Cupcake Week round up

If you're a cupcake fan you must know that yesterday was the start of the second Cupcake Week. The event, launched in 2009 by British Baker, was launched with an installation using 5000 cupcakes in Westfield Shopping Centre London, depicting the face of Olympic boxer James de Gale with cakes were baked by Lily Vanilli and organised by blogger Ms Cakehead. You can see pics on Ms Cakeheads blog. If this reminds you of something, it's quite similar to Zilly Rosen's Obama cupcake mosaic.

It's two days into Cupcake Week and I've not yet scoffed a single cupcake so thought I'd do a round up of some of my recent(ish) cupcake purchases instead.

First up are some disappointing lemon cupcakes (top pic) I baked from the Primrose Bakery cookbook. The cakes were rather dry and didn't have much of a lemony taste too them. Instead of their lemon frosting I opted to make a white chocolate and lemon frosting using Green and Blacks white chocolate which tasted really nice but was waaaaay too runny for piping. Although I wasn't too impressed with them Manny seemed to enjoy them.

Next was a trip to Ella's Bakehouse after our visit to Cake Britain made us fancy a cupcake!

I've been a bit disappointed with the offerings on previous occasions however this time the cupcakes were fabulous. I had a banoffee cupcake which was very moist and incredibly flavoursome and unlike last time the frosting was tasty and not just buttery.

I got Manny an Oreo which he loved. I had gotten him an Oreo cupcake from here before and it was stale - this time it was moist, fresh and incredibly moreish.

I also got a little red velvet mini cupcake which was one of the better red velvets I've had. Alas the greed of not just settling for one cupcake resulted in my banoffee cupcake looking gorgeous on one side but like this...

on the other - alas my red velvet mini was rather unceremoniously shoved on top of my banoffee cupcake. The horror!

Beneath the red velvet cupcake you can see my chocolate of choice, Hotel Chocolat's caramel Tiddly Pots - heaven in a polka dot pot.

Another weekend meant a trip to Paperchase which resulted in me buying another cupcake tote bag. I see it as being environmentally concious as buying cotton shopping bags means I don't have to use plastic ones. Manny see's it as another f*cking bag in the house. However it was too cute to resist and even he agreed I should buy it.

I also got this cute little birthday card which sums up perfectly how you should spend your birthday. Although I'd add and lashings of mojitos too!

After our trip to Paperchase (and a mornings boxing for Manny, a morning of shopping and lounging in Starbucks with the Sunday papers for me) we couldn't resist popping in for a cupcake on our walk past Primrose. The last cake I had from Primrose was inedible, and as mentioned earlier in this post I had a disappointing lemon cupcake incident from their book however the cupcakes restored my Primrose faith as they were gorgeous. Manny got double chocolate (is anyone surprised by this?) and I had a strawberry and white chocolate which was moist and incredibly tasty with a lovely strawberry jam/compote in the middle.


The polka dot cases and cupcake boxes were bought on a recent trip to Sainsburys who have added loads to their baking range and seem to be embracing the home baking phenomenon. Wish they'd start stocking some decent extracts and colourings though instead of those horrid essences! They did have a baking promotion running with 1/3 off lots of baking essentials (I stocked up on tonnes of Doves flours) but I think that may have ended.

Finally on a trip to Tescos today I spotted these strawberry cupcake cones and couldn't get over how unappealing they looked, they also had some really vile looking whoopie pies that looked so unpleasant I can't imagine anyone buying them. There's a pic on my Twitpic page if you want to see them - sorry was trying to be surreptitious with my phone taking pics hence the quality!

Also in Tescos were these rather nice cupcake mugs which I felt would cheer up anyones morning cuppa. I didn't buy them though as I'm banned from purchasing crockery.

Malty Malteser Cupcakes

A lovely moist malted cupcake covered in sinful chocolate frosting - a perfect little treat

My perfect little treat - can you hear it saying "Anne I want to come home with you" ... I can!

Maltesers have linked up with acclaimed chef Lorraine Pascale and My Dish in a fabulous competition where the top prizes are, the winning recipe will be sold for a day in Lorraine Pascale's bakery, Ella's Bakehouse in Covent Garden, and a shiny new red gorgeous KITCHENAID!!! I have been drooling over a Kitchenaid (even popping into shops to touch them occasionally) for some time so decided to enter the competition and have been baking up a storm in the kitchen recently with Malteser Cupcakes, and I have to say they came out a treat. Lovely and moist with a bit of crunch on the base (I added Maltesers into the batter), with lashings of frosting on top - a vanilla with Malteser "dust" covered in lashings of very chocolatey frosting -all topped off with a Malteser on top - of course!

The recipe for my entry is below, or you can find it on the MyDish site, but first some pics of my different attempts.

Vanilla frosting, with bits of Malteser "dust" mixed in

A lump of vanilla and chocolate frosting ice cream scooped onto the cupcake to look (kinda like) a Maltester)

Naked with a mixture of vanilla (with Malteser "dust" mixed in) and chocolate frostings

Just good old chocolate frosting with a Malteser on top (obviously)

This is the frosting for my final entry however - the vanilla/Malteser dust combo, covered in chocolate frosting.

