Fun with colour :)

Good afternoon!
So on Monday the 8th (due to most of the school being absent for whatever reason), assembly was cancelled, and a grade wide picnic was arranged! Despite being warned not to, we indulged ourselves in purely donuts, cake, biscuits, fizzy drink, slice, cupcakes and, of course, vast amounts of chocolate! Each was assigned their own area, being slice, drinks, cake etc., and I was assigned the role of cupcakes (YAY)!
Soo because everyone in my tutor group was probably getting tired of my same ol' same ol' butter cupcakes, I decided to stir the mixing bowl a little (:P). Before I begin, however, I would like to point out that all credit goes to Baking Bites at www.bakingbites.com If you would like to try out this recipe, you can search it there :)

Alright, so these would have to be the cutest cupcakes I have ever made. Though they didn't turn out as vividly as the ones on the site... well the picture always looks better than the result :P
So here it is.
But I do get the feeling that the reason it didn't turn out as bright as on the site is that I probably used about 1/3 of what they would have, because taste is a big factor here.
I really do hate the chemically taste of over coloured mixture.
Also, as you might be able to pick, the cupcake doesn't really look 'right'. This is probably because because I had to replace butter with vegetable oil, because butter browns the cupcake, which is a great indicator to if the cake is cooked. The brown would have drastically messed with the colours and would not have made it look very good at all.
Also, cooking was very important. I always find it is better to under cook than overcook because even when it's cooling, the heat is cooking it slowly. Because of all the colouring, the consistency was more thin than usual, so I had to make sure that it was cooked just right, because as bad as burnt cupcakes are, gooey ones are worse.

So anyway, the actual making of this cupcake required... patience! I had to split the batter into 5 different bowls and add the colouring to them separately, as well as adding them to the cupcake tin in layers. PHEW! Tough work, as well as the fact that I was panicking that the layers would merge, making a disgusting brownish colour.
As I had said earlier, I had to replace butter with vegetable oil. As healthy as this is, oil is a very dominant taste, and can override any flavour with a nasty oily aura that ruins the sweetness of it all. To my surprise, it didn't turn out AS badly as I had thought, but this is definitely a presentation rather than taste creation.

But I was more than happy to fix this with a large dollop of white icing on the top to accentuate the colours :) I piped this on very easily with a zip lock bag with the corner cut out, to get a nice round shape. I really do hate washing up...

Anyway, this went down very well with my peers in my tutor group, and though I am happy I gave this recipe a try, in all honesty, it's a 8.5/10 for looks and a 4/10 for taste.
So if you want something that is great at first impressions, this is the recipe to try :D Great for kids!

Bye :D Stay tuned for a 5 minute cake creation!

~ "Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing" - Walt Kelly

Anne's birthday

Ok, so already I am pretty behind on my posts...

So I guess I'll knock off three in a row, but in chronological order...

Okay, so on the 5th of March was my good friend Anne's birthday, and of course, someone is always designated to bake something. Seeing as cupcakes are kind of my trademark, I decided to go with something new.

This is the hazelnut cupcake, and it is your run-of-the mill butter cupcake, but with some hazelnut meal in with it. This does add a bit of a texture, but I've never really been much of a nut person. However, the this is quite subtle and great for an afternoon tea or birthday!


The icing is something quite new to me. I found it a little heavy myself, but the taste just can't be compared.
It was quite simple, really. 750g of Nutella (I bought the 'hazelnut spread' brand because there really is no difference - especially with cooking) and some whipped cream. I found that the thickness of each of these ingredients clashed just a bit, weighing down the whole fluffiness of the cupcake. Again, due to the whipped cream, folding is a necessity to keep all the air in the mixture. But after all this, I added a splash of hazelnut frangelico, which really did give the whole flavour something else. Just a touch really does compliment the whole taste.
I do love piping tubes, and as you can see here, I've used a 9 pointed star to pipe.

Unfortunately, due to the consistency of the Nutella, and how folding is not a fantastic combining method, there were small parts where the cream had not mixed with the Nutella, so I got small lumps of it throughout, which made it hard to pipe. With piping, if there is a clog, you really cannot just push it through. Not only will this break the bag, but if you do manage to squeeze it through, you will end up with a pile of icing over the cupcake. After much changing around, I ended up with a very thick piping head, about the size of a 5c coin so the mixture could get through. I do prefer fine detail, but this was something that really couldn't have been helped.
Anyway, at the end, I just placed some cachous all around (I love cachous, they are amazing, they just add so much more interest to the overall look, plus add something to each bite!)

Again, full credit goes to the Crabapple Bakery book mentioned in the 50th birthday cake post.
I do not take credit for this recipe, nor can I post it here. If you would like to borrow the book from me, that would be okay.

So, yeah, just bang a candle in the top and start singing! Bye for now :)

~ "Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing" - Walt Kelly