Exotic Birthday Cake

So this past weekend was my mum's 50th birthday celebrations. She had a grand party in her home with half a million people (okay, so a little over half a hundred) and awesome food. The theme for the party was 'exotic', so people dressed up in togas and saris and all sorts of pretty clothes, and we ate Turkish gozleme and Indian curries (authentic!) and baklava and Turkish apricot cake and REALLY YUMMY STUFF. And of course, we'll be eating it for the next month.

I had the job of designing and making the birthday cake. Mum is a fan of white chocolate and raspberry, so that was a starting point, and I really wanted to try dark chocolate and lavender, just because it sounded fun. Raspberries somehow ended up becoming blackberries - I forget how, but Mum and her husband had picked blackberries earlier in the year and frozen them, so it was cool to use those anyway. And I convinced her in the end to let me use lavender, bwa ha ha, and it came from my garden :o)

SO. Double-layer cake, bottom layer dark chocolate & lavendar mud cake with lavendar buttercream, top layer white chocolate mud cake and blackberry with blackberry buttercream. Only I forgot to put the blackberries in the white choc layer, so it was just white choc mud in the end o.0 :)

As for the exotic theme, the colour scheme was green, pink and purple. After speaking to the lady in the cake shop I decided to buy pre-coloured pink fondant, but I'm kind of sorry I did - the pink wasn't hot pink as advertised, but more of a bright candy/Barbie pink.

I decided to marble the icing, but on reflection I thought two layers of marbling might be too much. We browsed through pictures and decided on stripes:

I layered the cake up, stuck on the gold flowers, and decided it needed a topper - so off I went with the Middle Sisterous One to shop for silk flowers. We determined while at the craft store that buying gold braid would be quicker and easier than making a gold rope out of fondant to go around the bottom of each layer, but the store didn't have anything decent in proper gold. Then I found sequins B-) It was an exotic cake, after all.


And it looked gorgeously rainbow cut up and served :D

Sweet and Spicy Chili (with the Vegetarian option!)

I love spicy food, and I'm an unapologetic carnivore. When cold season hits, I serve high octane protein on the basis that if it doesn't kill you, it will knock out any virus that came calling.

Everyone knows how to make chili, you dump things in a pot and simmer until it tastes right. So don't take this recipe as doctrine, it's a starter template. Adjust as you like to suit your style.

This dish is savory and sweet, with enough heat to handle your worst head cold, and kill small children. If you want something a little less spicy, use fewer - or sweeter- peppers. Or stir sour cream into your bowl when you serve. Dairy kills the heat factor.

Ingredients
- 1 large onion chopped fine
- 1 head of garlic (about 18 cloves)
- 2-3 large bell peppers, seeded
- 4-20 chili peppers, seeded (four is spicy, twenty will kill people, choose something else if you
want less heat)
- 1 packet of chili seasoning -or- chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder, salt, a pinch of
cumin or oregano... combine and add as needed
- 8 slices of bacon -or- 2tbspn butter or olive oil
- 1/2 cup of frozen corn
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 cup sugar divided (you won't use this all)
- 1tbspn olive oil
- 2 cups beef stock or vegetable stock
- 1 pound ground beef/turkey/soy substitute browned
- 16oz can diced tomatoes (about four large tomatoes fresh diced)
- 16oz can tomato sauce (or another four tomatoes, diced)
- 16oz can kidney beans of any color, rinsed

Equipment
- crock pot or giant pot for simmering
- tin foil
- glass baking dish
- cutting board
- frying pan
- oven
- plastic bag
- plastic gloves for handling chilis

Directions
1. Turn the oven on to 400(F), break the garlic cloves apart (leave the peel on), drop in the glass baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, cover with foil and bake until fragrant - about 20 minutes.

2. Broil the bell peppers and half of the chili peppers, brushed with olive oil for 2 minutes, or bake for 10, until skin starts to blacken. Using tongs drop the peppers into a plastic bag to sweat. After they are cool, peel the skins.

3. Add rinsed beans, tomatoes, corn, beef stock, and seasoning packet to the big pot. Turn on low to start heating to a simmer. I like making this in the crock pot because it can simmer all day.

