Chocolate Orange Cupcakes With Orange Blossom Glacé Icing

As-Salaamu Alaykum,

Apologises for my lack of posting in recent months.

Here are some yummy cupcakes to re-break the blogging ice.

My first lot of Chocolate Orange Cupcakes I made way back in 2012 are still great but this time I chose to put a layer of orange blossom water glacé icing on top of each cupcake instead of a mountain of buttercream.  

The orange blossom water cuts through some of the sweetness of the cupcake, yet your sugar craving is well and truly satisfied. 

The baking cups I used were deep so the mix made 10 instead of the usual 12 and even then, they didn't rise to the top. This of course can be avoided if you use regular cases (liners). Do let me know if you try the recipe how it worked for you.

Chocolate Oranges Cupcakes With Orange Blossom Glacé Icing 

Recipe adapted from Fearne Cotton's Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes 10-12 portions

Ingredients

Cupcakes

150 grams slightly salted butter (softened)

150 grams caster sugar (i prefer to use golden)

175 grams self-raising flour

25 grams cocoa powder 

3 medium size eggs

zest of 1 large orange (i used navel)

orange blossom water / orange juice

Glacé Icing

200 grams icing sugar 

1 teaspoon orange blossom water

1 -2 tablespoon water

Decorate

sprinkles of your choice

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Lay out baking cups on a baking tray.
2. Using an electric mixer or with a wooden spoon and bowl mix together butter and sugar till light and fluffy (5-10 minutes)
3. Beat in the orange zest.Add eggs one at a time, ensuring each one is thoroughly incorporated before adding the next (5 minutes)
4. Sift flour and cocoa powder into bowl and with a large metal spoon fold into the mixture until just incorporated. 
5. Lightly mix in enough orange blossom water/orange juice until you get a dropping consistency.
6. Using a 1/4cup or ice cream scoop, divide into baking cups. Bake in centre of oven for 15-20 minutes until firm to touch.
7. Remove from oven and leave to cool.
8. Once cupcakes are cool make the glacé icing; in a large bowl sift in icing sugar, add orange blossom water and 1 tablespoon water, gently mix adding more water as needed until it's just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
9. Top each cupcake with a generous teaspoon of glacé icing and decorate with your favourite sprinkles.

I'm Taking A Blogging Break & Black Tea Cupcakes With Honey Buttercream

As-Salam Alaikum / Greetings Dear Reader,

Honesty is always the best policy, my home baking journey doesn't always run smoothly and I still manage to blog about it because that's just me 'keeping it real' I learn something new almost each time I bake that's what keeps me motivated and passionate about this hobby but with arrival of a new born within a matter of weeks I am going to be taking a back seat in blogging for a while.

I will still be updating my instagram while i'm gone so keep a look out.

As of yesterday, I became aware there was such a thing as a UK Cup size in baking and guess what? I've been using UK Cups when trying out US recipes all this time.

US Cup = 236.5ml

UK Cup = 250ml

The UK Cup is slightly bigger than US Cup.

Apologises to all who have tried any of the few Cup measured recipes I've featured here if they haven't worked out as you hoped.

I try to avoid using Cup recipes because I've always been told weighing is a bakers way to achieve the best results and I still stand by that, although some recipes are too irresistible like this Black Tea Cake With Honey Buttercream a Tea lovers dream which quite easily could have been a nightmare for me, alhamdulillah it wasn't even I used the wrong Cup size!

I should have trusted Kristin's US Cup to metric conversions and gone with my measuring jug and weighing scales but I incorrectly thought she must be wrong because to me a Cup = 250ml after all I'd read it on my shiny Cups and to read her first ingredient Milk 1 Cup = 235ml I just dismissed it and went with my Cups.

As you can see from the photos, using UK Cups didn't affect this recipe too much masha'Allah.

My cupcakes were alot lighter in colour than Kristin's cake. Afterwards I realised this is due to using more milk than the original recipe and not more tea because as far as I know and please tell me if I'm wrong, a UK&US tablespoon are the same?!

