I buy a LOT of cupcake books, but my favourite recent purchase is Making Cupcakes with Lola by the girls behind Lola's Cupcakes.
I got the book about two weeks ago and baked these the next day - I HAD to bake something from it as it all looked so good.
The book itself is really pretty, with a photo for each cupcake - something not all books have. The recipes are all pretty easy to follow and don't require lots of unusual ingredients - they include lots of Lola's favourites that you may have had from their stores including some boozy cocktail inspired cupcakes.
I couldn't resist the Hi Hat Marshmallow, co-incidentally Lola's flavour of the month in store now. Last months apple pie cupcake was one of the nicest cupcakes I've had recently - the candied pecan on top was delicious.
For those of you who don't know a Hi Hat is basically a cupcake with some kind of topping which is then dipped into chocolate (or butterscotch or a similar topping). The Lola's recipe is a chocolate cake topped with Marshmallow then dipped into chocolate.
The cake itself was a doddle to make and resulted in a nice moist, very chocolaty base.
The marshmallow was a bit of a faff to make but really rather easy. I think there should've perhaps been a bit more though as we had to be a little mean when piping the marshmallow out, or maybe I just like a LOT of topping? Also it is very sticky - I was covered in the stuff.
I waited for Manny to come home from work so we could have a go at dipping them together. It was a lot of fun and the only disaster was some where I had dyed the marshmallow blue as a pre-Halloween experiment - they just kept falling off so we drizzled some chocolate on top and they looked kinda gruesome, especially in my Martha Poison cupcake wrappers.
The 'normal' Hi Hats were a success - I'm not particularly fond of chocolate cake but this one was really good, and I loved the chocolate covered marshmallow.
The book is full of stuff I want to bake, and shall be doing so in the next few weeks. They are having a launch tomorrow at Selfridges with free cakes, champagne and book signings - further details can be found on their Facebook page. I'm sure any fan of cupcakes would love to find a copy in their Christmas Stocking.
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10 comments:
Sweet! I'm planning on going to Selfridges tonight (if it's not a crazy zoo over there!). The book is already on my Christmas list.
Wow, these cakes look amazing! Did you use just normal chocolate for the topping? I will be looking into getting that book for christmas!
I've wanted to make hi hats for ages but have always bottled it because I'm scared the marshmallow will drop off when I dip it.
Was it easy to get a good coverage?
Oh yum, I do love a good hi-hat Anne and yours look delicious! but I'm with you on this one, especially hi hats, should have ridiculous amounts of marshmallow frosting on top so it's a bit annoying the quantity the recipe made wasn't larger. My sister had one of Lola's ones the other day and called me to report back about it and the first thing she said was 'hi hat...more like lo hat'!!
It was great fun dipping the cakes and even more fun eating them. And slurping all the leftover chocolate sauce too :)
I'd been wondering whether the market would absorb another big cupcake bakery putting out their own book but having seen inside the Lola's book I think it's wonderful. Inventive and beautiful!
Wow that looks delicious!
It was great fun helping you dip these cakes, and finishing off the chocolate, lol! They were every bit as tasty as they look too, another batch you should be well proud of :)
I've never heard of a hi hat before. What great idea, cook book also on Christmas list!
Mmmm those cupcakes look absolutely gorgeous. Sounds like a good book to buy (I can hear hubby groaning not another one!!!) ha
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