Strawberry Surprise Cupcakes

This weekend I'm taking a big step and driving my car (which belonged to my parents until this week) up to Newcastle. The longest distance I've driven before is up to Bristol from Plymouth (about 2 hours), so I'm going quite a bit further, but it has to be done some time so there's no time like the present.

I'm especially excited because I'm going to Cadbury World today. I've never been before, and am very excited by the copious amounts of chocolate I'll be exposed to. I've been picturing an almost Willy Wonka-esque factory, but I know I need to tone down those imaginings just ever so slightly. 

I'm meeting up with my ex-housemate, who was also my biggest cake eater when we lived together. I've sent him a lot of cookies, and even managed to post a battenburg cake for his birthday, but I don't think cupcakes would translate very well in the post. This is a pity, because none of my housemates eat/like cake. I know - who are these people?! Anyway, since we're meeting up in person I've made some cupcakes to give him, since they are less likely to be squashed and unappealing by the time I reach him. 

I'm really pleased with these cupcakes. The icing (adapted from Sweetapolita) is soft and airy, and the strawberries in the centre help to cut through its sweetness. These are actually surprisingly simple to make: all you need to do is make the cupcakes, cut a hole in the middle and fill it with a strawberry, then cover it over with icing. The icing is as easy as melting chocolate and blending it into icing sugar and butter. 

I strongly encourage you to give them a go, as they managed to entice even the least sugar-loving members of my family. Cupcakes for everyone!

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200g Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 200g Plain Flour
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Essence
• 50mL Milk
• 400g Strawberries

For the icing

• 230g Butter
• 190g Icing Sugar
• 125g White Chocolate

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line a cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
• To make the cupcakes: cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time, until smooth.
• Sift the flour and baking powder into the batter and fold in until well combined.
• Stir in the vanilla essence, then add enough milk to give the batter a soft dropping consistency.
• Divide the batter between the cupcake cases, then bake in the oven for 22 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave the cupcakes to cool on a wire rack, then scoop out the middle (don't go all the way to the bottom) of each cake using a knife and place a hulled (destalked) strawberry inside.
• To make the icing: melt the chocolate in a pan over a low heat. 
• Use an electric whisk to combine the butter and icing sugar, then continue whisking for another 2 minutes.
• Add the white chocolate, then whisk the icing for 2 more minutes.
• Use a piping bag to decorate the cakes with the icing.

Chilli Chocolate Macarons

The first time I tried chilli chocolate was on an Italian exchange back in 2005. The family I was staying with looked on with glee as I tried some of theirs - chilli chocolate was unheard of in Britain at the time. I didn't yet have much of a spicy palate back then (in fact, I'm still only partial to mildly spicy food), but I did enjoy the contrast between the smooth chocolate and fiery chilli. It was almost like crackling chocolate as the contrast in mouthfeel pulls you in.

Eight years later, I'm still only a cautious fan of chilli chocolate, looking on from the sidelines as it gains in popularity. My dad, on the other hand, is a huge fan. To celebrate his birthday, I made these Chilli Chocolate Macarons. I'm pretty pleased with how well the colour came out, even if the oven caused some of them to crack on top. My dad really liked them, and a sizeable chunk of them had disappeared by the end of the day.

We were out of chilli powder, but I managed so scrounge some chilli flakes from the depths of a cupboard so I used those to infuse the chocolate instead. I've seen a few recipes now where the macarons are sprinkled with something before being baked, so I tried this with the chilli flakes with great results. I know macarons are notoriously tricky, but once you find a good recipe it's hard to go wrong. I use Bravetart's recipe; the first time I tried them I also read her Ten Commandments of macarons and was very successful.