4. Chop roasted pepper and garlic, add to pot.

5. Dice the bacon into 1 inch pieces, fry, add onions and turn the pan to medium-low. You want the onions to slowly caramelize and turn brown. This takes 20-30 minutes. If they aren't turning start adding sugar a pinch at a time.

6. Drain the grease from the bacon and onions. Add bacon and onions to the pot.

7. Bring pot to a rapid simmer.

8. Stir in cinnamon, cocoa powder, and molasses. Adjust seasonings as needed.

9. Simmer for 1-10 hours on low in a crock pot or 1-2 hours on the stove. Serve with your favorite toppings. In my house we top chili with sharp cheddar, avocado, sour cream, and cream onion and eat with tortilla chips or ladled over a hot dog on a bun.

Enjoy!

Cakey Goodness!

So, recently my hub & I have moved house, and let me just say, our new kitchen is SO. SHINY. I adores it, I do, I do! So lately I've actually been doing a bit of cooking; last week, for example, I made not one, not two, but THREE cakes! Not sure why the sudden spurt in cakeish activity; partially because we had a church fundraising auction on Saturday night, so I volunteered to make a cake for that. But also because cakes are FUN, and I haven't done anything fun with baking in a while.

I learned three new techniques in this latest baking escapade, nearly killed my wrist with the amount of beating required, and totally trashed the kitchen. Several times. Good thing my husband loves me.

So, in order of appearance, here are my latest experiments:

1) Buttercream.

I've made buttercream before, but just your average butter-and-icing-sugar variety, not anything fancy or Proper. This time, I decided to try some recipes out of one of the cake books I got back in (I think) February:

I was going to make one of these recipes with the intent of trying the chocolate painting method - more on that at #3 - but for this cake I thought I'd do something different and try the cream-on-cream method.

So I made the cake - supposedly an orange cake, but given I used one lemon, one mandarin and one tangello, I'm calling it a citrus cake; made the filling - orange mousse, YUM; and then the next night spent ONE HOUR - that's right, a whole hour - making the buttercream. Italian meringue buttercream, to be precise. Quite possibly some of the most decadent stuff EVER. Boy, was my wrist sore after all that beating - I used an electric beater, sure, but it took HALF AN HOUR of constant mixing. So you know.

But the results were worth it, I think:

See? Much pretty :o) And it tasted amazing, though in small pieces. Quite rich.

2) Chocolate Collars.

I've seen chocolate collars before, though perhaps not in real life. So when I knew I'd be taking HALF the orange cake for the auction and needed to pair it with another half cake, and of course knew I wanted to do a choc mud cake, the collar seemed like the best idea to jazz up the choc cake. Although I learned many things - like don't do one end significantly before the other so it starts to dry while the rest is sloppy; and don't try to make the collar too tall because if it's still sloppy when you put it upright the chocolate will all run down onto the cake; and don't bother flooding the top of the cake with ganache until the collar is in place - it was fun and it came out well in the end.

The cake is chocolate mud (though slightly undercooked since it cooked weird - see picture - so more like a fudge cake, very yum) filled with homemade cookies and cream, topped with chocolate ganache.

3) Chocolate painting.

This was perhaps the most fun technique I learned. It's exactly what it says: painting with chocolate. For this first experiment I kept it simple and piped bees to top the plum cake with honey buttercream :)

So, thus my exciting week in baking. Yay!

Labrador Birthday Cake

It occurs to me that even though I made this for my sister's birthday back in February, I'm yet to post any pictures of it! Le gasp!

So, below are some pictures of my awesome (even if I say so myself) Labrador puppy cake. It's a chocolate mud cake, the same recipe I used to make the book cakes, and between the cake and the white (tinted yellow) icing is blood orange buttercream, since the sisterous one suggested jaffa as a flavour. The buttercream recipe is from Cupcake Project :)

Also, he is super shiny because I learned Many Things in making this cake. For example, actually let the cake cook all the way through, even if it IS taking half an hour longer than it should; otherwise, when you sculpt the cake, it will be crumbly. Also things like, do not try to cover the ears with one piece; make them separately and stick them on later. And, when you intend to sculpt the cake so the puppy's head lies on the ground, this is a Good Thing - otherwise the head will spend its life sagging and the dog will be in danger of being de-muzzled.

