Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cupcakes. Show all posts

You Can't Fake Passion {black bottom cupcakes}

"You can't fake passion." -Barbara Corcoran

It was years ago now that I went on a training course for a job I no longer have. It was on this training course we were asked to describe something that we enjoyed doing. It was obvious that some of the people on that training course with me said what they said just to get the exercise out of the way. But those who really enjoyed the subject they were talking about ... well, you could hear it in their tone, see it in their facial expressions, their body language. Their passion shone through. 

The company we were all there for were hoping to show us that if we talked about them that way their customers would hear it and see it and then not only believe in us, but the company. Allowing us to essentially sell to people. I have no regrets in my life, but I wish I had paid more attention to my response, because I was one of those people who had the tone and the look. 

If you like me are trying to find their way to back to that thing that brings them passion maybe talk about it out loud to yourself and really listen to your response. Record it if it helps. 


It's always been easier to find mundane jobs to get me through life. The fear of not being good enough at something I feel passionate about has always been really scary and have always kept those things to the side never thinking it's something maybe I could do as a career. 

Maybe it's time to re-think that. 

Are you passionate about your career? or do you save your passion for your hobbies? 



Sometimes keeping your passion separate from what earns you your money is best because when what you are passionate about becomes work you can loose some of that passion. Everyone will balance it differently and everyone feels differently but at the end of the day it's what makes you happy. We all deserve to be happy. 

Cupcakes make me happy and I do have a passion for baking. I don't know that it's the thing that I would want to earn money doing, but in my free time nothing picks up my mood better then spending it in the kitchen whipping up a cake or cookies or brownies. These turned out so well and they are made with oil not butter and it is my personal opinion that chocolate cake is always better when made with oil. 

Recipe can be found in the hummingbird bakery cookbook ---- also can be found on my TikTok (yes I have TikTok :/ I don't know what has become of me. lol) This isn't the first time I have ever talked about them on my blog! First post mentioning Black Bottom Cupcakes can be found here if you are interested in seeing how my photography skills have improved.  


Also posting about everything and anything over on Instagram come chat!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and/or Dessert Bowls {recipe}


This is the first Thanksgiving, I think since I moved to the UK, that I haven't made pumpkin pie. It felt a little odd, but there were no complaints with the alternative.

This recipe suits cupcakes if you don't happen to have a 6 cavity dessert shell that makes cake bowls! After a quick look around the 'ol internet they don't seem to exist any more if you come across one pop a comment below and let us all know!


The special tin isn't necessary though because the recipe makes great cupcakes and when topped with the cream cheese frosting and toasted walnuts and drizzled with salted caramel it's perfection all in one little cake.

Cupcakes aren't generally something that is thought of as a dessert, but as a birthday treat or a snack with coffee. However, I would argue that cupcakes make a great dessert, who can say no to an individual cake?

I mean they can... but I don't understand those people.


No matter if these are baked as cupcakes or dessert bowls or, if you adjust times slightly, as a tray bake the cake itself is a good cake. It's a nice texture and the spices are popularly paired with pumpkin because they work well together.

So, if you are looking for an autumn or winter treat that fills your kitchen with the best smells give this one a go!


Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes or dessert bowls

4 large eggs
400g sugar
200ml vegetable/sunflower oil
1 can (425g) of pureed pumpkin
325g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarb of soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves

Heat the oven to 170C and line your cupcake tin or grease your 6-cavity dessert shell tin with butter or shortening.

Beat the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin together. Then beat in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, bicarb, salt, ginger, and cloves until just combined. Using a medium ice cream scoop fill your cupcake cases or your 6-cavity dessert shell tins. I made a dozen cupcakes and 6 dessert bowls; you could probably get a dozen and a half cupcakes or about a dozen bowls. If you are making bowls you don't need the frosting below, just fill with ice cream or whipped cream and sauce and nuts and whatever you want to top it with!

