Beehivee Cupcakes

This recipe from the cover of the Spring edition of Donna Hay makes my mouth water, these delicious and pretty cupcakes just look divine and I have been dying to try the recipe out since I picked up the magazine. This weekend I could wait no longer, so had to try it out.

The Recipe - Donna Hay's Beehive Cupcakes
125g butter, softened
165g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
185g plain flour sifted
1 tsp baking powder
125ml milk
for the meringue icing
220g caster sugar
60ml water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3 egg whites
yellow sanding sugar to serve

The Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Place butter, sugar, vanilla and honey in a bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat until well combined.
2. Add the flour, baking powder and milk and beat until just combined.
3. Spoon the mixture into 12 x 1/2 cup/125m muffin tins lined with paper cases and bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
4. To make the meringue icing, place the sugar water and cream of tartar in a pan over a high heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Place the egg whites in a bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. While the mixture is running gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy.
6. To assemble the cupcakes use a 3cm round cookie cutter to cut round the centre of each cupcake. Fill a pipping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle and pipe into the centre and top in a swirling action to form a beehive shape.
7. top the icing with wings and drizzle with sugar.

My attempts weren't too shabby, and i was really pleased with the taste, as usual I couldn't help myself and added a handful o dessicated coconut to the mixture as i love coconut. The cupcakes were dense and moist and left me wanting more. The icing made them very pretty if not a little difficult to eat without getting messy, but hey that's part of the fun.

They didn't look as pretty the next day though, so be sure to ice them the day you want to serve them.

Chocolate Banoffee Cupcakes

The lovely ladies at work were giving me suggestions yesterday as to what to use my over-ripe bananas for. Camaryn wanted Banoffee pie where as Alice wanted Banana Cake, so I thought I would come to a sit on the shelf decision and combine both of those to make these banoffee cupcakes. I made them this morning before 6am!! Nothing like an early morning baking session, far better than an early trip to the gym!

I had spent at least an hour last nice searching for a recipe and come across nothing I fancied and then this morning I came across this recipe from kittens in the Kitchen http://kittensinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2008/09/banana-cupcakes-with-chocolate-goo.html

The Recipe - Choclate Banoffee Cupcakes from Kittens in the Kitchen
3 ripe bananas
1 cup plain white flour
0.5 cups wholewheat flour
0.5 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
6 tbsp groundnut oil
6 tbsp yogurt
1 tbsp honey
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the 'frosting'...
1 tin condensed milk
150g plain chocolate
1 tbsp butter
pinch saltPreheat oven to 165c.

The Mehtod
Prepare the Batter...

1. Sift together the flours, baking powder and baking soda, then mix in the salt.
2. Whisk together the oil and sugar, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Mash up the bananas with a fork and add to the egg mixture along with the vanilla extract.
3. Add a third of the flour mix, then a third of the yogurt and mix until just moistened. Repeat until flour and yogurt finished!
4. Line muffin tray with cases, and divide the mixture between them.
5. Bake for 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of one.

Now make the frosting

1. Put the condensed milk into a bowl over a pot of simmering water. Gently bring to the boil and cook gently for 5 minutes.
2. Break up the chocolate and add to the milk. Melt it up until you have a gorgeous gooey chocolatey mess.
3. Add the butter and stir gently until combined.
4. Let it cool a bit, then smear on top of cooled cupcakes.

Melt and Mix Chocolate Cake

The lovely girls at work bought me a perfect gift for my birthday a new Chocolate cookbook!! Its called Chocolate a Fine Selection of Sweet Treats by Murdoch Books and I've been eager to try one of the beautifully laid out and photographed recipe's. As usual I spend more time trying to decide on what to bake than actually baking it. I decided on a cup cake recipe so that I could take it into work to share.

The Recipe - Melt and Mix Chocolate Cakes
Makes 12
150g unsalted butter, cubed
230g soft brown sugar
185ml freshly made espresso coffee
2 eggs, at room temperature, lightly whisked
125g self raising flour
30g plain flour
60g unsweetened cocoa
1/4 tsp bicarb of soda
icing sugar sifted for dusting

chocolate butter cream
250g icing sugar, sifted
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa
60g unsalted butter, softened
2 tbsp hot water

The Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. line a 12 hole standard muffin tin with paper cases.

Combine the butter, sugar and coffee in a saucepan over a  medium heat. Stir until the butter has melted  and the sugar has dissolved. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Whisk the eggs into the butter mixture. In a separate bowl sift together the flours, cocoa and bicarb. Stir half of the flour mixture into the butter mixture until just combined. Add the remaining of the flour mixture and stir until just combined. Transfer the mixture to a jug and poor into the prepared tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer  comes out clean once inserted into the muffins. Allow the cakes to cool in the tin for 3 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the chocolate butter cream, place 125g of the icing sugar in a large bowl, add the cocoa and water and beat wit electric beaters until smooth and creamy. Gradually add the remaining sugar and beat until the butter cream is thick.

Spread the butter over the cooled cakes with a spatula or a flat bladed knife.

the un-iced cakes will store in a airtight container for up to 5 days or up to 2 once iced.

This recipe was dead simple, I love the kind of cakes  you can make in a pan, they always turn out alight and delicious and are not a problem when beating by hand like always used to.