Most wonderful cupcake of the year

The end (of the year) is nigh and I was going to do a round up of my favourite cupcakes I've bake this year but I don't have time as I have a birds nest of over-dyed hair to sort out and make up to slap on so instead have decided to post about my favourite cupcakes I've bought this year. It was a close run thing - I LOVED quite a few cupcakes.

First up the runners up.

Best international cupcake goes to, Cupcake Berlin.

Truly DELICIOUS cupcakes with the nicest peanut butter frosting I've ever tasted. Also a lovely little cafe full of lovely treats, including tonnes of vegan friendly goodies.

Next. Best UK cupcake out of London goes to Swallow Bakery.

GREAT cakes, shame about the service. I plan to go back in 2011 and check it out again.

Runner up in the London cupcake of the year goes to Love Bakery.

Not only have I never had a bad cupcake from them, they released my favourite cupcake book ever, Love Bakery: Cupcakes from the Heart, this year. I've baked loads from it since I received it, and I hope to bake loads more next year. It is a fantastic book and I highly recommend it to all my readers.

An honourable mention must go to Ms Cupcake and her vegan cakes that still confound me. How can you make a cake taste soooooo good without butter? I just don't know. But Ms Cupcake and her team of vegan bakers know the secrets and they should be applauded. Also Mellissa is one of the loveliest people you could meet on the cupcake scene.

Her vegan bounty cupcake was one of the highlights of Cupcake Camp for me! Absolutely delicious and more chocolaty than some ultra expensive vile cupcakes that pertain to be loaded with Valrhona. (If I was doing worst cupcake of the year btw Cox, Cookies and Cake would be the winner - this place doesn't deserve to exist, and I feel probably wouldn't it if it wasn't fronted by two 'celebs').

The fabulous bounty cupcake however leads me on nicely to my favourite cupcake event of the year. There can only be one winner. Cupcake Camp, organised by the amazing Daisy. I am already thinking of cakes to bake at next year's event! It was an awesome day out and really showed how many great bakers there are out there.

And now, for the winner of my best cupcake/best bakery of 2010.

For me there could only be one winner. I've only had their cakes twice but the first time was enough to convince me that they were fabulous. And the winner is, *drum roll*, Kooky Bakes.

I first tried Scott's baking in July and was so overwhelmed by the selection I barely ate a cupcake! When faced with the Snickers Slice my brain just went into a peanut butter zombie trance and could think of nothing else. Hmmm peanuts. The SS incidentally probably wins my non-cupcake baked good of the year. How could it not - look at it, behold its beauty! My first visit wasn't cupcake free however and I did try a delicious black forest gateau cupcake.

We visited Upmarket the weekend before Christmas to pick up a box of cupcakes from Kooky to ensure we ended the year on a cupcake high, and we were not disappointed.

Although there was a slight, Anne based, disaster getting the cupcakes home in one piece (I blame it being so cold I had to keep swinging my arms to keep warm - poor Scott was dressed up like he was Scott of the Antarctic when we visited the stall!), the cakes slight squishedness in no way detracted from the AMAZING flavour of each and every cake.

Each cake was moist and incredibly flavoursome, each frosting a bite of heaven, as they were so light. Manny was awestruck by the Chocotecture cupcake - dark chocolate sponge injected with a white chocolate ganache,  topped with a ring of white chocolate and a ring of milk chocolate mouse buttercreme. After scoffing many chocolate cupcakes I finally think Manny has found his favourite. Every cake we had was delicious. I had a raspberry and white chocolate and a red velvet. I think I have finally found the best red velvet ever. Utterly amazing.

My plan for next year is to go to Kooky Bakes and get some cakes home in one piece so I can finally show you all how beautiful they look pre me getting my ham-fisted hands on them!

Finally, I wanted to wish all the people who follow my blog and leave such nice comments, and send me such lovely messages of support, a incredibly Happy New Year. I hope you all have a wonderful cupcake-filled 2011.

Baking with Brussels Sprouts

I promised to share the recipe for Brussels Sprouts cupcakes, and true to my word here it is to delight and amaze your friends and family with at Christmas.

