New flavour: Chocolate Orange

I know it's nearly the new month and time for a new flavour anyway, but this week I have also 'launched' the jolly yummy Chocolate Orange.

Inspired by that delicious dark chocolate with italian orange peel pieces (which is what's used in the topping). I just love the 70s brown and orangeness of it all - reminds me of curtains of my youth...

The blues: champions!

No, I can't take credit for Chelsea's success, but at least the cupcakes were a hit with this Chelsea fan! Thanks Nick, for wearing such a perfectly co-ordinted t-shirt!

Kitschy Cupcakes now at Dulverton Market

Need a more regular cupcake fix?! Kitschy Cupcakes are now for sale every Wednesday at the market in Dulverton's Town Hall. A jolly nice lady called Ruth is manning (womanning) the stand for me.

Get there early before the bus loads of tourists eat all the free tasters!

Info about Dulverton

Milverton Street Fair III

Maybe next year I'll do a cheese flavour to go with the demented grin!

May's Wivey Market

Well, it might be next to a big metal cupboard and a fire hose, but I LIKE my little corner at the Wivey Market! Here's a picture of my display, with new stands from Mum and Dad (thanks!) and May's flavour of the month, Caramel Crunch.

Another good day today - the sun was shining, so people were shopping. Sold 80 cupcakes, which is not bad for three hours trading. Had just enough donate a few to my friends in Whelan's Cafe and Thorne's the Butchers!

I got the blues

Is this wrong? I know it's a little bit, well, Conservative, but other than that...?

My good friend Ann, asked for some Chelsea blue cupcakes to celebrate the FA Cup tomorrow (Ann has now branded these FA Cup Cakes). Contrary to my usual no additives policy, but fun to play once in a while!

Blissful Blueberry gets a facelift

I've had a bit of a break from the kitschy kitchen over the past week (except for making a big batch of Caramel Crunch), with a family visit and some time in the garden preparing veg, fruit and flowers for future consumption and cupcake use! No - there isn't a spinach cupcake on the horizon, but some edible flowers (borage) are sprouting, the cherry and apple trees have had a good lot of blossom and the blueberry bush is about to flower....


Which leads me on to a revamped Blissful Blueberry cupcake. I haven't yet decided upon topping, but here's the cake recipe if you fancy a go.

Ingredients:
100g butter, room temperature
200g sugar
100ml maple syrup
2 small eggs, beaten, room temperature (its 3 for 24 cakes, so you ideally want 1.5 but that's not very practical...)
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
180g plain flour, sifted
0.5 tsp baking powder
100ml milk
@150g blueberries

As per usual, preheat oven to 180/350/160 fan and prepare 12-hole muffin tin with large cupcake cases.

Beat the c$%*p out of the butter until smooth and light, add the sugar and beat, beat, beat again. Add the maple syrup and beat some more.
Beat the eggs and vanilla into the mixture a little at a time.

Now, this is a wet cake batter so the flour/baking powder and milk need to be added to the batter alternately a little at a time and mixed in lightly (the time for heavy handed beating is over!). Add roughly a third of the flour and fold until combined. Add half of the milk and mix until combined. Repeat, and then finish with flour and the baking powder (if not already sifted into your flour).

Carefully fold in as many blueberries as you like - I like a lot which for me is roughly three big handfuls.

Get your mix into those cases and pop in the oven for approx 25 mins. The cakes are ready when lightly golden on top and a skewer comes out clean etc etc.

This cake lasts a bit longer in an airtight container than a standard sponge mix, so you can enjoy your blueberry delights for longer!

Milverton Street Fair II

Having a well earned rest today after a successful street fair sale yesterday at Milverton. I completely sold out by 2pm - hurrah! Am sure I could have sold more Chocolate Chocolate and Very Vanilla, but actually things quietened down around lunch time, so probably not a bad guesstimate of numbers. The day stayed fine although a bit chilly and blustery in the morning, so overall pretty busy. Was most excited to sell a box of 12 - pleased I got those new extra large boxes in!

Thanks to friends who popped by to say hello and bought cupcakes and for Miverton Hall for the loan of the table!

Milverton Street Fair

The kitschy kitchen is a hive of activity today in preparation for Monday's stall at the Milverton Street Fair. This will (hopefully) be my biggest sale so far, so I'm ready to bake with a mountain of butter, a crate of flour and sugar and more eggs than I've seen in one place outside a shop.

If you're interested in the Milverton Festival you could check out the particularly uninformative website www.milvertonfestival.org.uk but, frankly, I wouldn't bother! Just come along and see for yourself (and buy a cupcake).

Oh, and keep your fingers crossed for fair weather.

Flavour of the month: Caramel Crunch

May's flavour of the month is the delightfully sickly Caramel Crunch cupcake. A very moist, lightly caramel flavoured sponge, topped with an American-style brown butter and caramel frosting. Oh my it's sweet, but in a very good way.

I've developed this flavour for my Nanny (ie my grandmother, before you think I'm super-posh and had a nanny as a child...), who is visiting this month with my Mum and Dad - yippee!

A brown butter frosting is an adaptation of a standard butter icing. First melt the butter in a pan until it goes brown and takes on a nutty caramel taste. My recommendation would be use a low-medium heat, and it will take about 5-10 minutes (nb you must strain the melted butter to take out any burnt solids - using a seive was fine enough for my liking, but you might want to use a fine mesh one.) Then simply add sifted icing sugar until you get the right consistency for frosting - swooshing, piping, eating off your finger or whatever. (You'll need roughly 100g of butter and 500-600g icing sugar for 12 large cupcakes.)

You can also add flavouring, but I'd stick to caramel, toffee types of flavours - it would work really well for a maple syrup frosting for example. For this cupcake I included a couple of tablespoons of homemade caramel syrup. Mmmmmm. Shame I've already eaten all the test cakes...