Cranberry and White Chocolate Muffins

So, I end the year as I began - messing around with white chocolate! I've learned my lesson though and this recipe just calls for chunks of white chocolate and nothing more complicated.... It also uses up those cranberries hanging around after Christmas (use fresh or frozen ones defrosted).

So, you will need:
100g unsalted butter
284ml soured cream (a standard tub)
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
280g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
200g caster sugar (golden if you have it)
150g fresh cranberries (blueberries would also work well)
150g white chocolate, chopped into small chunks

1. Preheat oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Line a 12-hole muffin/large cupcake tin with cases.
2. Melt the butter (in the microwave is fine), leave to cool back down a bit, then mix in the soured cream. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix again, very thoroughly.
3. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and sugar) together and sift into the butter mixture. Combine well.
4. Add cranberries and white chocolate chunks. Combine thoroughly. The mixture will be quite stiff, this is quite normal!
5. Fill cases - pretty full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until skewer pulls out clean when poked into your cake.

I read somewhere that muffins are an excuse to eat cake for breakfast. Hurrah for that!

Merry Christmas

The cupcake way!

Christmas crackers!

Look at these little lovelies ready for the off yesterday. From top to bottom: Mince Pie Cupcakes; Gingerbread, Man, Cupcakes; Chocolate Yule Log Cupcakes, Christmas Cake Cupcakes.

Feeling festive yet?

What about this proper job Christmas cake, sent off for delivery today? Understated, yes, but it's covered in pearlised shimmery sparkle! Will look so lovely with ribbon of colour-coordiated-with-Christmas-decorations choice!

Weddings of all shapes and sizes

I never thought I'd be so busy thinking about weddings this time of year, but with two weddings and three sets of tasters for next year's brides it's been all go and I've been conjuring up romance in the kitchen in between the christmas puddings and preserve presents!

As if to prove no two weddings are the same, look at these beautifully purple vanilla and blackberry cupcakes (pre romantic glitter application) and the delicately delicious lemon and flat topped cupcakes ready for tasting.

Kitschy she say, it doesn't matter how you do it as long as you do it your way!

Flavour of the month: Mince pie

This month I have several cupcake flavours on the go including Christmas Cake and Chocolate Yule Log (right), but the official flavour of the month is Mince Pie. I know, you may already be sick of mince pies, but, trust me, this one is delicious!

As it’s the season of giving, here’s the (deceptively simple) recipe.
Basic sponge mix for about 10 cupcakes, so:
2 eggs, beaten
Equal weight of unsalted butter, softened
Equal weight of light muscovado sugar (or caster sugar is fine)
Equal weight of plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Plus:
1tsp mixed spice
half a jar of mincemeat (about 150g)

Preheat oven to 180/160 fan (or whatever your equivalent is!) and pre-fill a muffin tin with 10-12 muffin/cupcake cases.

Whisk up your softened butter until light and ‘oily’ (the consistency of mayonnaise ish), add the sugar and whisk some more until light and fluffy. Slowly whisk in the eggs, taking care not to add too much egg at once so that the mixture doesn’t split. Sift together your flour, baking powder and mixed spice and whisk into the mix quickly and lightly. Stir in the mincemeat (thoroughly, but don’t bash your cake mixture around too much).

Fill your cupcake cases about two thirds full and bake for 20-25 minutes (until a cake skewer comes out clean). In my oven the cupcakes cook reliably in 22 minutes, but it’s a bit warmer on one side than the other, so I turn them round at 17 minutes. Definitely don’t touch them for 10 minutes (unless something disastrous has happened).

I’ve topped these with a vanilla cream frosting (a mixture of basic buttercream, double cream, condensed milk and vanilla extract), plus a jaunty shortcrust pastry lid or star for the mini ones. The pastry is obviously an optional extra, but gives a nice contrasting crunch to the overall cake. If I was eating these at home, I’d be tempted to serve slightly warm(ed) with a dollop of clotted cream on top.

Have a wonderful festive season!

Milverton Candlelit Bazaar

I had a great time last week selling cupcakes at the Milverton Candlelit Bazaar. I spent a whole day doing nothing but baking cakes and making them look pretty and an evening in a beautifully festive location with some jolly lovely people. I even won a bottle of wine in the raffle.

Thanks to the wonderful organisers and, of course, the discerning customers who purchased my festive cupcakes.