Giant Chocolate Cupcake with a Surprise Inside

At the beginning of the week Hanna had her 11th birthday and a few weeks ago had specifically asked for a giant cupcake, so who am I to disappoint my middle child.

A friend lent me the cake pan, which was a one piece Eddingtons Giant Cupcake Pan. The instructions state that the different sides of the pan aren't the same size and that one size should be baked longer than the other. I didn't like the idea of opening the oven halfway through the baking time to add the rest of the cake batter so I cooked each side separately.

For the cake I used a Madeira cake recipe that I've used many times before, substituting a tbsp of flour for cocoa powder. For each side I used a 3 egg recipe :

175g Butter
175g Caster sugar
175g self raising flour
85g plain flour (substituting 1 tbsp of this flour for cocoa powder)
3 eggs

Once the cakes were baked and cooled I used a cookie cutter to remove a piece of cake from the base that could be filled later with surprise smarties, leaving a gap around the edge & base of around 3-4 cm.

I made a batch of chocolate buttercream up using melted dark chocolate which would be used to sandwich the 2 layers of cake together as well as sticking the chocolate fingers to the sides and icing the top.

Chocolate Buttercream

250g Butter, softened
300g Icing sugar
50ml Milk
200g Dark Chocolate, melted & cooled slightly

• Beat the butter, icing sugar & milk together until pale, smooth & creamy
• Beat in the melted chocolate until fully combined and creamy

*The buttercream will thicken as the chocolate cools down more so don't worry if it's a little too slack to pipe, just leave for a few minutes before using.

I used a variety box of chocolate fingers around the edge & used the equivalent of just under 3 boxes in total (including some for the top). I chopped the very ends of the fingers for around the side as they were a little too long. Once the cake was iced you couldn't see the cut ends. I used a disposable icing bag (like the ones that can be found here) with the largest star nozzle that I had, to pipe big swirls around the top of the cake and decorated with smarties and more chocolate fingers. I was pleased to find large tubes of pink smarties now available in the seasonal aisle in the supermarket for only £1 - one bonus of having Christmas goods in the shops in September!

Some of the smarties lost their colour a bit due to the moisture but I was pleased how well the cake turned out and had one very happy daughter.

This is a sponsored post, however the recipe and decorating ideas are my own

The Great Bloggers Bake Off - week 5 - Cinnamon & Orange Traybake

It's that time of the week again for Great British bake Off and this week saw the bakers making their signature traybakes, technical Tuiles and biscuit towers.

Traybakes - these could take the form of Brownies, Blondies, Rocky Road...and can be biscuits, cake or pastry - in a square or rectangular tin, and all cut into equal pieces (hmm that's the tricky part!). I must say I did love the sound of Frances' Millionaire's Banoffee Bonus, yummy!

Tuiles - something that I've never made, apparently named after a French roof tile and is a very thin biscuit which is crisp and delicate.

Biscuit towers - at least 30cm high and take any form...but importantly it needs to be look good and stand securely (Frances take note.....).

I opted to make a cake, baked in a tray, with some frosting slapped on the top..job done.

This recipe was adapted from a delicious courgette, thyme & lemon drizzle cake recipe from Katie at Feeding boys and a firefighter. I first tried out the recipe last week after being given some rather large yellow courgettes by a friend. I left out the thyme and topped the cake with a lemon mascarpone frosting and it was absolutely delicious.

This time I thought I would mix the flavours up a bit and used orange and cinnamon in the place of the lemon. I also tripled the quantity as I was using a larger baking tin.

Cinnamon & Orange Traybake

600g yellow courgette, grated
450g caster sugar
3 eggs
375ml vegetable oil
juice of 1 orange & zest of 3
600g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
4 tsp cinnamon

juice of 2 oranges
75g caster sugar
250g mascarpone
1 tsp cinnamon

• Mix the courgette, sugar, eggs, oil, all the orange zest & juice of 1 orange together until well combined
• Mix together the flour, salt bicarbonate of soda, baking powder & cinnamon
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet & mix well
• Pour mixture into a large shallow baking tin (I used a 13" x 9" Baking tin)
• Bake in a 170C oven for approx 45 minutes
• Leave to cool in the tin
• Meanwhile make a syrup with the juice of the remaining 2 oranges and the caster sugar
• Bring to the boil & simmer for 5 minutes
• Once the cake is cool prick holes in it all over with a fork
• Drizzle the cake with half of the orange syrup & mix the remainder with the mascarpone and cinnamon
• Spread the mascarpone over the cake 

So to recap on the themes for the week :

Traybakes
Tuiles
Biscuit towers 

Now go forth and bake.......

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