Chocolate Cupcakes with Berry Buttercream

This recipe also came from the latest issue of Foodtown magazine (Oct/Nov 2011) – I would recommend getting your hands on a copy, it is packed full of awesome cake recipes (which I plan on working my way through) as well as lots of other meal recipes and ideas.

Ingredients:
100 grams butter (softened)
¾ cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs (beaten)
1 cup plain flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup cocoa
½ cup sour cream

Berry Buttercream
150 grams butter (softened)
2 cups Chelsea pink berry icing sugar
2-3 tablespoons hot water
Berry lollies to decorate

Method:
Preheat your oven to 170°C (fan bake). Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
In a large electric mixing bowl , beat together the butter, brown sugar and eggs for 2-3 minutes until creamy.
Sift the flour, baking soda and cocoa into the wet mix, folding the two together lightly before adding the sour cream. Beat the mix for 2-3 minutes until smooth and fluffy.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases.
Bake in a pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes until the cupcakes are puffed up and spongy to the touch. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
To make the buttercream, beat butter until smooth and pale. Gradually add the berry icing sugar half a cup at a time with enough hot water to keep the mixture creamy, beating the mix well between each addition.
** I found the the berry icing wasn’t as “pink” as I expected it would be, because of the pale yellow colour of the butter it was more peach than pink so I added a small drop of pink food colouring – I tested the icing sugar by adding water to it and rest assured it was a lovely pink colour.

 
When the cupcakes have cooled completely pipe or spoon on butter cream and top with a berry lolly.

I think mine resembled what was in the magazine pretty well, but you can judge for yourself by taking a look at the photo below. The cupcakes themselves were very nice. Give them a go and enjoy!

Decadent Chocolate Celebration Cake with Swiss Buttercream

The picture above is of a recipe featured in the current issue of ‘Foodtown’ magazine.  Upon seeing it I instantly fell in love and had to make it!  I had the perfect excuse as it was time to make a cake to celebrate Max’s ‘eight month birthday’.  I envisioned a cake just like the one in the magazine except with duck egg blue frosting and a cute mint green teddy bear sitting on top instead of a rose.  However, it didn’t quite work out as I had planned; the frosting was fantastic (albeit a little too sweet/buttery for my palette), the colouring on the other hand was more green than blue (and yes I definitely used blue colouring but as I wanted a soft blue I didn’t use enough) and the cake tasted fantastic but was a wee bit of a disaster – with a collapsed middle :-(

I think I know why that happened and can give you pointers on how to avoid it.  For starters the recipe calls for you to divide your cake batter into three 15cm round cake tins or one 22cm tin, which is what I did.  I would recommend taking the 15cm option as I found using the 22cm tin meant the cake was becoming overcooked on the top and sides.  It also rose a little too high and started to collapse and although my skewer removed cleanly after the recommended cooking time it was a little fudgey in the middle.  This resulted in a two layer cake as opposed to three after levelling it off because of it collapsing.  If I decide to make this again I will get my hands on some 15cm tins.  If you want to use a 22cm tin I would drop the oven temperature by 10°C and cook the cake for 70 minutes.

Ingredients:
Cake:
spray oil
cocoa for dusting
60 grams of 70% dark chocolate, chopped
1 cup hot water
1 ½ cups flour
1 ¼ cups cocoa
1 ½  teaspoons baking soda
½  teaspoon baking powder
½  teaspoon salt
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups caster sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
¾ cup butter milk

Swiss Buttercream:
1 ½ cups caster sugar
4 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
300 grams butter (soft but not runny)
colouring and decorations of your choice

Method:
Preheat your oven to 160°C.  Line and spray the bases of three 15cm tins (or one 22cm tin with baking paper.  Spray with oil and dust with cocoa, tapping off the excess.
Place the chocolate and hot water into a bowl and stir until the chocolate is melted.  Set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate bowl and set aside.
Place eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed for 3-4 minutes until pale and thick.  Gradually add in the sugar, oil and vanilla essence.  Beat well.  Add the buttermilk and beat until combined.
Fold in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.  Add the chocolate and gently fold together, be careful not to over mix.
Place batter into the prepared tin/s.  Bake in a preheated oven for about 40 minutes (or until your skewer removes cleanly) – the recipe recommends baking a 22cm cake for an hour (see my notes in the introduction to this recipe).  Once cooked, set aside to cool in tins.

To make the buttercream, place the sugar and egg whites into a heatproof bowl and place it over a pan of simmering water (do not allow the bottom of the bowl to touch the water).  Stir continuously until the sugar is dissolved, about five minutes.
Remove the bowl from the heat and place the egg white mixture into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on a medium-high speed until the mixture is cool, thick and glossy white.  Add vanilla essence.
Gradually add the butter, mixing well after each addition until it has been absorbed into the egg white mixture.  Add a few drops of colouring and mix until combined.  The buttercream should have a whipped cream consistency of whipped cream.

To assemble, cut each cake into three layers.  Spread or pipe the buttercream between each layer and top of your cakes with decorations of your choice.

The cake batter, my collapsed disaster, the meringue base for the frosting, cake done, teddy bear topper.

My favourite part of the cake was actually the teddy bear topper.  I used this video tutorial to learn, although I made my teddy a little bigger.

And for those who are interested – here is an updated picture of my little monkey, enjoying the spring weather with his Mumma!

Raspberry Macarons

These were far easier than I imagined they’d be! I tore this recipe out of a Foodtown magazine well over a year ago but put it in the too hard basket until now.

70g packet of ground almonds
1 cup icing sugar
2 egg whites (room temperature)
2 tablespoons sugar
a few drops of food colouring/flavouring (I used raspberry)

1. Line a baking tray with non stick paper.
2. Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse until it forms a mixture.
3. Beat the egg whites until they are frothy, add the sugar gradually and continue to beat until the mixture is glossy (2-3 minutes).  Add your colouring/flavour at this stage.
4. Using a spatula, gently fold the almond mixture into the egg mixture.  Fold until the mixture folds back on itself, it is important not to over fold.
5.Place mixture in a piping bag with a 2cm opening.  Pipe onto the lined tray a disc 3cm in diameter.  You should get 12 single macarons each tray.
*TIP: To stop the baking paper moving place a small dot of the macaroon mixture in each corner of you tray – the paper will stick to it.  For best results at this point you should leave your macaroons on the bench for 30 minutes to form a ‘skin’ - this will also allow your oven to pre-heat.


6. Place macarons in the oven for 18-20 minutes at 140˚C.  Once they are removed from the oven, leave them on the trays to cool.
7. Make the following ganache and use to sandwich the macaroons together.

75grams of white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons each: cream, icing sugar

Place the chocolate and cream in a glass jug or bowl and place in the microwave on medium for 1-2 minutes.  Whisk gently to combine.  Stir in the icing sugar and leave until thickened.  Once thickened, place mixture into a piping bag or spoon on to the centre of half the macarons and sandwich with the other.  You want the ganache to spread but not come out the sides so be careful.

Enjoy these delicious wee treats!