M&M Icing - Cupcakes

I can now report that I am no longer as big of an M&M fan as I was at the start of this weekend. Why? I had lots of M&Ms. So I ate lots of M&Ms. As yummy as they are, I definitely over indulged, and believe it is safe to say that for a little while, I will be able to say no to an M&M...But not to put you off this or anything! The icing is AMAZINGLY yummy. I could have just eaten the whole lot! (Of course I wouldn't, because that isn't such a good idea). So if you like M&Ms like me, wait till you've eaten your cupcakes before you finish off the bag of M&Ms...
I used the same chocolate cupcake recipe as I have previously done. The M&M icing is from the chocolate frosting recipe in the same book, just with added M&Ms! The book is Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane.

M&M Icing:

• 250g butter, softened
• 500g icing sugar
• 2/3 cup cocoa
• 125ml milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• 1/2 cup M&Ms (or more to your taste)

1. Beat the butter until it is well softened. Add half the icing sugar, cocoa and milk. Beat until it is light and fluffy. Add the remaining ingredients and beat again until it is smooth.
2. Crush up your M&Ms (I used a rolling pin), until they are small enough so that they will get through your piping tip.
3. Pipe onto your cooled cupcakes.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers.
5. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.

Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Belgian Biscuits

For quite a few months now my partner has been asking me to make Belgian biscuits (as he loves them) and I have never got around to it until this weekend. Absolutely terrible of me to have not done these sooner! I personally don't like them (I'm not really a biscuit fan), but according to him these taste really good! I did have lots of fun using the cookie cutter... The following recipe was from the Taste website. I don't currently have a food processor, so I just used an electric beater and they came out fine, so I have amended the recipe to how I did it.
Enjoy :)

Belgian Biscuits:

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 250g butter, softened
• 1 egg
• 2 1/2 teaspoons mixed spice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 2 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup raspberry jam

Coloured Sugar:

• 1/4 cup white sugar
• red food colouring

Icing:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon butter, melted

1. Place sugar, butter and egg into a bowl. Mix with an electric beater until well combined. Add mixed spice, cinnamon, 1 3/4 cups of flour and baking powder. Pulse until combined. Add remaining flour. Mix until it forms a dough. Remove to the bench.
2. Divide dough in half. Shape into two 10cm diameter discs. Wrap each it glad wrap and place them into the refrigerator until firm (about 30 minutes)
3. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line four trays with baking paper.
4. Roll each disc out between two sheets of baking paper until it is about 5mm thick. Using a 6cm cutter, cut out the biscuits. You should end up with about 56cm biscuits. Place them onto the trays and bake for about 10-15 minutes, until golden. Stand for 5 minutes, then transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
5. Spread half the biscuits with jam and sandwich with the remaining biscuits.
6. To make the coloured sugar; put the sugar in a snap lock bag. Add one-two drops of red food colouring. Rub the bag between your hands to mix the sugar and colour together.
7. To make the icing; sift icing sugar into a small bowl. Add the milk and butter. Stir until the mixture is well combined and a good spreadable consistency. Spread over the biscuits, then sprinkle over the coloured sugar.

 

L&P Cupcakes

 

Whittaker's brought out a new chocolate, which was white chocolate with L&P! I absolutely love L&P. Last night I was making some cupcakes, and I still had some of the new chocolate left, and a bottle of L&P in the fridge. So I decided to experiment. The end result? An L&P cupcake with chocolate L&P in the centre, topped with an L&P buttercream. I was quite happy with the end result! Unfortunately I ran out of butter last night, so I could only make half the icing. And as I didn't ice these at home, I ended up with crappy photos! I didn't have much chocolate left, so I could only put one piece in each cupcake. If I had more I would have also done something different with the icing.

 

L&P Cupcakes, with L&P chocolate centre:

 

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup & 2 tablespoons of caster sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons of L&P

 Half a block of L&P chocolate

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line a 12 hole muffin pan with cupcake cases.
2. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Sift in the flour and baking powder and beat. Pour L&P and beat well.
3. Fill cupcake holders up to half way with the mixture, then place in two pieces of chocolate. Fill the rest of the holder.
4. Bake for 20 minutes.

Buttercream Icing:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons L&P
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1. Beat the butter until smooth and pale. Add the icing sugar half a cup at a time. Beat in the essence. Add L&P until it is to your desired consistency, and flavour. Don't put too much or it will break up the icing.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

 

 

I was not having a good day when I made these. I made the icing that was in the recipe, and it came out awful. It was way too thick (and I didn't even add all the flour, but seriously, flour in icing?!), and so I tried to loosen it up a bit, and it just totally failed. So I started over and just made a plain vanilla buttercream. But I couldn't even ice them properly! They looked god damn awful. So yes, above you can see my ugly cupcakes! These were very yummy though! Basically it's a chocolate cupcake, with a chocolate chip cookie dough in the middle! Tasted really nice, and the plain icing was fine, as these were super rich anyway. I got the recipe here for the cookie dough. I used the chocolate cupcake recipe from Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, and just divided the recipe by three to only make twelve.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

Cookie Dough:

• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 4 tablespoons of unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoon milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup miniature chocolate drops
• Makes 12

Buttercream Icing:

• 150g unsalted butter
• 2 cups icing sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons hot water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Cookie Dough:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
2.  In a medium bowl, use an electric mixer to mix the butter, both sugars, milk and vanilla extract. Stir in the dry ingredients and chocolate chips.
3. Refrigerate for 15-30 minutes, or until the dough is firm.
4. Scoop out dough into two tablespoon sizes, and place on a cookie tray. Freeze for atleast 30 minutes.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers.
5. Put the cookie dough into each cupcake, you can either push it right in, or leave part of it on top so that it part cooks like a cookie.
6. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.
7. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Buttercream Icing:

1. Beat the butter until smooth and pale. Add the icing sugar half a cup at a time. Add hot water until icing is at your desired consistency. Beat in essence.