Cream Cheese Frosting
100g cream cheese
70g butter
1 tsp vanilla
300g icing sugar
walnut halves, toasted (optional)
salted caramel drizzle (optional)
ice cream (optional, but highly recommended)

Beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla together. Slowly beat in the icing sugar until combined and smooth. Place about a tablespoon or so of frosting on top and smooth out with a spatula.

Finish off the cupcakes by sprinkling or placing the walnuts on top and drizzling over about 2 tablespoons of salted caramel by placing it in either an icing bag or sandwich and just snip the tip. If you made dessert bowls, then ice cream is always a great filler, whipped cream and toasted walnuts would make a suitable alternative in my opinion!




Pumpkin spice is one of my favorite spice combinations and even though you can use it any time of year, it just feels right in the autumn months leading to winter. English winters are wet, cold, and grey a far thing from my snowy, cold, and grey winters back home, but I still like this time of year. I love sweaters and hats with bobbles and my scarf collection is endless I could literally wear a different one every day of winter... well maybe not every day!

If you like winter as much as me please leave a comment below! And if you try this recipe I hope you like it!

Bounty Cupcakes - A Birthday Treat!


I have a confession to make. I am the worst gift giver. It's not something I enjoy doing because the amount of pressure, I most likely put on myself, to find the perfect gift. Also I am tight when it comes to money and if I am going to spend my money on a gift it has to be good. Right?

The point of this mini-rant is that instead of having a minor anxiety attack over a present for friends I just bake their favorite cake or bake! My friend Sam recently turned 30 and had a low-key party at her house so I brought a dozen cupcakes.

After a text of "name your top five favorite cakes" she responded with chocolate, coconut, peanut butter, carrot cake, and red velvet. It was a no-brainer to combine the first two choices with these delicious cupcakes from a Hummingbird Bakery cookbook - Home Sweet Home. The book is 4 years old now, not as old as my friend Sam though! Sorry Sam!

If you want to make these again here's how!


Bounty Cupcakes

70g unsalted butter
170g plain flour
250g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210 ml whole milk
2 large eggs
about 6 Bounty's total, cut into chunks as seen in the photos
desiccated coconut, to decorate

Frosting
500g icing sugar, sifted
160g unsalted butter
60 ml coconut milk

Heat the oven to 170C and line your muffin tin!
Beat the butter, flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt together in a freestanding mixer or with a handheld mixer, until combined but crumb looking.
In a separate bowl mix the milk and eggs together with a fork.
Gradually add the milk/egg mixture to the dry ingredients, beat until just combined.
Using an ice cream scoop if available, scoop the batter into the cases. Place a piece of Bounty in the middle before baking for 20-25 minutes in your pre-heated oven.
To tell when the cupcakes are done they should spring back slightly when gently prodded.

While they are cooling make the frosting, by beating the butter until whipped and then gradually add the icing sugar. This is to keep it from flying everywhere. Slowly pour in the coconut milk, beating all the while. Once it is all incorporated beat on high for a minute or two to get it fluffy.

Frost the cupcakes once they are cooled and sprinkle with desiccated coconut and top with a piece of Bounty!


These were good cupcakes and a hit with the birthday girl and her party goers! I would be curious to try these the other way around, coconut cupcakes with a chocolate frosting ...... maybe for next time!

top tip - bargain stores have small cans (120ml) of coconut milk so you don't have to buy a huge tin (400 odd ml). However, if you can't find a small can use the rest of the coconut milk for a curry or something?

Last note - if you like to bake and you don't own a Hummingbird Bakery book I suggest you get one immediately. Not later, I mean right this minute go online, you already are online so it's easy right? And order yourself a copy of  Hummingbird Bakery The Cookbook, Cake Days, Home Sweet Home, or Life is Sweet. My personal favorite is Cake Days, but have a look as every single recipe I have ever tried of any one of these books has turned out for me!


Orangey Orange Cupcakes with Raspberries


I baked in my new cooker! They (the mystical beings from wherever) say that all cookers temperatures can vary by 5 or 10 degrees one way or the other. The only way to find out how my new oven's tempted swayed was by baking in it!!

It sways on the side of being a bit hotter then the temperature says, but now that I know that I can either adjust the temperature or the cooking/baking time!

