Archive for the ‘Cup Cakes’ Category
Just a couple of preview photo’s of my cupcakes at Essex fashion week yesterday. Many thanks to Masato and Mike for choosing my cupcakes xx
Full blog post tomorrow xx
Single serving cupcake in a jar
Posted on: January 5, 2012
I found the idea of these cute little treats, a while ago, and have only had time now to make them myself. The treats are cupcakes in a jar. They are cute as wedding favours – something for the DIY bride to make herself (or to ‘ask’ her friends to make for the wedding). But then I thought, why should brides have all the fun? Cupcakes in a jar are fab to take to work to eat at your desk, great for a treat at a picnic. a way to make your cakes last a little longer (up to 12 days in the fridge) or as a lovely little gift to send to friends and family.
I made up a batch of my cupcake mix, and added around 2 tablespoons of the mixture to my jars. I wasn’t sure how much to add, but the jars filled up to half way with mixture – the cake exploded out the top – way too much!
I realised as soon as they were out of the oven that I should’ve greased the glass jar, because as the cake cooked, it ‘came away’ from the sides of the jar and left a cake ‘tide mark’. I think this took away some of the cuteness from the finish item. I will be trying my next batch with greased jars. I also need to find short, straight sided wide mouth 1/2 pint jars (mason jars) in the UK, as the little jars I have, have a lip, and if I wanted to bake the cake first and then add it to the jar, I would have to shape the cake much thinner then the bottom part of the jar (hope that made sense).
Anyway… – remembering that glass takes an age to cool – I mixed my buttercream icing and added a little pink colouring and lemon juice for a tangy topping.
I sprinkled some stars & tiny pink, red and white hearts down the sides of the jars and then swirled in the icing with my piping bag.
These cakes are bigger then your average size cupcake and I had to eat the taster in 2 sittings. I decorated the jars with ribbon tied into little bows, and I will be sending my new ‘cupcakes in a jar’ out to my friends to cheer them up after all the festive festivities have ended.
For my next batch, I will try greasing the jars with butter first, so see if this gets rid of the sponge marks at the bottom. With the rest of the jars I’ve cooked up some apple and cinnamon pies & some fruit crumble. But the photo’s are for another day….
Rachel x
Jelly Baby cupcakes
Posted on: November 22, 2011
- In: Cup Cakes
- 6 Comments
The other day on Twitter I wondered out loud whether anyone had ever baked cupcakes with jelly babies in? Before I knew it, a few people replied back and said, ‘no’ but that I should try. So there was my challenge. I thought if it was possible – would they taste nice or would they be rank?
So early yesterday morning, before work I placed some jelly babies in the freezer (less chance of melting in the oven) and left them there until late afternoon. I ate one, just to see if it was frozen solid, but it wasn’t. It was just a little more dense than your average jelly baby.
I thought that whilst I was adding treats to the middle of cupcakes, perhaps I would try out some other ideas too. I raided the kitchen cupboards and found mini marshmallows, Terrys chocolate orange segments, Oreo biscuits and of course, the jelly babies.
I made a batch of my usual vanilla sponge mix and half filled the case (apart from one where I placed the Oreo at the bottom). I was slightly worried about the Oreo in the mixture as I don’t like ‘soggy’ biscuits or sponge. I can’t eat trifle with sponge in for this reason – the thought of soggy sponge makes me gag – am I only person who doesn’t like sponge in trifle?
Anyway, you can see the pre-cooked cupcakes below -waiting to go in the oven (poor jelly babies!)
After waiting for 23 minutes precisely, and then a little longer while the cakes cooled, I finally got to cut them open!
I was sorely disappointed! The jelly babies had melted and were now little pools of sticky chewy mess at the bottom of the cupcake case – I couldn’t even peel the wrapper off properly. They tasted ‘interesting’ but I won’t be adding them to my menu any time soon.
I’m not going to be defeated on the whole jelly baby/cupcake scenario – so when I make buttercream icing next, I will be adding chopped jelly babies to the mixture – I think this would be a tasty combo!
Next up were the marshmallow cupcakes – most bizarre – the marshmallows had completely disappeared and left craters inside the cake! Magic!
The Terry’s chocolate orange slices faired much better and were quite delicious in the centre – and they actually stayed in one piece instead of melting through. And I didn’t even freeze these segments…
The best results came from the Oreo’s in the cupcake – one with the Oreo at the base and one inside – and they weren’t soggy – much to my relief! I will definately add these to my cupcake menu with vanilla icing with crush oreos on top.
Thank you for reading through my little experiments – I will be conducting more in the future as I found them fun and it was a good excuse to ‘sample’ so many cupcakes!
Back to the drawing board for jelly baby cupcakes – if anyone has any ideas, please let me know…..
