I love baking. I like using baking as a relaxation technique of sorts. Baking with a three year old is not so relaxing but it's something I force myself to do regularly. Cooking with mother - it's a rite of passage isn't it? Something all little children should experience. So I do it, and okay, I admit I do enjoy it a little bit but it can be hard managing a frustrated pre-schooler when I insist on using my KitchenAid mixer (why beat sugar and butter together when the mixer can do it so much quicker and easier than me?). I have to take it off the mixer and then let her have a pretend go with her pink spoon or life truly wouldn't be worth living. Fortunately she's quite patient at the actual baking part as normally she's lost interest by that point or something more important is happening - like Show Me Show Me starting on CBeebies. Besides, it's the decorating part that is the fun bit (and I take no responsibility for what they look like)!
After spending a lovely Sunday making sausage rolls, mince pies and stuffing (recipes for the last two will follow after Crimbo as they are currently stashed in the freezer), I thought that I ought to let madam have a wee go at something. I had a good ferret through some books and happened across a recipe for cupcakes in Nigella Christmas. It looked easy enough and I had some Christmas sprinkles stashed away that I had recently picked up at Lakeland. Perfect!
And they were perfect. Well, almost. My cup runneth over on a couple of them but I think that was my overloading that did that - aside from that they were great little cakes, and even better they didn't stick to the wrapper like my usual attempts. I liked them so much I think I'll use this recipe for cupcakes in the future. I may also be a convert to royal icing.
Nigella doesn't state what flour, butter or sugar so the recipe below is adapted to what I used. Recipe makes 12 cupcakes.
Christmas Cupcakes
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps vanilla extract
2-3 x 15ml tbsps whole milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6. Fill a muffin tin with paper cases.
Put all the ingredients except for the milk into a food processor or mixer and blitz until smooth.
Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel - add a little bit at a time until you get a smooth dropping consistency.
Divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases and bake in the oven for 15-20mins until they have risen and are golden on top.
Let them cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack until cool.
There are obviously many ways that you can decorate these cupcakes and I followed one of Nigella's suggestions which was using royal icing. I made up the icing using 250g of royal icing beaten together with 2tbsps of water as directed on the packet. However, the icing was still quite stiff so I needed to a little bit more water. It can be trial and error really - just keep going until you get the consistency you want. If it's too runny, add more icing sugar. Too stiff, add more water.
Once you've made the icing, pop a dollop of it on each cake using a tablespoon and add your sprinkles or decorations - you should do this quite soon after putting the icing on so it doesn't dry first!
love & kisses
Mrs M x
After spending a lovely Sunday making sausage rolls, mince pies and stuffing (recipes for the last two will follow after Crimbo as they are currently stashed in the freezer), I thought that I ought to let madam have a wee go at something. I had a good ferret through some books and happened across a recipe for cupcakes in Nigella Christmas. It looked easy enough and I had some Christmas sprinkles stashed away that I had recently picked up at Lakeland. Perfect!
And they were perfect. Well, almost. My cup runneth over on a couple of them but I think that was my overloading that did that - aside from that they were great little cakes, and even better they didn't stick to the wrapper like my usual attempts. I liked them so much I think I'll use this recipe for cupcakes in the future. I may also be a convert to royal icing.
Nigella doesn't state what flour, butter or sugar so the recipe below is adapted to what I used. Recipe makes 12 cupcakes.
Christmas Cupcakes
Ingredients
125g unsalted butter, softened
125g golden caster sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsps baking powder
2 tsps vanilla extract
2-3 x 15ml tbsps whole milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 200c/gas mark 6. Fill a muffin tin with paper cases.
Put all the ingredients except for the milk into a food processor or mixer and blitz until smooth.
Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel - add a little bit at a time until you get a smooth dropping consistency.
Divide the mixture between the 12 paper cases and bake in the oven for 15-20mins until they have risen and are golden on top.
Let them cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack until cool.
There are obviously many ways that you can decorate these cupcakes and I followed one of Nigella's suggestions which was using royal icing. I made up the icing using 250g of royal icing beaten together with 2tbsps of water as directed on the packet. However, the icing was still quite stiff so I needed to a little bit more water. It can be trial and error really - just keep going until you get the consistency you want. If it's too runny, add more icing sugar. Too stiff, add more water.
Once you've made the icing, pop a dollop of it on each cake using a tablespoon and add your sprinkles or decorations - you should do this quite soon after putting the icing on so it doesn't dry first!
love & kisses
Mrs M x
No comments:
Post a Comment
I always like to hear your thoughts, so please do leave a comment!