CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE

I made these cupcakes for our office Christmas party. I made the box myself and used it as a name tag. The cupcake was flavoured with chocolate, the frosting was vanilla and the little chocolate decoration was dark chocolate. I used this recipe , added chocolates sprinkles and devided it into cupcakes. I made about 24 cupcakes with that batter. For the frosting I used this butter cream frosting recipe but I left out the lemon zest and added lots of vanilla essence.

For the decoration I just melted some dark chocolate, spread it out on baking paper, let it set in the fridge and pushed out the shape. You can't let the chocolate set too much as you will break it when you push down the shape. I leave it in the fridge for a few minutes and then I try, if it's too soft I put it back in and if I notice that it's too hard I leave it out of the fridge for a bit to soften. I know it seems like a lot of work but actually it's just melting, spreading and picking the right time to push out the shape.

ANNIVERSARY CHOCOLATE CAKE

I made this cake for my grandparents their 60 year anniversary. That definitely deserves a nice cake so I made a chocolate cake which I covered with a layer of abricot marmelade and over that I spread a chocolate frosting. To top it off I made some chocolate decorations. I went a bit overboard to cover the cake but my grandmother loves dark chocolate so I had no choice :)

VANILLA CUPCAKE & SPRINKLES

Please use this recipe to make 6 cupcakes. I left out the lemon zest for these cupcakes. After letting them cool off you can cover them with sugar paste. To make big cupcakes I used my muffin tin (6).

Ingredients buttercream frosting:

• 2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk or light cream
• pink colouring
• strawberry essence

Steps:

• In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended
• Add the vanilla extract
• With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl
• Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes)
• Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed
• Tint the frosting with pink food colouring
• add a few drops of strawberry essence

To end I covered the cupcakes with the frosting and cover that with coloured sprinkles.

VANILLA CUPCAKE COVERED WITH CHOCOLATE

I made these chocolate covered cupcakes with this cupcake recipe. I did however use my big muffin case of 6 muffins so that I could make big cupcakes. You follow the recipe but you fill 6 in stead of 12 and you use bigger muffin papers. I also left out the lemon zest for these cupcakes.

After letting them cool off I covered them with a vanilla buttercream frosting (recipe below) and some cut up dark chocolate filled with praliné. In stead of just cutting up chocolate I thought it would be nice to use filled chocolate

Ingredients buttercream frosting:

• 2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk or light cream

Steps:

• In an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended
• Add the vanilla extract
• With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar
• Scrape down the sides of the bowl
• Add the milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes)
• Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed

Do not keep the covered big cupcakes in the fridge as that will ruin the frosting.

APPLE CUPCAKE

I made these little apple cupcakes based on my classic apple pie recipe. I made about 12 cupcakes with the batter. I just divided the batter into a cupcake case of 6 cupcakes and did that twice. You prepare the cupcake case with cupcake papers. I sliced a few apples and covered the batter before putting it in the oven, I did make sure not to over-cover them as they will not rise otherwise.

BAKEWELL TART

This type of cake is called a "bakewell tart" but as often I changed a few things.

Ingredients:

• shortcrust pastry
• 90 grams unsalted butter
• 80 grams white granulated sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons of almond extract
• 40 grams selfraising flour
• 160 grams raspberry jam

Steps:

• preheat the oven to 180°C
• lay the pastry in the tin, make sure that it takes the shape of the tin, cut off the pastry that falls over the tin
• cover the pastry with parchment paper and cover with some rice or dried beans, this will prevend the pastry from rising too much whilst being prebaked in the oven
• put the tin in the oven for about 10 minutes, afterwards take out the parchment paper and contents and put it back into the oven for another 5 minutes
• once it is out of the oven let it cool off
• whilst it cools off you can make the filling, you mix the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a bowl
• you mix in the eggs and the extract
• spoon through the flour
• to prepare the tart you cover the pastry with the jam
• you cover the jam with the filling, put it in the oven for 30-35 minutes until it's golden brown and risen
• I covered the tart with almonds to give it something extra

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

These are delicious but something to pass on to others for me, personally I’m not really tempted to eat loads so there is no danger in making a batch. Call me strange but I’m more a vanilla kind of girl.