Take Care,
Rach xx
Handmade Cupcake Wrappers
Posted on: November 16, 2011
I’ve been busy with work and family recently, but on a trip to lovely craft store, I found some gorgeous ‘vintage/shabby chic’ style paper for scrapbooking. As I’ve not yet entered into the world of scrapbooking – although it is on my ‘to do’ list – I wondered what else I could use the paper for. Almost immediately I thought of making my own unique cupcake wrappers – so that my cupcakes would stand out from everyone elses. There’s so many different paper designs around, but a definate limit on cupcake cases.
I downloaded a pattern from http://www.marthastewartweddings.com and used this to make my own. I fixed the back with double side tape and ‘voila’ my own fab ‘sparkly’ cupcake wrappers.
What do you think….?
They are time consuming to make, and I would have to charge extra for cupcakes with these wrappers, but I think they’re worth every penny! I also made flags to stick into the cupcakes to tie in with the theme.
In the background is the giant cupcake I made – vanilla sponge, halved with buttercream and strawberry jam and then covered in buttercream icing and chocolate fingers. The slices are huge and we’re still eating it! Definately will feed up to 15 people.
I’ll be looking for some Christmas paper and I’ll post photo’s with the results in December.
Happy Baking
Rachel x
Bonfire Night Cupcakes
Posted on: November 2, 2011
Well, today was supposed to be about toffee apple cake pops, but I burnt my last bag of candy melts this afternoon – one minute they smelt delicious, the next – disgusting, so I thought I would try with cupcakes instead! I can’t have been concentrating properly on the task in hand!
I had already made the buttercream icing (with a glug of Apple Sourz to add the apple flavour) to mix with the cake crumbs for the cake pops, but instead I piped the apple flavour cream icing onto cupcakes and added the crunchy caramel sugar dr0ps I made earlier.
I added a few tablespoons of brown sugar and a little water to a saucepan and heated the mixture slowly. When it just started to melt to look like syrup, I drizzled and dotted it onto some greased tin foil. When it had cooled, I peeled off the dots and stripes and these were ready to add to my cupcakes.
The results were very delicious and I will be making a new batch for the weekend, as it will be Ollies 1st birthday on Monday. Anyone who comes round for his birthday will be expecting cupcakes & cake pops, so I wouldn’t want to disappoint!
Rachel x
Cupcake in a Vintage Tea Cup
Posted on: October 24, 2011
Vintage styled weddings & celebrations are very much ‘on trend’ right now. There are so many gorgeous ways to incorporate this theme into your special occasion.
I just wanted to show you my first little ‘vintage’ creation in the cake line – vanilla cupcake in a Vintage Tea Cup.
My mum kindly gave me a couple of sets of vintage Rotal Albert china in a beautiful gold and silver pattern. I made my vanilla and vanilla buttercream icing cupcakes and popped one into the teacup – it looks very cute. I’ve placed mine on a side plate too, but the teacup would look fine on its own or with the saucer. I must source some vintage teaspoons (I love the little apostle teaspoons but I’ve not seen these for ages).
Cupcake in Royal Albert China
A decadent way to eat a cupcake!
Happy Baking,
Rachel xx
Baileys Chocolate Cupcakes
Posted on: October 23, 2011
This week I’ve been working on my Christmas/Holidays designs and a new special project…. more to be revealed later.
Also, I’ve been testing new tastes for the buttercream icing for my cupcakes. At the moment I’m stuck on Baileys…
O.M.G!
I am obsessed & addicted to it! It is totally delicious whether mixed into plain vanilla icing or chocolate buttercream icing – you have to taste it to believe it!
I’ve tried it with vanilla sponge cupcake and also a chocolate cocoa cupcake (not too sweet) – so delicious – my fave combination so far!
I will be venturing into adding other delightful alcoholic beverages to my cupcakes, but just for now, I’m sticking with my new love – Baileys.
Happy Baking,
Rachel xx
Cupcakes – new to Ollies Pops
Posted on: October 11, 2011
I think I’ve been bitten by the cupcake bug!
I made my son his 2nd birthday cake – a victoria sponge with buttercream and jam filling, and to go with it some little cupcakes. I enjoyed icing them so much I thought I’d try out some more – took them into the church coffee morning I go to every Wednesday, and what do you know – I receive an order for cupcakes! So they must’ve impressed someone!
I’ve been practising like mad and I’ll show you the results in a moment. My husband loves the fact I’ve been practising as he takes the testers to work and shares them out.
I have been making cupcakes for a few years but i’ve never had the proper icing nozzles, and now I do, I’m hooked.
Anyway, just waiting for more cupcakes to come out of the oven and when I’ve decorated these I will photograph them and put the photo’s on my blog.
Happy baking days.
Thank you
Rachel xx
olliespops 