One never stops learning things. Like that your boiler needs to be switched on to work. That was a fun visit from the boiler man. He solved my problem with a sharpie marker. He wrote boiler on the plug base thing for me. Just to inform everyone that it's the boiler and it should be switched on.

(For my American friends and family and readers all the electric sockets have switches on them and can be switched off and on. Very useful if you ask me.)


Needless to say this last month has been a learning curve. Now that things are slowly settling it was good to get back to baking! I have a plan to share at least one bake a week. We will all see how that goes....

Anyhow to the cupcakes! These are very orangey with orange zest in the sponge and frosting and raspberries dotting around in the sponge and as decoration! So, I called them orangey orange cupcakes with raspberries!

My flat sits on top of a business and so when I took some of these beauties down to share with them and they all had nothing but praise for how good they were! I was even called to say that they were amazing! That made my day and a good testament that you should try them out!


Orangey Orange Cupcakes with Raspberries

225g unsalted butter, softened
225g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
2 oranges, zest of
4 medium eggs
225g self-rising flour
250g (about) raspberries

Heat the oven to 175C and line two 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake cases.
Beat the softened butter, sugar, salt and orange zest together until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl/jug gently beat the eggs together. Gradually add the beaten eggs to the butter mixture, scraping down the sides when necessary. If it starts to separate or curdle add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the flour (from the 225g) to bring the mixture back together and then continue to add the egg until it's completely combined. Sift in the flour and gently fold in until just combined. Place 1-2 dessert spoons into each case and place 1-2 raspberries on top of the batter! (Be sure to save some for decoration!) Bake for 20-22 minutes depending on your oven. After 10 minutes I rotated my pan to ensure a more even bake. They should be golden brown and springy to the touch, if not sure use the skewer test to ensure they are completely baked.

While they are baking make the cream cheese frosting

Orange & Cointreau Cream Cheese Frosting 

250g full fat cream cheese
250g unsalted butter
625g icing sugar
2 oranges, zest of
2-3 teaspoons of Cointreau, (orange liqueur) optional

Bring the cream cheese out of the fridge when you are ready to start making the frosting, I would suggest doing so while the sponge is baking.

Beat the butter and 200g of the icing sugar together until combined, then add another 200g and beat until smooth, repeat one last time with 225g sugar until it is smooth and fluffy. Add the slightly softened cream cheese, orange zest, and Cointreau if using to the mixture and beat until combined, scraping down the bowl as needed. Put in a piping bag if using and place it in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until it's firm enough to pipe. If not piping I still suggest leaving it in the fridge for a while to firm up.

By this time the cakes should be out of the oven and cooling. Pipe on top of the cooled cakes and add a raspberry (from the cake ingredients) to complete the look!!


more fruity cupcakes:
Salted Caramel Apple Cupcakes from Farmersgirl Kitchen
Diamond Jubilee Cupcakes from Fab Food 4 All
Dark Chocolate & Passion Fruit Cupcakes from Supper in the Suburbs
Orange & Beetroot Cupcakes from Tin and Thyme

notes: recipe was adapted from Peggy Porschen cupcakes - my review is here! FYI I do know that boilers need to be switched on, but I wasn't sure which switch was which and I didn't want to just start flipping switches everywhere and accidentally break something else in the process of trying to turn the boiler on! Just thought I should clarify that!

Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes & Kids on Social Media


It's sometimes hard for me to remember my life before social media. It's also weird for me to know my girls will never a life without it. Recently they have been asking me for phones, they are 8 and 6! I felt like a right old fuddy duddy explaining to them that I didn't have a cell/mobile phone until I was 20 years old and that when I was there age cell/mobile phones weren't widely available.

They were more widely popular by the time I was 20, but I was one of the last of my friends to get a phone. I really hated the idea of people thinking they could get ahold of me 24/7 and now I live on social media sites that inform strangers of my whereabouts. What a turn around!