Cupcakes
2 eggs
125g Sugar
1 tsp Cinnamon
100 ml vegetable oil
125g Self raising flour
125g carrots
125g sprouts
35g Walnuts
20g raisins
40g dried coconut (I used some wonderful coconut flakes I got in Marks and Spencer -they're FAB)
1 tsp fresh ginger grated (I didn't use fresh)
1/2tsp vanilla essence

Preheat your oven to 180°C, I have a fan oven so it's about 160ish. Line your cupcake baking tray with 12 cupcake cases.

Beat the eggs, sugar and oil for a couple of minutes, add the flour, cinnamon, ginger and vanilla essence and carry on mixing for a minute.

Fold in the grated carrots, sprouts walnuts, raisins and dried coconut. Divide your mix into your cupcakes cases. I use an ice cream scoop for this but you could use a tablespoon.Cook in your preheated oven for 20-22mins, (until a cake proddy thing like this inserted into a cupcake comes out dry).

Naked sprouts cupcake

I topped them with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

Frosting
40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g full fat cream cheese
250g sifted icing sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)

Cream the butter and cream cheese together for a couple of minutes. Add the icing sugar (I do this bit by bit to minimise icing sugar covering my entire kitchen) and beat for about 2 minutes until smooth.

So far people I've made these for have either loved or hated them. They are definitely something worth making if you want to make something different.

If you do make them please let me know what people thought!

Cupcake Camp London - a gloriously gruesome day out

This Sunday was a day I'd been looking forward to for some time. Not only was it my ninth wedding anniversary, it was Cupcake Camp London.

I signed up some time ago and have been trying out recipes ever since. I finally settled on three, and gave them suitably horrific Halloween names. Well they may have been a little lame but creating the little stickers for them gave me something to do on a cold October afternoon and kept me busy.

First up - Dawn of the Dead. This was a devils food cake (what else could you use on Halloween!), filled with a bloody cherry compote (meant to look like braaaaains), smothered in a thick layer of decadent chocolate frosting and topped with crushed oreo earth. Oh and a zombie hand sticking out of it, hence the name.

Next up was Pumpkinhead - a spicy pumpkin cake, with a Halloween Oreo baked inside, covered in a pumpkin coloured cream cheese frosting. The frosting was meant to have cinnamon in it but after baking a gazillion cupcakes (well 40) I forgot. Ooops. They still tasted good though! They were also going to be topped with a pumpkin peeps but the little buggers wouldn't pull apart nicely so I gave up.

Finally was my entry into the Most Unusual Ingredient competition, Attack of the Killer Sprouts. I had tried a few other ingredients but in the end I went with possibly the weirdest ingredient I've ever used in a cupcake - brussel sprouts. That's right, the lovely little green vegetables that I never understand why people dislike as I love them.

I found the recipe via the Times Online while googling unusual cake ingredients (which I spent a lot of time doing, seeking inspiration). The actual recipe I got from Kent Online, and I thought about decorating it similarly to the pic on there, but instead went for a walnut (or braaaain if you're being Halloween'y). I slightly changed the recipe by adding a half teaspoon each extra of the spices, and I used some fabulous coconut flakes I got from M&S rather than dessicated coconut.  I wasn't that keen on the cake, it was ok in a carrot cake with an odd taste kinda way (that'd be the sprouts), but I wouldn't buy one. Manny actually ate about 4 of them. In all the excitement I didn't get any pictures of the cupcakes, but I've sent a call out on Twitter to see if anyone got some, until then;

This is it pre-baking - doesn't it look delish!

And if you look closely you can see them in the green polka dot cases, back right on the picture. There's a better pic here courtesy of Cupcake Kelly.

So, Cupcake Camp itself was AMAZING. I went along myself as Manny had sparring class and all my friends decided they couldn't face an early Sunday morning in Camden (thanks!). Alas some of my pumpkin cakes got a little squished on the way to the Proud Gallery but they looked fine when laid out in their room, Desert Orchid, sadly  I wasn't in the Manowar room!

Hail and Kill \m/

Once my cupcakes we set up I went and had a coffee and then a little chat with Kelly (who writes the fabulous An American Cupcake in London) while drooling over her wonderful creations including the gorgeous bubblegum one, second from the right. Her stall was next to the glamorous Ms Cupcake so I caught up with her and her (very exciting...more details coming soon) news and met her lovely new baker, Jayson. Just before it was all about to start Manny arrived bruised from sparring class and we pootled off to get some tokens so we could have some cake. If I'm honest, I didn't eat much cake. After baking and being on my feet solidly for hours on Saturday I didn't really feel like I could face much cake, so I bought cake, had a bit then gave the rest to Manny. That way I contributed to the great cause and got to try some other bakers cakes. 

