Raspberry Jammie Dodger Cupcakes

I'm a woman of my word, so as promised here is another sweet treat recipe for those that came here looking for something other than healthy January food. These cupcakes are a basic cake recipe that you can add your own flavours to. I chose to add a touch of vanilla extract this time, but grated lemon zest works really well too, especially with the raspberry topping.

Some people can find buttercream a little too sweet, but this simple topping is creamy and fruity, with just the right amount of sweetness. It's also a lot less hassle to make than buttercream as it doesn't leave your kitchen with a layer of icing sugar dust over it!

Perfect for your Valentine.(Nobody can see that the cases have a reindeer on the bottom!)

Jammie Dodger Cupcakes by Helen Jessup on Scribd

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Red Nose Day Cupcakes for Comic Relief #raisesomedough

Around this time last year I was in training for my leg of the Team Honk Relay; a bloggers relay from Lands End to John O'Groats for Sport Relief. This year I'm back in training, this time for a six hour danceathon at Wembley Arena on 13th March (by the way, you can sponsor me here if you're feeling generous). It's going to be a whole lot of fun, not least because I am absolutely useless at dancing and have zero rhythm. I also tend to pull funny faces when I'm concentrating, so teamed with the two left feet it should be quite entertaining to watch!

Here I am modelling my very fetching Red Nose Day apron, designed by fashion designer Henry Holland, and available in HomeSense along with the rest of the range of aprons and tea towels. You can also grab one online from RedNoseDay.com with at least £6.50 going to Comic Relief. Or if you would prefer, HomeSense are also selling a selection of leather bound journals which feature quirky quotations – perfect to jot down your recipes!

Following my Sunday morning run (there was a reason I'm wearing a running shirt & sporting bad hair!), I enlisted the help of my little sous chef and we set about making the kitchen look like a bomb site whilst baking something funny for money. 

We bought some red noses at the weekend and decided it would be a good idea to recreate them on the cakes - ideas are always great in theory! I'm not known for my patience or creativity when it comes to decorating cakes and I won't lie, I was completely exhausted when I finished decorating just 7 cakes. It was well worth it though as the kids loved them, and I was very pleased with my efforts.

Red Nose Day Cupcakes - makes approx 18

225g Butter, softened

225g Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

225g Self Raising flour, sifted

For the Decorations

Red fondant icing
White fondant icing
Black fondant icing
Black edible pen 
edible glue or water 
jam or marmalade for gluing the topper to the cakes

• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Fold in the flour
• Spoon into cupcake cases in a muffin pan, approx 2/3 full
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 18 minutes
• Allow to cool on a wire rack whilst making the icing toppers
• To make the toppers roll out the red icing & cut out red discs
• Cut shapes from white & black icing & stick onto the red discs using edible glue or a tiny amount of water brushed on
• Use the edible black pen to mark more detailed areas

Will you be baking something funny for money to #raisesomedough for Comic Relief? If you're feeling generous I would really, really appreciate some sponsors for the 6 hour Danceathon next month (I really can't dance so it's definitely going to be a case of doing something funny for money!)

please sponsor me to dance my socks off at the first Red Nose Day Danceathon!

This post has been commissioned by HomeSense

Ice Cream Cupcakes

I think we've seen the back of Summer for another year now. I can't believe that just a few short weeks ago people were complaining that it was too hot and now we're wondering whether August is too soon to put the heating on!

If you've stocked up on ice cream cones over the summer but nobody wants ice cream as it's now too cold, then put the cones to good use and bake some cupcakes in them. Amazingly the cones don't burn in the oven, and the cake bakes evenly inside. You can then top them off with buttercream swirled with raspberry jam or Nutella. 

You can find the full recipe and directions how to make these, along with some of my other recipes that I've been commissioned to write, on the Great British Chefs website here.

More cake recipes you may like to try :

Creme egg cheesecake

Red Velvet Cupcakes

microwave chocolate cake

cinnamon apple cake

gluten free apple and almond cake

Vanilla Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago I made almost 150 cupcakes for the village fete. It was all part of something that I was working on with Halifax, which I will elaborate more on another time, but you can find out more about the Halifax Pledge and how you can help your community here.

Since then I have caught the cupcake making bug again and last week I whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes to take with me to a picnic in the forest, where myself and friends watched Jessie J. I can't say that Jessie J is particularly my cup of tea but it was a great night out with friends and the cupcakes went down a storm, along with our picnic of cheese, crackers and strawberries.

