Apple Spice and all things nice cupcakes in Tickle the Imagination

Apple and Spice.......

and all things nice,

that's what these cupcakes are made of.

Recipe for these seriously moist and moreish Apple Spice cupcakes with delicious cinnamon cream cheese frosting recipe on pages 30 - 34 in the new edition of Tickle the Imagination magazine out now.

Plus there is a cute little write up on me and my craft space on pages 90-91 with some pic's and a little interview, plus lots of other awesome stuff that's not about me on the other pages:

CLICK HERE to get to the free online Tickle the Imagination Magazine.

Linda Vandermeer is a blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Link to Amazon:

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! 

Or at Fishpond (free shipping Australia)

 

 Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Mocha Buttercream frosting

I'm a bit of a chocolate chip fan.

Ok I know that doesn't really set me apart from everyone else. But surprisingly I am not a huge fan of plain chocolate - I have kilo's of it in my baking cupboard and I am never tempted to eat it.

Although pop it into a cake or cookie, and I love it.

I don't know why, it just the way it is. The sky is blue, water is wet and I love chocolate chip cakes and cookies.

Frosting swirl with a Wilton 1 M tip

Anyhoo, you may all of noticed I'm not much into the health food. I don't really do low fat much when it comes to baking, if it reduces the flavour and texture, forget it. However a while back (due to a running out of ingredients baking emergency) I noticed when I added some low fat plain yogurt into my cakes it created a yummy, dense and moist cake which I loved. The reduced fat aspect was just a bonus.

So I decided to merge my love of chocolate chips with the yogurt based cake.

Then I piled on some frosting and chocolate chips and popped a macaron on top, although the macaron is optional. It looks pretty good either way.

Oh I baked some in these Greengate baking cups I had lying around. I picked them up last year at Just Plain Gorgeous and they matched some of my latte cups, which totally worked out for my afternoon tea.

We enjoyed these cupcakes both frosted as decorated in the picture and without the frosting. We found the cupcake delicious just as it was plain, the addition of the yogurt made it moist enough to be an easy after school snack.

Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Mocha Butter Cream Frosting
I used Chobani plain 0% fat Greek yogurt in this recipe. Any left over yogurt can be used in place of sour cream - eg for baked potato or soup swirling.


Chocolate Chip Cupcakes (makes 12)
Ingredients should be at room temperature for best results

1 1/2 cups (1 1/2 Cups rounded US) Self Raising Flour
pinch salt
125 g (4 3/8 oz) unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
125 g (4 3/8 oz) 0% Fat Yogurt (I used Chobani)
2 large eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
3/4 cups mini milk chocolate chips
Frosting (I used the recipe below)
Extra mini chocolate chips
Optional - mini macarons

Preheat the oven to 160 C (325 F). Line a 12 cup muffin tin with cupcake papers.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl and set aside.

In a large bowl of an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar for a couple of minutes. Reduce speed to medium low and add the yogurt. Mix until just combined.

Still at medium low add the vanilla and eggs and mix until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add the sifted flour, when the flour is just combined turn off the machine, add the chocolate chips and mix by hand until the chips are evenly distributed.

Divide the mixture between the baking cups.

Bake for around 20 minutes until the tops are turning golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean of cake crumbs.

To decorate, smooth on a small amount frosting around the edges of the cupcake.

Pop the mini choc chips into a shallow plate or bowl and then roll the edges of the cupcake in the mini chips. Repeat for remaining cupcakes.

Place the remaining frosting into a large piping bag with a large star tip (I used Wilton 1 M tip ) and pipe a swirl on the top of each cupcake.

Store frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Remove from fridge about 10 minutes prior to eating. Unfrosted cupcakes can be stored at room temperature.


Mocha Maple Butter Cream Frosting
I used Lindt Milk Chocolate. The Maple is a subtle flavor in place of Vanilla - it's not knock your socks off, if you like you can leave out the coffee powder and maple syrup and have plain milk chocolate frosting.

This batch made about double what I needed, you can either half the recipe or freeze the remainder (like I did). To reuse frozen butter cream defrost and then whip it back up until light and fluffy.