A nice blob of vanilla frosting (mixed with the Malteser "dust") to form the inside of the Malteser style frosting

Then fully cover with lashings of yummy chocolate frosting and a Malteser

And voila! a Cute little Maltesers Cupcake

Recipe and baking instructions

Ingredients

Cupcake
180g self raising flour, sifted
100g dark brown sugar
120g golden caster sugar
55g ovaltine
110g unsalted butter, room temp
2 large eggs, free range
125ml milk (I use Semi Skimmed throughout)
½ teaspoon good quality vanilla (I use Vanilla Paste throughout)
1 tablespoon sour cream
135g Maltesers pack (I used 2 -one regular one white)

Chocolate Frosting
250g icing sugar, sifted
225g butter, room temp
150g dark chocolate (I used Green and Blacks 85%)
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla

Vanilla Frosting
125g icing sugar, sifted
40g unsalted butter, room temp
12ml milk
¼ teaspoon vanilla
6 Maltesers blitzed/crushed to a fine dust

Method
Preheat your oven to 160 fan (180c or gas mark 4) and line a cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake cases.

Cupcakes
In a large bowl cream together your butter and both sugars for about 5 minutes until well mixed and pale. Add your eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each egg.

In a separate bowl combine flour and ovaltine, and in small jug (easier for pouring!) combine your milk, sour cream and vanilla.

Add approx half of the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar and mix well. Then add half the wet ingredients, again mixing well. Repeat and then ensure all the ingredients are well combined. I beat by hand when adding the flour and wet ingredients but you could use a hand mixer if you prefer.

Using an ice cream scoop or a tablespoon place a scoop of the mixture into each cupcake case. Then add 2 Maltesers into each case (either regular or white - I used a mixture) and top with another scoop of cake mix.

Bake in the oven for approx 25 minutes. To check if they are cooked insert a skewer into the centre of the cakes - if it comes out clean they're done. Leave to rest in the tray for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool fully.

Once they are cool you are ready to frost the cupcakes. I used a mixture of both vanilla and chocolate to create a Maltesers effect, however you could use just one if you prefer (I've tested with all just vanilla, and just chocolate and both are very tasty).

Vanilla Frosting
Mix the icing sugar and butter in a bowl for approx 5 minutes until nice and fluffy. I tend to add a little bit of icing sugar at a time to minimise icing sugar dust clouds! Mix the milk and vanilla together and add a little at a time, whilst continuing to mix. Continue mixing until the frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-5mins).

Take approx 6 Maltesers and use a hand held blender/food processer to make Maltester dust and mix this into the vanilla frosting to make your Malteser frosting centre.

Chocolate Frosting
Melt the chocolate in a heatproof glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Or alternatively use your microwave. Leave to cool.

Beat together butter, milk, vanilla, and icing sugar till smooth. Again I add the icing sugar a bit at a time to minimise mess. This will take several minutes to achieve a smooth frosting. Add the cooled, melted chocolate and beat again for approx 5 minutes until thick and creamy.

To decorate
For the Maltesers effect I piped a small circle of vanilla onto each cupcake, and then surrounded it with piped chocolate frosting. Topping each cupcake with a Malteser to finish.

Please note: you could use just vanilla (if you do this double the vanilla frosting recipe as there is just enough to for a little amount on each cupcake in the quantity given), or chocolate frosting (the recipe is enough for 12 cupcakes). Obviously all taste better topped with a Malteser!

EAT, and ENJOY!!

A new cupcakery in town disappoints

About 4 months ago I tried a vanilla cupcake from Ella's Bakehouse @ Selfridges and all was not good (you can read about it here). I never really like to judge a cupcakery badly on just one try, so when I was told by a fellow blogger that Ella's Bakehouse had now opened a little store in Covent Garden I couldn't resist checking them out. 

I had to wait a week or so, having had swine flu (oink oink) but last Friday after a rather hectic day at work I traipsed down to Covent Garden and chose 3 cakes - a vanilla (pink of course), a chocolate and a coconut. Oh yeah the store - it was small but perfectly formed with a lovely retro feel. There were quite a few flavours of cupcakes to choose from including red velvet, peanut butter and mocha and from the spaces on the shelves I think they had been busy. I took a couple of pics (after asking was it ok) and headed off home, heralding all my willpower not to scoff a cake on the bus as they looked really nice!

We had the cakes for pudding. Well, Manny had his cake for pudding - unfortunately the vanilla and the coconut were put barely touched in my beloved Brabantia bin. I really wanted to like these cupcakes, as the shop was cute, the cakes looked all glittery and pretty and Lorraine Pascale seems incredibly passionate about baking and any cupcakery near my work is welcomed,  but as soon as we removed them from the box it wasn't looking great. The casing of the vanilla cupcake had come away completely from the base and the base looked all soggy. Also the vanilla frosting unfortunately smelt of nothing but butter - and alas tasted the same. Just butter - no vanilla, not really sweet - just buttery. I tried a bit of the base and  it was very tasteless, again no taste of vanilla. I'm not a professional baker, but I know something was wrong - the cake was full of large air holes (over-mixing?) and as I said the base was very moist and sticky -to the point of being half raw. We decided it was only fair to try some of the coconut cake so we cut it in half but it was also inedible with not a lot of flavour - this one wasn't moist, instead it was rather dry. I'm a HUGE fan of coconut but the frosting did nothing for me - again just too buttery. 

The chocolate cupcake was another story - I only tried the frosting, to compare and it was really tasty- very chocolatey and dense. Manny enjoyed it and said he'd have a chocolate one again but agreed the other two weren't worth visiting for. 

I have since googled some reviews and while I found a couple that agreed with me re the over-buttery-ness of the frosting, others thought the cakes were fantastic and on par with Hummingbird - I shall politely disagree with that. Please let me know if you try the cakes and agree or disagree. I really do want to hear as obviously people have different tastes - this one just isn't for me.