But the shininess is milk, because I had to coat the whole thing in milk to smooth out the cracks in the icing. Lesson learned, and when I made another cake a month ago, we had no icing cracks, woo hoo! So you know. A considered success, I think B-)

Guest Post: Zebra Cake

Today, we are honoured to have the wonderful Angela, aka Momzilla, join us for some baking fun. Angela is a writer and a mother, with all that that entails :o) She also maintains the fantastic blog, The Bookshelf Muse - a muse-consult resource for any would-be writer! Read on, as Angela walks us through the creation of a fantastic Zebra Cake.

The other day I was trolling the internet for a show stopper dessert that didn’t require a massive effort.  When I tripped upon the Zebra Cake recipe, I knew I had found exactly what I needed.

This cake is deceptively easy to prepare. Once you get the hang of layering the chocolate and white batters, you’ll finish in no time at all, and end up with a cake that everyone will want to know how you made.

INGREDIENTS

4 large eggs, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup milk, at room temperature
1/2 cup oil (vegetable or canola)

1/2 cup butter, melted
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tb vanilla
1 Tb baking powder
1 square (1oz) of Baker’s unsweetened chocolate *note you can also use a dark, unsweetened cocoa powder, 2-3 Tbs should do it

In a large mixing bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Using an electric mixer or whisk, beat until creamy and light in color. Add milk, vanilla, butter and oil, and continue beating until well blended.

In a separate bowl, mix flour and baking powder. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and beat just until the batter is smooth and the dry ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Do not overbeat or air pockets will form in the batter.

At this point, separate the batter evenly into two bowls. In one, add the chocolate and stir just until mixed. The batter should not be thick and puffy nor too watery. If after adding the chocolate, one of the batters appears thicker than the other, a small amount of milk or flour (as needed) should even things out. Take a round spring form pan, two tablespoons and get ready to make magic.

 You can start with either colored batter. The trick is to drizzle 2 heaping Tablespoonfuls in the center of the pan, always placing the batter on top of each other. You don’t need to shake or tilt the pan to get the batter to spread as it will slowly do this on its own.

By the time you finish both batters, you will end up with something that looks like a bull’s eye! Pop it in the oven at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes (use a toothpick to judge doneness as ovens differ!) then let it sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. 

Cool completely, and serve with some sweetened whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle!

Tips:

--If you don’t want to mess around with spoons, pour batters into Ziploc bags and dispense evenly.

--Try adding a flavoring to the white batter and the whipped cream. I used 1/3 cup of Baileys in mine and then compensated by adding a bit of flour and YUM. Ditto with the whipped cream…a little Caramel Baileys really gave the cake zing.

IC:E Winter Warm Up - Hot Chocolate Cupcakes

This is our first ever Iron Cupcake challenge. Yay! The theme for this month is Winter Warm Up, which is probably fantastic if you're in the northern hemisphere, but hey, I'm sweltering away in a heatwave here! All of which meant it was a little challenging to strain my memory back to those months of coldness and recall what it is that I use to warm up when it's really truly icy.

Mostly I use the central heating. But that didn't really inspire any great cupcake ideas :D

So instead, I opted for hot chocolate, because warming up from the inside out is usually the best course of action. My other alternative when I'm really desperate is washing the dishes, because the hot waters warms up the blood in my hands (because the veins there are closest to the skin, so the blood is most affected by the warm water - also why your hands swell when you're hot, so the blood can try to cool down. End today's biology lesson O:)), and again, washing dishes didn't really inspire anything brilliant for a cupcake, though I really must try sometime. Imagine a cupcake covered in soap-sud look-alikes, for example! So cool!

