For this year’s Girls Night In we had vegan coconut cupcakes with buttercream frosting and I also made a gluten-free version. The gf version was a wee bit dry, but I’m sure some tweaking with the recipe will sort that right out. I had a great night with some of my wonderfully funny and clever female relatives AND we raised $325 to fight women’s cancers. Woo!
Delicious! I spent Sunday arvo working out with Jillian Michaels while these cakes by Donna Hay were in the oven. I ate one warm with low-fat ice cream while reading an article about curves being back in fashion. That’s how I roll.
Update: I think the problem of the not-right cupcakes was that I was overfilling the cupcake patties. Dilemma solved!
Yes, sometimes baking goes wrong in Katie’s Kitchen. Sometimes, for reasons unknown! My mission was to make gluten-free cupcakes and regular cupcakes for my cupcake-themed 27th birthday party. In attempt one at these gluten-free vanilla cupcakes, I forgot to add the baking powder. I ended up with an un-risen mess of half-baked cupcakes.
In attempt two, all was going well, or so I thought, until I went to get them from the oven and found the cupcakes again were an un-risen mess! I knew I had added all the ingredients this time so I was baffled. I gave up on making gluten-free cupcakes, my gluten-intolerant friend Leonie would have to have store-bought gluten-free chocolate biscuits instead.
I tried making another batch of the cupcakes, this time with self-raising wheat flour. Still no good! The cupcakes didn’t rise properly and some spilt over the edge of the pan. Off to the store I went to get fresh eggs, baking powder and self-raising flour, with three hours to go until my guests were to arrive.
No more trying to make vanilla cupcakes this time, I went straight to my trusty Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and made white chocolate cupcakes. Success! No disasters this time, they all rose well. I didn’t halve the ingredients this time, I made the full recipe – and ended up with about 40 cupcakes.
Some of the cakes were used in a cupcake decorating contest at my birthday party, some cupcakes were eaten at my good friend Michelle’s baby shower, and some cupcakes are now iced in pink buttercream frosting, ready to be taken to my co-workers tomorrow.
The aftermath of the cupcake decorating contest at my 27th birthday party
(yes it was a cupcake-themed party)
This is Michelle’s niece stealing the Jaffas and M&Ms from the tops of the white chocolate cupcakes at the baby shower
Pink buttercream frosting on top of the white chocolate cakes for my co-workers.
When I made these carrot cakes I put some in the freezer, wrapped in cling-wrap. They defrosted well, some I left out and others I defrosted in the microwave. They still tasted fresh and delicious. The cupcakes are very yummy eaten without icing, warmed up, with some butter.
I really wasn’t happy with the chocolate cupcakes I recently baked for Leonie so I went back to my basic vanilla cupcake recipe. I used gluten-free self-raising flour. The cupcakes have quite a round top, filling the patty cases somewhere between half and three-quarters full seems to work best for a nice rise to the cake without “muffin top”. I find these cook in 18 minutes in my oven so be sure to check on the cakes as they cook.
Here’s the recipe, as I have posted before:
Vanilla Cupcakes
From: 500 Cupcakes ed Fergal Connolly
225g/8oz unsalted butter, softened
225g/8oz caster sugar
225g/8oz self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence (extract)
Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Place all the ingredients in a medium bowl and beat with electric beaters until smooth and pale, about 2 to 3 minutes.
Spoon mixture into 18 patty cases. Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove trays from oven and cool 5 minutes. Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.
Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 3 months.
A handy way to give baking as a present is to include the container in the gift!
Welcome to the world Lily!
Today I made another recipe from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. This is the first cupcake from the book I haven’t liked. The cake itself is quite moist, dark but not heavy. That part I liked.
The recipe calls for three tablespoons of instant coffee and the coffee flavour comes through too much for my liking. Cake taster number two – my husband – loved them however. I’m not a coffee drinker so I may be more sensitive to the taste of coffee. I may try the recipe again, next time without the coffee. Yet again, I ended up with about 48 cupcakes. I prefer this chocolate cupcake recipe even though it’s a lighter, less rich cake. I did use gluten-free flour as these cupcakes are to be for Leonie in celebration of the arrival of her first baby, a daughter named Lily. I will decorate some in pretty pink colours for Leonie later on, meanwhile I had a chance to play with my piping bag and tip number 96.
I have a fair way to go with my cake decorating, but it’s fun so far! This is vanilla buttercream icing, with Queen “Pillar Box Red” food colouring and a hint of Queen “Black” food colouring.
This recipe was given to me by my good friend Leonie’s mum, Jo. It’s simple but so yummy! In fact, I think my dad is in love with this more than anything I have ever baked (although he has never disliked anything I’ve made). The mixture can be cooked in a loaf tin, on a baking tray or in a muffin tray (my favourite) for pumpkin cupcakes.
The recipe requires butternut pumpkin, which is known as butternut squash in other parts of the world. I don’t think it needs anything on top, but I may experiment with a topping another time. Leonie tells me it’s great with butter!
The consistency of the damper is cake-like, and the taste is not too sweet and not too savoury — Perfect for afternoon tea. It’s also gluten-free friendly when you use gluten-free, self-raising flour.
Thank you Jo for the recipe!
Jo’s Pumpkin Damper
1/2 cup sugar (whichever type you like — I use castor)
2 tablespoons butter or margarine (I use unsalted/salt-reduced butter)
1 cup mashed butternut pumpkin/squash, cooled
2 eggs, beaten with a fork
2 cups self-raising flour
Pinch of salt
Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/355 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix sugar and butter with a fork until creamy.
Add mashed pumpkin, stir through. Add beaten eggs.
Fold in flour, a little at a time.
Add a pinch of salt.
Pour into a loaf tin or cupcake tray.
Bake 30 minutes in a loaf tin or baking tray or 15 minutes in cupcake/muffin tray.
I made these for my friend Leonie’s baby shower. I didn’t use my usual, foolproof old recipe; I tried something different – ”Church Picnic Carrot Cupcakes” from The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook. To make them Leonie-friendly, I used gluten-free, self-raising flour. I really couldn’t tell, taste-wise, once they were cooked. The recipe handled the gluten-free flour well, so I definitely recommend it in that respect. The flavour was strongly influenced by the orange and lemon rind, even though I used half the recommended amount. The cinnamon taste wasn’t as strong. Like the cookbook says, a nice cupcake if you are after something not so sweet.
The recipe says it makes 24 cupcakes; I ended up with 48! I think you would need more of a Texas-sized pan or muffin pan to get only 24 cupcakes. I froze half the cakes and will update on how they survived.
I iced them with vanilla buttercream frosting, instead of cream cheese as suggested. The “carrots” I made with fondant. They were my first venture into playing with icing. Once I have some more tools, I can really have fun with it! I used fondant made by Orchard. Click here to see the Orchard range.