Makes 15
Ingredients
For the macarons

• 4 Egg Whites
• 230g Icing Sugar
• 115g Ground Almonds
• 72g Caster Sugar
• 1 Tsp Salt
• Red gel food colouring
• 5 Tsp Chilli Flakes

For the chilli chocolate ganache

• 100g Dark Chocolate
• 50mL Water
• 2 Tbsp Chilli Flakes

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 145C and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Use a 1.5in cookie cutter to trace circles about 1in apart on the sheets of baking parchment and turn over - you'll use these as a guide for piping the macarons.
• To make the macarons, put the egg whites and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk on medium (on an electric whisk) for 3 minutes. Increase the speed setting to high and whisk for 3 minutes.
• Add the red food colouring (you will need a considerable amount to make the meringue red and not pink). Whisk for another minute. The meringue should be so stiff that it gets trapped inside the whisk. Rap it sharply on the edge of the bowl to make the trapped meringue fall out.
• Sift the ground almonds and icing sugar into the mixing bowl and fold in with a rubber spatula. After each fold, push down on the mixture as if you are trying to push the air out it (which, indeed, you are). Repeat until all of the ingredients are incorporated and, if you drop a bit of the mixture onto the top of the rest of it, the drop merges back into the mixture within 20 seconds. Make sure you also scrape around the bowl a lot to ensure that all of the meringue gets incorporated.
• Using a standard round nozzle (or by snipping the end off your disposable piping bag), pipe the macaron mixture inside the guides you drew earlier. Don't go right to the edges as the macarons do expand a little in the oven. Sprinkle the chilli flakes on top of half of the macarons.
• Rap each baking tray (complete with macarons) sharply on the work surface, then turn it 90 degrees and rap it again. This ensures that any air bubbles rise to the top.
• If you have a fan oven like me, it's a good idea to make sure your oven trays are either slightly above or slightly below the fan as this can cause the macarons to crack. 
• Put the macarons in the oven for 25 mins, turning the baking tray around half way through. After this time, try peeling a macaron from the baking parchment by holding them perpendicular to the tray and holding the top of it. If the macaron does not come away cleanly, they are not done so put them back in the oven for another 3-6 minutes, or until they do come away from the parchment paper without leaving anything behind.
• Leave the macarons to cool on a rack.
• Meanwhile, make the ganache: place all of the ingredients into a heavy-based saucepan and place over a low heat until the water starts to steam. Remove from the heat and leave until the chocolate is melted before stirring until smooth. Leave to cool and thicken.
• When the ganache is thick enough, pipe it onto half of the macarons (the flat side which was touching the baking parchment when baking). Sandwich them together with the other half of the macarons.

Grasshopper Bars

This week I went to the Lake District for three fun days of surprisingly seasonal heat and sunshine. Before the trip I had shockingly little knowledge of what I would be doing, since my friends had done all the planning. It wasn’t until 48 hours beforehand, when I started receiving texts about walking boots and sleeping bags, that I started to wonder what I had let myself in for.

You see, I am not an outdoorsy person. In the past I have had my fair share of family camping holidays (with and without lashing rain); I even did the Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award. I’m not averse to being outside, but after living in the middle of nowhere for 18 years I am now a definite city person. I still enjoy the odd adventure, though, so when I was invited along to the Lake District to stay in R’s chalet and take part in Go Ape (where you basically do an obstacle course, but high up in the trees), I was happy to come along.

It turned out that neither the walking boots nor the sleeping bag were needed, though I was taken on a four mile hike around a lake. I was under the impression that we would just be walking around the lake edge but I very quickly realised that we were actually going to be scaling a steep hill before descending to the lake only at the very end of the hike. I am no stranger to exercise, but I have to admit that, since Newcastle is extremely flat, I am no longer used to hilly terrain so this realisation was slightly unwelcome. Though I might have grumbled a little bit, I did enjoy myself in the end.

I’d only been to the Lake District once before and experienced horrific weather, so I was glad that I could enjoy the spectacular views on offer. It was definitely worth putting my life in the hands of my friends for a couple of days, and there is nothing wrong with getting out of your comfort zone.

