Eat me: Beautiful beetroot cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago I bought Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl by Xanthe Milton (aka the Cookie Girl). I wasn't going to buy it as I have enough cupcake cookbooks already, however after having a quick squizz through it I couldn't resist - mainly because it had some unusual recipes such as Jack Daniels and Coke cupcakes, Courgette cupcakes and the first recipe I tried from the book, Beet-rose Cupcakes.

Firstly the recipe was very easy to follow, although I didn't get as many cupcakes as the recipe said I would, although I was using rather large cupcake cases. The beetroot was a doodle to handle (have read reviews saying it turned their kitchen etc purple - I wore gloves when grating and it was fine!) and the mix came together really well, if a wee bit runny, which left me a little worried they weren't going to work. The smell wafting through the house when they were cooking was amazing and I was very excited when they came out of the oven all puffed up and well risen.




Then they fell a bit while cooling and I thought "oh no disaster" but decided to frost them and see how they tasted. The recipe calls for a cream cheese frosting but I fancied vanilla. I made half the recommended amount of frosting as the amounts quoted for 12 were massive and I had more than enough to frost the cupcakes and do a couple of special 'super frosted' cupcakes for Manny :)

The cakes tasted really nice - the hazelnuts worked really well with the hint of beetroot and the cakes were moist and remained so for 3 days after baking. I would highly recommend the recipe to anyone as it was quite easy and had fabulous results. I shall definitely be trying some more recipes from the book - the next ones will be boozy I think :)

Finally - I tried using the frosting kit my friend Dennis bought me some time ago but the bottles were really annoying and difficult to fill. I think I'll just get myself some disposable icing bags from Lakeland. They don't look too bad for my first try at proper frosting though, kinda squished rose-like!

Blooming lovely - Beet Rose cupcakes

I've eaten the Cookie Girl's cupcakes a couple of times and my favourite one is definitely the courgette cupcake I had over a year and a half ago.

I caught Xanthe Milton, aka the Cookie Girl on Market Kitchen last week - well when I say caught I deliberately watched as I follow Market Kitchen on Twitter and they'd mentioned that she would be on publicising her new book, Eat Me!, and baking Beet Rose cupcakes. I've been keen to try the cupcakes since I opted for the courgette and vanilla when I last visited over a year and a half ago so tuned in. The cakes looked fabulous and if you want to give them a try you can get the recipe here. I shall be trying them out in a couple of weeks - I have plans for my St Patrick's Guinness ones first.

I've added the book to my Wish List on Amazon but will hold off as I've already had a bit of a splurge on cookbooks in the last few weeks!

Cupcake porn

or a couple of cupcake cookbooks to look out for...and perhaps drool over :) 

First up is The Primrose Bakery Cupcake Book which is due out later this year (mid-September) - you can email them for further details here. Primrose make some of my favourite cakes so I'm v.excited about this and the cover looks gorge!

Secondly is Xanthe Milton's aka The Cookie Girl's book -Eat Me!: The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to  Cooke Girl. If the book lives up to the title it should be a good one and worth the wait as its not due out till March 2010! Lets hope Xanthe's courgette cupcake and her Jack Daniel's and Coke recipes are in there! 

The tale of the Cookie Girl and a courgette!

First visit on our mini-cupcake tour of the Notting Hill area was the Cookie Girl's stall in Portobello Rd market! Manny had been keen to visit the Cookie Girl ever since seeing her website and was rather excited to finally go there today!

As usual the selection of cupcakes was FANTASTIC! We opted for 4 - vanilla, courgette (top pic) and Jack Daniels and coke and chocolate praline (second pic). Other flavours included beetroot, pina colada and some other fab ones I can't remember! I opted for the courgette due to the fab green frosting! Manny also had a chocolate and orange brownie - no pics as he snuffled it as soon as he got it - he said it was magnificent!

We had the cupcakes when we got home with a nice cuppa tea and my favourite was definitely the courgette - the base was really really nice and the frosting was absolutely gorgeous - I could have eaten it by the cup. Who'd have thought something like a courgette could make one of the best cupcakes I've ever had! Manny's Jack Daniels and coke one was really nice as well - the frosting was very dense and chocolaty! Manny declared these his favourite cupcakes ever!

I do kinda regret not having the beetroot one now - I wasn't sure how they'd taste, but after the courgette one I'm thinking the beetroot one would've been yummy too!

Am looking forward to the Cookie Girl's cookbook coming out -it'll be a fave on my shelf for sure!

As you can see Angel enjoyed a bit of the vanilla frosting as well - her nickname is pudding due to her tendency to run over to me and look at me imploringly if ever I have anything pudding-like! Today she got a bit of frosting and she's my best friend :)

The Cookie Girl

On Saturday I finally made it all the way down Portobello Market and found the Cookie Girl. I'd emailed her in the week and she kindly offered to keep me a box of cupcakes if she started to sell out so I felt I should go down and get them - which was an incentive to go into the busy Market on the hottest day of the year so far!

The cakes are DEFINITELY worth braving the crowds for and the Cookie Girl is lovely and friendly - someone you can tell loves their job!!! The stall looked utterly adorable and so did the cakes and cookies. I bought 4 cupcakes, 3 vanilla and one with dulce de leche (drooooooool!!!!) and got Manny a slice of the scrumptious looking chocolate cake as I felt he'd divorce me if I didn't and he saw the pics! They came to a bargain price of £8!!

An utter bargain for a some small slices of heaven!!!! I managed to resist eating any of the cakes on my walk around London, (I walked from Ladbrooke Grove to Waterloo) and got them home safe and sound where they were immediately devoured, not all by me, but nearly! They were utterly gorgeous, not too sweet with perfect frosting. Manny allowed me to try a little bit of his cake and my gosh it was lovely and moist with stunning frosting/ganache on :)

If you're in the area on a Saturday pop down and buy things, you wont regret it, and if you're not in the area, GO!!!! I shall be going back to get a cookie as I forgot to buy one, and some cupcakes I'm sure!