Black Tea in the cupcakes and salt in the buttercream balances out the honey plus icing sugar sweetness in the frosting so they aren't overly sweet and the milk brewed tea flavour is definitely still there.

You can use any Black Tea you prefer but I went with this high quality Ceylon (Sri Lanka) Black Tea, that is said to have an aroma reminiscent of citrus, maybe next time I make these I will try to enhance that quality by adding some zest of lemon/orange.

Another thing I'm pondering over since my recent measurement lesson is the size of a Cupcake, as Kristin says her recipe makes 18 US cupcakes, my larger scale recipe made just 14, not that I'm complaining but still I'm thinking are UK cupcake cases bigger? after all I was under the assumption as many are that the US are the super sizes! Looks like us Brits are quickly catching up.

So go on if I've not managed to make you run for the hills and your a Black Tea admirer put these cupcakes or the original cake high up on your things to bake list.

 

BLACK TEA CUPCAKES WITH HONEY BUTTERCREAM

Recipe Adapted from Pastry Affair

Makes 14

Measurements taken using UK Cups

Ingredients

Black Tea Cake                    

1 Cup milk                                            

3 tablespoons black tea (for me that meant contents of 6 Ceylon tea bags but it depends on size of teabags your using)                                            

1/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 Cup caster or granulated sugar  (i used vanilla sugar)                                                

2 large eggs                                     

1/4 Cup vegetable oil                   

1 teaspoon vanilla  (use if not using vanilla sugar)                                  

1 3/4 Cups + 2 teaspoons self raising flour

Honey Buttercream

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature                              

3 tablespoons honey  (i used set honey)                                       

2 cups powdered sugar            

2 tablespoons milk/water (may not be necessary if you use runny honey)

Pinch of salt

Method   

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F / 180 degrees C / 160 degrees C (Fan) Place cases in cupcake pan.

Warm the milk until near boiling on the stove or in the microwave. Cut open the tea bags and add the tea directly into the milk. Allow to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Beat in the vegetable oil and vanilla. Gradually add in the self raising flour. Stir in the tea brewed milk, mixing until batter is uniform and smooth.

Transfer batter to cupcake cases, bake for 15-20minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before frosting or serving.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and honey until smooth.
Add the icing sugar and salt and continue mixing until the frosting comes together. If the frosting is too runny, add more icing sugar until it reaches the right consistency. Likewise, if the frosting is too stiff, add more milk/water to thin it out. If the frosting is too sweet, add a pinch more salt until the desired sweetness is achieved.

Spread or pipe (i used a 9mm open star tip) the honey buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes and serve.

*Photos taken with xperiaZ with added instagram effects

Chocolate & Date With A Hint Of Orange Blossom, Star Shape Brownie 'Cupcakes'

As-Salamu Alaykum,

These 'cupcakes' aren't really cupcakes at all but rather mini star shaped brownies! Baked in my new silicone star shaped cupcake cases (I'm such a big kid when it comes to bake ware) the 'cupcakes' tag had to be added to the end of the longest blog title ever or it just wouldn't be right in my cupcake lover eyes.

 

Created when I had a desire to bake brownies after so many years of one not passing my lips, since high school which was like 10 years ago! to hand I had a bar of very dark (90% cacao) chocolate that even the kids won't eat so perfect for me to take and use in brownies but just one thing my husband is not a big chocolate lover so I had to think how I can make these brownies more to his taste and we all know Algerians like dates and orange blossom right?

Love the Name!

Au natural dates are rare to find in the UK, most are coated in glycerin, glucose syrup or both which is a shame because dates last a very long time without any preservatives at all.

Orange blossom water is a light background note in these brownies that is easily missed if you can't distinguish it's floral slightly bitter taste from all the dark chocolate in it's way i won't blame you and it can easily be left out all together or replaced with some orange zest and freshly squeezed orange juice because let's face it chocolate, dates and orange just work and I was right (for once) masha'Allah hubby liked how the brownies weren't overly sweet (they definitely needed the light coating of icing) and he liked the sticky date slightly fudgy texture of them too.

