Kicking off 2012 with a healthy(ish) cupcake..and some not so healthy

When I first saw that Lola's were introducing four healthier cupcakes this month made with all natural fruit I was slightly dubious as we've not done well with previous healthier cupcakes. Yes Petit Pois I'm looking at you and your crapcakes from hell.

However I found myself in Selfridges last week and thought I'd give them a try. And I'm glad I did. I opted for the passion fruit and it was incredibly nice. Really soft sponge with a passion fruit custard and topped with really tasty frosting. 

As well as passion fruit they have raspberry, blueberry and banana. I think they're only available till the end of January so be quick if you want to try them!

Also scoffed recently was this lovely cupcake from Lily Vanilli's new(ish) cafe just off Columbia Road. We visited on a Wednesday night before Christmas, but usually the cafe is only open on Sundays -it's worth travelling for. 

My gingerbread cupcake was fabulous - with a brandy buttercream frosting. I had a LV cupcake from Harrod's over a year ago and was not impressed, really dry and flavourless but this was totally removed from that - very fresh and bursting with flavour. In the background you can see perhaps the best sausage roll I've ever eaten - well I can't really say eaten - the tubby one whose sausage roll it was didn't share - I had a bite, but it was a good bite. Then again, can anything that comes surrounded in a duvet of lardon filled puff pastry be bad? I think not. 

As well as a sausage roll, Manny managed to scoff a brownie - and it was a slab of a brownie. Again I got a bite - melt in the mouth delicious. I would definitely go back just for the brownie. And maybe a sausage roll. And a cupcake. This is why I'm fat. 

The cafe looks pretty cool too - covered in a zombie style mural at the back to go with the theme of Lily's book. 

Also eaten recently, although not a cupcake I HAD to include this amazing Guinness cake I had from Bea's of Bloomsbury's Kings Road branch last week. I had popped to Jane Asher to stock up on edible glitter amid rumours that it's due to be taken from our shelves soon due to stupid people not understanding that you need to use EDIBLE glitter on cakes not just any random glitter (I call that Darwin's law - weeding out the stupid people) and needed coffee and a sit down and Bea's isn't too far away. 

The Guinness cake was very moist and the frosting was divine. Just sitting in the cafe was enough to tempt you to buy lots of cake - there was so much on offer, including cupcakes.

I enjoyed it so much I actually made this very cake from Bea's book last Saturday as a welcome home for Manny after he'd been to Germany to play a gig. The cake itself came out really well, but I followed the recipe for the frosting and it was a gloopy mess - it didn't seem to have enough icing sugar listed in the recipe. Luckily, I managed to save it and really liked the inclusion of golden syrup in the frosting although it meant it was very sweet. And I must learn, stop licking the syrup spoon, I was on a sugar high for hours. 

Sorry the pictures crap - it was about midnight when I finished making it - I find it hard to sleep when Manny's away. 

Finally, my final cupcake ever from Love Bakery. Just before Christmas I received a DM on Twitter from the lovely Rebecca to ask me had I heard that Love Bakery was closing down - I hadn't heard but checked out Sam's blog and discovered they were closing the very next day, 23rd December. Obviously I had to go one last time.

Sorry about the festiveness of the pics, I was meant to blog this ages ago. I've been a bit lax at blogging lately due to some issues with photo theft etc but aim to blog more in 2012.

Anyways, the cakes were really good, especially my rhubarb cheesecake one, and Love Bakery will definitely be missed from the London cupcake scene.

So there you go - I've eaten a few cupcakes lately and not a crap cake amongst them - a good end to 2011/beginning to 2012! 

Zombie Apocalypse

You wait ages for a gruesome cupcake event then two come along at once. Lily Vanilli, queen of the gory cupcake is holding the official launch for her book A Zombie Ate my Cupcake on Friday 28th October at Harrods.

The event promises a beautiful zombie set in store - featuring a huge haunted house backdrop (below) designed by Paul Parker (who illustrated the book). There will also be a zombie raffle, book signing, interactive zombie waiters, a zombie cupcake feast and lots of cake!

The event will also celebrate the official launch of the new Lily Vanilli counter in Harrods Food Hall patisserie, where her cakes will be exclusively available all year round, which will be selling a selection of cakes from the book for Halloween including a couple of my favourites from the book, the shattered glass and the eerie eyeballs. Those worms look just a little too real for me as I suffer from Scoleciphiobia!

Lily will be signing copies of A Zombie At My Cupcake from 1-2pm, further details here. I'm aiming to get there as I've taken the afternoon off work so fingers crossed nothing urgent comes up that stops me leaving at midday on the dot!

