Oct 29, 2010

"Lily Cupcakes" - Sauvignon & Blackberry

A colleague was leaving work and it has become a bit of a tradition that I take along some home baked goodies, generally a cake or cupcakes. I have a standing joke with Lily about our common love of liquid grapes of the Sav variety... hence the wine & berry cupcakes.
The wine gives a beautiful moist and fruity feel to the cupcakes, which were further enhanced by a blackberry surprise in the centre and a wine/blackberry spiked buttercream mmm!
The colours were beautiful and I was quite impressed with my piping skills too ;)

Oct 28, 2010

The Best Carrot Cake Ever!

I made this a couple of weeks ago for another work morning tea - to celebrate 2 colleagues promotions.
I wanted to try a carrot cake as I had made the little fondant carrots a few weeks back and was dying to use them. I'm not a big fan of carrot cake or cream cheese icing, so I wasn't really excited about it... but this particular recipe was quite delicious.
It was made with sour cream and a small amount of butter rather than oil (one reason I'm not usually a carrot cake fan) so it had a nice texture and wasn't heavy. I may post the recipe one day, but for now you can look at the pics :)

Oct 22, 2010

Brownies - another first!

I thought it would be nice to take something along to my Dad's house this weekend as he was likely to have plenty of house guests and visitors, since it was his wedding! Of course, in true Jayne style I decided on a whim whilst packing my bag on the morning of my journey to Taupo that I would bake rather than buy the goodies.... luckily my baking stocks are usually plentiful.

I chose brownies as I'd had a delicious one the day before... I found a simple one-bowl recipe, made a few changes - another 'Jayneism' I'm afraid ;)... and whipped up a tin of chocolatey goodness.
They smelled divine and tasted pretty good too, so a quick cool-down and a sprinkling of icing sugar and ready they were! I packaged most of them up for the trip and sent a few off to my chief taste-tester for good measure... I must ask him what he thought when I get back!

Oct 17, 2010

Cupcake Hero October 2010 - Lemon Honey Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling & Lemon Honey Buttercream (Sweet n Tangy Tempters)

I was excited to hear the new Challenge for Cupcake Hero, posted by Liss of I Dream In Buttercream was to create a Cupcake that include HONEY. Pure sweet goodness mmm!

I decided to go with something fairly mainstream, partly because I didn't have a lot of time and partly because the combo sounded pretty good to me! So here we have my creation:
Lemon Honey Cupcakes with Lemon Curd Filling & Lemon Honey Buttercream

  

Cupcakes:
2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
Zest and juice of one lemon
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk
125g butter
1/2 cup honey
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
2 eggs 

1. Preheat oven to 180 (350). 
2. Sift together flour, baking soda, &baking powder; set aside.
3. In a small bowl, combine sour cream lemon zest & juice and milk; set aside.
4. In a mixing bowl, cream butter until fluffy. Add honey& sugar; mix well. Add eggs, one at a time.
5. Add half of the reserved dry ingredients to the butter mixture; mix until just combined. Slowly add the lemon mixture. 
6. Add remaining dry ingredients until just combined. 
7. Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full. 
8. Bake 16-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. 
9. Allow to cool on a rack before frosting.

Lemon Curd:
1/2 cup lemon juice and finely grated zest of 2 lemons
100g unsalted butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs, lightly whisked

  • Combine lemon juice, zest, butter and sugar in a saucepan and stir over heat to dissolve sugar. 
  • Add eggs and continue to cook over a gentle heat stirring constantly until the mixture reaches the boil and thickens.
  • Pour mixture into a hot sterilised jar, cover and refrigerate.

Buttercream:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup honey
1 1/2 Tbsp grated lemon zest
2 cups icing sugar
1/2 cup sour cream (at room temperature)
5-6 tsp lemon juice

Beat butter, honey and lemon zest in large bowl with an electric mixer until creamed, add sour cream and mix for about 2 minutes. On low speed, beat in icing sugar until blended. Beat in lemon juice slowly until mixture is fluffy and of piping consistency.

Assemble:
To assemble cupcakes, first either fill the cupcakes with Lemon Curd using a piping bag and a Bismarck tip, or use an apple core to punch a hole in the cupcake and fill with a teaspoon. I like this method since you get more filling. You can never have too much filling! 
Then Frost with a Piping Bag and whichever tip you prefer.
I also topped mine with yellow sprinkles.




Baking for Hospice - October 17th

This months theme for Baking for Hospice was "Dad's"... I don't remember my Dad having a firm favourite, but like me he enjoyed (and still does!) most things sweet! I do remember him loving Lemon Honey though and since I also had to use Honey as an ingredient for this months Cupcake Hero Challenge I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and donate my Lemon Honey Cupcakes to the Hospice cause. Read more about them in the post above :)

Thanks Nessie for all your hard work in organizing such an amazing project. Here's to all the Dad's out there who enjoy a sweet treat and the love that's baked inside them :)
   

Oct 14, 2010

My first Layer Cake!

Lemon Layer Cake
Lemon cake with blackberry & lemon curd and Lemon Buttercream


I decide to make a Birthday Cake for a colleagues birthday. Instead of my favourite Chocolate Cake or typical Banana Cake, I went for a fresh Lemon flavoured one instead. I asked friends on my Facebook page what they would request were I to make them a cake. I got some great ideas, but Lemon seemed fairly popular and since they are in season it was easy enough to source the goods!


I have often admired layer cakes but never attempted one.... so why not feel the fear and do it now! It was a little messy but not too difficult, though I can imagine thinner layers would be much more time consuming. I made a large round cake and sliced it in to 3 layers, in between I smothered the cake with a blackberry & lemon curd and lemon buttercream. The cake was then assembled and frosted with a thick layer of the Lemon Buttercream. I decorated it with handmade chocolate butterflies.


Unfortunately I don't have any good quality photo's of the cake once cut, but this still gives you the idea.







Oct 8, 2010

Pink Ribbon Day - Baking for Breasts!

October is Breast Cancer Action month and this year October 8th is Pink Ribbon Day.
Sadly most of us know someone who is either a survivor or a victim of breast Cancer.



As a Nurse I promote breast screening and awareness, but I also wanted to do something a little more fun towards fundraising & getting the staff at my work talking so I made some pink goodies for us to share.

Despite a few thinking the Ribbon cookies were fish-hooks, they were well received! I was very pleased with the colour of the cupcakes, they were bright pink :)

If you want to help a worthy cause, it's not too late to Donate