No worries if you haven't got the star shaped cases, you can still bake these brownies either in regular cupcake cases or as a sheet of brownies but remember cooking times will vary than those stated in recipe.

In the past I haven't been so overly impressed with silicone bake ware, I have 2 round cake pans made of silicone which I still have to line the bottoms of or my cakes stick but as you can see I had no problems removing the brownies from these cupcake cases I wonder why?

I thought about it and maybe it's because I placed the cases on a lined cookie sheet before baking which I don't do for my big cake pans and I felt was necessary on this occasion as I didn't want any of my stars falling between the bars of the oven rack. I may just have to bake a cake to test my theory and of course I will give a full report and recipe in sha Allah.

If your set on buying the Sweetly Does It Silicone Star Cupcake Cases like I was and your in the UK you can get them here I've also seen them on Amazon and noticed they do heart shaped ones too, how cute!

A little side note.tip: for those who photograph food with a digital compact in their Kitchen while the washing machine is on, DON'T DO IT the noise seriously affects the quality of the photos.

Chocolate & Date With A Hint Of Orange Blossom Star Shape Brownie 'Cupcakes'

Recipe adapted from Joy Of Baking and inspired by Cook Republic's Chocolate & Date Fudge Brownies

Ingredients

For brownie 'cupcakes'

• 85 grams / 3ounce Dark (90% cacao) Chocolate, broken into small pieces
• 113 grams / 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, cut into pieces
• 100 grams / 1/2 cup Brown sugar (I used Demerara sugar as that's all I had to hand but any will do even white)
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon Orange Blossom Water
• 95 grams / 3/4 cup Plain Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 100grams / 1/2 cup plus 2 Dates, pitted and roughly chopped

For Chocolate & Orange Blossom Icing - adapted from Easy Milk Chocolate Frosting for Brownies

• 1 1/2 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
• 94grams / 3/4 cup Icing Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Water or Milk
• 1 tablespoon Cocoa Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Orange Blossom Water

You will need approximately 2 dates,  pitted and chopped for decoration.

Method

 

Pre-Heat Oven to 180C / 160C (Fan) / 350F / Gas Mark 4 and place rack in centre of oven.

 

Place Star Cupcake Cases on a lined baking sheet, set aside.

 

Sieve the Flour and Salt together into a medium size bowl and set aside.

 

Chop dates, place in a bowl and coat in a pinch of your flour from above or place the  chopped dates in the flour bowl and gently toss!

 

Melt chocolate and butter in a stainless steel bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from the heat and stir in sugar then let cool for a few minutes.

 

Add the eggs, one at a time mixing well between each addition then add the orange blossom water and mix again. Add the flour/salt mixture and chopped date and stir until well blended.

 

Evenly divide the brownie batter between your 12 cases, about 1 1/2 tablespoons of batter per case. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20minutes or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre has moist crumbs.

 

Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

 

Once the brownie cupcakes have cooled make the icing: melt butter in a saucepan oven medium heat, add cocoa powder then remove from heat and stir in icing sugar, water/milk and orange blossom water until smooth.

 

Spread icing over brownie cupcakes and decorate with a piece of date.

 

*Tip: If you want to display the brownies out of their cases then remove brownies from cases before spreading on the icing or when you come to remove them from the cases the icing will slightly crack at the edges as pictured below.

 

 



A Bakers Dozen (13): Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes

Asalam Alaykum,

Ever heard the term 'Baker's dozen'? Well a Baker's dozen in England = 13 why? you may ask, i know i have, when all bun tins i've ever seen are even numbered i.e. 6, 12....

Here's the answer courtesy of Wikipedia

A baker's dozen, devil's dozen, long dozen, or long measure is 13, one more than a standard dozen. The oldest known source for the expression "baker's dozen" dates to the 13th century in one of the earliest English statutes, instituted during the reign of Henry III (1216–72), called the Assize of Bread and Ale. Bakers who were found to have shortchanged customers (some variations say that they would sell hollow bread) could be subject to severe punishment including judicial amputation of a hand. To guard against losing a hand to an axe, a baker would give 13 for the price of 12 in order to be certain of not being known as a cheat. Specifically, the practice of baking 13 items for an intended dozen was insurance against "short measure", on the basis that one of the 13 could be lost, eaten, burnt, or ruined in some way, leaving the baker with the original legal dozen. The practice can be seen in the guild codes of the Worshipful Company of Bakers in London. 