So I realised the other day I've not gotten round to reviewing the book itself which I've had for about three months. I'm not going to lie, when I first got it I was a little disappointed with how few recipes there are in there - about 10. But, the book is full of awesome ideas and when you think about it most recipe books are just the same ones over and over again with a little addition so I would definitely recommend this book if you are a fan of unusual cupcakes and want to try something different than a dollop of frosting on top of your cupcake.

Although I love baking and love anything gory, I'm not the most artistic and I think some of the cakes are beyond my skills, the day of the dead skulls for example, or one of my favourites the crazy crabs,

however I think I could manage the Devil's Food cupcakes, below, and these are on my to do list for baking after Cupcake Camp. There are great ideas in the book and if yours doing turn out as pretty as Lily's well they're kinda meant to be gruesome so it doesn't matter!

If you'd like the book and can't get to Harrods on Friday, The Book People have it for the bargain price of £3.99!

Finally if you're wondering where the title of this post came from, Zombie Apocalypse by Mortician \m/

Horrific Cupcakes

I just wanted to remind readers that next weekend sees London's first over 18s cake shop, Eat Your Heart Out and The Pretox Potion, at Maiden on Shoreditch High Street.

I've had a sneak peak at the menu and WOW I'm stunned by how much they are going to have there and believe me when I say there will be oodles of gruesome cupcakes featured. I honestly don't know where to begin as there are so many to choose from but a few that stand out are squirting eyeball cupcakes and squeezable zit cupcakes which sound fabulous and gross at the same time;

Who can resist squeezing a spot? We know it’s gross but it’s also too tempting. These cupcakes will tempt to you the edge with their ooozingly ripe giant zit. Buy one, squeeze it and watch the puss
squirt out.

YUM!

And lets not forget 2 girls 1 cupcake, and what is bound to be Manny's favourite The Re-animator. Oh and vaginas!

I tried to persuade Miss Cakehead that they should play Lividity's Pussy Lover as a tribute to these cakes but I don't think she agreed! (please don't click the link if you're easily offended - the song is a little rude). Mortician would be another great choice for store music! I should be dj'ing but then they mightn't get many visitors if I was!

As well as cupcakes there will be delightfully gruesome cake pops, larger cakes, tarts and Human Centipede cookies.

The store is open from midday on Friday until Sunday (Halloween). Each day they will open until they sell out - selling 666 items of baked goods each day so don't dilly dally (or walk like a zombie) and get your arses down there for some gory baked goods. And you can pick up a blood bath shower curtain from Maiden while you're at it if you want to add some gore to your home (I imagine we'll be getting one).

We're planning to go on Friday so look out for pics and a review on here.

Braaaaaains

There seems to be a bit of a recent theme with cupcakes - we've moved on from the cute and pastel to brains and zombies.

I recently ordered Lily Vanilli's A Zombie ate my Cupcake, and it's waiting for me at work to drool over once I'm off my deathbed and back there (even though it says its not released yet they shipped it straight away!). Then today on Twitter someone posted a link to perhaps the most awesome cupcake molds ever - the Nomskulls by Fred! I MUST get these but can't find them anywhere in the UK at the moment - will have a proper look though and upload any links to suppliers incase anyone else wants some :)

I must make brains cupcakes asap!

Zombie cupcakes take over the world

Well if you were to look through the soon to be released cupcake books, as I quite often do, you would think so. Not one, but two zombie cupcake books are due out in the next few months.

First up is A Zombie Ate my Cupcake by Lily Vanilli

After being banished for so long to the land of the pretty and identical, the domestic and the twee, cupcakes are biting back. Here, Lily Vanilli shows how you can take inspiration from anywhere - insects, roadkill, zombies - and recreate it in cake, but always with a delicious result. This book is an introduction to making cakes that look weird, ugly and even grotesque - but that taste divine! There are amazing materials for making edible sculptures and hundreds of things you can do with natural ingredients. Give guests a shock with revoltingly realistic Marzipan Beetles, or add a crunch to your desserts with Morbid Meringue Bones, dipped in raspberry blood sauce. Try out a black cherry Dracula's Bite red velvet cupcake with cream cheese, eat your way through heavenly Fallen Angel Cakes or go for indulgent and truly dark chocolate Devil's Delight Cupcakes. If Ozzy Osbourne made cupcakes, these are the ones he'd want to eat.

Ok, I'm sold, one to add to the pre-order basket!

Next up, Zombie Cupcakes by Zilly Rosen, famous for the Obama/Lincoln cupcake portrait.


