour will slightly lighten the colour of the batter, but it is still possible to add more later on.
Also, take in account that when you want to substitute the cream cheese filling for something different, that the filling you use is quite thick. I’ve made the mistake once of not making it thick enough (I think it was jelly) and the filling just came dripping out!

The cake:
Ingredients:
225 gram softened butter
225 gram white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon red foodcolouring
4 big eggs
225 gram selfraising flour
5 tablespoons milk

1. Start with mixing the butter and sugar together until the batter is soft. This is easiest with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla extract and red foodcolouring and mix again.
2. In a seperate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add a spoon of beaten egg to the butter-mixture and mix it in well. Then add the rest of the eggs in a few additions (3 to 4 should be enough) and beat well inbetween.
3. Sift the flour and add it to the batter. You can fold the flour in nicely, or if you’re lazy just like me use the electric mixer again! Add the milk as well at this point. I found it easier to alternate a bit of flour and then a bit of milk again and mixing well inbetween.
4. Pour the batter into cupcake cups. For a more solid ‘cupcake shape’ you can also put the shapes into a cupcaketin. Make sure to grease the tin if you’re not using the cupcake cups. Put the cakes in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 to 20 minutes.





5. When the cake is done, leave it to cool and start working on the cream for on the inside!

Cream cheese filling
Ingredients:
250 gram cream cheese
1/4 to 1/2 a cup powdered sugar
A few drops vanilla extract

6. Mix! It’s as easy as that!

The cake (again!)
Strawberry jam (preferably without bits)
Fondant

7. With a knife, equally spread the inside (or top) of the cake with strawberry jam.
8. Gently put the cream cheese in the heartshape. I did this with a _____ because it was quite a bit easier and it doesnt push away the jam, or when you want to spred it, the jam wont mess everything up.
9. Put both sides of the cake on top of eachother.





10. Spread the whole cake with jam again, so the fondant will stick against the sides.
11. Roll the fondant out into the right size and lay it over the cake. Push the sides gently against the cake and make sure there are no folds in it. Cut off the extra bits.
12. You can colour the extra bits, or take pre-coloured fondant and cut it into the shapes you want and add those to the cake.
13. Your cake is done! Serve it and make people happy!





Why do I always get so embarassed when it comes to the pictures?

Basic cupcakes - decorated!

I’ve made cupcakes some time ago, but never found the time to post them yet! I’m kinda proud of the pictures I made to it, and of the way I decorated them, so they just have to be posted!



Since it’s a basic cupcake recipe that almost can’t go wrong, it’s really easy to variate on this one too. For example, different food colourings or flavours would add some extra effect. You can use any type of icing, fondant or other topping you can think of. Also, it’s very easy to add any kind of nuts or dried fruits to it. I don’t think the recipe would work out that well for fresh fruits, as they always have some juice in them that makes the cake wetter. Cakes also tend to take longer to get right with fresh fruits I believe.





While I was making these, I remember my sister coming to me about 4 times before they were finished. “Can I have one?” which I had to keep answering with “No, Im not done yet!”. She got one in the end though, and loved it! (especially the icing of course :P) I also remember that somehow all the cakes leaned to one side, and I put a bit too much batter in the cupcake cups which gave them a volcanolook as they rised. But that didnt matter so much for the taste anyway!

Ingredients:
225 gram softened butter
225 gram white granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon red foodcolouring
4 big eggs
225 gram selfraising flour
5 tablespoons milk
icing and sprinkles

