Funfetti Cupcakes

If you are a regular reader you’ll remember I mentioned last week that my wee guy had chicken pox. While I was at home with him he put in a special request for ‘dino sprinkle cupcakes’. I decided to make some funfetti cupcakes with vanilla buttercream and on top of his I sprinkled some tiny dinosaur shaped sprinkles. I didn’t have time to come up with a completely new recipe so I made a slight adjustment to the trusty ‘kiddy cupcakes’ recipe so I could reduce the size of the batch so that it made a dozen full size cupcakes and the same amount of minis.

Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1¼ cups flour
¼ cup cornflour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or good quality vanilla essence)
¼ cup long sprinkles

Buttercream:
125g butter softened
2-3 cups icing sugar, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
1 teaspoon vanilla paste (or good quality vanilla essence)
food colouring, if desired
sprinkles to top



Method:
Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line your baking tin with cupcake cases.
Cream the butter in sugar until light an fluffy, add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
Alternate adding the flour mix and milk & vanilla essence to the creamed mixture, beat on a low setting to combine.
Fold through sprinkles, gently – do not over mix or the colours will start to ‘bleed’.
Spoon the mixture evenly into cupcake cases. Bake in a pre-heated oven for  15-20 minutes or until a skewer can be removed cleanly/they bounce back to the touch.
Leave cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. At this stage you can add the colouring to your mix and beat it to incorporate. Pipe onto your cupcakes in whatever manner you desire.

Easter Nest Cupcakes

Aren’t these cute?! They are so easy to make and would make a lovely little gift for Easter (the cost of Easter eggs is crazy!) or an easy bit of themed baking to take into work or have on hand for unexpected visitors over the long weekend.

To make them I just used my Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake recipe and divided it between 20 cupcake papers. You could easily use Mel’s recipe for the Easter Chicken Cupcakes and just decorate your cupcakes differently so you have a bit of variety. To decorate I used a basic buttercream and added 2 tablespoons cocoa (you can add more or less and make it to your own tastes). I spread the frosting thinly over the top of each cupcake with a knife, piped a circle with a Wilton 2D tip so it looked like a nest, inside the nest I placed 3-4 mini eggs and a chick.

Buttercream and decoration:
125g butter softened
2 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons cocoa, sifted
2-3 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
Mini eggs (I used M&M’s speckled eggs) – you will need 3-4 eggs per cupcake.
Mini chicks

Cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar/cocoa alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with.

Are they good?! Max thought so, barely got through snapping photos before the baking thief struck.

Vanilla Cupcakes by Lydia Bakes

Hello lovely followers of Baking Makes Things Better, it’s Lydia from Lydia Bakes here.  Thank you for having me today, I am truly honoured to be guest posting for Melissa and Courtenay.  As you know, the three of us organised a little get together and decided on a high tea picnic.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather (although I did end up getting severely sunburnt - my fault!) and had a great afternoon getting to know each other while sampling some delicious baking.

Although the idea was to bake something new and exciting I was having a bit of a blonde moment and thought I’d just bring something I’d made before.  Oops!  In any case, I think cupcakes deserve to be at a high tea!  So here is a very simple vanilla cupcake recipe.  This recipe is not your typical beat-the-butter-and-sugar type, but rather aims to be more like “packet” cake mix where you add oil to your batter. I adapted the recipe from Glorious Treats and find it has been more reliable than my last vanilla cupcake recipe!

Makes approximately 24.

Ingredients:
Cupcakes:
2 ½ cups cake flour (see below for instructions on how to make this)
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 ½ cups sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup oil (vegetable or canola)
1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup milk with 1tablespoon white vinegar or lemon juice)

Vanilla Buttercream:220g butter, softened
3 - 4 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 - 4 tablespoons milk

Method:
Preheat oven to 180°C and line two muffin tins with cupcake cases. 
Mix up buttermilk (if you're making your own like I always do) and set aside, this will look funny and chunky when you go to use it later.
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl, stir together and set aside.
Beat eggs for about 20 seconds and gradually add sugar.  Beat for another 30 seconds.  Add vanilla and oil to egg mixture and beat.  Add a third of the flour mix to the eggy mixture (make sure your beater is on a low setting or the flour will fly everywhere!) and beat.
Add half the buttermilk and beat, then add another third of the flour.  Add the remaining buttermilk and then the flour and beat until combined.
Pour the cake batter in to cupcake cases about ⅔ full and bake for 12 - 14 minutes.  Cool in tin for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  Wait for them to cool down completely before icing.

Vanilla Buttercream:
Beat butter for a few minutes until nice and fluffy. 
While butter is mixing (if you have a stand-alone mixer) sift icing sugar into a large bowl and set aside. 
Add vanilla to the butter and beat for about 30 seconds.  Add the sifted icing sugar one cup at a time.  When icing starts to get lumpy add a tablespoon of milk.  Continue adding milk until you reach the consistency you like.
Tint your favourite colour and pipe on to cupcakes with a large star tip (my favourite is Wilton 1M).