250 gram (8 3/4 oz) unsalted butter
3 cups (3 1/4 US cups) sifted icing sugar (powdered sugar)
1/2 tsp salt
200 grams ( 7 oz) melted milk chocolate (cooled)
2 tsp powdered coffee
1 Tbsp (1 US Tbsp + 1 tsp) Maple syrup

In a large bowl of an electric mixer cream the butter and 2 cups of the sugar for 3 minutes at high until light and fluffy. Add the remaining sugar and salt and mix on high speed until very light and fluffy. Add the chocolate, coffee and maple syrup and mix on high another couple of minutes until the mixture is well combined and once again lightened in color and texture (see picture for example).

# If the weather is hot (or you don't wait for your chocolate to cool like me) and your frosting becomes too soft to pipe, just pop it into the fridge to chill about 1/2 and hour or so, then you can whip it back up with the mixer until it's perfect for piping.

Original recipe by Linda Vandermeer blogger, baker, maker and author of the cookbook ' Sweets on a Stick': More than 150 kid friendly recipes for cakes, candies, cookies and pies on the go!. Published in the US the book is available at most online book stores:

Link to Amazon:

Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go! 

Or at Fishpond (free shipping Australia)

 

 Sweets on a Stick: More Than 150 Kid-Friendly Recipes for Cakes, Candies, Cookies, and Pies on the Go!

Boho Chic Organic Coffee Crumble Blueberry Cupcakes

A while back I received a letter about a fun blog event paying tribute to baking trends throughout the decades called The Great Australian Bakeline....... my mission if I chose to accept it was to bake something reflective of  the 00's.

I did a quick search on food trends for the 00's and among many other things found that Cupcakes, Organic produce, Blueberries (as a flavor) and the rise of the coffee shop were big news.

Which isn't really that surprising to me, 'cause you know - we pretty much just lived it.

In fact I think those couple of things I listed are quite enduring and I am not sure why they ever went out of favor.

Take the cupcake.

I don't know how many times I have read a certain food is the new cupcake, but I've yet to see anything knock them down off their pretty little pedestals.

On the other hand I completely decided to ignore a few of the other big trends such as low or no carbs.

In truth I'm thinking the obsession with the low carb diet could probably also probably explain the extreme popularity of the cupcake. I've never tried a low carb diet, but I'm guessing that while your on one a cupcake has never looked soooo tempting.

Anyhoo back to the Bakeline......I decided to create a delicious recipe that combined the four noughties food trends I liked.

So I give you the organic coffee crumble blueberry cupcake, inspired by the noughties, delicious in any decade. As a nod towards another trend instead of fancy towering frosting I topped them with struesel that is actually made from the cupcake mixture to give them a boho chic relaxed feel.

I used Baker's Secret muffin tins ( which I actually use all the time for cupcakes), and I didn't even line or grease the muffin tin......that's right no cupcake papers I just popped the cupcake batter straight into the tin with no other preparation. Plus they're dishwasher safe - I know -nice! Y'all know with 3 kids that type of stuff is pretty important to me.

Not using the cupcake papers gave the finished cupcakes a nice rustic look so I decided to finish them off with a length of organic jute.

The finished cupcake was not overly sweet with a moist texture which made it more a cupcake than a muffin despite it's appearance. Perfect for morning tea, afternoon tea or a snack it makes a delicious treat for any occasion no matter the decade.

Coffee Crumble Blueberry Cupcake recipe makes 12 cupcakes

I used all organic produce (except the macadamia oil), however if you can not find any of the ingredients I used you can just substitute regular.

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup strong black coffee (espresso machine or mix instant coffee with hot water)
1/4 cup yogurt
1/4 cup macadamia oil
1 large egg
1 cup blueberries
30 grams unsalted butter softened


Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Place a 12 hole non stick muffin tray on the bench ready to use.


Sift the the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. into a large bowl.

Remove 1/2 cup of the flour mixture and reserve for topping.

In another smaller bow mix together the coffee,  yogurt, oil and eggs.

Add the wet mixture to the flour and mix until just combined, gently fold in the blueberries.

Divide the mixture between 12 muffin cases.

Rub together the 30 grams butter with the reserved 1/2 cup of flour mixture until it comes together in a coarse mixture then sprinkle a couple of teaspoons of mixture over the top of each muffin. Don't worry if you have a little left over.

Bake for 18 - 20 minutes.

These are a few of my favorite things Cheesecakes - Mini Chocolate Cheesecakes with Nutella

Sometimes in baking things don't work out exactly as you plan them.