1. Start with mixing the butter and sugar together in a big bowl until the batter is soft. This is easiest with an electric mixer. Add the vanilla extract and red foodcolouring and mix again.
2. In a seperate, small bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add a spoon of beaten egg to the butter-mixture and mix it in well. Then add the rest of the eggs in a few additions (3 to 4 should be enough) and beat well inbetween.
3. Sift the flour and add it to the batter. You can fold the flour in nicely, or if you’re lazy just like me use the electric mixer again! Add the milk as well at this point. I found it easier to alternate a bit of flour and then a bit of milk again and mixing well inbetween.
4. Pour the batter into cupcake cups. Make sure they are no more than 3/4 filled, since the batter will rise and you dont want them to turn into volcano’s! For a more solid ‘cupcake shape’ you can also put the shapes into a cupcaketin. Make sure to grease the tin if you’re not using the cupcake cups. Put the cakes in a preheated oven of 180 degrees Celsius or 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 15 to 20 minutes.
5. When the cupcakes are done, leave them to cool for some time. When they are cool, or at least cold enough to touch, you can start with the icing. The icing I used had to be double-boiled. I just dipped them in, rolled them around a bit so they got covered and sprinkled them with the hearts. Then I left them to cool again. Whatever you put as topping, make sure to put it on while the icing is still warm and sticky, otherwise it won’t stick! After the last cooling and decorating in whatever way you want, they’re ready to eat!

Of course, the cupcakes are equally delicious without a topping.
The same batter is used to make my Valentine's cake as well: Check it out!

Kitchen Disasters

You know when you’re trying so hard on a recipe, and somehow you just completely FAIL? I have it too sometimes, unfortunately. Luckily some things can be fixed, or masked, but some things you can just better throw away. Perhaps I should try experimenting a little less sometimes, and just stick to the recipe. Or stick to simple things.
I dont know why exactly, but I have some pictures of some memorable failures, some worse than the others. Why not share them anyway?

Let’s start out with my very first cakes. Not exactly Kitchen Disasters, as they were quite tasty. I never got to taste the Marshmallow one. My family finished it by the time I came back from work. But honestly, they’re not really beauty’s are they?





How about a chocolate mousse cake? Although the mousse was really delicious, and the little berries I put into it gave it a bit of a fresh taste as well, it looks horrible! The cakebottom was completely ruined and burned as well. The mousse should’ve been between two layers of cake, but I tried to leave out as much as I could. Then, to add up to all of it, the cake had to be left in the caketin until the mousse was stiff, somehow this didnt work out well and the edges had a iron-ish taste and colour (!!) which I luckily could scrape off!
Update: I used the mousse in a new recipe! Found here: Chocolate mousse bombe. It was just delicious with chocolate, banana and some cream!



I know it looks like a pizza, it has never been one. It was supposed to be ‘Sicilian Sfincione’. I guess it does look like on the picture that came with recipe, though mine are slightly burned. It just didnt taste right somewhere!



Who doesn’t know chelsea buns? And who wouldnt want to make them? I made the mistake of starting baking them around the time when my mom started cooking AND she needed the oven. So I left the buns on the kitchen counter until she was done and we had eaten and cleaned as well. In open air, with no towel or anything damp over it, no clingwrap either. Yeah, I wonder why this didnt work out... They were still pretty delicious to be honest, but very VERY hard and kinda tough to eat!



A cherry bread I tried to make for my lover. It was a disaster! Just look at it! It didnt taste nice at all, and it was very hard as well. As hard as a rock, really! With nothing good about it, we just tossed this one away. I never mentioned it to him!





This marshmallowcake with jelly and jam wasn’t that much of a disaster. It tasted delicious and everyone loved it! It’s just that the jelly wasnt much of jelly, more like water. For this pictures I tried drying a lot of it and scraping some off, but can you see how it’s dripping of the marshmallowbottom?



Fridge cake! I just loved the sound of it and the picture looked really nice. I wonder if they’re photoshopped a lot now. I might’ve used a wrong kind of chocolate for this. Just biscuits and glacé cherries with chocolate wasnt actually at all spectacular. Won’t make this one again that’s for sure! It’s a waste of chocolate, and way too many calories into something you dont actually like.



Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my disasters! For most I know what the problem is, so I can avoid it next time!
While going through all my pictures again, I realised I am far behind with posting on my blog. I have loads of things that I really want to share, and never posted yet! So, I'll make sure to update loads soon!

Banana & chocolate pan (buns)

This one is another version of the vanilla pan I made before, which is my own variation to the melon pan. To be honest, they’re not quite different, only these are with banana and chocolate chips! I tried pretty hard on the pictures, so I wanted to show these anyway!
Look look! The texture is so nice!