Ingredients for 48 cookies:

• 4 eggs
• 285 grams flour
• 120 grams unsalted softened butter
• 220 grams brown sugar
• 100 grams white granulated sugar
• 280 grams bittersweet chocolate
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon powered instant espresso
• 400 grams milk chocolate chopped in little pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 175°C
• Place a bowl over a saucepan with simmering water. Break up the bittersweet chocolate and let it melt.
• Cream together the butter, white granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly mix in the eggs.
• In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder.
• Add half of the flour mixture to the previously made batter and mix well. Add half of the melted chocolate and stir until everything is incorporated. Add the remaining flour and melted chocolate.
• Stir in the milk chocolate
• Prepare your baking tray with parchment paper so the cookies won’t stick. Just to be sure I always l dip a bit of vegetable oil on the paper, it makes it so much easier to get the cookies off!
• Bake them in the oven for about 15 minutes.

Let them cool (if you can wait that long!) and enjoy!!

MY OWN BIRTHDAY CAKE

This is my own birthday cake .. It was a vanilla cake with 2 layers, one with marmelade and one layer of buttercreme. I used sugar paste to cover the cake, the flowers and leaves are coloured sugar paste. The text I wrote on with chocolate. The side is covered with a green ribben.

CLASSIC APPLE PIE

This is a recipe I’ve found in a magazine and if you could see my copy you would know that I’ve had it for years! ou can never go wrong with an apple dessert; I’ll hardly ever eat apples but in a dessert they are the perfect companion!

Ingredients for 8 persons:

• 1 kg apples, cut and sliced in cubs
• 3 eggs
• 180 grams white granulated sugar
• 20 grams baking powder
• 180 grams melted butter
• 180 grams all purpose flour

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 175°C
• Mix the egg yolks with 80 grams of sugar to a creamy substance, this takes at least 4-5 minutes. It needs to have a yellowy colour
• Add the baking powder, butter and flour to the mixture
• Mix the egg whites until stiff with a pinch of salt and mix through the rest of the mixture. Do not over-mix as you will otherwise loose your airy structure
• Butter a baking tin so the cake won’t stick
• Spoon the mixture in and push in the apple cubs with a fork. Sprinkle with 100 grams of sugar and put it in a preheated oven of 175°C for 80 minutes.

BANANA CUPCAKE WITH CHOCOLATE LAYER

This is an alternative recipe to my previous banana cupcake recipe I've put on my blog already. I can't really say which one I prefer as they both have a nice flavour (according to me).

Ingredients:

• 175 grams full-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 125 grams unsalted melted butter
• 150 grams white granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 4 small bananas (mashed)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Steps:

• preheat the oven to 180°C
• prepare your cupcake tray by putting the cupcake papers in
• mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl
• in a different bowl mix the melted butter and sugar until combined, beat in the egg one by one and add the mashed bananas and vanilla extract
• mix the flour mixture into the second bowl but don't do it in one go, add the flour mixture in 3 goes
• divide the mixture in the cupcake papers and put it in the oven for 25 minutes
• to decorate the top you can melt a bit of milk chocolate and pour it over, make sure that the cupcake has cooled down

AMARETTO TRUFFLES

Ingredients for 24 truffles:

• 175 grams milk chocolate
• 2 tbsp Amaretto liqueur
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 50 grams ground almonds
• cocao powder to cover the truffles

steps:

• Melt the milk chocolate with the liqueur in a bowl set over a saucepan of hot water, stirring until well combined
• add the butter and stir until it has melted
• stir in the icing sugar and the ground almonds
• leave the mixture in a cool place until it is firm enough to roll truffles
• roll the truffles in some cocoa powder and chill them in the fridge

BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE

I really like this dessert, it's easy to make and very delicious. It's just an ideal "it's Sunday afternoon and raining outside" kind of treat! :)