Masha'Allah the above reminded me of the following verses in the Qur'an regarding the matter of giving/receiving an accurate measure and weight in transactions.

*note the following is the english translation of the meaning of the arabic verses.

11:84. And to the Madyan people (We sent) their brother Shu`ayb. He said: "O my people! Worship Allah, you have no other god but Him, and give not short measure or weight. I see you in prosperity and verily, I fear for you the torment of a Day encompassing.''
11:85. And O my people! Give full measure and weight in justice and reduce not the things that are due to the people, and do not commit mischief in the land, causing corruption.

How many of you have been short changed in some form before? whether it's the description of the product or the number of items/money etc. By accident or on purpose, the feeling of being cheated out of something is not pleasant at all.

Then on the other hand you have the example of  how bakers would give away 1 extra for every 12(dozen) to prove they weren't unjust infact they were being generous! Does the bakers dozen still exist in bakeries today?

Well in my home Bakery lol it does, so on to my 13 Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes, i made a few changes including switching around the name from Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes

I changed the name to reflect the flavour, instead of having too much of a sour lemon taste they had before, now they have a nice balance between rich deep chocolate and zesty citrus.

I increased the amount of cocoa in the cupcake whilst removing it totally from the Icing which gave a nice contrast in colour and flavour.

I swapped the Icing from a chocolate buttercream to a lemon cream cheese icing, i made a slight boo boo with the icing, it became too runny to pipe hence the pool instead of a thick swirl. This led to using less icing than original anticipated :) which meant i had some leftover for eating straight out of the bowl!

Later, i discovered from the daring kitchen i wasn't the only one to have ever experienced this problem with runny cream cheese icing, what a relief! So from my limited research i discovered what could have gone wrong:-

The order of making my icing, i creamed the cream cheese and butter together first and then added the icing sugar.

I should have mixed the butter and icing sugar together and then added the cream cheese, i must try this next time in sha Allah but all in all i'm happy because the cupcakes looked ok and tasted great, so go on the next time your up for trying something new, give this odd but yummy flavour combination cupcakes a try!

By the way, i didn't purposely set out to make 13 cupcakes but in order not to waste the batter leftover in bowl, i filled a cupcake case, stuck it on a baking tray and off it went into the oven to bake and it didn't collapse like i thought it would having no support from a bun tin.

Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes

Makes: 13

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

165 grams Unsalted Butter (you can use margarine), at room temperature

165 grams Caster Sugar / vanilla sugar

3 eggs

115 grams Self raising Flour

50 grams Unsweetened Cocoa Powder

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 tablespoon of Lemon Juice

For the Lemon Cream Cheese Icing:

I halved the recipe from Lizzy

 

1/4 cup Butter, softened

4oz. Cream Cheese, softened

Zest of 1 Lemon

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1 1/2 - 2 cup icing sugar, as needed

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 160C Fan/180C and line a bun tin with cases (don't forget you will have enough batter to make 13 so either bake 12 first and then 1 seperately or use a 24 hole bun tin if you have, alternatively fill the odd case and place on baking tray and bake on oven shelf underneath your 12 like i did)
2. In a bowl mix whisk together cocoa and flour, set aside. In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream together your butter, sugar, lemon zest until light in colour and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 by 1 ensuring each egg is fully combined before adding the next.
3. Add cocoa/flour and your lemon juice and mix/fold in just until you have no traces of flour/butter left.
4. Bake on the rack just 1 lower than the middle for 15-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Make cream cheese icing by mixing butter, zest, juice and icing sugar together and then add the cream cheese and mix until homogenous.
6. Spread or pipe icing onto cupcakes and top with your favourite sprinkles/decorations. 

Photos of my first Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes



The Only Use I Find For The Telephone Directory lol 

Salam Alaykum,

For a short while now i have been developing my own cupcake recipes, likey likey my Chocolate Coconut Cupcakes and Espresso Cupcakes.

