Blueberry Pancake Cupcakes

Happy Pancake Day everyone! I mean, its the most important day of the month today, right?

And I know that I know there are some people out there who aren’t totally pancake crazy (weirdos.. I joke) but if that’s the case or not, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to share a recipe I’ve been sitting on for a little while now: my blueberry pancake cupcakes!

For the cupcakes, you’ll need 125g butter, 125g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 125g self raising flour, 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1/2 tsp cinnamon (optional), plus a handful of blueberries – you can decide how blueberry crazy you want to be! Oh, and preheat your oven to 190C

  • Cream together the butter and sugar, then whisk in the egg.
  • Add the vanilla extract, then sift together the flour and cinnamon and mix well.
  • Line a cupcake tray with 12 cases, and drop a couple of blueberries into the bottom of each case, then add your remaining blueberries to the cake mix and whisk a little more so that they break up and release some of their yumminess into the mix.
  • Bake for 12-15 mins, then remove and allow to cool

While your cupcakes are baking, you can start on the fun task of making the (optional) tiny pancake toppers for the cupcakes, because these will also need a chance to cool before you compile your cupcakes at the end. This really calls for a classic American style pancake, and if you have your own favourite recipe then you can go ahead and whip that up, or this is the recipe that I use (you may want to make a half batch though!):

  • Sift together 135g plain flour with 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt and 2 tbsp caster sugar.
  • Separately whisk up 130ml milk with an egg and 2 tbsp melted butter, then pour into the flour mixture and whisk well until completely smooth.
  • Then you can go ahead and fry up your pancakes on a hob set at a medium heat – you can judge when its time to flip when little bubbles start to form on the top!

I tend to make a bunch of big pancakes, then use a cookie cutter to get them down to cupcake size, but if you have the patience to make a bunch of teeny tiny cupcakes then I’m all for that too! Pop these to one side, and make the buttercream:

  • Whisk together 175g caster sugar with 500g icing sugar until smooth
  • Optional: add 2 tbsp maple syrup and combine well – you may need to give your icing a chance to chill in the fridge before piping

Once everything is ready, get building! Pipe or spoon a good helping of buttercream onto each cupcake, top with a pancake and drizzle a little golden or maple syrup over the top and enjoy! If you’re making these in advance, don’t add the pancake until right before you serve, otherwise it can dry out a little bit, but the cupcakes themselves will store in a sealed container for up to a week!

You can thank me later!

Twitter / Bloglovin / Instagram

Hidden Pumpkin Cupcakes

The spookiest day of the year is now just around the corner, and while I’m not the biggest fan of Halloween, I love a good bit of baking, and I can’t believe I’ve never shared this recipe before!

With one of my cousins having her birthday on the 29th, I have been baking Halloween themed treats for her birthday parties for years now, and it was actually 5 years ago that I came up with these surprise centre cuties, and now you can make them too!

For 12-15 cupcakes, you will need:

  • 125g caster sugar
  • 125g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 105g self-raising flour
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • Plus..
  • 65g caster sugar
  • 65g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 65g self raising flour
  • Orange food colouring
  • Orange flavouring (optional)
  • Green candy melts
  • Your favourite chocolate frosting

You’ll also need a cupcake tray and either a cake pop machine or a cake pop baking mould!

Pre-heat your oven to 190C and start by making your little pumpkin balls! Cream the 65g butter and caster sugar together, then whisk in the egg and add the flour. Once the mixture is smooth, add the orange food colouring and flavouring. Bake for 10 mins, or as per your cake pop machine’s instructions – I think mine takes about 6 mins!

Let these cool, and use the remainder of the ingredients to make the chocolate cupcake mix using the same method. Line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases, and place one orange cake ball in the centre of the case, then using a teaspoon, add chocolate mix around the edge of the pumpkin – its ok if the top of the pumpkin isn’t covered because the cake will rise around it!

Bake for 12-15 mins, and while baking, chop the candy melt buttons into thin strips – it doesn’t matter if these aren’t perfect! Once the cupcakes are done, let them cool for about 5 mins, then carefully push each little green strip into the centre of the pumpkin, and then allow them to cool fully before icing. I personally like to keep the icing simple so it doesn’t give away the surprise inside, but you can find your own style!

Then sit back and watch the amazement when your unsuspecting consumers discover they’ve just bitten into a pumpkin!