*ahem*

Right. Hot chocolate it is, because I don't drink coffee (love the smell, hate the taste), and because hot chocolate isn't interesting enough, it has to be the real old-fashioned traditional hot chocolate. And when I say 'traditional', I mean the Aztecs who invented the stuff ;) They drank their chocolate spiced with chili, so I decided I'd add some to the cupcakes :)

The Recipe

1 2-inch chilli, finely chopped

1/3c boiling water
1c butter
1c chopped chocolate (I used dark, I think it gives mud cakes a richer flavour)
1c self raising flour
1/2c cocoa
1/2t bicarb soda
1 1/4c caster sugar
4 eggs
1/2c milk

Preheat oven to 160C. Line the bottoms of two 12-hole muffin pans. Pour the boiling water over the chilli and let it stand for five minutes. Melt the butter and chocolate with the chilli-infused water. Sift the flour, cocoa and bicarb. Stir in the sugar. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and stir in the eggs, milk and chocolate mix until combined. Bake in a cupcake pan for ~20mins, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

To assemble:
Cool cakes in pan for 5 mins then turn out onto wire rack. Once completely cool, break about half the cupcakes in half and put a half cake into the bottom of some tea cups and mugs. Stack whole cupcakes on top until the cake reaches about 1cm (1/3in?) below the rim. Press down firmly.

Whip 150mL of cream with 1t vanilla essence and 1T icing sugar. Spread the cakes liberally with the cream then sprinkle with drinking chocolate or other decorations.

The Results

Can we all say oh my goodness delicious?! I seriously think the aftertaste of these gorgeous critters is EXACTLY like a chocolate milkshake! So much squee!! The chili isn't really strong - if you wanted more spice you could easily double the amount I added - but it's enough to give the cake a warm hint and that delicious aftertaste. Yumyumyum. I'll definitely be making these again :D

The Prizes

Part of the contest rules are that I have to show you the prizes we're competing for. Totally tragic, I know :D So, these are the fantastic prizes/sponsors of the wonderful Iron Cupcake event (yes, I love my adjectives today).

Our Generous IronCupcake:Earth Prize Providers:

• The Demy™ by Key Ingredient
• Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack & Alan Richardson
• Bella Cupcake Couture
• Cupcake Stackers by Gourmac
• The Cake Mix Doctor Returns! by Anne Byrne
• Beautiful Baking Liners by Vestli House
• Sweet Cuppin' Cakes Bakery & Cupcakey Supply

Voting will open next week. I'll post a link up when it's time, and also put a link right here :) In the mean time, happy cupcaking!

Book Cakes - Day One

Welcome back to our redecorated blog! This month is certainly a time of beginnings and endings for me. However, a lot of the beginnings and ends are meeting nicely in the middle - for example, I recently finished work at my old job. To celebrate, I made book cakes, which are truly awesome B-) And because of that ending, I now have something very shiny to share in this re-beginning of the blog! :D Things balance out in the end. Or the beginning. Whichever. O:)

Anyway, book cakes. I haven't baked in a long while, and I was getting antsy to try something fancy again, and I thought that my last day at work would be the final excuse. I pondered for a while what I should make - clearly a cake, but how, and in what form? And then I came up with the perfect idea: Book cakes! I worked at a library storehouse, you see, so this was the natural choice.



I googled pictures of book cakes, found two that inspired my idea, and armed with my trusty Planet Cake cookbook that I got recently for my birthday, I set off on my cake-making adventure, chronicalled below.

Be warned. This is a loooooooong post. In fact, I might post it in several installments, for the sake of all of our brains :D It took me several days to do, given things need resting overnight, etc, so I'll break it up by days. Today, the recipe.

The Recipe

Step one: Shop for ingredients. Make sure you have consulted the recipe BEFORE you do this, lest you seriously underestimate the amount of chocolate you need and have to visit the supermarket TWICE in one evening before making the cake.

Step two: Make the ganache. Glory in its beauty. Keel over from the sheer insane richness of the smell. Put it in the back of the fridge to set overnight and vow never to eat chocolate again because it is so RICH.

Step three: Make cake. Get cake out of oven late at night (because you had to visit the shops twice, so were late starting the cooking) and cry because it burnt. Give up and go to bed, promising to make it all better in the morning.

Chocolate Ganache*
1.2kg (2lb 10oz) dark chocolate, finely chopped (53-63% cocoa)
600mL pure cream (not thickened; make sure what you're buying has no gelatin in it)

Chop the chocolate. Please, for all our sakes, use something automatic. It took me 40 minutes to finely chop 6 blocks of premium cooking chocolate; I blistered the knuckle of the finger holding the knife from bashing it against the chopping board a thousand times too often, and the first two fingers of my left hand were bruised for the next three days from pushing down in the back of the knife blade.