From Kelly we tried her Orange Velvet - this was a seriously nice cake topped with frosting that tasted of a Terry's Chocolate Orange. I really liked this and can't wait till she shares the recipe on her blog!

From Rose and Rhubarb, the gorgeous and very tasty rose and rhubarb cake. These were adorable and they won my heart with her gorgeous labels for her cakes.

This is a really nice triple chocolate Manny spotted immediately - I have no idea who made it but if it was you please let me know - it was lush!

We couldn't resist a Ms Cupcake creation (and if you could there is something wrong with you!) and opted to share a bounty cupcake. I honestly don't know  how she does it. These cakes are 100% vegan yet taste more chocolatey than a lot of the high end cupcakes I buy that claim to be full of Valrhona and the like. If she made a vat of this I'd happily jump in.

Front right is a coconut cupcake from Bake Me Happy - Manny had hoped for one of their chocolate mocha cakes but they'd all sold out. This was a really nice moist cake with a hint of coconut. I loved their stall and their branding as well - we had a chat with the baker and she was very friendly.

Manny picked this up thinking it was a licorice cupcake that a Twitter friend had made. It wasn't. I'm still not sure what the flavour was if I'm honest. Sorry. It looked pretty though.

Finally a little jar of yummyness from the previously featured G Deserts. I picked up a chocolate topped with Nutella frosting and went back a few minutes later to get a couple more as gifts for people we were meeting later and they'd all gone. Very tasty moist cake, but a bit small to share.

All in all Cupcake Camp was a great day out, lots of fun, lots of cake and lots of lovely people. According to Daisy the event raised approximately £4000 and attracted not only fabulous bakers from all over the UK (and Paris!), but also lots of friendly people who wanted to eat and relax, and a couple of celebs too. The atmosphere was great and I really hope they fulfill their promise and do it again next year, I promise to make heavy metal themed cupcakes if I'm allowed to be in the Manowar room!

Oh and finally a little something I nearly forgot to mention. I WON!!

My brussel sprouts came through for me and I won. The judges on the most unusual ingredient included Lily Vanilli and Edd Kimber. Lily sent a message round Twitter to say that she'd loved my cake which I found very touching and a couple of people who spoke to Edd said he liked it very much. I was so happy and in complete and utter shock when they called out my name. I'd spent the day worrying the judges would spit it out when they tasted it.

I got a lovely selection of baking goodies, including a fabulous spatula which has some conversion tables on it which I'll find incredibly useful.

Just a final couple of pics. 

After Iron Cupcake we celebrated at a friends pub in Camden with this cake from Curly Sue Cakes that my friend had bought for Halloween from Eat your Heart Out. Isn't it fantastically gruesome. 

Hope you all had a happy Halloween and I'd love to hear what you thought of Cupcake Camp.

Cupcake Camp

So after a night watching 5 episodes back to back of Cupcake Wars last night you think I'd be all cupcake'd out, but no, I'm sitting here with my thinking cap on wondering what I can make for Cupcake Camp on October 31st.

Cupcake Camp was started in San Francisco but has since gone global and the first one is coming to the UK on Halloween, organised by Daisy Coole to raise funds for the North London Hospice who lovingly cared for her late father

I cannot emphasise enough the difference between a hospital and this wonderful hospice. They were caring and supportive to both him and my mother and me, offering cups of tea and a shoulder to cry on as we sat with Dad for between seven and 24 hours a day. The nurses were amazing.

When Dad died I never got to say thank you to our nurses. This is my way.

The event takes place at Proud Galleries in Camden from 2-5pm and there will be lashings of cupcakes provided by amateur and professional bakers. You can sign up to bake for Cupcake Camp here, and you can also choose to enter your cupcakes in the competitions taking place with categories like Halloween inspired and Most unique ingredient. The competition will be judged by the ladies from the Primrose Bakery and the wonderful Ms Cupcake.

If you don't want to bake you can always come along on the day and scoff some cupcakes - tickets will be available for £1 each which will get you one cupcake. So you can grab yourself a cupcake bargain and help a good cause.

I hope to see you there!