Ingredients:

• 750 grams frozen red fruit (blackberries, cherries, ...)
• 120 grams of unsalted butter
• 150 grams of all-purpose flour
• 50 grams of white granulated sugar
• 1 pinch of salt

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F
• put the frozen fruit in an ovenproof dish
• Mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl
• Rub the butter with your fingers until the mixture ressembles breadcrumbs
• spread the crumble over the fruit and place it in the oven
• remove from the oven after 40-50 minutes
• the crumble should be brown and crisp when it comes out of the oven

You can serve this warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, your visitors won't be able to resist :)

ECLAIRS

Ingredients:

• 225 ml cold water
• 75 grams unsalted butter
• 100 grams all-purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 3 eggs

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200°C

• Mix the butter and water in a pan on a low heat, bring it to a boil and take it off the heat

• Mix in the flour all at once

• Put the pan back on the heat

• Continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the dough dries out and stops sticking to the sides of the pot

• Take the pan off the heat and stir in the eggs, one at a time, you’ll need to stir quite energetically to get a smooth mixture

• Put the mixture in a baking sac and squeeze out finger sized éclairs onto a baking sheet, do not put them too close together

• Bake for 10-12 minutes

• When you take them out of the oven they should be light and slightly brown, when you open one it should be empty, this will enable you to fill it.

• You let them cool

• once cooled you make a little cut on the side with a knife so you can push in the piping bag, this pipping bag can either be filled with whipped cream or creme anglaise

• once filled you can cover them with a layer of chocolate, to do that I just melted some chocolate (I didn't add any cream)

LEMON CUPCAKES

I made these for work to celebrate my birthday. It's a good alternative if you don't want something that is too sweet. I can't really explain why but I just love the sight of the lemon zest in the frosting. Makes about 12 cupcakes

Ingredients for cupcakes:

• 120 grams soft unsalted butter
• 145 grams white granulated sugar
• 185 self rasing flour
• 125 dl milk
• 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• zest of one small lemon

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180 C
• mix with blender at low speed the butter, sugar, flour, milk, extract, zest and eggs for about 2 minutes
• mix for another 2 minutes at maximum speed
• put the paper liners in the muffin tin (12)
• distribute the mixture and bake the cakes for about 20 minutes
• let them cool off before you cover them with frosting

Ingredients buttercream frosting:

• 2 cups (230 grams) confectioners sugar (icing or powdered sugar), sifted
• 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk or light cream
• zestg of 1 big lemon

Steps:

• Cream the butter until smooth and well blended
• Add vanilla extract
• With the mixer on low speed, gradually beat in the sugar
• Add milk and beat on high speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes)
• Add a little more milk or sugar, if needed
• Mix in the zest

Once the cupcakes have cooled off you can cover them with frosting, it's best to use a piping bag as you can make pretty swirls with them.

BASIC CAKE RECIPE

Ingredients for 6 to 8 persons:

• 4 eggs (about 200 grams)
• 200 grams white granulated sugar
• 200 grams unsalted butter
• 200 grams all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 180°C
• Split egg yolks and whites.
• Mix the egg yolks and sugar to a creamy substance, this takes at least 4-5 minutes. It needs to have a yellowy colour.
• Mix in the lightly melted butter, flour and baking powder into the yellow mixture.
• Mix the egg whites until foamy and gradually add them to the mixture. Don’t be too quick even if you want to speed things along, you’ll be sorry later as your cake will not rise.
• Butter the cake tin to make sure that the cake does not stick, if you don’t have any extra butter you can also use vegetable oil (just don’t use oil that has a flavour otherwise your cake will taste like e.g. olive oil).
• Poor the mixture in the cake tin and bake it at 180°C for 45 min up to 1 hour. When you take out the cake after 45 min you can check if it is sufficiently baked by pushing a wooden skewer into it, if there is still dough sticking to it put it back in the oven.

Tip: when you fill the cake tin it should not be filled over 75% otherwise you won’t have a nice rise.