To make it easier, here’s the adjusted recipe:
Note: I have no idea how much chocolate chips I used. I’m guessing half a cup to a cup, but for this you just have to use as much as you want. I haven’t done it myself yet, but making chocolate chip shapes on the buns seems like an awesome idea!

Ingredients:
Bread dough:
300 gram (white) bread flour
1 1/4 tablespoon instant dry yeast (6 grams)
36 gram caster sugar
1 teaspoon salt (5 grams)
1 1/4 teaspoon milk powder (6 grams) (I used powdered coffeemilk for this)
250 ml warm water
30 gram (unsalted) butter (room temperature)

Top layer:
80 gram (unsalted) butter (room temperature)
90 gram caster sugar
banana extract (or any other extract for a different taste)
80 gram egg
200 gram cake flour
2 gram baking powder
chocolate chips

Bread dough:
1. Sift the flour and add the sugar, salt and milk powder into a large mixing bowl. Add the yeast as last and mix the mixture until everything is well blend in.
2. To let the water adjust to the texture, add the warm water a little at a time, in about 4 to 5 times (or more). Don't add it all in one time!
3. Mix the ingredients with a spoon or fork, until it is too firm to continue. Take the dough out and continue kneeding on a lightly floured surface.
4. Kneed the dough for about 5 minutes or until it no longer sticks to the surface. Add more water if the dough is too dry, or more flour if it is too wet.
5. Flatten the dough and butter in the middle. Fold the edges of the dough around the butter, to trap it inside. Start kneeding again. This will be a bit awkward (it was for me), but after a while the butter will be absorbed into the dough. This could take about 10 minutes.
6. Place the dough in a slightly butter-greased bowl and cover it with a damp towel or cling wrap. Leave it in a warm place for about an hour or until doubled in size. In the meanwhile start making the top layer.

Top layer:
1. Add the sugar and butter into a bowl. Mix these using an electric mixer until the mixture becomes creamy and pale.
2. Add a little bit of the vanilla extract and mix again.
3. Put the eggs in a different bowl and lightly beat them with a whisk or electric mixer.
4. Add the eggs into the butter-mixture, little bit at a time (about 3-5 additions). Mix well after each addition.
5. In a different bowl sift the cake flour and baking powder.
6. Add this mixture to the butter mixture in about 3-5 additions. With the electric mixer, or a spoon, mix everything well.
8. Now in the chocolate chips go! Make sure to mix these in as well! Then devide the mixture into 12 portions (this isn't neccisary). Leave the mixture in the fridge until you need it (or for half an hour).

While everything is rising and setting, let's take a look at a few pics of the buns in progress:







Bread dough:
1. Kneed and punch the dough again while making sure to press all the trapped air out.
2. Devide the dough into 12 portions and shape them into little balls. Place the balls onto a lightly greased or grease-proof paper-lined oven tray. Cover with a damp cloth or cling wrap again and leave to proof for about 10 minutes.

Finishing touch:
1. Remove the top layer from the fridge and devide it into 12 portions if you have not already.
2. Take two pieces of cling wrap or plastic bags and on one put a little dough ball. Flatten it a bit and put a flattened ball of pastry layer on top.
3. Cover it with the second cling wrap or platic bag and roll the bags with dough between your hands into a ball. Make sure the two mixtures "attach" to eachother.
4. Remove the cling wrap or plastic bags and put the ball back onto the oven tray. Make sure the top layer doesn't cover the bread dough all the way down to the tray. Leave about a centimeter/inch left for the dough to be able to rise in the oven.
5. Repeat the past steps 11 times, until all the buns are done.
6. When all balls are on the baking sheet you can start decorating them. Using knives, forks, cookie cutters or anything you can find to decorate the balls as you want.
7. Leave the buns for 50 minutes to an hour. Preferably in a warm place. It's not needed to cover them this time.
8. Bake the buns in a pre-heated oven at about 170 degrees Celsius or 340 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes or until they turn goldbrown and a food pin or fork comes out dry.

What do you think of my stunning buns? ;)