These mini cheesecakes are one of those things.

The plan was pretty good as plans go Nutella, Cheesecake, Chocolate and Oreo's, combining a few of my favorite things had to work out well.

So I made up a recipe, mixed, baked, swirled on some topping, took some pictures, tasted them.......

......and not quite what I was hoping for, the chocolate overpowers the Nutella resulting in a finished treat that is deliciously chocolatey but lacks a strong hazelnut component.

But they were pretty yummy, so although they were not what I was expecting I think they are still worth sharing.

I'm back to the drawing board on my Nutella cheesecakes, but in the meantime at least I had these not quite nutella ones to console myself with.

Chocolate Mini Baked Cheesecakes made with Nutella makes 18 large muffin sized cheesecakes. If you are making smaller sized cakes you will need more Oreos

625g (21oz) cream cheese at room temperature
1 X 395g (14oz) tin sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs at room temperature
300g (10 1/2 oz) nutella
1/4 cup cocoa
18 Oreos

Preheat oven to 140C (285 F)

Line the muffin tins with the muffin/cupcake papers. Place one single oreo in the bottom of each muffin paper.

In a small bowl mix the cocoa with about 1/4 cup of the nutella to make a smooth paste.

In a large bowl beat the cream cheese using an electric mixer at medium speed until smooth. If the cream cheese is still lumpy it will show up later when you mix in the chocolate, so take the time now to make sure it is mixed well. Add the condensed milk and mix until well combined. Reduce speed to low and add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until just combined.

Add the Nutella and cocoa paste and continue to mix at low speed until combined.

Spoon the mixture into the muffin papers dividing mixture evenly between the papers.

Bake until the mixture is just setting in the center, around 15- 20 minutes. The center will stop looking wet and will no longer wobble when you gently shake the tray when ready.

Allow to cool in the trays for 10-15min and then pop in an airtight container in the fridge until chilled.

Once chilled top with a swirl of the dark chocolate topping recipe below.

 Keep in airtight container up to 3 days in fridge.

Dark Chocolate Topping

200g (7 oz)Dark Chocolate
60g  (2oz) cream*
100 g (3 1/2 oz) Nutella
50 g (1 3/4 oz) Nutella extra
50g (1 3/4oz) unsalted butter *

In a microwave safe bowl melt the chocolate and cream at medium low heat at bursts of 60-90 seconds, mixing with a whisk in between bursts until just melted. Do not overheat the chocolate. Gently whisk in the 100 g Nutella without over mixing or the mixture may separate.

Cool to room temperature and place in a large bowl, mix at high speed for a couple of minutes until the mixture lightens a little in color. Add the extra 50g Nutella and room temperature butter and continue to mix until the mixture is smooth and light.

*If the weather is quite cold you may wish to increase the cream and butter ingredients to make the topping a little softer and easier to pipe.

High Heel Shoe Cupcakes - high maintenance decorating

Once upon a time I was moderately fashionable, well as fashionable as you could get in Brisbane with regular shopping trips to Melbourne.

Oh the shoes that I had........

But now my shoes are made for walking, and running after toddlers and not having to worry about as I traipse through puddles with my 3 year old to get the other kids from school pick up.I never used to do puddles, but now I am reliving the joy of jumping in them.

I think I am a more balanced person overall now, but sadly my knowledge of what passes as fabulous footwear these days is limited to what I have seen recently on pintrest.

Originally I made up a batch of these to tie in with the fashion inspired dress cake and cookies for Naomi V Photography for the fun fashionista 10 year party styled by Putting on a Party.

a couple of people saw the photo's on facebook and asked if I could post a tutorial which is what I am doing.

These high heel shoes toppers are made of fondant using a JEMS cutter set I picked up. The place I bought mine from no longer carries them but I did spy some on Amazon so have a look here or google them, they are the mini ones that are 3" long..

Or in Australia here on Fishpond

 

Plastic Cutter Set, 8pc, Lady's Miniature Shoe 

 Although I am showing you using the cutter set as that is how I made the shoes if you want you could make your own by just drawing up some templates on cardboard, hand cutting with a knife and hand rolling the heel.

