Happy Valentines Day!

I wanted to make some cupcakes for St Valentine's Day, but didn't have a recipe, so these cupcakes were a bit experimental (just like my choc chip peppermint cupcakes, which I never finished!). I had a basic idea of the flavours I wanted: I wanted it to be a strawberry and vanilla cupcake with yogurt in it.

These are the ingredients I started with:

And here's what they turned out like:

Pretty cute aren't they, in their shiny pink foil cases!

To make them, I made a vanilla cupcake mix and added a punnet of chopped up strawberries like so

Mmm look at those strawberries!

Strawberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

Ingredients:

3 eggs

150g butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

punnet of strawberries, hulled, and cut into quarters

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line a 12 cupcake pan with cupcake cases. In a medium sized bowl, beat the butter for 1-2 minutes or until it has turned a paler colour. Add the sugar in 2-3 batches, beating well after each addition. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla.

2. Add the flour and yogurt in batches, starting and finishing with the flour, beating on low speed after each addition.

3. Add the strawberries to the mixture, stirring in gently with a spatula.

4. Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcake cases. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Leave for 5 minutes in pan, then leave to cool completely on a wire rack before decorating.

To decorate, I melted some chocolate and put it into a ziplock bag, cut the corner off, and piped hearts onto the cupcakes.

Also, to make them even prettier, you could swirl some heated and sieved strawberry jam (or even pink food colouring) into the cupcakes before they go in the oven, to create a marble effect.

Happy Baking!

YoYo biscuits

I love my new KitchenAid stand mixer! Isn't it pretty? The first thing I decided to make with it was yoyo biscuits.

Here is the recipe:

Vanilla yoyo biscuits

1 cup plain flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/2 cup custard powder

175g butter, at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup soft icing mixture

Filling

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar

40g butter, at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

A few drops of food colouring, if desired

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Attach flat beater to stand mixer. Place flours and custard powder in bowl with shield and mix on speed 1 to combine. Remove from bowl and set aside. (If you don't have a stand mixer just sift the flour and custard powder into a bowl and mix together.)

2. Place butter, vanilla and icing mixture in bowl. Beat on speed 6 until pale and fluffy. Add flour mixture; mix on speed 1 until just combined, then beat on speed 4 until smooth.

3. Roll a rounded teaspoon of dough into a ball and place on prepared trays. Lightly press down with a fork. Repeat with remaining dough.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Stand for 5 mins then move to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. Meanwhile, make filling. Attach flat beater to stand mixer. Place icing sugar and butter in bowl and mix on speed 4 until pale and well combined. Add vanilla and lemon juice; mix on speed 1 to combine. Add a few drops of food colouring if desired and then beat on speed 4 until fluffy. Sandwich biscuits together with filling.

Ooh and look at the pretty red spatula that goes the mixer-

So cute! Red is my favourite colour, too.

Happy Baking!

Mrs Baker

This cute doll and her gingerbread man (who are actually called Mrs Pottage and Periwinkle, but I call her Mrs Baker) are from a pattern I got out of an issue of Homespun magazine. She was really fun to make and was fairly easy if you have some sewing experience. Mrs Pottage and Periwinkle were designed by Simone Gooding of May Blossom who has many other gorgeous designs. The pattern is also available to buy on her website. Here's a close-up of Periwinkle, in case you couldn't see how cute he is. Aw- he looks good enough to eat!

Well, maybe.

Happy Baking!

Yummy peanutty biccies!

I made these yummy biscuits today and they were sooo easy! I used this recipe that I found on Bakerella's blog. Instead of dipping the biccies in chocolate and peanuts I added some chocolate chips to the dough. I think I may have added too much though, almost half the packet! Next time I would only add about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips, otherwise the biscuits will fall apart. These were so easy- I will definetely be making them again.

Happy Baking!

Choc Chip Peppermint Swirl Cupcakes

What a mouthful of a name! The inspiration behind these cupcakes came from an icecream that I had on the weekend. I didn't ice them as I was only experimenting with the cake flavours. I am still working on the recipe, but when I have it up to scratch I will post it here.

Until Then, Happy baking! :)

A few of my favourite things...

The Crabapple Cupcake Bakery cookbook is one of my favourite cookbooks. It features heaps of delicious recipes and tips for baking the perfect cupcakes. It also inspired the cupcakes above, which I made for my friends birthday.

Bakerella is my number one favourite baking blog! I visit it every week and am often found drooling over the keyboard or goggling over her latest creations. I got the ideas for the cupcakes above from Bakerella. Visit her at bakerella.com if you haven't already!

My cake shaped timer is so cute! I use it every time I bake.

Cute cupcake cases are essential! These are by Robert Gordon.

And that will have to do for tonight as I am getting tired :)