Now, let’s get onto these Grasshopper Bars. I adapted them from the Roxanne’s Millionaire Shortbread in Nigella’s How To Be A Domestic Goddess, and planned to have a layer of the minty caramel followed by the chocolate layer, but I didn’t buy enough chocolate. Instead, I made a ganache and marbled the chocolate and caramel together. The caramel is flavoured with Crème de Menthe, but the liqueur didn’t make it green enough for me so I also added a bit of food colouring. If you’re making these for children, I’d advise swapping the Crème de Menthe for peppermint flavouring.

I do love these bars, and the shortbread base contrasts well with the gooey topping. The one issue I had was that the caramel didn’t set as well as usual because of the Crème de Menthe making it more wet, but despite the added stickiness they are well worth the minimal effort involved.

Makes 12

Ingredients

For the shortbread

• ·   125g Plain Flour
• ·   50g Cocoa Powder
• ·   100g Caster Sugar
• ·   175g Butter

For the caramel

• ·   375g Sweetened Condensed Milk
• ·   4 Tbsp Golden Syrup
• ·   100g Butter
• ·   50mL Crème de Menthe
• ·   Green Gel Food Colouring

For the ganache

• ·   200g Dark Chocolate
•     100mL Water

Recipe

• ·   Preheat the oven to 180/170C fan and line two square cake tins (or a brownie tin) with parchment paper.
• ·   Place the shortbread ingredients into a bowl and rub together with your fingertips to form a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer to the tin and press into the base, then prick all over with a fork.
• ·   Bake the shortbread for five minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 160/150C fan and bake for a further 30 minutes. Leave to cool but do not remove from the tin.
• ·   To make the caramel, place all of the ingredients  except the food colouring into a microwaveable bowl and microwave on full power for 7-8 minutes, stopping and stirring after each minute. The caramel mixture should darken when it is ready.
• ·   Add enough good colouring to give a satisfactory green colour, then pour the caramel over the shortbread.
• ·   Make the ganache by covering the chocolate with the water and melting it in a pan over a low heat.
•     Allow to cool and thicken, then pour onto the caramel and use a spoon to merge the two layers together.
• ·   Allow to set completely before slicing.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the Grasshopper is a cocktail made from Crème de Cacao, Crème de Menthe and cream. These Grasshopper Bars are my interpretation of the famous cocktail, so I’m entering them into this month’s Baking With Spirit. This month I asked you to bake something based on a cocktail, preferably using the spirits and liqueurs that you’ve accumulated over time. You’ve got until the 28^th to take part, so get baking!

This month's We Should Cocoa is being hosted by Victoria at A Kick At The Pantry Door. She's chosen mint as this month's ingredient, which we are asked to combine with chocolate. These Grasshopper Bars are therefore the perfect entry! We Should Cocoa is a monthly blogging challenge which was started by Choclette at Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot, both of whom are taking a well-earned rest!

                             

Baking With Spirit: The June Challenge

When I started this challenge I didn't realise what a collection of spirits I would end up with. I now have such a collection that I could do with a dedicated alcohol cupboard, or even a nice wooden wine rack. For now, the bottles are collected on one of the shelves in my room, helping to hold up my books:

Realising the collection I've built up over the past nine months, I thought it might be fun to try combining a few of them for this month's challenge (this might also ease up the number of belongings to transfer to my new home when I move house next month). For this month's Baking With Spirit, I'd like you all to bake something based on cocktails. To add to the challenge, it would be great if you could limit the ingredients of your cocktail to spirits that you already have in the house. If your collection is rather meagre, though, I'll let you off if you need to go to the shops first!

The main rules for the challenge are as follows (you can see the full set here):

1. Bake or cook something food-related which is based on a cocktail
2. Write a post about it on your blog and link back to my blog, Cake Of The Week, and mention Baking With Spirit
3. Email the link to me at cakeoftheweek@hotmail.co.uk and include your name, your blog and the photo you want me to use in the roundup. If you tweet me @CakeOfTheWeek and/or use #bakingwithspirit I will endeavour to retweet.
4. The deadline is midnight on the 28th of the month.