The Lemon Chocolate Cupcakes pictured above are a work in progress.... i have succeeded with the cupcake itself, but the buttercream icing i made although it looks delightful was too sour, I'd over estimated how much i liked the bitter taste of lemon and not taken into account the fact that cocoa powder itself is slightly bitter, tut tut.

I was inspired by Lizzy's Chocolate Lemon Cupcakes and i mean come on what girl doesn't like either chocolate or lemon so why not combine both win, win situation!

I don't work from box mixes so following Lizzy's recipe was out of the question and since I'd had success before inventing cupcake recipes i thought why not? anyway i may take a leaf out of her book next time and go for a lemon cream cheese frosting as there is something eye catching about the contrasting colours, brown cupcake and creamy coloured frosting.

I am cupcaked out to be honest but my son's only baking request these days is 'let's make cupcakes' masha'Allah he helps by turning on the mixer and whisking the cocoa powder/flour together oh and he is a dab hand (NOT but let the lad learn) at sprinkling the sprinkles lol

* Note: Here is the link to my Chocolate Lemon Cupcake Recipe

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Salam Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah,

That's right the cupcake monster is back again, ready to urge you to get into the kitchen, put on your apron and do some baking!

Recipe adapted from my victoria sandwich cupcakes

Tip: Coconut oil is solid at room temperature so what you can do to make the whole process of creaming easier is melt the coconut oil in a pan on low heat and allow to cool a little before mixing with your butter and sugar.

I tried something different by trying to make these cupcakes look like british butterfly buns

Don't think it quite worked! rather a fat inelegant butterfly lol

Chocolate & Coconut Cupcakes

Makes: 7-8 regular size cupcakes

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

• 70g margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 40g extra virgin coconut oil, room temperature
• 110g vanilla caster sugar 2 medium size eggs
• 80g self raising flour
• 30g coco powder

For the icing

• 15g extra virgin coconut oil, room temperature
• 60g margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 175g icing sugar
• 1-2tbsp coconut milk
• Coco powder for dusting

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases
2. In a large bowl, cream together your butter, coconut oil and sugar until light and fluffy. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sieve flour and coco powder over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon until the flour has just combined.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15minutes. Once cooked the cupcakes should be springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. Make the icing: cream together butter and coconut oil, slowly add sifted icing sugar and then add milk until you get you desired consistency.
6. Once the cupcakes have cooled, fill your piping bag fitted with desired nozzle with icing and pipe onto centre of cupcakes.
7.  Dust cupcakes with coco powder (optional) another idea would be to add desicated coconut

 

 

Espresso Cupcakes

*note the above pictures were from the first batch of espresso cupcakes which were nice but weaker in coffee flavour, i was still working on the recipe! here they are darker and stronger!

Espresso Cupcakes

makes 9-12 depending on the size of your cupcake cases

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 110g / 4oz margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 110g / 4oz vanilla caster sugar
• 2 medium size eggs
• 2tbsp strong espresso coffee, brewed and then cooled
• 1/4tsp cinnamon
• 110g / 4oz self raising flour

For the filling and topping

• 150ml double/heavy cream, whipped to form stiff peeks add a tbsp icing sugar to sweeten or to taste
• 100-150g your favourite type of chocolate, melted
• Icing sugar for dusting, optional extra

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases. brew coffee and leave to cool.
2. In a large bowl, cream together your chosen fat and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy coloured. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sift flour over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon, when the flour is nearly all incorporated add the espresso and fold until mixture is a even colour.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15-20mins (mine were done at 18 minutes) they should be springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When cool, slice a little circle out of the top of each cupcake. Fill with a generous teaspoon of sweetened whipped cream replace lids, melt chocolate and drizzle over lids, leave to set and then dust cupcakes with icing sugar, using a sieve and from a height.

*Feel free to sprinkle a touch of cinnamon and/or cocoa powder onto the whipped cream centers before replacing the cupcake lids.