Cooked up in the darkest of graveyards, it presents a ghoulish army of delicious creations that appear anything but sugar-coated. Recipes range from Zombie Flesh to Zombie Brain, from Gravestones to Night of the Living Cupcake. All the cooking and icing techniques are included, and every recipe features step-by-step instructions for the baking and icing, alongside devilish illustrations and photography. As a finishing touch, zombie quiz panels will test your undead knowledge, making this the book that will raise the spirits at even the most lifeless of gatherings.

Oh dear, another to add to my must have list - at this rate I'll have to get another billy bookshelf asap :)

I have noticed these books are described as "bucking the cupcake trend", or are part of the "cupcake backlash" but they're not really that different as far as I can tell to any cupcake - Martha's cupcakes has a few Halloween cakes, as do most cupcake books I own - these books are just a few extra themed recipes in my opinion. I still can't wait to try them though, I love zombies!*

If you can't wait for the book to come out to make some gruesome cupcakes what about these wonderful, but gross at the same time, blood clot and brain cupcakes from the wonderful Not Quite Nigella - braaaaains!

*As long as they're not trapping me in cinema toilets as happened at the premiere of Land of the Dead at the Odeon, Leicester Square a couple of years ago - I was petrified!

The Big Swap

Fair Trade Fortnight starts on Monday and if you've not already embraced Fair Trade why not start with The Big Swap. The website lists a vast amount of things you can swap to Fair Trade, from baking goods and cotton to real ale and wines, making it easy to choose Fair Trade instead of your usual :)

The Fairtrade mark is the only independent consumer label that ensures farmers in developing countries receive an agreed and stable price for the crops they grow that covers the cost of sustainable production... so it deserves support. And its so easy - brands like Tate and Lyle and Green and Blacks (my chocolate of choice for baking who have just announced they're going 100% Fair Trade) feature on there, and so do a wealth of other baking ingredients so its easy to make that little change, which won't cost you much but will make a world of difference to someone else.

To celebrate Tate and Lyle have allowed me to share a couple of recipes created by Lily Vanilli for them- if you make them please let me know, and send pics! I might give the Devil's Food cupcakes a go but as readers of my blog know I do not enjoy bacon on my cupcakes!

Lily Vanilli’s Fairtrade Bacon and Banana Cupcakes

4 rashers unsmoked organic back bacon

150g ripe Fairtrade bananas (approx 2 small)

60g Fairtrade honey

100g unsalted organic butter (at room temperature)

40g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade caster sugar

140g organic plain flour (sifted)

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

2 large, free-range organic eggs (at room temperature)

Handful Fairtrade Brazil nuts (toasted & chopped)

1/2 tsp grated Fairtrade nutmeg

1/2 tsp Fairtrade ground cinnamon

12 paper cupcake cases

1. Lay rashers of bacon on a foil lined sheet and place in a cold oven with the temperature set to 200c for approx 20 mins or until crispy. Allow to cool

2. Turn heat down to 180c

3. Mash bananas with honey in a small bowl and set aside

4. Sift together all the dry ingredients into a large bowl - flour, sugar, baking powder, salt

5. Cut butter into small chunks and add to the dry ingredients, blend with an electric mixer on medium speed until evenly incorporated

6. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition

7. Mix in the banana/honey mixture, spices and Brazil nuts to taste

8. Spoon into cupcakes cases, filling almost to the top

9. Bake in preheated oven for 15 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean

10. Remove and leave to cool in the pans for approx 3 mins - then transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely.

Frosting:

55g unsalted organic butter (at room temperature)

325g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade icing sugar

1/2 cup (4fl oz) organic double cream

2 tbsp Fairtrade honey

1. Beat the butter until smooth, then add half of the sugar, the double cream and the honey

2. Continue beating, slowly adding the rest of the sugar to achieve a smooth, even texture

3. Ice each cooled cupcake with a thick swirl of frosting and top with strips of cooled bacon and chopped Brazil nuts.

Fairtrade Devil's Food Ale Cupcakes

115g unsalted organic butter (at room temperature)

45g Divine Fairtrade cocoa

155g Fairtrade ale (Honey Ale)

170g organic plain flour (sifted)

Pinch of salt

2/3 tsp baking soda

225g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade caster sugar

1 large free-range, organic egg (at room temperature)

3 fl oz (3/8 cup) organic buttermilk

12 paper cupcake cases

Preheat the oven to 180c

1. Bring ale to the boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa. Leave to cool until it reaches room temperature

2. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda and set aside

3. Cream the butter and sugar together with an electric mixture until very light and fluffy (about 5 mins)

4. Add the egg and beat until just incorporated

5. Beat in the cooled ale/cocoa mixture

6. Add the sifted dry mixture in three parts, alternating with the buttermilk in two parts - beginning and ending with the dry and beating after each addition