Cake Flour Recipe (makes one cup):
Place 2 tablespoons of cornflour in a measuring cup.  Spoon normal flour into the measuring cup, use a knife to scoop away the extra on top of the cup.  Sift the cup of flours at least 3 or 4 times to mix them together.

I decorated these cupcakes using the famous cupcake swirl and topped them with a mini fondant rose. You can find tutorials for both of these techniques on my blog, Lydia Bakes.

Thank you so much for having me. I loved collaborating with Baking Makes Things Better and I get a feeling this will not be the last time we bake together!

Ombre Cake

I’ve been waiting for a reason to make one of these for a while now. Some of you may remember that when wee Max turned six months old I held a little celebration. Well, time certainly flies as he was 18 months old last Friday, so I thought why not bake a special cake to celebrate! It is easier than it looks and tastes yummy. I used a basic yellow cake recipe and divided into thirds to colour. This was a mini cake so I halved the below mixture and used three mini cake tins. The ingredients listed below will give you enough mixture to create a three tier 20cm cake.

Ingredients:
200 grams of butter, softened
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
3 cups of self-rising flour, sifted
1 cup of milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
blue (or a colour of your choice) food colouring – I used gel

Method:
Preheat your oven to 180°C and grease your cake tins.
Using your electric or stand mixer beat butter until it is light and fluffy.
Cream together the sugar and the butter for about 5 minutes.
Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add flour and milk, alternating between the two, beginning and ending with the flour ensuring that everything is combined.
This is the trickiest bit and can be done 2 ways. You can either divide your mixture between 3 bowls before adding colour, to ensure that each layer is perfectly even or if you are lazy and want to save on dishes like me you can “eye ball” it and remove a third of the mixture and put it in your first pan. Add food colouring gradually until you get a colour you are happy with (a light blue, or pink or purple) and remove another third and place in pan. Add some more colouring to your final third, ensuring it is darker than your second layer and place in greased pan.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until cooked, you will know the cake is ready when you can remove a skewer cleanly from the centre.
Cool on wire racks and once cool you can level and frost with butter cream.


In terms of frosting you can take creative license, I tried my hand at a ‘petal frosting’ technique and used the same colours on the outside of the cake, I followed this tutorial, it isn’t perfect but I was pretty happy with it for a first go . These cakes look just as cool covered a solid colour on the outside like a plain white vanilla buttercream, which makes the surprise on the inside even greater!

Buttercream:
200 grams butter, softened
4-5 cups icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla paste/extract
3-4 teaspoons warm water

Cream butter until light and fluffy. Add once cup of icing sugar and vanilla, mix until combined. Continue to add icing sugar alternating with tablespoons of warm water until you have a consistency you are happy with – add more water for a looser mix, less for a thicker mix.
*** The water can be substituted for milk but it is best to use room temperature milk as addling cold milk can split your mixture.

Kiddy Cupcakes

As some of you may remember I have been on the hunt for a vanilla cake/cupcake recipe that is as good as the Betty Crocker Vanilla Cake mix, these aren’t quite as moist or quite as sweet as the Betty Crocker ones BUT the mix makes about 26-30 cupcakes depending on the size of your cupcake papers and kids seem to love them – making them perfect for kids parties, school bake sales or cake stalls.

Ingredients:
250g butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2½ cups flour
½ cup cornflour
4½ teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Buttercream:
250g butter softened
5 cups icing sugar, sifted
4-6 tablespoons hot water (warm icing makes the colour take better)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
food colouring

Method:Pre-heat your oven to 180°C and line your baking tin with cupcake cases.
Cream the butter in sugar until light an fluffy, add in eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a separate bowl.
Alternate adding the flour mix and milk & vanilla essence to the creamed mixture, beat on a low setting to combine.
Spoon the mixture evenly into cupcake cases. Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 20 minutes or until a skewer can be removed cleanly or they bounce back to the touch.
Leave cupcakes to cool for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool.
To make the buttercream, cream butter in or with a mixer until pale. On a low speed add icing sugar alternating with hot water and vanilla essence. Continue to beat until light and fluffy or until it’s reached a consistency you are happy with. At this stage you can either add the colouring to your mix and beat it in or divide your mix and colour so that you end up with a variety of colours.


Tip: When you ice your cupcakes you can spread the buttercream with a knife or pipe it like me, I used a Wilton 2A round tip on the blue cupcakes and 2D tip on the pink cupcakes iced like roses (the effect is achieved when you frost from the centre and move out).  The swirl effect (like the blue ones pictured below) is achieved when you start from the outside and move in to the centre in an upward motion. You can then top your cupcakes with all types of sprinkles, edible glitters or cupcake toppers.

Warriors Grand Final Baking

 League ball cookies, Jersey cake, Max – future Warrior (as delicious as any baking), Warrior cupcakes

Today was an exciting day in our household - the NRL Grand Final day always is – but this year it was very special because the Warriors were playing for the second time since since the club formed in 1995 (their first grand final was in 2002 and I was there!). We had triple the reasons to be excited this year as all three Warriors sides were playing (the Vulcans and the Under 20’s as well as the first grade side), while the Vulcans and Senior team lost the Under 20’s won back to back titles. To celebrate I baked some of these biscuits in the shape of league balls and made this chocolate cake (making one and a half times the mixture) to make the jersey cake and cupcakes.