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes

Recipe loosely adapted from London Bakes

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes

makes 9-12 depending on the size of your cupcake cases

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 110g / 4oz margarine or unsalted butter, softened
• 110g / 4oz vanilla caster sugar
• 2 medium size eggs
• 110g / 4oz self raising flour

For the filling & topping

• 12tsp jam (i used strawberry flavour)
• 150ml double cream / heavy cream, whipped to form stiff peeks
• Icing sugar for dusting tops

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/160C (fan). Line a bun tin with paper/foil cases.
2. In a large bowl, cream together your chosen fat and sugar until light, fluffy and creamy coloured. In a small bowl, whisk the eggs and then slowly add them to the mixture in your larger bowl, whisk mixture continually to prevent it from splitting.
3. Sift flour over the mixture and gently fold preferably using a large metal spoon until the flour has just combined.
4. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake for 15-20mins (mine were done at 17minutes) until lightly golden brown, springy to touch and when you insert a cocktail stick in the center it comes out clean i.e. not sticky, a few crumbs are OK. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When cool, slice a little circle out of the top of each cupcake. Fill with a generous teaspoon of whipped cream followed by a teaspoon of jam (make sure it's in that order if you want to be able to see the jam!) replace lids and dust cupcakes with icing sugar, using a sieve and from a height.

Cupcake Wars: Victoria Sandwich vs Espresso

Salam Alaykum,

 

Here is a light hearted battle of my most recent homemade cupcakes, both were delicious but only one will come out on top, who will it be?

 

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes - straight from oven

 

Victoria Sandwich Cupcakes - complete (sort of)

Victoria Sanwich Cupcakes - now complete with a dusting of icing sugar but who can spot the odd one out? 

 

VS.

Espresso Cupcakes straight from oven

 

filled with whipped cream, but wait it gets better

 

Chocolate, melted and drizzled over oh and a dusting of icing sugar that was not at all necessary

 

and the winner is:

 

Espresso!

 

I just had to make these delights again but this time they were a stronger espresso flavour which went down a storm with dh, al hamdu lillah

(excuse the lighting, i took this photo at night compared to the rest which were in the morning/early afternoon)

Recipes, coming soon in shaa Allah
Update * here are the recipe links
Victoria sandwich cupcakes recipe
Espresso cupcakes recipe

 

Very Vanilla Cupcakes With Vanilla Buttercream Roses

If you follow me on instagram you have already had a sneaky peak at these very vanilla cupcakes i baked for my twin sister.

The rose buttercream swirl on each cupcake i promise you isn't as hard as it looks, honestly! for me it's the easiest piping technique i have come across so far in my cake decorating ventures.

The rose is flowing with natural beauty and you don't have to worry about every rose being identical or symmetrical, for me that is what is so appealing about using this technique for decorating cupcakes or cake.

The next time you and your children are baking together be confident and give it a try, what's the worst that could happen? that you have to remove the buttercream and start again? Take 1 cupcake  use it to practice, keep piping, scraping off and piping some more until you are happy, then you can have the peace of mind that you are able to decorate the rest of the batch.

I would always recommend you use a 1M wilton icing tip for this, other closed star tips are said to work too but i have never tried anything else because of the fab results i get each time using the 1M.

The texture of buttercream should not be so stiff or you won't be able to pipe, on the other hand if your buttercream is too runny/wet then the design will dissapear.

The icing recipe below was enough for me to pipe buttercream roses on 18 cupcakes.

I adapted Nigella's vanilla cupcake recipe by firstly x2 all the ingredients, hoping i would make 24 cupcakes out of the batter when infact i got 18! I replaced the vanilla extract with 2 lots of seeds from 2 vanilla pods and baked them at 160C/140C (Fan) for 15minutes

Vanilla Buttercream Icing Recipe

Ingredients

150g  unsalted butter, softened/ room temperature
300g icing sugar, sieved
4-5tbsp Milk
1 vanilla pod, seeds only

Method

1. Place butter and vanilla into a large bowl and beat for 30 seconds
2. Add icing sugar, starting Slowly!
3. Whilst beating the butter/sugar mixture, add Milk one tablespoon full at a time until the mixture just drops of the wooden spoon/beaters when lifted.