Myspace was a thing just as I was leaving high school and my friends in college had live journal accounts. If you had told me then that I would have stuck to writing a blog for nearly 5 years I would have thought you were crazy. I can't help but be grateful for being almost literally the last generation to grow up without Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

It's somewhat disturbing to me to know that my girls know what all three of those things are and I have never sat down and told them about them. We took a big step last Christmas and their grandmother bought them Kindle Fires. They love them! The first thing they did was vlog all their Christmas presents.


You read that right. They charged their Kindles and the first thing they did was video themselves showing off the rest of their Christmas presents. So, now when they bake with me they video it. Or as much as I will let them video it. They took turns videoing each other decorating the cupcakes and then when I set them up for photos they were right there with me taking pictures.

Part of me loves it and part of me is sad that it's normal for them. I like to think that I maintain a balance of online and real life for myself as much as for them. We are strict on how much time they get to spend online, playing video games, and TV. I don't keep it from them completely because it's just not the world we live in, but it doesn't have to be the end all of everything.

This half term we've been outside everyday rain or shine. Maybe a day out or just to the park, but we haven't just sat around. Early last week it was just to wet outside and to keep them from udder boredom we made cupcakes and they got to choose whichever ones they wanted!


After looking though almost every baking book I own (which is a lot - just see the tab up above (it hasn't been updated recently either so it's just an estimate of how many books I own!)) they wanted to make Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook Home Sweet Home.

They are super sweet! If I ever make them again, I'd probably cut some of the sugar out! However, they are super good too! They taste exactly like a Strawberry Milkshake. I didn't taste it in the actual cake so might not be necessary, but I followed their instructions.

Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes were all the rage 3 years ago when the book was published. So, a bit behind the times, but they were so good! If you'd like to try them out here is the recipe:


Strawberry Milkshake Cupcakes

70g unsalted butter, room temperature
210g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
210ml milk
2 large eggs
40g strawberry milkshake powder (Nesquik)

Heat the oven to 170C and line your muffin tin. Be prepared that this recipe makes between 12-16 cupcakes. Beat the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together until it resembles bread crumbs. In a separate jug mix the milk, eggs, and milkshake powder together. Gradually pour in half of the liquid mixture into the dry mixture while beating continually (low speed for stand mixers.) Beat on medium for a few minutes to remove any lumps before gradually adding the rest of the liquid mixture - again on a low speed.
Fill the cupcake cases two thirds full and bake for 20-25 minutes. Use the skewer test to determine if the cupcakes are cooked through. Once baked leave in the tin to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack - leave to cool completely before frosting.

frosting
500g icing sugar, sifted
160g unsalted butter, room temperature
50ml milk
100g strawberry milkshake powder (Nesquik)
mini marshmallows to decorate
paper or candy straws to decorate

Beat the butter until soft before adding a little bit of the icing sugar. Continue to gradually add the rest of the icing sugar, beat until smooth. In a jug whisk the milk and milkshake powder together. Pour the mixture into the butter/icing sugar mixture and beat on medium/high until smooth and fluffy.
Fill a piping bag and nozzle with the frosting and pipe onto the cooled cupcakes before decorating with mini marshmallows and straws!


notes: Recipe is adapted from the hummingbird baker Home Sweet Home - I reviewed the book here! They are some of my favourite books check them all out on the hummingbird bakery website!

Rice Krispie Heart Treats {Easy Valentine's Day Treats}

Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be all about the showy lovey dovey stuff, it can be about the simple things that make you or the person that you are with happy! 


Rice Krispie Treats make me happy. They might not be something new or flashy, but they are made out of a crispy rice cereal, melted marshmallows, butter and everything good in this world. They have been made for years - since like 1939 or something? That’s a long time. 

The other reason these are great is because they can be shaped and manipulated into pretty much anything you want! I use my heart shaped donut pan and my heart cookie cutter to make these into hearts for Valentine’s Day! 

Then decorated them with red candy melts, I also used the candy melts to make heart candies from a random heart tray I had acquired from who knows where? It worked well though! If you rather not use candy melts, melted chocolate and/or sprinkles of varying colors and shapes would work well too! 