Have fun, and don't forget to share the challenge with your friends!

Baking With Spirit: The Limoncello Round-Up

Alas another month has flown by, though for the first time in six years May has not been gloriously hot and sunny. We can only hope that this means that June will take the good weather reigns this year (and maybe July and August also?) In the mean time, the lovely entrants to this month's Baking With Spirit have been brightening up their kitchens with desserts made from limoncello. As I mentioned when I set the challenge, limoncello is basically liquid sunshine, so until the weather sorts itself out you can satisfy yourself by making these delicious looking entries:

Caroline at Caroline Makes... kicked off this month's challenge with some delightful looking Limoncello Macarons. There is no need to worry about the reputedly complex nature of macaron making as you have guidance every step of the way with her step-by-step photos.

Until I received this entry from Lucia at Tortadirose, I thought that Caprese was just the famous mozzarella, basil and tomato salad (my favourite salad because I don't like many leaves). It turns out that it is also a fantastic type of cake, as shown here with Lucia's Torta Caprese With White Chocolate. It was made with limoncello, and I have to say it looks fantastic.

I made these Ginger & Limoncello bites for my mum's birthday. The two flavours compliment each other nicely, and the biscuits are incredibly moreish.

The lovely Ellen from Bake It With Booze made these Limoncello Raspberry Cream Sandwich Cookies. I know how well raspberries and lemon go well together, so I expect these must taste great - especially since both counterparts are made with spirits!

Craig from The Usual Saucepans not only made his own limoncello, but he then turned it into these Limoncello Ice Lollies, which must have been perfect for the sunny bank holiday we just enjoyed. These apparently only take 30 seconds to prepare, so there really are no excuses for making some right this second.

Finally, Mel at Sharky Oven Gloves snuck in this last-minute entry, consisting of Limoncello Cupcakes. Not only are the cupcakes soaked in limoncello, but the two-tone icing also uses it. I love the two-tone icing!

Thanks to everyone who entered this month. Check back on Saturday to see what next month's challenge has in store!

Cinnamon Apple Bars

For the past six years, May has been hot and sunny without fail. I know this because I have always been trapped indoors revising. The one year where I have no exams and a lot more free time than usual, May is decidedly mild and overcast. Fortunately, this weekend the weather has been pretty nice, so I've managed to get outside to read in the park. I'm hoping that the weather will catch up with the time of year by June.

This is quite an exciting time because from 11am on Tuesday my degree will be complete, and all there will be left to do is await results that come out at the end of June and graduate in July. Last week I handed in my MChem project report, and on Thursday I gave a 15 minute presentation to half of my class in which I discussed my unsuccessful plight to synthesise two molecules. On Tuesday I have a 35 minute viva, where two lecturers take my project report apart and ask me questions on the surrounding topic. I'm not too worried though, since I've had quite a while to prepare for it and I already know my project work back to front.

What will I do after Tuesday? Well, that's still largely undecided. Not for lack of trying, though - I've known what I want to do with my career for more than two years and have been applying for jobs since October. The current economic climate just makes a poor job market to graduate into, but I'm persevering and am confident that I'll find something soon, even if it's just some full time bar work or waitressing.

These Cinnamon Apple Bars are based on a couple of different recipes. Originally I was going to add a caramel sauce, but I decided that caramelising the apples on top would be more aesthetically appealing. The recipes for the biscuit base and gooey cinnamon layer are both adapted from Completely Delicious. I'm very pleased with this recipe as the bars taste great. They can be stored in an airtight container for a couple of weeks, though you may not be able to stave of eating them for that long!

