Mars Bar Cupcakes: They are out of this world!

These were absolutely delicious!  To make them I adapted this muffin recipe, so that I got the wonderful taste of the brown sugar but a more “cup-cakey” texture.

Ingredients:
1 ¾ cups flour
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
⅓ cup sugar
½ teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
⅔ cup milk
2 eggs
150g butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
10 “fun sized” Mars Bars

Method:
In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugars, baking powder and the salt.
In a separate bowl mix together the milk, eggs, butter and vanilla.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the milk mixture.  Stir to combine.
Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans, filling the casings just over half way, place ½ a fun sized Mars bar in the centre of each and then cover the Mars bar chunk with a spoonful of mixture.

Bake at 180˚C for 15-20 minutes or until the tops bounce back when touched and a skewer can be removed cleanly.
To decorate ice with a cream cheese icing and ⅓ of a fun sized Mars bar.

Just scrummy! Enjoy :-)

Gü Naughties… YUM!

So, these are good.  Devilishly good.
I don’t really know what you would call them – ‘Goo’?  The brand is ‘Gü’ anyway.

I picked up the chocolate rolls tub while out shopping today, but you can get Rocky Road and Millionaire’s Flapjack (whatever that is) tubs too. 

The chocolate rolls were a chocolate cake with a swirl of a chocolate sauce through it, then coated in chocolate.  I opened the container when I got to the car to try one, and by the time I got home (like a whole 2mins away) quite a few were ‘missing’.  They’ve been in production since 2003, but have just launched in New Zealand in February.  So, if you are from another part of the world these might not be a new thing, however, they are new to us kiwis and I just wanted to spread the word because they are delicious – and if everyone else eats them I won’t feel so fat and guilty about being a piggy.

Happy Birthday To Mel: Chocolate Mud Birthday Cake!

Today is Melissa’s birthday, so yesterday I visited her at work with a home made Mud Cake to celebrate her birthday early. The cake was delicious, even if I do say so myself!  It was adapted from a recipe in 'Bake' by Allyson Gofton.
  
For the cake you will need:
2 teaspoons good quality drinking cocoa (the original recipe uses coffee granules but Melissa and I both detest coffee)
1 cup hot water
¼ cup fruit juice (I used ‘Just Juice – Tropical’ as it is nice and sweet, the recipe states you can use juice or whiskey)
200 grams dark cooking chocolate chopped
1 1/2 cups sugar
250 grams butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Preheat the oven to 140˚C.  Grease and line a round 23cm cake tin with baking paper (I only had a 20cm tin and it worked fine, I found the cake a nice height).
2. Put the dinking cocoa, hot water and juice into a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Remove from the heat.
3. Add the chocolate and butter and stir until melted.
4. Add the sugar and stir until it is dissolved.  Allow to cool.
5. In a large bowl sift the flour and baking soda together then make a well in the centre.
6. Beat the eggs together with the vanilla essence and stir into the cooled chocolate mixture.
7. Pour the chocolate mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently to mix (I found I was getting clumps of flour so I beat it very gently with the electric beaters for under a minute as not to overwork the ingredients).
8. Pour cake batter into the prepared tin and place in to oven for 75-90 minutes.  Allow the cake to sit in the tin for 20 or so minutes before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

I iced the cake with a chocolate ganache.  To make it I used 250 grams of dark chocolate, ¾ cup of cream and a tablespoon of butter – combining the ingredients in a heatproof bowl sitting over boiling water. Once ingredients are combined leave the ganache to cool for a couple of hours on the bench. I spooned the thickened but still runny mixture over the cake and let it run over the edges. To make the truffles I stored the remaining mixture in the fridge overnight and rolled single teaspoons of the mixtures into balls coating in cocoa and placed them on the cake. For a little bit of extra ‘sparkle’ I added little silver cachous.

Happy Birthday Melissa xx.