Twitter / Bloglovin / Instagram

Baking Magic – Make it Pink! Make it Blue! Cupcakes

This post is coming to you today in honour of the fact that right now I’m in Disneyland Paris! Thank goodness for scheduled posting, eh?

To celebrate the fact that I’m probably twirling around in front of Sleeping Beauty’s gorgeous castle as you read this, I’m honouring the lovely Aurora and the classic debate among her many fans: pink or blue?

Make It Pink Make It Blue Cupcakes

Start off by preheating your oven to 190C, whip up a batch of your favourite vanilla cupcake mix, and separate it into two bowls.

SONY DSC

Using gel food colourings (I recommend Wilton or Sugaflair!), tint one bowl pink, and one bowl blue, like so!

Make It Pink Make It Blue Cupcakes

Line a cupcake tray with cases – pink and blue were my obvious choices, but its up to you! – and using a teaspoon, drop a little bit of one colour into each case. Keep on adding the two different colours bit by bit until the case is 3/4 full, then you can either leave it as is, or use a skewer to swirl them together a little more; gives it a bit more of a magical effect, I think!

SONY DSC

Bake for 15-17 minutes. If the cakes spring back nicely when you give them a little poke, or a skewer inserted into the cakes comes out clean, then you’re good to go! Get them out and onto a cooling rack.

Now its time to make some frosting; my go-to is always buttercream. Use at least 2 parts icing sugar to 1 part butter, and you might want to add a little more sugar as a firmer buttercream is better for this one! Again, tint half pink and half blue.

You’re going to need three piping bags for this next bit, but only one nozzle – I’m using a large closed star tip. Without cutting the ends off, fill one bag half full with pink, and another half full with blue, and try and squeeze the icing down a little.

Make It Pink Make It Blue Cupcakes

Cut the end off of the third bag and insert the nozzle, then you can snip the ends off of the pink and blue bags. Pop the two full bags into the empty one, and slowly squeeze until the icing appears at the end of the tip. You may find here that one colour comes out first before the second begins to show, I squeeze it out into another bowl until the colours are mixing nicely.

Make It Pink Make It Blue Cupcakes

Now pipe your cupcakes!

Make It Pink Make It Blue Cupcakes

I think the fairies would be proud, don’t you? Are you Team Pink or Team Blue?

Twitter / Bloglovin / Instagram

Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Cupcakes

I’m afraid to say that DIY Wednesday this week was a bit of a disaster, so I’ll be posting a make-up one at a later date! I’ve also been really busy with an upcoming project, so today’s food post is a little on the lazy side..

When I think of Alice in Wonderland, the first thing that really springs to mind is the Mad Hatter’s tea party, and the whimsy that goes along with it. Now personally, a tea party isn’t proper without cake, so here are my top tips for wonderfully wacky tea party cupcakes, featuring some cupcakes and a cake I made a little while back!

1. Don’t be afraid of colour

SONY DSC

Bright blue, pinks, oranges and greens aren’t your everyday colours, but I bet they’ll be everyone’s favourites!

2. Wonky is absolutely fine

SONY DSC

Don’t worry about precision even cakes, topsy turvy is the new black!

3. Throw off the tastebuds

SONY DSC

Mix up flavours and colours eg. pink is lemon, green is strawberry etc.

4. Its all in the details

SONY DSC

It’ll take a bit more time, but its worth it!

5. Display them beautifully

SONY DSC

Even the simplest cakes look incredible on the right stand.

°o°

Sorcerer Mickey Cupcakes

Apologies for a lack of DIY Wednesday, my work shifts got jumbled up so I’ll be posting it tomorrow!

Today is Foodie Thursday though, and keeping on this week’s theme, I spent my day baking..

SONY DSC

Sorcerer Mickey cupcakes!

With the current deconstruction of the Mickey hat at Hollywood Studios, this is my little nod to a classic Disney World landmark.

Start of with your favourite cupcakes, preferably in some cute red cases (mine are from Paper Eskimo)

SONY DSC

And a nice thick buttercream in a bag with a large open nozzle, or a ziploc bag with a corner cut off, and pipe it high in small circles in the centre of the cake

SONY DSC

Then you can use black candy melts or chocolate buttons as Mickey ears

SONY DSC

Using white sugarpaste/fondant, cut out little stars and moons to decorate the hat, or just use white sprinkles!

SONY DSC

If I was doing these for a special event, I’d tie string or ribbon around the cupcake cases to give it more of a Mickey look!

SONY DSC

°o°