Makes 12
Ingredients
For the biscuit base:

• 300g Caster Sugar
• 150g Plain Flour
• 100g Butter
• 1 Egg

For the cinnamon layer:

• 1 tbsp Ground Cinnamon
• 200g Caster Sugar
• 100g Plain Flour
• 1 Egg
• 126g Butter
• 60mL Milk
• 6 Tbsp Golden Syrup

For the apple topping:

• 3 Medium Apples
• 3 Tbsp Caster Sugar

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Line an 18x18in square pan (or two 9x9in pans) with parchment paper.
• To make the biscuit base, cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the egg. Slowly stir in the flour until a dough forms, then press the dough into the bottom of the pan.
• Next, make the cinnamon layer by creaming the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg, followed by the golden syrup and milk. Finally, stir in the flour and cinnamon to give a soft batter. Transfer the batter to the pan, ensuring the dough underneath is evenly covered.
• Peel and finely slice the apples, then layer the slices over the top of the cinnamon layer. Sprinkle the top with caster sugar.
• Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, or until the cinnamon layer is just starting to firm up. Use a medium grill or kitchen blow torch to scorch the top of the apples, causing the sugar to caramelise.
• Allow to cool fully before slicing up.

Movie Night Cupcakes

These cupcakes were actually designed with Eurovision in mind. For those of you who are oblivious to this annual event, Eurovision is a pop competition where each country in Europe enters their 'best' pop act, the more zany their attire the better, and at the end of the final every country tallies up their respective (politically biased) results in order to select a winner. England is notoriously unpopular, and famously received zero votes a few years ago. As I say, the votes are very biased, and many countries vote for their neighbours or allies. England apparently has no friends in political Europe, though because the winning country has to host the event the following year, a friend of mine joked that maybe we'll get more votes this year because nobody wants to have to pay for it.

Anyway, the main draw of the event is the vast array of song choices and the outfits that the performers wear. I've not watched Eurovision for a few years because it's no fun watching it alone and mocking to yourself, but this year I'm lucky enough to have found some equally enthusiastic friends to sit and watch the event with.

So, onto the cupcakes. These are chocolate cupcakes, filled with salted caramel (recipe adapted from BBC Food) and topped with chocolate buttercream and popcorn. I had entertained the idea of putting popcorn into the cake mixture too, but I didn't think the texture would work very well. I got the idea for incorporating popcorn into baked goods when I saw this recipe for Popcorn Cookies from Pink Patisserie, and then the idea for these diet-ruining monstrosities slowly came at me like a tsunami on my mind. Don't get me wrong -  these taste incredible, but it is hard to stop at one!

Makes 12
Ingredients
For the cakes

• 200g Caster Sugar
• 200g Butter
• 3 Eggs
• 150g Plain Flour
• 50g Cocoa Powder
• 1 Tsp Baking Powder
• 50mL Milk

For the salted caramel

• 100mL Double Cream
• 75g Dark Muscovado Sugar
• 2 Tsp Salt

For the chocolate buttercream

• 400g Icing Sugar
• 100g Cocoa Powder
• 150g Butter
• 2 Tbsp Milk
• 25g Sweetened or Plain Popcorn

Recipe

• Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan and line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases.
• To make the cakes: cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs until smooth. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder and baking powder into the batter and fold in. Fold in enough milk to give a soft dropping consistency. Divide the batter between the cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 22 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
• To make the salted caramel, place the muscovado sugar in a heavy-bottomed pan and cover with cold water. Heat on a low heat until the sugar has melted and is bubbling, then leave for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and slowly whisk in the cream. Return to the heat and whisk until it starts to simmer, then remove from the heat and leave to cool. Whisk in the salt. 
• To make the chocolate buttercream, place the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter in a mixing bowl and whisk until well combined. Add the milk, then whisk for another 2 minutes.
• To assemble the cupcakes, place the salted caramel in a piping bag that has been fitted with a small nozzle, then insert the nozzle into the cupcake's centre and squeeze some of the salted caramel into it. use a second piping bag filled with the chocolate buttercream to ice the top, then decorate with the popcorn.

You can reduce the impact of these cupcakes on your waistline, as I did, by using low fat cream, butter and sugar substitutes like Truvia or fruit sugar. Take a look at Healthy(ish) Baking to find out more.