Here is a video that shows the buttercream rose technique amongst others.

Specific ingredients, bakeware, decorations i used

• Self raising flour (Mcdougalls brand supreme sponge self raising flour i believe is it's long winded name)
• Gourmet Indian vanilla pods - available from vanilla mart (germany, uk, usa).  I chose the indian variety as they are the cheapest and well my palate was pleased
• Blue baby cupcake toppers - available from designer cupcakes with love seller on e-bay ( please always ask for the ingredients list before buying decorations online something i forgot in this instance so i asked the seller after the arrival of my purchase and alhamduillah they were made with fondant that is suitable for vegetarians and without alcohol.
• Green sugar crystals - i purchased these directly from Quality Sprinkles UK Ltd who normally only deal with retailers, as i couldn't get hold of another product from their range of halal sprinkles from their stockists Farmfoods, 99p Stores, Home Bargains, TJ Morris or Iceland in my area/South Yorkshire (they are or were at the time of purchase, still stocking the older haram version which contains E120 and shellac so beware if your on the look out) it took a long time to process my order from start to finish but i am but not literally (doesn't make sense i know) a small fish in a big pond and they did me a massive favour by even dealing with me in the first place.

Until next time, Salam Alaikum / Peace!

Test Bake : Vanilla Cupcakes

 

3 days ago i baked cupcakes in my new oven for the first time, as you can probably see it didn't all go according to plan, oven problems again!

Now if you read my previous post you will note, i wanted to buy a conventional  / regular oven apposed to convection / fan oven, as they are known to be better baking ovens and fan ovens always run hot, always! well at least in my experience they do.

We bought yet another convection /fan oven (Alhamduillah / All praise be to Allah) as it was the only one within our budget and isn't new persay but reconditioned like the one we had before.

I have a oven thermometer so i thought it would be no biggy,  i set my oven to 140 degrees centrigrade on the dial but for some reason the oven just kept getting hotter and hotter and hotter 150, 160, 180.... i had to switch down the oven part way through baking but of course by then it was too late, the damage had been done! the cupcakes had risen too quickly, causing cracks in the surface and a few had erupted like volcanoes, thankfully the taste and texture underneath the crust were delightful, smooth fragrant vanilla and very airy and light due to using Mcdougalls self raising supreme sponge flour definitely going to be buying more of that.

Baking is a science as we all know, it's only easy if you have the right equipment and recipe, i will be making these again tomorrow (i must remember to reduce the oven temperature to 120 on the dial / 160 in a conventional oven) they are going to be a gift to my sister who has recently had a newborn, that's when i eventually get to visit inshaAllah (God willing) Friday, you see my children have been ill for what seems like forever,  it's only been a couple of weeks but one still has a runny nose.

The recipe i used to make my cupcakes can be found here  

The Nutella frosting i used can be found here, i halved the recipe quantities and it iced 12 cupcakes, with some to spare. I substituted half the butter for cream cheese which added a nice sour note to cut through the rich, sweet chocolate.  If you want to use the butter cream frosting to pipe high on your cupcakes then use the original recipe quantities, again substituting half butter for cream cheese (Philadelphia is the brand i used and in my opinion it's got to to be full fat)

I let my son help in piping on the frosting as it was the perfect opportunity with the cupcakes not being quite up to scratch,  the piping work didn't have to be either and well i had already bought him his own decorating bag and nozzles a few months ago that he was yet to use, we had lots of fun and  frosting left over that we speedily took 2 spoons to.

The cupcakes liners i bought on e-bay and although i will be using them again, they are not greaseproof as i thought, i would suggest you bake your cupcakes in regular white greaseproof cases (I'm all out) and then for display place them inside these baking cups, also the cups would be great for ice cream or other snacks such as small portions of pop corn.

Until next time, peace!

