Hungover hummingbird cupcakes

So what would you be doing after travelling back home for hours on a Sunday after a long boozey wedding on the Saturday?? Why bake some cupcakes of course?!

So this is from my 'Eat me' book which to be honest I've found pretty hit and miss so far.















In regards to this recipe:

Pro's: had amazing flavours and were unusual (banana, pineapple, pecan, vanilla and cinnamon
Con's: The batter was so watery - I cooked for an extra 15 mins but still thought the sponge was too soft (although others thought fine), i don't think these cakes needed the soft cheese/butter icing that it had listed as the sponge was so moist (like a carrot or banana cake) it would only need a thin layer if any.

However it gave me the opportunity to play with a new nozzle! Introducing the shell one from the icing bag set I got from HoF. And experimenting with new techniques with my wilton :)

Cupcake frenzy!

 

As the title suggests - there's been a bit of a cupcake frenzy in the McCarthy household over the last week. Mainly due to the delivery of my Wilton 1m star nozzle. This gives the classic cupcake icing look and it's really simple - I just seem to run out of icing after the first two and then the rest of the batch looks a bit pathetic and neglected.

So this technique was used on the chocolate, cappuccino and rainbow cupcakes. The rainbow cupcakes were inspired from Becky's baby shower cake. Although by the time you keep separating the batter to mix different colours the batter reduces so next time - double the mixture. These were for Kat's bday and she loved them (can't believe the popcorn cupcakes were a year ago!) The cappuccino cupcakes were lovely - so nice. the icing was white chocolate and this has become James's favourite cupcake! Recipe from Nigella's 'how to be a domestic goddess': http://www.cookstr.com/recipes/cappuccino-cupcakes

Today I experimented with another nozzle - a leaf one which I used for the pink petalled cupcake - followed this tutorial on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbnfgOJ9VXc&feature=related).

Chocolate cupcakes

Cappuccino cupcakes

Rainbow cupcakes

Pink petalled cupcakes

Edible christmas gifts

Wow in only 6 months time or less I'll be making these again! :p I collected empty glass jars and after scrubbing off the labels we put them in the dishwasher to sterilise them. After filling with chutney I put some of my Christmas napkins over the lids and tied with bakers string. They looked great - I had different shapes and sizes and better then spending £3 on a new fancy glass jar with the gingham lid.

Spicey tomato and apple chutney

By Rachel Allan (http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/573902) and I made this last year but the consistency wasn't as good so I simmered it for an extra hour and the result was perfect. And very popular.

Spiced courgette chutney

 Recommended by Richard Freeman (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/6342/spiced-courgette-chutney) and it was really interesting actually! supposedly a summer chutney but worked well with gammon at Christmas.

Homemade fudge
 

Two variations by Sophie Dahl and Hairy bikers. Sophie Dahl's was easy but melted when out of fridge and the Bikers one has a slight gritty texture that people seemed to enjoy? I'm not sure - must try and find the perfect recipe.
















Peanut butter cookies

I've blogged about this before - delish and as it was Christmas I used white chocolate. (http://tanyadoescooking.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-peanut-butter-cookies-ever.html)

Sweet things

Looking through my unpublished food snaps, I realised that 1) I bake A LOT 2) No wonder why I put on weight in the last year and 3) this has been a good couple of months in the McCarthy household with all these cakes. So have decided to put them all in one post.

Date Oat Bars

James's favourite thing I've ever baked apparently - an accolade indeed! the dates tasted like caramel once cooked in water - lovely. A Rachel Allen recipe.

Apple almond cinnamon muffins

A lovely Saturday morning breakfast - must make again. From Nigella's 'Kitchen' book.

Raspberry bakewell

I've made this twice in a few months! Everyone who's tried it loved it. With a pastry bottom, jam and fresh fruit middle then an almond cake sponge on the top this was lovely, fruity and almost a sweet tartness to it (an oxy moron I hear you cry?) no it''s possible, this was lovely, I must try a plum version in autumn with plum jam - that would be amazing! Or maybe a rhubarb and ginger version....

Chocolate beetroot cakes

When I was on my pre-wedding diet I still wanted the occasional treat at the weekend and knowing these weren't unhealthy made me feel better about my diet sin :p Dark chocolate, beetroot and honey instead of sugar - they were great and gluten free so my mother in law could eat them.

Coffee walnut cake

A layered coffee walnut cake! I made this to go with a new 1979 tea set I bought from a charity shop (that I hid from James for a year in my wardrobe - a long story). Why did this cake go out of fashion? It's lovely and I'm not a massive coffee fan but the sweet coffee taste/scent is so lovely. MUST make again or try cupcake versions.

Disco Dolly Cupcakes

Tanya's thoughts:

This idea came to me just before Mother's day, unforuntaely it was also the day of the garden cake epophony which trumped this one obviously. My mum's name is Dolly and she loves pink - add a bit of edible glitter and disco dolly cakes were born. I piped the icing on but now I have a bigger nozzle (!) next time I expect better peaks! :p They had plain sponge and a cream cheese topping - lovely.

Becky's baby shower cake

Pink or blue...

If you google 'baby shower cakes' and look through the images you'll see some pretty foul ones of mother's pushing out their babies. Luckily for Becky I'm not that skillful so had to go down a more simplistic route... :p

Becky and Steve are keeping the baby's sex a surprise which inspired my 'Pink or blue' theme. So I cooked two sandwich tins of cake batter (4 eggs used but omitted 2 of the egg yolks so the batter wasn't too much of a yellow batter) coloured pink and blue (not much food colouring needed-i used an 'angel cake' recipe as a guide). Then tricky part - I cut each cake in half (very tricky!! any advice on how to cut this straight and evenly would be appreciated!) I then sandwiched them together with a butter-cream cheese icing (Asked Becky is she minded, she did not - she's not being too strict about what she can eat!) Then covered the cake in the same icing but I coloured this blue too. I then rolled out ready made icing and cut out the stork with baby and clouds with a message.

Easy!? We all enjoyed it and ensured Becky ate the part of cake which had the baby's head. Is that weird/wrong?? :p