P.S. There aren’t any photos of the inside of the cake because it all got scoffed before I had a chance to take any – so damn, I’ll just have to make it again so I can share with you ;-)

My new baby

Sooo pretty!  And shiny!  Ooooo!

So, not as cuddly as Courtenay’s little Max (who is coming in for a visit at school on Friday *squeee*), but meet my Kitchen Aid.  I picked it up the other week but I haven’t tried it out yet.  Thought I should probably read the instruction manual and watch the DVD before I play around and break it.  There’s not much to figure out I’ve since realised.  However, it is back in it’s box because in just over a week we will be re-locating to a new home.  Simon and I are moving in together!  So, once I’m in the new place my baby will be set free and have a new perch where its beauty can be admired and, like all children, we will have fun and I will try put it to use – non of this slouching about biz.

Once I have moved I can also unpack my Joseph Joseph goodies from their boxes.  I have their ‘elevate’ kitchen tool set, the ‘hands on’ salad bowl, and the 8 piece nesting set.  I am quite excited about seeing it in the kitchen cupboards.

Yay :)

P.S.  Once all the craziness has died down I might actually get back to doing some baking.

Max’s Yellow Cake

Last week my boy Max turned a month old! I have no idea where the time has gone but I have managed to bake a few times and plan on baking a new cake each month for Max and decorating it.  This way I’ll have plenty of recipes to share with you and hopefully I’ll improve my skills so that I can knock it out of the park for Max’s 1st birthday! The piping on this cake was a bit rushed as I had a very hungry baby to tend to, so I will allow myself a little more time next month.

This month’s cake was a ‘Yellow Cake’.  I have made Bakerella’s version of this cake before and think I preferred that, as my cake wasn’t as moist as I’d like, but was still enjoyable.  To make you will need the following:

1 ¾ cups plain flour
¼ cup cornflour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
¾ cup milk

Preheat oven to 180˚C.  Grease two round 9-inch cake pans.
In bowl, combine flour, cornflour, baking powder, and salt.
In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until completely combines. Slowly add flour mix alternating with the milk. At end of addition batter should be smooth. Divide evenly between your two pans.
Bake Yellow Cake Recipe for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan, then invert onto a rack and cool completely before frosting.
Ice with a butter cream frosting (I used 200g butter and roughly 4 cups of icing sugar) and decorate to your personal taste.

 

Vanilla and Raspberry Treats

Last weekend my little sister Georgina turned 21 so we had a family afternoon tea to celebrate and also to say farewell and good luck as she is leaving us to start a new career that requires her to be based in Dubai. I was charged with making some sweet treats, originally I had planned on making cake pops but they were a major fail! So I resorted to a quick fix and made some tried and true meringues but fancied them up by piping them and adding a ½ teaspoon of raspberry essence and a ½ teaspoon of pink food colouring to half the mixture.

 
The mini cupcakes were made using the Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake Mix, once they were cool I put some raspberry jam in a piping bag and filled the centre of each cupcake with jam and topped them with a pink butter cream frosting (to which I also added a 1/2 teaspoon of raspberry essence) and sprinkles.

 
The lovely looking cake was delicious and was purchased by my Mum from the City Cake Company in Mt Eden.

Baking Really Can Help Make Things Better!

The lovely staff at Delish Cupcakes are holding a bake sale fundraiser for people affected by the Christchurch earthquake, all proceeds go to the Red Cross Canterbury Earthquake Appeal. Check out their Facebook page for details; you can help by baking something to be sold or simply go along and buy up big!
I can personally assure you that their cupcakes really are delicious, they are beautifully moist - without being oily, the icing is to die for and the range of flavours is fantastic!

These are the gorgeous cupcakes I purchased over the weekend.  The two with the white icing both had ginger bases but one had a cream cheese icing while the other had white chocolate.  The other two were decadently rich chocolate bases, one with a chocolate ganache icing and the other with a jaffa butter cream and a little chocolate fish to top it off!

And the winner is...

Bronwyn Aish

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