Orange & Raspberry Cupcakes

Makes 11-12

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

180g/6oz butter, softened

180g/6oz cater/super-fine sugar

180g/6oz self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3-4 tbsp orange juice, freshly squeezed

2 eggs, medium size and room temperature

Zest of 1 large orange

For the filling

X amount of Raspberry coulis ( you can easily home make this by blending a 225g punnet of raspberries, press through a fine sieve to remove seeds)

For the icing

My raspberry ripple mascarpone buttercream icing click here

 

 

Method

Preheat the oven to 160C (Fan) /180C/350F/Gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Sieve flour and baking powder together x 2

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time along with 1 tablespoon of flour, ensuring egg1 is fully combined into the mixture before adding the second egg and flour.

Add zest, juice and flour and continue to mix until just combined, if using a wooden spoon gently fold in the figure of eight i found works the best.

Using an ice cream scoop divide the mixture into your paper cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until risen and golden-brown. Remove from the oven and set aside on a wire rack to cool.

While cakes are cooling make up the raspberry ripple mascarpone buttercream icing

Fill your cupcakes with raspberry coulis (i prefer unsweetened but you can sweeten it if your prefer *use icing sugar though or you will get a gritty texture), the easiest method if you haven't got a filling tip or baking syringe is by using a small spoon or melon baller.

Pipe icing onto cupcakes using a round nozzle/tip (you can then spread carefully using a palette knife if you want like i did with some of mine) 

Decorate with sprinkles /orange zest and raspberries or for the classic decorating put a cherry (glace or fresh) on top - all these are optional extras that i can't do without!

 

Top Tip Tuesday - Cupcake Decorating Tutorial Video

Check out Lizzy's video, learn how to decorate your cupcakes like a pro / student baker! Also, i recommend you check out Lizzy's your cup of cake blog for regular baking inspiration.

Pistachio Cupcakes With Chocolate Rose Buttercream

I will keep this post short but sweet, inshAllah.

I recently made a promise to myself, that I would leave off baking cupcakes for a while…..yeh er promises are made to be broken right?! Maybe I should have named this blog 'sugar rush' or' sugar high' as no one could possibly go away from here without being on or wanting to be on one!

Less so when you have to face removing pistachios from their shells, my least favourite task of this bake.

I recently bought an oven thermometer,  today i discovered my electric fan oven is running 20 ˚C-30 ˚C hotter than normal, so I reduced my oven temperature accordingly which in turn resulted in super light and fluffy cupcakes! An oven thermometer is really worth investing a few £/$ in, especially when you bake regularly. I used to think to myself, really can oven temperature make such a big difference, wouldn’t what you bake just bake faster? But honestly baking at the right temperature makes a hug a difference on how your cakes rise and the overall texture, you certainly won’t regret purchasing an oven thermometer, now onto the recipe.

Recipe

Makes 10

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

120g unsalted butter, softened

160g caster sugar

1tsp rosewater

2 large eggs, room temperature

200g self-raising flour

1tsp baking powder


2tbsp milk or water

50g chopped pistachios, toasted

For the buttercream:

150g unsalted butter, softened

300g icing sugar

160g bittersweet / plain chocolate, melted

2tbsp milk or water

1tsp rosewater

Method

1. For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 160 ˚C (fan)/180˚C/350˚F/gas 4. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with only 10 cases.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder together in a large, clean bowl and set aside.
3. In a separate large, clean bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the rosewater.
4. Fold in half the sifted flour, then the milk/water, then the rest of the flour, gently folding well to combine after each addition.
5. Gently fold in the pistachios.
6. Spoon the cupcake mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and place on wire racks to cool completely.

1. For the buttercream: Melt the chocolate over a bain marie or short bursts in the microwave, leave to cool to room temperature.
2. In a large, clean bowl cream the butter, then gradually add and stir in the sugar until smooth and creamy.
3. Add the cooled melted chocolate, rosewater and milk/water.
4. Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes using a piping bag and then, garnish with crushed pistachios.

This cake flavor combination works well but I didn’t get much rosewater coming through, maybe next time I will use more rosewater in the cake batter.

Another idea would be to use white chocolate instead of plain, as chocolate can sometimes take over the show and even more so when your over generous on the buttercream.