Baileys Icing

Okay, I am still obsessed with Baileys. I finished my last bottle (with my last drink being in a hot chocolate!), but I really wanted to make something to do with Baileys and cupcakes! So I set out to make Mocha cupcakes with Baileys icing. I tried the cupcake recipe from this little book I had bought. DON'T MAKE IT. It was terrible. They are thick, and dry, and tasteless. (I don't have the book on me currently, so I can't tell you what the book was called...Helpful, I know.) The only good thing was the icing. Sooo yummy.

 

Baileys Cupcake Icing

• 1 cup butter
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 4 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream
• 2 tspn vanilla extract

1. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add into the butter, Baileys and vanilla extract. Beat until mixed, and pipe onto your cupcakes. Will lightly ice 12 cupcakes. 

 

 

 

I got the recipe here (Okay, it cracks me up how it says "real" butter. Someone please tell me what not real butter is??)



Baileys and Chocolate Cheesecake

I made my first ever cheesecake!  I can't say this was the cheapest thing to make. I didn't have any Baileys so that cost $30.00. And everything else like the butter, cream cheese, thickened cream, biscuits and chocolate came to $40.00. So $70.00 just for one cheesecake...And a lot of Baileys drinks later! I may look into some other baileys baking recipes later. Not sure how much of the bottle is left though...

This recipe was not perfect. I would suggest putting more butter with the biscuits, try 20grams at a time, as with just 100grams the biscuit was still really loose. As I don't really know what it is like making cheesecake, I had a suspicion this wasn't right, but I decided to stick to the recipe.  If I had put more butter I think the biscuits will have flattened into the bottom of the tin better, as currently it is half biscuit half cheesecake! Also, digestive biscuits are yuck! I might use wine biscuits next time, or I suppose you could try malt biscuits (which I also think are yuck :P ) It also needs more Baileys. There was a really weak taste. So I would suggest adding more to your taste, and you'll want to put a bit more icing sugar or cream cheese just to keep it thick. I didn't bother putting anything on top of the cheesecake, I was really wanting to eat it asap... I found the recipe here.

Baileys and Chocolate Cheesecake

• 100g butter
• 250g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 600g Philadelphia cream cheese
• 25ml Baileys
• 100g icing sugar
• 300ml double cream, whipped
• 100g chocolate, grated
• 200ml double cream, whipped (to garnish)
• Cocoa powder (to garnish)

1. Melt the butter in the pan, then add the crushed digestive biscuits. Mix well until the biscuits have absorbed all the butter.
2. Remove from the heat and press into the bottom of a lined 18cm springform tin. Place in the fridge and allow to set for one hour.
3. Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Lightly whip the cream cheese then beat in the Baileys and icing sugar. Fold in the whipped cream and grated chocolate. When smooth, spoon evenly onto biscuits.
4. Refrigerate and allow to set for a further two hours. Once set, remove and decorate with whipped cream and cocoa powder dusted over the top. Serve.

Baby shower cupcakes

Last Friday at work they threw a baby shower for my colleague, who as you might have guessed, is having a baby girl! Of course that meant the cupcakes had to be pink! I totally forgot I was going to make cupcakes until the night before! So without a lot of time after work, I decided to just simply do a pink strawberry icing with a chocolate cupcake. If I had more time I would have been a bit more creative!
I got smaller pink cupcake cases, which totally lost their colour while baking. Oh well, it made the icing more of a focus! I used this chocolate cupcake recipe in my last post, and this time it still made 24 cupcakes, but they were a smaller size than normal cupcakes. Both the cupcake recipe, and the buttercream recipe come from the book Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane. I halved the icing, which didn't quite cover all 24 cupcakes, and I added natural strawberry essence for the flavour.
 
Chocolate Cupcakes:

• 430g plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250ml hot water
• 100g cocoa
• 250ml cold water
• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 560g caster sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 teaspoons vanilla essence
• Makes 36

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line three 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl whisk together the hot water and cocoa until you have a smooth paste. Add the cold water and whisk until evenly combined.
3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the caster sugar and two of the eggs. Beat until light. Add the last two eggs one at a time, beating until well combined, then stir in the vanilla essence. Add half of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the cocoa mixture and beat until combined. Repeat this process but do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.
4. Divide the mixture between the cupcake papers. They should be about half-full as this mixture rises substantially. Bake for 25 minutes or until springy when pressed in the centre.
5. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 5 minutes before removing the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

• 200g unsalted butter, softened
• 125ml milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla essence
• 2kg icing sugar, sifted

1. Cream the butter for 1-2 minutes. Add the milk, vanilla, and half of the icing sugar. Beat for atleast 3 minutes, or until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the remaining icing sugar, and beat for another three minutes, or until the mixture is of a spreadable consistency.
2. Add in your food colouring until it is the colour you want, and the essence until you get the flavour you want.