Bring the cream to boiling point over the stove (don't let it actually boil). Pour it over the chocolate and mix with a balloon whisk until smooth. DON'T use electric, this time, because an electric whisk will incorporate too much air. We want thick and creamy, not fluffy.

Allow to cool completely and leave to set overnight.

* Pfah. DO NOT TRUST RECIPES. They are tricksy beasts. I looked at this and went - wow, 1.2 KILOS of chocolate? That seems like rather a lot. But the book specifically said that it was enough to cover one of their cakes plus a little left over in case of mistakes.

I don't know about you, but I don't think HALF of the ganache is a little. That forty minutes of chopping and bruised fingering? It only needed to be twenty minutes!!!


Chocolate Mud Cake
220g butter

220g dark chocolate, chopped (I used chocolate drops so I didn't need to chop)

25g coffee granules (I skipped this; not a fan of coffee)
125g Self Raising Flour
125g plain (all purpose) flour
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tspn bicarb soda
480g caster (superfine) sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
7 tspn vegetable oil (I used canola)
100mL buttermilk (I used plain ordinary milk)

Preheat oven to 160C/315F. Grease 22cm/9in round or 20cm/8in square cake tin. Line the base and sides with a collar that extends 2cm (3/4in) above the top of the tin. (Ha, totally forgot to line the base, but it was all fine). Melt butter, chocolate, coffee and 160mL of water in a saucepan over a low heat.

Sift together the flours, cocoa and bicarb. Stir in sugar and make a well in the centre. Add the combined egg, oil and buttermilk and the chocolate mix. Stir with a large spoon until completely combined. Pour into pan and bake for 1 hr 40 mins** or until skewer comes out clean (though might be still sticky) and leave cake in pan until cold.

** About the baking time. Recall, at this point, that I'd spent an hour making the ganache and had the bruised and blistered fingers to prove it. Recall also that given I'd been at work all day, the cake was set to finish baking at about 11pm. Now come with me to the moment where I went to check the cake, after an hour and a half, just to be safe - and it was charcoal black and smelled ruined. I cried. Gar-stabbity! So. Make sure you know your oven, and check the cake regularly in the last half hour.

And that, dear readers, is day one. Tune in (AT SOME TIME) for the next installment!

Double Chocolate Raspberry Cake

Let's face it, not everyone has time to make a delicious cake from scratch.

I don't!

But that doesn't mean you don't want something that looks gourmet at your table. So here's the quick and easy way to make this deliciously decadent cake.

Chocolate-Raspberry Cake

* 1 box of your favorite chocolate cake mix
-> all ingredients to make cake (usually water, oil, and 2-3 eggs)
* 1 tspn vanilla extract
* 1 box of raspberry jello (gelatin or jelly depending on what country you're in)
* 1 cup boiling water
* 3-4 cups of dark chocolate frosting (premade)
* 1 cup white chocolate chips -or- 4ounces white chocolate (cocoa butter ought to be the main ingredient)
* 1/2 tspn shortening
* 1-2 pints of fresh raspberries


- Mix together cake batter, add the vanilla, and bake according to directions. If you want a layer cake bake in two 9-inch pans, otherwise bake it all together.

- Turn the cake onto serving platter and let cool

- Boil the 1 cup water and mix in the full packet of Jello.

- Stir

- Poke holes in the cake

- Pour 1/3 cup of jello over the cake. You don't want to make it soggy so you aren't going to use it all. If the cake still looks too dry add a little more. If it's too soggy, well, next time add less (it'll taste great either way)

- Set cake in refrigerator to cool and set

- Frost cake. If doing a layer cake frost one layer in dark chocolate, place half the raspberries in, top with the second layer, and frost the top.

- Melt the white chocolate and shortening together for 30 seconds in microwave. Stir until completely melted and put into icing pipe or plastic bag (if using plastic bag snip off the end to make pitpe).