I used the Madagascan Vanilla Grinder that came in the June Desgustabox, which is a small grinder of dried Madagascan vanilla pods that can be finely or coarsely ground and used in baking or to top hot drinks. I love this as a simple way to add real vanilla to cakes and icing without the hassle of vanilla pods. It may seem quite pricey at £4.99 for such a small post, but I can see it lasting a long while.

Vanilla Cupcakes - makes approx 18

225g Butter, softened

225g Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

Few twists of Dr Oetker Vanilla Grinder

225g Self Raising flour, sifted

For the Icing

150g Butter, softened

300g Icing sugar, sifted

Few twists of Dr Oetker Vanilla Grinder

• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Add a few twists of the vanilla grinder
• Fold in the flour
• Spoon into cupcake cases in a muffin pan, approx 2/3 full
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 18 minutes
• Allow to cool on a wire rack whilst making the icing
• Beat together the butter and half of the icing sugar until light and creamy
• Add the rest of icing sugar and a few twists of the vanilla grinder
• Beat well until smooth and creamy - if it's a little stiff, add a teaspoon or two of room temperature water - you could add room temperature milk but come on, who has room temperature milk?
• Pipe icing onto the cakes and top with decorations of your choice

This month the contents were as follows :

• Estrella Damm Spanish lager (alc 4.6%)
• Urban Fruit snack pack
• Dr Oetker Madagascan Vanilla grinder
• Bear Alpha Bites alphabet cereal
• Veetee Microwaveable rice
• Cawston Press sparkling rhubarb drink
• Lambrini Strawberry (alc 5%)
• Be Fast Breakfast on the go x 2
• Elizabeth Shaw Amaretto flutes

totalling over £22

I have a discount code which will entitle readers to a £3.00 discount off their box when registering - regular price £12.99 including p&p.

code : 2N4MJ

You can follow Degustabox on Facebook and Twitter or check out their website here.

I was provided with a Degustabox free of charge

Blackberry and Elderflower Cupcakes

I haven't made cupcakes for a little while, but when I opened up my latest Degustabox and spotted the Blackberry and Elderflower teabags they were crying out to be used in a cake, so off I popped to the supermarket and picked up some lovely juicy blackberries. This year I intend to find some blackberry bushes and take the kids blackberry picking, just as I used to when I was a child.

Blackberry and Elderflower Cupcakes - makes 12

6 Blackberry & Elderflower teabags

200ml boiling water

1 large egg

4 tbsp sunflower oil

4 tbsp milk

225g plain flour

200g caster sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Frosting

200g White chocolate spread

200g Philadelphia cream cheese

Fresh blackberries

• Pour the boiling water onto the teabags and leave until cold
• Discard the teabags and you should be left with approx 150ml liquid
• Beat in the egg, oil and milk
• In a large bowl stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb
• Mix the wet ingredients into the dry
• Divide the batter between 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tin
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 15-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow to cool on a wire rack before icing
• Beat the chocolate spread and cream cheese together until smooth and use to decorate the cooled cupcakes

I could have left this post at that, with pictures of nice pretty cupcakes. 

However, in the world of food blogging things don't always go to plan.

In my head the deep pink of the tea made these cakes a lovely pretty pink colour.

In reality they were a kind of khaki green on the outside and a pinky brown on the inside......

Now don't laugh.....

but this is what can happen if you overfill your cases, so make sure you only fill them two thirds full!

I did tell you not to laugh!

Despite the slightly khaki colour they were delicious, so if you are going to make these, just make sure you serve them after dark and nobody will be none the wiser.

Anyway, back to the Degustabox....

This month the contents were as follows :

• Taylors of Harrogate Blackberry & Elderflower teabags
• Finn Crisp crispbread
• Dr Oetker cake release spray
• Raw sugar free chewing gum
• Kettle Chips sweet potato crisps
• Cawston Press sparkling cloudy apple
• Cirio Passata & tomato puree
• Garofalo pasta
• Hornsby's crisp apple cider and strawberry & lime cider
• Elizabeth Shaw cocoa crunch flutes

totalling over £21

I have a discount code which will entitle readers to a £3.00 discount off their box when registering - regular price £12.99 including p&p.

code : HFVNR

You can follow Degustabox on Facebook and Twitter or check out their website here.

I was provided with a Degustabox free of charge

Caramel Chocolate Easter Cupcakes

I was up in the loft locating the plastic eggs ready for an Easter egg hunt when I came across a box of Easter cake decorations that I had completely forgotten about. It was the perfect excuse to make some cakes and decorate them for Easter (obviously they will be eaten long before Easter though!)

