N.O.A

Now I know it’s January, which means that most of you are either dieting or detoxing. But here is a little post to tempt you away from your January blues. These are the most complex cupcakes that I have mastered so far. But they’re super easy, trust me.

Mohito Cupcakes

Now these cupcakes are tangy and refreshing. Perfect served after dinner. The great thing about them is that you do not use too much rum, so maybe make a pitcher of Mohito to match.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases. Apparently this recipe is for mini cupcakes, but who likes the itsy-bitsy kind! In a saucepan bring the rum and 30g of caster sugar to a boil, allow it to reduce by half, then set aside to cool.

Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, set on a low speed, beat together the 40g butter, flour, salt, baking powder, 1 tsp of lime zest and 1 tsp of lemon zest, mint and remaining caster sugar. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and are crumb-like in consistancy. Mix together the egg, 120g of milk, vanilla essence in a jug. Whisk together and gradually pour the liquid ingredients into the butter mixture until they have all come together.

Spoon the batter into the case filling each one two-thirds of the way up. Place in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cupcakes are lightly golden brown on top and springy to touch.

While still warm, spoon a tsp of cooled rum over each cupcake, then leave them to cool completely while you make the icing.

Using the electric whisk, mix together the 80g of butter, icing sugar, a quarter of a tsp of lemon and lime zest (finely chopped) on a low speed until combined and sandy in texture. In a jug mix togther 4 tsp of milk, and 4 tsp of rum, then pour this into the butter mixture. Mix until the all ingredient have been incorporated, increase the speed to high and beat the icing util light and fluffy.

Devide the icing on to each cupcake with a spoon and spread over with a palate knife. To finish, you can garnish with mint, lime zest mixed with sugar or with whatever you like. YUM!

Strawberry Daiquiri Cupcakes

A girly cupcake for ladies who like pink (the cupcakes are not actually pink, but they could be if you add a tsp of red food colouring to the icing mixture)

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases. In a saucepan bring the rum and 30g of caster sugar to a boil, allow it to reduce by half, then set aside to cool. Hull and chop the strawberries into small chuncks, then soak in the rum for 30 minutes.

This bit is pretty much the same as the mohito kind, but here you go anyway. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, set on a low speed, beat together the 40g butter, flour, salt, baking powder and remaining caster sugar. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and are crumb-like in consistancy. Mix together the egg, 120g of milk, vanilla essence in a jug. Whisk together and gradually pour the liquid ingredients into the butter mixture until they have all come together.

Drain the strawberries from the pan, saving the liquid and place a small piece in each of the cupcake cases. Again spoon the batter into the case filling each one two-thirds of the way up. Place in the oven for 10-12 minutes or until the cupcakes are lightly golden brown on top and springy to touch. While still warm, spoon a tsp of cooled rum over each cupcake, then leave them to cool completely while you make the icing.

Using the electric whisk, mix together the 80g of butter and icing sugar on a low speed until combined and sandy in texture. In a jug mix togther 4 tsp of milk, and 4 tsp of rum, then pour this into the butter mixture. Mix until the all ingredient have been incorporated, increase the speed to high and beat the icing util light and fluffy.

In the same way as before spoon the icing onto each cupcake and spread with a palette knife. This time you can decorate with strawberries, edible glitter, whatever takes your fancy!

Both recipes from The Hummingbird Bakery.

I have recently discovered that I like to bake. And although in my first ever attempt at making Red Velvet Cupcakes I missed out three of the main ingredients – I now understand what baking powder is for – I have come a long way since then and have mastered cupcakes and will soon move on to more complicated sweets but I thought I would share my latest creation, Banoffee Cupcakes. Toffee flavoured butter icing atop moist banana sponge, decorated with dark chocolate

Now I have to admit, I am not a big fan of banoffee but as it was someone’s birthday recently I thought I would make his favourite. In the recipe book the cupcakes are topped with a custard based icing, but because I hate custard and because that seemed like a little too much effort I adapted it to toffee butter icing.

For the sponge:

80g unsalted butter

280g caster sugar

240g plain flour

1 tbsp. of baking powder

¼ tsp. of salt

240ml of milk (book says whole milk, but you will never find me using that)

1 tsp. of vanilla essence

2 large eggs

2 ripe bananas

For the icing:

500g of icing sugar

160g of unsalted butter

3 ½ tbsp. of tinned caramel

50ml of milk

Dark chocolate to decorate

Once I pre-heated the oven to 190’C and filled muffin tins with 16 muffin cases, I moved on to the real ingredients. I mixed the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt on a low speed in an electric mixer until all the ingredients are well mixed together and it looks like breadcrumbs. Then whisk together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs in a jug and pour three quarters of it into the dry ingredients. Mix on a low speed, scraping the bowl to make sure it is all incorporated. Increase the speed to medium, adding the rest of the milk mixture from the jug until that batter is smooth. TRY IT, IT TASTES GREAT! Peel and mash the bananas and stir them in. I did not mash the bananas too much so that you have bigger chunks in the cakes, but you can do as you please.

Divide the batter between the muffin cases, filling each one two thirds of the way up and if there is more, just use more cases. Bake the cupcakes for about 16-18 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed. Once they are ready, take them out and leave them to cool on a wire rack. Once completely cooled you can begin the icing.

Mix the butter and icing sugar in an electric mixer until powdering in texture. Gradually add in the milk and increase the speed, the mix will become smooth a thick. Once this is done, slowly mix in the tinned caramel, one-tablespoon at a time until the colour turns caramel. Spoon the icing on to the cold cupcakes, smoothing it out with a paddle knife and swirl to finish. Grate some dark chocolate on top to finish it off.