- Pipe the white chocolate over the frosting in pretty pattern.

- Top with whatever raspberries have not been eaten by the kitchen fairies.

-Enjoy!

Aurora's Cookies

I'm a firm believer in getting kids in the kitchen. I cook for a family of four (five come August) and have to please the whole age range.

One way I've found to get the kids to enjoy dinner time is to let them help cook the meals. They're proud of their hard work, and it shows when they eat.

This does, sometimes, back fire.

Like when I told my 4-year old we'd make some cookies.

And she decided to make them herself....

I found her in the kitchen adding all the ingredients in from memory. She got the amount of butter wrong, and the eggs. But one of the eggs wound up on the floor, not in the bowl, so we were saved there.

I think she would have forgotten the baking soda if I hadn't stepped in. But, overall, it worked! And the new recipe is delicious.
AURORA'S COOKIES
* 4 sticks of butter (2 cups)
* 1 1/4 granulated (white) sugar
* 1 1/2 packed brown sugar (dark is better)
* 1 tbspn vanilla extract (the real stuff please! we have standards!)
* 2 eggs
* 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (not self-rising, wheat or bread flour)
* 2 tspn baking soda
* 1/2 tspn salt
* 4 cups mixed chocolate chips and M&M candies (we like to mix semi-sweet and dark together)


Pre-heat oven to 350 degree farenheit.

In a large bowl cream sugars and butter together. Then add the vanilla.

Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.

Add more flour if necessary to make the dough stiff. It it's gooey, you need more flour.

Stir in chocolate chips and M&M's.... but don't use a thin wooden spoon, they break!

Form the dough into balls and place on baking sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes per batch.

Alternative ending: Freeze the cookie balls solid and place in bag. These individual ready-to-bake cookies will last in the freezer for 3 months, or until your children find them.

Plum and Passionfruit Cupcakes

So, after deliberating all night, I finally figured how I wanted to do these. I remembered some other cupcakes that had a dual flavour combination, and thought about how they'd balanced the flavours... And these are what I came up with. Yes, they're tomato and basil cupcakes. And despite the fact that I can't stand raw tomato, I'm intrigued by these cupcakes. They're just the type of crazy thing I'd do.

As with the tomato cupcakes, the plum and passionfruit ones are not something that you can throw together in half an hour - though if you wanted to just make the cupcakes, I'd wholeheartedly support you as they're gorgeous.

As the recipe stands, it took me about seven hours to complete, with lots of waiting time and washing of dishes (and making of dinner) in between.

The truffles recipe is based on one I found at Gastronomicon. The cake recipe is my standard wet-ingredient cake which I modified from one I found ages ago on the internet. The glaze is based on the glaze from the tomato cupcakes at Cupcake Project, though mine's a lot runnier, and the cream... Well, it's just cream and passionfruit, after all.


Truffles

170g white chocolate, chopped
1/2c double thick cream
1/4c passionfruit pulp
1 1/2 T butter

Melt butter and chocolate. Stir through cream and passionfruit. Put in freezer for 4 hours, or overnight.

Scoop the ganache into balls with a melon baller or a teaspoon. Freeze again for 2 hours.

I was impatient waiting for the mixture to freeze the first time, and made it into balls after just two hours. Consequently, it took about three hours for the balls to freeze J

Melt some white chocolate. Dip the ganache balls into the chocolate and roll to cover. Place on a tray, and place in fridge to allow chocolate to set.

I think I just have issues with truffles. I've tried them once before, and the insides refused to set even after a couple of days. I decided it was cause I'd used plain cream, rather than double. So this time I bought double cream especially.

The insides got to a reasonable level of set-ness, but when it came to 'enrobing' them... Ick. The first three were okay, but the ganache melted so quickly that by the time I came to pick number four up it was a gooey lump. I still coated it in chocolate, which worked okay because the chocolate set, allowing me to recoat it without fear of melting, and resulting in some okay-ish looking truffles... But it was incredibly messing. I wonder if I should try to be patient and wait over night next time...

I still have rather a lot of ganache balls left that I couldn't be bothered to coat (I only did enough for the cupcakes), so maybe I'll try those tomorrow.