I popped a caramel egg in the middle of the cakes as a nice surprise, although they could be left out, or replaced with a mini creme egg. I topped them with my all time favourite cream cheese & Nutella frosting, making these very indulgent and best eaten with a spoon!

Caramel Chocolate Easter Cupcakes - makes 10/12

cupcakes
100ml boiling water
5-10g Instant coffee granules (depending on how much coffee flavour you want them to have) - I used Beanies Caramel Coffee
35g Cocoa powder
190g Caster Sugar
115g Plain Flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Egg
60ml Hazelnut oil
125ml Milk
Galaxy caramel mini eggs

Nutella frosting
300g Full fat cream cheese
150g Nutella

• Mix the boiling water, coffee and cocoa powder together until smooth
• Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda and salt together in a large bowl or jug
• Beat the egg, oil and milk together, add the chocolate mixture & beat well
• Beat the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well
• Pour the cake batter into the cupcake cups until just over half full
• Push a caramel egg gently into the centre of batter, making sure that it is covered by the mixture
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow the cakes to cool fully on a wire rack
• Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese & Nutella together
• Decorate the cupcakes with the frosting

This is my entry into the Beanies Easter Baking Challenge - to see other entries just follow the hashtag #BeaniesBakeOff on Twitter.

Beanies Coffee comes in a variety of flavours - our personal favourite is the French Vanilla and I look forward to trying the Cinnamon & Hazelnut.

I was sent jars of coffee for the purpose of this challenge

Caffe Cagliari Espresso in your own home

I do love a good cup of coffee in the morning, and I feel ready to take on the day once I've had a freshly brewed cup - whether it be a cappuccino or latte. On holiday I always have an espresso as they seem to taste so much better whilst sat at a café table with a pastry, in the sunshine, watching the world go by.

Caffe Cagliari is a 100 year old family company which started after Ambrogio Cagliari spent many years in Brazil and then went on to open his first coffee roasting and tasting shop in Modena, Italy, in 1909. The Cagliari family have passed on their knowledge of the origins of coffee and their production secrets and experience down four generations, and Alessandra Cagliari, the great great grand daughter of the founder handles the marketing and packaging today.

Every single cup is an exquisite masterpiece, the result of more than 100 years of knowledge and tradition. The qualitative and sensory standards of Espresso have been certified by the Italian Espresso National Institute (I.N.E.I.), which protects and promotes Italian Espresso

To make a good cup of espresso more freely available to everyone Caffe Cagliari now make coffee capsules which are compatible with Nespresso machines, available to buy online here.

Once you have some freshly brewed espresso you may want to just enjoy it as it is, or make some Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes as per my recipe below.

Hazelnut Mocha Cupcakes - makes approx 11-12

cupcakes
100ml freshly brewed Espresso 
35g Cocoa powder
190g Caster Sugar
115g Plain Flour
3/4 tsp Baking powder
3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 Egg
60ml Sunflower oil
125ml Milk

Nutella frosting
300g Full fat cream cheese
150g Nutella

Decorations & espresso drizzle
Chocolate coffee beans
Nutella
Freshly brewed espresso

• Mix the espresso and cocoa powder together until smooth
• Stir the remaining dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Beat in the egg, sunflower oil, milk & chocolate espresso mix for 2 minutes until smooth
• The batter will be quite thin but that's ok
• Ladle into the cupcake cases until 2/3 full
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow the cakes to cool fully on a wire rack
• Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese & Nutella together
• Make the drizzle by adding espresso to a spoonful of Nutella a little at a time until the required consistency is reached
• decorate the cupcakes with the frosting, chocolate coffee beans and espresso drizzle

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Santa Hat Cupcakes

It's the first of two Christmas parties at school tomorrow and for this one we've been asked to bring in cakes or biscuits. The next one is easy as it's our turn to take crisps, nice and easy.

I was all out of chocolate so I was going to make some simple vanilla cakes in festive cases with sprinkles on top but earlier in the day caught sight of some Santa hat cupcakes whilst browsing online. They didn't look too difficult so decided to give them a go. There are lots of versions of Santa hat cupcakes on Pinterest, including some with strawberries that look great.

To ice these cakes it's just a case of making some buttercream (or you could buy some ready made vanilla buttercream), and mixing approx 2/3 with red food colouring - I used gel colouring but it was more of a deep pink than the bright red that I had in mind.

I used disposable icing bags and snipped the end off, piping a ring in the white icing and then squeezing the red on top, tapering upwards, and then finishing off with a blob of white.

Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes

Dr Oetker is currently hosting a chocolate cupcake competition where entrants will be in with a chance of winning a trip for two to New York. You can find further details of The Great Chocolate Bake here.