7. Spoon the batter into a baking tray lined with cupcake cases (2/3 of the way full)

8. Bake in preheated oven for 15 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean

9. Cool briefly in the pans and then transfer to a wire rack until cooled completely.

Frosting:

85g/3 fl oz (3/8 cup) - Fairtrade honey ale

15g Fairtrade cocoa

115g Unsalted organic butter (at room temperature)

340g Tate & Lyle Fairtrade icing sugar

1/2 tsp Fairtrade vanilla essence

Small bar Fairtrade chocolate to decorate

Handful toasted Fairtrade Brazil nuts (optional)

1. Boil ale in a saucepan, remove from the heat and stir in the cocoa. Allow to cool completely - transfer to a bowl and place in the fridge if necessary

2. Beat the butter until smooth

3. Add the vanilla, ale/cocoa mixture and half the icing sugar and continue to beat. Gradually add all of the sugar - beating continuously until you reach a consistency you like

4. Spread onto cooled cupcakes and top with shavings of Fairtrade chocolate and Brazil nuts.

Cake that...

From today's Daily Candy (London) (I stole the title from there too as I like it..sorry DC)

Mandatory hand-holding, pricey champagne, cringe-worthy you-complete-me’s and heart-shaped, well, everything.
Not your idea of romance?
If it’s the sweet stuff you’re after, look no further than home-baked cupcakes from new London-based bakers Lily Vanilli. Chocolate, vanilla, red velvet or cherry sponges come laden with vanilla, mango, coconut or orange buttercream frosting and topped with fresh fruit or nuts. Brownies and custom cakes are available to order, too.
To indulge in something decadent without a heavy commitment, there’s a flourless almond poppy seed cupcake on offer.
At least something will rise to the occasion.

The plan for Sunday is to go along and try some of Lily's fab looking cupcakes so hopefully I shall have some pictures/an update on them soon :)

Let them eat (cool) cupcakes

Typically the UK press are kinda slow to catch onto the fact that cupcakes are "cool", however recent press articles make me think that they've finally caught onto the craze. The most recent article was in yesterday's Times.

And in these scary economic times, who can blame us for wanting to indulge in a candy-coloured treat? “Even in a credit crisis, people still have birthdays and weddings,” Swift says.

So, as Woolies lies emptied of its very shelving, the bakery business continues to boom. Primrose Bakery has just opened a sister store in Covent Garden. This, in turn, is rubbing shoulders with Candy Cakes, which is also expanding to more sites; meanwhile The Hummingbird Bakery (patronised by Elle Macpherson, Gwyneth Paltrow and Minnie Driver) is hoping to open its third store this year. “We were worried that it might be quiet because of the credit crunch, but it’s been quite the opposite,” says Tarek Malouf, the owner of Hummingbird. “We’ve had our busiest quarter since we opened.” For those who can’t face the queues, The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook is out in March.

The article mentions that Madonna and Nelson Mandela bought their birthday "cupcakes" from Candy Cakes (although I still class those as large iced muffins personally), and mentions the long running debate about the difference between fairy cakes and cupcakes - I've always thought the difference is cupcakes have frosting (ie buttercream or cream cheese frosting) and fairy cakes have royal icing (water and icing sugar) although they, via Waitrose Food Illustrated mention size as another factor!

This was also of interest;

Matt McAuliffe, product developer for M&S, recently spent a week studying at the Institute of Culinary Education, in New York, in an attempt to construct the perfect cupcake for a spring launch nationwide. “In America, the ratio of sponge to buttercream is about two-thirds to one-third. That’s really sickly — it has been hard to make it palatable for British tastes,” he says. “But at the same time, we wanted to have the spectacular icing.” His solution was to use fresh fruit to flavour the buttercream, and to fill the centre with fruit compote to add a touch of acidity. “There are lots of cupcake places in London, but we want to spread the trend nationwide,” he says.

I do hope that Marks and Spencer's are going to start doing some lovely cupcakes rather than the dodgy mass produced supermarket ones I've had so far!


The article has led me to plan a trip to Spitafields Market to check out Lily Vanilli's new stall there - I've had her fantastic cupcakes at Vintage Heaven and can't wait to try more :)

I think I should support these businesses during the credit crunch and buy more cupcakes!! Wonder where the third Hummingbird is going to be!?* And isn't it funny that not having cupcakes at a "celeb" wedding is now considered a faux pas..lol

*just read this article re cupcakes in Friday's Times and the 3rd branch is going to be in Soho..wuhu within walking distance of work (just)!
Pic courtesy of Lilly Vanilli doesn't it look gorgeous!