You could use these for any sports party by changing the colours to those of the team you support – might be a fun idea for a Rugby World Cup Party

11 for 2011 – the best year in Warrior club history. For a birthday cake you could put the age of the birthday boy or girl.

The cupcake picks are really easy to make, find an image you like and print, use folded over cello tape  to stick a tooth pick in the middle of the back of your image and then add a matching image on the backside.

The jersey was a really simple shape to make, I cut it free hand and just used a star tip to pipe on coloured buttercream frosting, I used the same buttercream frosting on the cupcakes. To get the swirled two tone effect on the cupcakes I placed the two colours side by side in my piping bag.

Even though I didn’t get the result I wanted from the game I had great fun and hopefully have given you some fun ideas for a sports party – or maybe a Rugby World Cup party in the coming weeks!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

These are easy and very, very yummy! I used this recipe as a base for the cupcake and filled the cases to about half way with the mix, and placed a teaspoon sized blob of cookie dough on top - I used this ‘Betty Crocker’ cookie mix.

 
The cookie part kind of sunk towards the bottom, I had envisioned it sitting up the top and cooking on the top and being semi raw on the inside but it still worked even though it sunk.

Yummo!!!

I frosted them with a vanilla butter cream and added a couple of tablespoons of the left over cookie dough to the mix (you can add to taste).
*NOTE: If I was doing this again I would remove choc drops or use a mix that has choc chips opposed to drops, as it was quite hard to pipe with such large bits blocking the nozzle.

Vanilla Buttercream:
125g butter
3-4 cups sifted icing sugar (depends on the consistency you are after)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons milk

Beat the butter until it is light and fluffy.
Add your first two cups of icing sugar, vanilla and 1 tablespoon of milk and beat.
Continue to add icing sugar and milk until you get the right consistency.

While I was putting this together I was thinking about ‘Cookie Monster’ – I mean who loves cookies more than him! So I used the same cupcake and made these…

  Nom, nom, nom!

To decorate the cookie monsters I topped them with vanilla buttercream, dipped them in blue sugar crystals, rolled fondant to shape the eyes and dotted them with a chocolate fudge pen. I used a chocolate chip cookie for the mouth. Not too bad for a first attempt and a very cute idea for kids.

Chocolate Peanut Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting

These are easy and delicious! I made these using my ‘Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake’ recipe as a base (I am starting to feel a bit like Marge Simpson in the episode where she changes the same Chanel suit into different outfits, so I will have to try something new soon) and added Peanut Butter (oh so good!).

1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 ½ cups flour
1 egg
½ cup milk
150g butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 tablespoons peanut butter (I used crunchy and actually added it to the butter to melt so it wouldn’t thicken the mixture and would be evenly distributed)
Pinch of salt
½ cup boiling water

Place all ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the water.
Add water to all the other ingredients and mix. Once you have a nicely combined batter place batter into 18 cupcake papers and bake in a 180°C oven (fan bake). They should take about 10 minutes but you will know they are ready when they spring back to the touch and a skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly.

*I tried to be a bit fancy with mine and popped a ‘Rolo’ in the middle of the cupcake but it kind of disappeared – you could taste it and kind of see where it was (see pictures below) but I think when I make these again I might try popping in a piece of a ‘Snickers Bar’ or injecting some caramel.


I topped mine with a peanut butter buttercream frosting, and a couple of salted peanuts for decoration – which really topped it off, the salty taste of the peanut against the sweet frosting was a delicious contrast .

To make buttercream icing you will need:
125g butter (room temperature)
1-2 tablespoons peanut butter (again I used crunchy)
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3-4 cups icing sugar (sifted)

Beat the butter and peanut butter until it is light and fluffy, add in the first 2 cups of icing sugar as well as one tablespoon of milk and vanilla essence. Continue to add the rest of your icing sugar gradually as well as the second tablespoon of milk (if your icing is too stiff just add small amounts of additional milk until you are happy with the consistency). Pipe or spoon onto your cupcakes and decorate as desired.

Cinnamon Cupcakes

I made these for the high tea we had at Melissa and Simon’s a few weeks ago.  I also made mini versions at Christmas but hadn’t posted the recipe as I wasn’t able to get a photo to share with you until now!

To make you will need:
1 ½ cups of sifted flour
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
100 grams of butter, softened
¾ cup of brown sugar, packed
1 egg (room temperature)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup of milk (room temperature)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in in a bowl. In a separate large bowl beat the butter, cinnamon and sugar until light and fluffy, add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions of milk. Beat lightly after each addition just enough to combine the ingredients.
Divide the batter between 12 medium cupcake papers so that each is ⅔ full.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until you can remove a skewer cleanly. Cool completely before icing.
I recommend icing with a vanilla buttercream.