Butterfly Cupcakes

I felt like taking a quick break from studying today and whip up a batch of cupcakes. This is my (Elise) first post so I hope you enjoy it! This is a very easy recipe (basic vanilla cupcakes) and fairly simple assembly in the decorating part. All you need are cupcakes, frosting (I make my own) and any other little decorations (I used rainbow coloured sprinkles).

Basic Vanilla Cupcakes - Makes 12
Ingredients:
125g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup milk

Method:
Cream butter, vanilla and sugar with an electric beater until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time beating well after each egg is added.
Sift in flour and baking powder and fold into creamed mixture.
Stir in milk.
Place 12 paper cases into muffin tins.
Spoon mixture evenly into paper cases.
Bake at 190° C (375 Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly touched.
Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Vanilla Frosting
Ingredients:
75g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar (powdered sugar) (average, just a rough guidline)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:
Cream together (using either a fork or spoon) butter and icing sugar until frosting turns pale in colour (Note. the more you cream together and the more icing sugar you add, the whiter the frosting will become).
Once at desired consistency, add vanilla essence and mix through.

Assembly

Using a blunt knife, cut a circular slice from the top of each cupcake. Cut this piece in half.

Then, either using a blunt knife again, or a piping bag, put some frosting in the hole you created.

Position the two halves of the cupcake lid back on the cake to resemble butterfly wings.

Dust with icing sugar.

Then, again using either a knife or piping bag, put some frosting in the middle of the two wings and put rainbow sprinkles on the line of frosting.

Hope you enjoy! Elise

Halloween '12 Inspired Cupcakes

So Halloween is finally upon us! Here are my cupcakes that I made for a little kids 'Pumpkin Party' tonight. They are all very easy. All you need is cupcakes, icing, m&m's, licorice string (I couldn't find any, so you can cut up normal licorice or in my case, I cut jet plane lollies into strips.. this was rather time consuming but totally worth it in the end), white chocolate buttons (for the eyes on the cat and owl ones), chocolate sprinkles and jet plane lollies (which I also used for the beak and eyebrows on the owls). 

Spiders

Chocolate cupcakes (I used a packet mix since I baked about 40 cupcakes and it was just a lot faster)

Chocolate icing 

Chocolate sprinkles (mine were called "choc hail")

Licorice strings/any lolly cut into strips

M&M's or similar sweet (I used Nestle Pebbles because they were cheaper and didn't have the writing on it)

Ice the cupcake and sprinkle with chocolate hail. I recommend doing this over a plate/tray to catch the excess which you can simply tip back and use.

Spread a little frosting on the M&M's and stick onto the cupcake. 

Make 4 holes on each side with either a chopstick or skewer depending on the size of the 'legs'. 

Insert the 'legs', use a bit of frosting to keep it in the hole if necessary. 

Note: You might find six legged spiders look nicer than the eight legged ones, but many of the kids at the party are at that age where they will ask why the spiders don't have eight legs.

Cobweb

Cupcakes
Chocolate Buttercream icing
Icing in a different colour (I used the 'Queens' brand of writing icing that comes in the tube)
M&M's
Chocolate Sprinkles

Spread the icing on the cupcake and then draw a dot in the centre of the cupcake before drawing larger circles outwards. Pull a toothpick through the circles from the centre, creating a cobweb affect. To draw the circles, use an very small nozzle on your icing bag. If you don't have that, try cutting a tiny snippet off the end of a ziplock bag. Unfortunately I've never tried that, so I can't guarantee it works.

Owls and Cats

Cupcakes
Chocolate Icing
White chocolate buttons
M&M's
Triangle lollies (I cut off the tips and sides of Jet Plane lollies, but candy corn would be amazing. Sadly we don't have that in New Zealand)
Strips of candy

Ice the cupcakes and place the buttons on while it hasn't hardened and using a chopstick or skewer, dot pupils on the eyes. Place the strips of candy on the cupcakes as either eyebrows or cat ears. Put a triangle on the owl ones and an M&M on the cats. You can also draw the mouth for the cat but I thought it looked quite mysterious without it.

Elise and I wish you a very happy halloween! 

Mummified Cake Pops

These cake pops are perfect for Halloween and extremely easy to make! These cake pops were inspired by mummy cupcakes that had strips of fondant laid over the top for the bandages so this is great for anyone who doesn't have time/want to mess around with fondant. Unfortunately, the bandages didn't come out as well as I hoped because I was using the left over melted chocolate that I had added vege oil (it makes it runnier so it is easier to cover the pops) and was a little too thin. But luckily you can learn from my mistake and melt a separate batch of white chocolate. 

Cake*

1 cup sugar 
2 tablespoons cocoa 
1 teaspoon baking powder 
1 teaspoon baking soda 
1 ½ cups flour 
1 egg 
½ cup milk 
150g butter (melted) 
1 teaspoon vanilla essence 
Pinch of salt 
½ cup boiling water

1. Put all ingredients except the in water in a bowl and mix together. I used my Kenwood kMix but doing it by hand with an egg beater is fine. 
2. When everything is combined, stir in the boiling water.
3.  Pour into a greased and/or lined cake tin (it doesn't matter what type as you will be breaking it up at the end anyway, but I find a ring tin makes cooking time faster). 
4. Bake at 180°C until an inserted skewer comes out clean. It was around 30 minutes for me at 190°C fan forced (don't ask me why, but my oven doesn't have a 180° mark).

*I used Baking Makes Things Better's "Easy Peasy Chocolate Cake" recipe. (original here)

Assembly

I used homemade buttercream frosting, Signature Range White Chocolate Buttons, bamboo skewers and chocolate sprinkles.

1. Remove the cake from the tin and crumble in a large bowl (I used a fork but you can also use your fingers). 
2. Mix in either a can (453g = 16 oz.) of frosting or roughly 2 cups of homemade frosting. Since these are chocolate cakepops, you can sift in cocoa powder or use chocolate frosting, but I just used plain homemade buttercream and I think it looked pretty funky.
3. Shape into balls (size of your choosing) and put on a non stick tray.
4. Melt a tiny bit of chocolate or candy melts and dip the tip of the lollipop stick or skewer into the chocolate before inserting into the cake pop. This will help the pop stay on the stick when you coat it later. 
5. Put the cakepops in the freezer for a bit just until it is firm when you touch it.
6. Melt the rest of the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave (I recommend using a bowl that is more deep than wide because that way you'll be able to dunk the pop into the chocolate and cover it one go. Plus, the chocolate won't harden up as fast, giving you some precious extra time). 
7. Stir in a few drops of vegetable oil.
8. Next, put the cake pop into the melted chocolate and rotate slowly for a smooth covering. Take the pop out and continue rotating above the bowl to catch excess drips. 
9. Place the cakepop in an egg tray, styrofoam block or colander to dry.
10. After you have covered each pop, I got a small teaspoon and drizzled the melted chocolate over the pop. I put a piece of baking paper on the bench to catch stray drizzles of chocolate, but you can also use a paper towel or do it over the sink. 
11. Put two chocolate sprinkles for eyes on the pop while the chocolate hasn't hardened. I picked the rounder sprinkles out of an assorted mix of Halloween themed sprinkles because I couldn't find any round sprinkles at the shops. If this is also the case for you, you could always melt some milk/dark chocolate and dot it on. 

Hope you enjoy and have fun making these Mummified Cake Pops and have a happy Halloween! -Kathy. 

PS. This is our first post! How exciting :D