I made my first batch of these chocolate cupcakes when I made my Mocha cupcakes. The cake is lovely and light and very moist and chocolatey. I mentioned before that now I've tried this recipe I don't think I will be baking any other kind of chocolate cupcake in the future and will instead experiment with fillings and toppings.

This time I decided to go with a chocolate cheesecake type of frosting with a juicy Morello cherry inserted into the middle of the cake, and topped off with some chocolate chunks.

    

Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes - makes approx 12

cupcakes

100ml boiling water

35g Cocoa powder

190g Caster Sugar

115g Plain Flour

3/4 tsp Baking powder

3/4 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Egg

60ml Sunflower oil

125ml Milk

Cheesecake Frosting & decoration

100g Dr Oetker Fine Cooks Chocolate - extra dark, melted & cooled slightly

200g Full fat cream cheese

40g Icing sugar

Morello cherries

Dr Oetker milk chocolate chunks

• Mix the water and cocoa powder together until smooth
• Stir the remaining dry ingredients together in a large bowl
• Beat in the egg, sunflower oil, milk & chocolate, mix for 2 minutes until smooth
• The batter will be quite thin but that's ok
• Ladle into the cupcake cases until 2/3 full
• Bake in a 180 C oven for approx 18-20 minutes, until springy to the touch
• Allow the cakes to cool fully on a wire rack
• Make the frosting by beating the cream cheese, chocolate & icing sugar together
• Using an apple corer or spoon cut the centre out of each cake and pop a cherry in before replacing the piece of cake
• Decorate the cupcakes with the frosting and chocolate chunks

 

I was sent some Dr Oetker products to use in my baking

My baby turns Four & a Football Birthday Cake

On Sunday Jack turned 4, it's hard to think where the past 4 years have gone. It seems like only yesterday that I was pregnant for what felt like ages yet it feels like he's been in our lives forever.

On Friday we had a heavy fall of snow and by Saturday started to get a bit worried for his party after another heavy snowfall. Thankfully by early afternoon the main roads were clear and Cinderella did go to the ball after all.

Jack had a fab party with his little friends at a local indoor play centre. As I wanted to keep his birthday cake until his actual birthday we didn't cut it and instead put football cupcakes into the party bags.

We then went to the pub with a few of the friends where Jack opened a couple of his presents.

Later at home the children enjoyed a pot of hot chocolate and biscuits whilst opening the rest of the party presents.

Sunday was another day of present opening.

and cake....

 

Unfortunately the day didn't go to plan due to more snow meaning that Nanny and Pop Pop couldn't come and visit. We instead spent most of the day indoors playing Playmobil.

No overnight snow on Monday meant that Nanny and Pop Pop could come up for the afternoon and stay for tea, and we sang Happy Birthday for the third time and finally cut the cake!

If you're wondering how to make a football cake read on....

Football Birthday Cake

I've had the Wilton ball cake tins for around 7 years but I've never been brave enough to make one. Jack is mad about football so I thought I would dust it off & try it out this year after picking up a few tips on another blog here.

I used my favourite Madeira recipe that I found on the recipes2share website, and used a 5 egg recipe (291g butter, 291g sugar, 291g SR flour, 145g plain flour & 5 eggs).

It's best to prepare the tins using butter & flour or Wilton Cake Release to make sure they come out easily.

I sliced the tops of the cakes off whilst still in the tins, then removed and allowed to cool fully on a wire rack.

Once the cakes are cool sandwich them together with jam and buttercream

then coat the cake completely in a chocolate ganache. This not only makes the cake easier to handle, without the halves sliding apart, it also gives a good surface to glue the icing to.

Cut black pentagons and white hexagons from rolled out icing, each with 3cm sides, and start sticking them to the cake using edible glue

You may find that as you get further down the cake the pieces don't fit very well, and you may need to stretch them to fit

Once covered completely, you can brush over lightly with alcohol to remove any icing sugar. Cover a cake board in green icing and glue down a ring of icing to support the cake. Use edible glue to stick the cake to the base.

I made cupcakes to give to party guests using my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe and vanilla buttercream coloured with green paste and piped on using a grass tip

I made edible football decorations by making a silicone half football mould by using a toy football and silicone plastique, which were then filled with icing in the same way that I made Lego bricks. The footballs were then coloured with an icing pen.

I bought plastic cupcake boxes for everyone to take their cakes home in - one of my pet hates is a slice of cake wrapped in a napkin!

3rd February 2014 : I am linking this up to the Team Honk Great British Bake Off for Sport Relief but will be making this again next month as Jack has requested it again for his 5th birthday!