Sunday 22 April 2012

Pink & White Cupcakes

The first recipe of my Cupcake Challenge is from a book which my Mum bought for me from Next. It's called I love cupcakes, which I do!

The topping for this is less like frosting and more like Meringue, but it gets the thumbs up from my man :]

Ingredients (makes 16):

115g self-raising flour
1tsp baking powder
115g butter, softened
115g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1tbsp milk
few drops red food colouring 

for the topping:
1 egg white
175g caster sugar
2tbsp hot water
large pinch of cream of tartar
2 tbsp rasberry jam
3tbsp desiccated coconut lightly toasted

How to:
  • Preheat oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4.
  • Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl.
  • Add the butter, sugar and eggs, and beat together using an electric hand whisk until smooth.
  • Mix together the milk and food colouring and whisk into the mixture until evenly blended.
  • Spoon the mixture into paper cases.
  • Bake for 20 mins or until risen and golden brown.
  • Transfer to wire rack and leave to cool.
For the topping:
  • Put the egg white, sugar, water and cream of tartar in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water.
  • Using an electric hand whisk, beat for 5-6 minutes until the mixture is thick and softly peaks when the whisk is lifted.
  • Spread a layer of rasberry jam over each cupcake then swirl over the frosting
  • Sprinkle with the toasted coconut


What I learned:
  • I am still getting to grips with my oven, cakes take twice as long as they should, but the cupcakes cooked double quick, and then burned a little, which really annoyed me!! So, the only person judging this batch, will be Dave.
  • I have lost one of my electric whisk whisks, it still works with one, but it creates lots of splatters, and took forever to get the topping to peak in the pan.
  • 4 big drops of food colouring wasn't enough, couldn't even tell the cakes were supposed to be pink.
  • I'd use less sugar in the topping, it looked a lot at the time, and didn't dissolve very well.
  • Wait for the topping to cool a bit before adding it on top of the jam, to stop it running off everywhere.


Feedback:
A nice combination, even though they're a little burned.

So I decided to blog!

A few weeks ago I was sat staring at my bookshelf and contemplating all the recipe books I own. I'm very proud of my recipe books, especially some ancient ones that my Grandma has handed to me, with handwritten recipes from her, and her older relatives in them.


I really enjoy baking, and realised that I have many books which I hardly pick up, so instead of getting rid, I decided to USE them, and set myself a challenge to use every recipe in my two books dedicated to cupcakes.


I went off to work that week feeling really motivated to bake and share! On mentioning this to a colleague, she suggested that I blog about it, and what an excellent idea that was, because it means I can share the love to those out of reach of my baking, and pass recipes along. It will also help me to keep track of a few lessons learned too. 


I hope you enjoy! :]