Plum Sauce

340g plums, de-stoned and roughly chopped
1/4c sugar
1/3c water

Stir over heat until sugar dissolves – about 1 minutes. Bring to the boil then simmer uncovered for 6 minutes. Allow to cool for 2 minutes, then puree if necessary (I didn't).

This makes slightly over the necessary cup. I added the leftovers into the glaze.

Cupcakes

1/4c sugar
1/2c margarine
1 egg
1/4t vanilla extract
1c plum sauce
1 1/2 c plain flour
1t baking soda

Cream sugar and margarine. Beat in egg and vanilla extract. Alternately fold in plum sauce and flour/soda mix, some at a time, till all mixed.

Half fill cupcake tins, bake at 180C for 12mins. Tops will still be light when cooked. Cool on rack after 3 mins.

I got 19 cupcakes out of this, although they didn't rise as much as I was expecting - hardly at all. However, given the sweetness of the overall creation, this is probably a good thing.

Cream

mL cream
1/4 tin passionfruit

Whip cream. Fold in passionfruit.

May benefit from some icing sugar.

Glaze

1c honey
2 plums, chopped

Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Cool for 10-15 minutes.

I had a whole honey-jar full of this left over. I guess I'll use it on ice cream or something, though it's not as scrumptious as the plum sauce.

Assembly

Cut a small cone out of the top of the cupcake and hollow the cupcake out a little. Fill with passionfruit cream; replace top. Dip cupcake upside down into the plum glaze – twist as you bring it out to catch drips. Allow first layer of glaze to soak into cake, then redip. Top with a truffle & serve. Mmm.

Don't they look awesomely shiny with the glaze? The colour is stunning, especially compared to the rather bland colour of the un-glazed cake. And surprisingly, they hold the second layer of glaze well - three hours later they look just as glazed.

Results

My first reaction when I tasted the batter was: ho hum… my goodness these are good! The batter, which just tasted like batter on first contact, has this amazing plummy kick to it which is just… amazing!

Fresh out of the oven and I just couldn’t resist, even though I knew there wasn’t many… So I only had a third of one. And they are just as good as the batter promised. A non-descript grey colour with flecks of red, these are the ugly ducklings of cupcakes – they taste SO good. The plum flavour is absolutely perfect, a great balance between tart and sweet, and you can taste it through the whole cupcake, not just if you happen to get a piece of plum. I just love the plum sauce, and will definitely make it again even just as an ice cream topping…

So now I’m wondering about the watermelon and pineapple cupcakes… Does this recipe just need saucy ingredients? I wonder how a watermelon sauce or a pineapple sauce would work… Would it work? Thoughts, thoughts…

…back to the cupcakes. The problem I had at this point was that the cupcakes were SO good I didn’t want to tamper with them and risk making them worse… Even the thought of icing them was scary. But I had a plan to follow, so follow I did despite my doubts.

As it turns out, they are absolutely brilliant. The passionfruit cream, which I feared might be too overpowering, was exactly strong enough to combat the strength of the plum flavour, and the glaze, which was a bit sickly on its own, was just right on the cake. And the truffles? To die for… However, a word of warning - these are sweet cupcakes. If sweet's not your thing, stick to the cake and cream combo and skip the glaze (very sweet) and truffles (good until about number five, then sickening... But then, I can't eat too much white chocolate at the best of times.)

Regardless, I would definitely make these again.

Definitely.

Chocolate Chunk Muffins

These are one of the cupcake varieties that I made on Friday night. Given the rate of devourment on Saturday, I'd say they were a success :D

The Recipe
3c plain flour
3T cocoa powder
1T baking powder
1 1/2c brown sugar
200g dark chocolate chips
1 1/2c milk
120g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl. Add brown sugar and chocolate. Stir to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the milk, eggs and butter. Fold in until just combined - do not over beat.

Fill muffin pans 1/2 full and bake for 12-15 minutes in a 180C oven.

The Results

Uh, yum! Yes, these are good cupcakes indeed *licks lips*.