Rice Krispie Treats: 

50g unsalted butter
280g marshmallows
180g crispy rice cereal 
1/2 tsp of vanilla extract (optional) 
1 bag of red candy melts (optional) 

Butter heart shaped donut tin or line a tray bake tin with grease proof paper (make sure the paper over hangs the tin). 
Melt the butter in a large pan over a low heat. Add the marshmallows and continue to stir until completely melted. Add the vanilla extract if using. Then add half the cereal and stir to coat before adding the rest and mixing until completely mixed. Wear latex gloves or butter your hands a little so you can handle the mixture. Beware it will be hot/warm and hot sugar can burn. Shape to fit your donut and press down and/or in your baking tin do the same using the over hang of greaseproof paper to press down and even out the cereal/marshmallow mixture. Leave to set for at least 30 minutes to an hour, then gently release from donut tin or cut into hearts with a heart cookie cutter! Melt the candy melts according to the instructions on the package and drizzle over them how ever you’d like! Then eat them!! 


It is in my opinion that Valentine’s Day is the best day to indulge in things you love to eat and/or to make the things your loved one(s) like to eat too! If Rice Krispie Treats aren’t your thing here are a few other Valentine’s Day Treats you could try: 

Cherry Heart Pies via The Botanical Kitchen








A few of my past Valentine's Treats: 
Cinnamon Roll Hearts (one of my most popular Pinterest pins ever!)
Baked Doughnuts (heart shaped) 
and another Rice Krispie recipe Peanut Butter Rice Krispie Treats (also heart shaped)

note: all images are used with the blogger(s) permission 

Red Devil Cupcakes {inspired by Scream Queens}


Tomorrow is the finale of Scream Queens! It’s already aired in the USA so I have avoided reading anything online to see whodunnit. It’s been hard so no spoilers please!

It’s one of the slightly annoying things about living in the UK is when a US TV show is brought over here it’s always behind schedule. It means you have to avoid any fan websites and stuff so nothing is ruined, especially in the case of a show like Scream Queens where there is a killer on the loose!

Scream Queens, if you haven’t heard of it, is a TV series about a sorority and serial killer. A serial killer who dresses as a Red Devil (the school’s mascot) and wants revenge on the sorority. It’s like any typical horror film, but better as every week we were left with clues and hints and speculation to who, what, when, and where.

Did I mention it’s full of utterly ridiculous shenanigans and cringe worthy characters, but it is funny and entertaining. I just can’t turn away from a good whodunnit story. What’s exciting is that the show has been given the go ahead for another season!

Feeling anxious to know how it ends I thought I’d try to cure the anticipation with these Red Devil Cupcakes. These devil food cupcakes with bright red vanilla frosting and devil horns are killer!


Red Devil Cupcakes 

1 cupcake box mix (makes 9 cupcakes)
40g unsalted butter, room temperature
114g icing sugar
1 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon of vanilla extract
red gel food color
black fondant, pre bought

Bake cupcakes according to box instructions.
For the frosting beat all the ingredients together in a bowl until combined. Add the food coloring until you achieve your desired shade of red.
With the black fondant/sugar paste make 18 devil horns. Place on top. Enjoy while watching the Red Devil take out sorority girls and fraternity guys one by one!


notes: This post has no association with the show, Scream Queens, in any way shape or form. Please see my contact/policy page above for more information. If you’d rather make your own cupcakes and not box mix ones why not try this recipe for chocolate cupcakes or this recipe for red velvet cupcakes! These would also work great for Halloween or dare I say Valentine's Day? Love does bring out the devil in us or something like that?

Apple Season: A Round Up of Amazing Apple Recipes

Apples are one of my favorite things to bake with, probably because it pairs really well with cinnamon and cinnamon is my favorite spice. 

As the apples on our apple tree started to ripen I was looking for ways to use up the abundance of apples it gave us this year. So, instead of just looking myself I was lazy and set up this linky so the apple recipes could come to me!   

There are as many varieties of apples as there is recipes to use them in and here are some amazing ones.... 