Normally I don't mind hand cutting myself, but these shoes are fiddly. I did not love making them, these shoes are high maintenance decoration. Although I only had to make 13 cupcakes, I did sets of shoes for each cupcake so that was 26 shoes, which by the way are pretty easy to break if you don't handle them right, so in reality a few more than 26.

For the fashion party I made cupcakes with a plain fondant top to sit the shoes on, which is pretty much just a cupcake covered with a tiny amount of butter cream and a round of fondant pressed on the top. The plain fondant covered cupcake is a nice looking base for the shoes. But I prefer the taste of butter cream topped cupcakes so I thought I might try out so see how they worked.

Yup, they worked ok although I think it's a struggle to get a pair of shoes to sit on the butter cream swirl and look as neat as the fondant. But in truth I could live with that, really who is going to eat 2 fondant shoes after a whole cupcake plus WAHOO it halves the number of shoes you need to make.

High Heel Shoe Cupcake Topper Tutorial

If you like you can use a little tylose powder kneaded into the fondant to make it a bit stronger (like gumpaste), or I guess buy gumpaste :) Tylose powder can also be used to make the edible glue. I used Bakels white fondant and Satin Ice black and red. All other colors were the Bakels tinted with gel food color.

Ingredients and equipment
Fondant
*optional tylose powder
Gel food color in your color of choice.
rolling pin
cornflour (corn starch)
Jems mini High Heel shoe cutter (3 inch)
toothpick or tool with pointed end
edible glue and brush
edible decorations for shoe

This is what you get in the JEMS cutter set

Color the fondant by adding drops of gel food color and kneading until well distributed. You may like to add a little tylose powder to the fondant to make it a bit stronger and easier to work with at this stage. I didn't but my shoes were pretty easy to break.

Make the heels. Roll a small ball of fondant and then shape into a cone.

Place the cone of fondant into one of the JEMS heel formers.

Press the other heel former carefully onto the first one so that the sides meet evenly. Excess fondant will squeeze out the sides, bottom and top, remove the excess with a knife and smooth the top of the heel where it will meet the sole.

If you can manage it a nice touch can be to add a touch of black to the base of the heel to look a little more realistic.

Carefully remove the heel formers taking care not to change the shape of the fondant heel. Place onto a piece of parchment paper with the large flat top of the heel facing downwards until required. If needed use a tool or your finger to smooth any join ridges that the heel former has heft on the heel.

Dust a workbench with cornflour (corn starch) and roll out fondant a couple of mm thick (1/16"). Holding the handle of the sole cutter, press the cutter into the fondant and cut out a sole.

OK decide if you want that impression to be on the top or the bottom - I didn't like the look of it on the top so it's the bottom of my sole although I have seen a number of pictures where it is the top. Your choice :)

Also if you would like a double sole so you can have for example a red base, just cut out 2 soles, brush some edible glue onto one and press them together.

Brush some glue onto the top of a heel and press the heel onto the sole as shown in picture example. Place a foam shoe former under the sole to help shape the shoe.

Roll out more fondant and cut out the shoe upper using the JEMS cutter. Attach a small amount of edible glue to the outer sides of the shape and using a toothpick or fondant tool press the shape onto the front of the sole, attaching one side, allowing the middle to arch up and then attaching the other side to the sole, as shown in the picture.

This process is quite fiddly and you may need some practice, plus you may knock the back heel section over and need to pick it up a number of times. Trust me it will get easier with practice.

You can cut out another of the shoe upper shapes to make a heel, using glue along the long length of the shape at attach it to the sole just above the heel. I did this with some of the shoes, although I also ended up making my own template for a back which was not so high.

There is also a strap cutter which comes with the set which can be used to make an ankle strap.

Once you are happy with the shoe shape add decorations to the shoe by making small ribbons, flowers, ruffles or 'brooches'. You can even hand paint on designs using food gel watered down with a  little rose spirits.

Other decorative touches can include adding sanding sugar or spraying luster spray.

I used the chocolate cupcake recipe from my book Sweets on a stick to make the cupcake bases for the pictures. It is actually a one bowl kid friendly recipe for 24 mini cupcakes, but in a pinch it can work for 10 regular cupcakes.

 Sweets on a Stick is available through most online book stores it is a US release aimed at getting kids involved in the kitchen. Here are the links to Amazon and Fishpond.

Or here at fishpond (Aus/NZ)