Last time I made these cupcakes it was over at my mother's house, for my sister, who wanted to hand out cupcakes as Christmas presents to all her friends. According to the original recipe, they're supposed to be baked for 20-25 minutes. We did this, but at least the mini ones we made turned out very dry and chewy - not particularly nice at all. So I would definitely recommend the shorter cooking time :)

Also, when I got up on Saturday I decided that 26 cupcakes would not be enough. But we'd run out of brown sugar. So, in the second batch I used white sugar instead of brown, and milk chocolate instead of dark.

The ones made with brown sugar and dark chocolate were a lot more chocolatey, and had a slightly fudgier texture. The white sugar and milk chocolate ones were more like a traditional chocolate cake, though because I used drops rather than chips you did get nice mouthfuls of actual chocolate.

This time I didn't ice the cakes, mostly because I ran out of time. However, the first time I experienced these cakes we served them like this:

Serve cakes hot from the oven, or if you're serving them a few days later, heat them before serving. Insert a pair of tongs (closed) gently into the top of the cupcake, and open them about 2cm. Into this hole, insert two squares of caramel-filled chocolate (we had it so one square was in the cake, and one stuck out the top). Cover with home-made chocolate sauce, and enjoy!

This was absolutely delicious, because the heat of the cupcakes melted the chocolate inside them, and when you cut into it you got mouthfuls of gooey chocolate-caramel goodness. Yu-um!

Double Layered Chocolate Mandarin Cupcakes

In the middle of October some time, my Dad went away for a week and asked me to water his plants. I must say, it was an enjoyable experience. Being over there in a quiet, cool house, taking care of the plants, pottering around with no rush, no schedule... Lovely.
And the strawberries were the most amazing strawberries I've ever tasted! Warmed perfectly by the sun, bursting with juice and sweetness... Mmm...
You'd think I'd have made strawberry cupcakes :)
However, whilst watering the beautiful Mexican Orange Blossom bush, I bent over to have a sniff - and boy did it smell good!
We happened to have mandarins in the house and the time, and I came away determined to make something citrusy.
Why with chocolate?
No idea. But it sounded fun, and they tasted pretty good :)

The Recipe

Chocolate part:
3c plain flour
3T cocoa
1T baking powder
1 1/2c brown sugar
200g dark chocolate, chopped
1 1/2c milk
120g butter, melted
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Sift flour, cocoa and baking powder into a large bowl. Add sugar and chocolate. Stir to combine. Add milk, butter and eggs. Mix until just combined, but do not over beat.

Spoon into muffin tins, filling tins about 1/3. Do not overfill!

Mandarin part:
115g butter
225g caster sugar
2 eggs
3 largish mandarins, peeled, seeded and roughly pureed (keep juice)
180g self raising flour

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs. Stir through mandarin pulp and juice and sifted flour. Spoon into muffin tin on top of chocolate mixture. Do not overfill!

Bake cupcakes for about 20 minutes at 180C, or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn onto rack to cool after 3 minutes.

Ganache:
90g dark chocolate
160g milk chocolate
1/3c cream
2T mandarin juice and fine pulp

Ice cupcakes when cool :)

The Results

The mandarin part seemed to be a little too sloppy, as it pooled over the edges of the pan and was rather flat. However, the texture of the cooked cupcake was beautiful, even in the mandarin part - it became quite crispy on the outside with a sort of melt in your mouth cakey centre. The chocolate mix is quite dense, but not heavy, and rises rather a lot. So I'd say the best option here would be to reduce the amount of chocolate batter to mandarin batter (maybe double the mandarin and make twice as many cupcakes?). As you can see in the pics, they ended up being about 2/3 chocolate to 1/3 mandarin as it was.

And this brings me to taste. They were absolutely delicious, no doubt about it, but overall the chocolate flavour was very overpowering unless you happened to get a chunk of mandarin. The mandarin cake itself was ok, it was just the combination. Putting less chocolate batter to mandarin batter would help this. Also, I'd be interested to try using two icings - a border of plain mandarin icing and a ganache centre (the ganache is too yummy not to use at all; I had some of the cake plain and the ganache really does give it a punch). Candied peel might also be enough to combat the strong chocolate ganache.

Then again, all three (batter proportion, double icing, and peel) might be the best option! So, the recipe's not perfect, but I'd definitely be interesting in playing with these some more.