Foodie Quine


family friends food

Little Sunny Kitchen 

(apple and fennel salad, pork, apple, and chorizo stew, and wholesome apple pie)
It's not easy being greedy


Tin and Thyme

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

Feeding Boys and a Firefighter 

Apple Crumble & Custard Cupcakes 
Only Crumbs Remain

Cakeyboi a

Here are a few of my favorite apple bakes I've made here on United Cakedom:






I hope you enjoyed reading and discovering all these apple recipes as much as I did! Let us know if you tried one out for yourself by leaving a comment below and/or on the blogger's page! Perhaps I will do another link up next year! 

notes: not all the pictures are my own, the majority of them are taken from the linked blog, they are being used with the understanding that when linked up they would be used for this round-up

Vanilla Stout Chocolate Cupcakes


There is a thing at the moment about sourcing ingredients locally. It’s good to support local business and trade. Generally speaking I know that they, whoever these mythical people are, mostly mean veggies and fruit, but I am talking about beer – more specifically stout!

According to Instagram 18 weeks ago, sometime in January, I attended the Real Vintage and Good Food Market at The Hexagon in Reading. It was there that I purchased some delicious smoked garlic and a couple of bottle from the Binghams Brewery stall. They were on offer. If you haven’t guessed it, one of those bottles was there Vanilla Stout. It’s a dark stout that is infused with vanilla and dark malts and won them a couple of awards back in 2011.

In all honesty I was never going to drink it. I am no stout or beer or lager or ale drinker. It is in my opinion that you either like it or you don’t. If you tell me that it’s something I need to acquire a taste for then we won’t be friends. I don’t want to acquire a taste for it, no more then I want to acquire a taste for dirt! (I couldn’t think of any food that I really despise)

However, I will bake it in a chocolate cake every time! It gives the chocolate cake a deep rich malt flavor that is delicious! Would also be perfect for a gentlemen's tea party... they do have them! I wish I could go to a gentlemen's tea party I am positive I would be surrounded by posh accents and mustaches. 


Vanilla Stout Chocolate Cupcakes

250ml Bingham Brewery Vanilla Stout
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa powder
400g golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
140ml sour cream
225g plain flour
2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Heat the oven to 160C fan (180C/350F/gas 4) and line two cupcake tins.
Melt the butter with the stout in a saucepan over a medium heat do not let it boil. Add the cocoa powder and sugar to the pan and whisk until it’s dissolved. Leave to the side.
Beat the eggs, vanilla, and sour cream together until well combined. Gradually pour the stout/cocoa/sugar mixture into the egg/vanilla/sour cream mixture. Easier done in a freestanding mixture, but if doing it by hand be sure to mix well between adding it in. Once combined add the flour and bicarbonate and beat until combined and smooth. I used an ice cream scoop, as it’s deep and easy to scoop this not thick batter to fill the cupcake cases about ¾ full.
Bake for 20 minutes or until the cake springs back when pressed. Leave to cool completely before topping with the vanilla frosting.

Vanilla Buttercream

300 unsalted butter, softened
½ vanilla extract
4 tablespoons milk
675g icing sugar, sifted

Beat the butter for several minutes until soft and smooth. Add the vanilla to the milk and set aside. Add half the icing sugar to the butter and beat until combined repeat with the rest of the icing sugar. Gradually add the milk/vanilla mixture until the frosting is smooth and delicious! Use a spatula to scrap down the sides to make sure you get it all mixed up. Top each cupcake with a heaped dessert tablespoon and smooth with a palate knife. Enjoy!



notes: All opinions are my own; I was not compensated for this post, for more information please see my contact/policy page above. The Real Vintage and Good Food Market will be on at the Hexagon on the Sunday June 21st! For more information on Binghams Brewery check out the website! Recipe was adapted from Cupcake Jemma’s recipe for Guinness Cupcakes in Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube The Cake Book.

This post was entered into these blogging challenges: 
Tea Time Treats theme cupcakes/fairycakes/muffins hosted by Lavender and Lovage with The Hedgecomber
We Should Cocoa theme cupcakes hosted by Kerry Cooks with Tin and Thyme