Red Velvet Cupcakes

Valentines for me is always the perfect excuse to bake something special for my hubby and this year I decided to bake these delectable Red Velvet Cupcakes. These rich and sweet cupcakes are topped with dreamy, creamy cream cheese frosting and will not fail to enchant. Happy Valentines Day everyone, hope you are all being showered with lots of love!


Red Velvet Cupcakes

Makes 24

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
250g plain flour
2 x 15ml tbsp cocoa powder, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g soft unsalted butter
200g caster sugar
1 x heaped 15ml tbsp red paste food colouring
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
175ml buttermilk
1 tsp cider vinegar or other vinegar

Buttery Cream-cheese frosting
500g icing sugar, no need to sift if using a processor)
125g cream cheese
125g soft unsalted butter
1 tsp cider vinegar or lemon juice (I used vanilla extract)
red velvet cake crumbs or chocolate sprinkles or red sugar for decoration

Preheat the oven to 170oC/fan oven 150oC/gas mark 3 and line the muffin tins with paper cases.

Combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder and bicarb in a bowl.

In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar, beating well, and when you have a soft pale mixture beat in the food colouring - yes, all of it - and the vanilla.

Into this vividly coloured mixture, still beating, add 1 spoonful of the dried ingredients, then 1 egg, followed by some more dried ingredients, then the other egg, followed by the rest of the dried ingredients.

Finally, beat in the buttermilk and vinegar and divide this extraordinary batter between the 24 cases. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes by which time the redcurrant-sorbet-coloured batter will have morphed into a more sombre, but still juicily tinted, sponge - more maroon acrylic than red velvet, to be honest.

Leave them to cool on a wire rack and do not ice with the frosting till absolutely cold.

Put the icing sugar into a processor and whizz to remove lumps.

Add the cream cheese and butter and process to mix. Pour in the cider vinegar (or lemon juice or vanilla extract) and process again to make a smooth icing.

Ice each cupcake, using a teaspoon or small spatula.

Decorate with red velvet cake crumbs or chocolate sprinkles or red sugar.

Love Buns

Hi all, I am back from a bit of an extended break from the blogging world. I will not go into the why’s etc but I've just been busy with life and enjoying my beautiful grandson.

Its Valentines and what a perfect excuse for a bit of baking and blogging! I’ve been thoroughly spoiled by my hubby with roses, chocolates and some David Smallcombe sterling silver cuff bracelets I have been lusting after. He worked from home today so he wouldn’t be late home from the office to enjoy a lovely dinner together. My intention was to bake his favourite Custard Cream Heart cookies but everywhere was sold out of vegetable shortening. So I decided to bake these Love Buns to mark the occasion. I’ve baked these in the past and they have a very light and fluffy sponge. I never make the white frosting the recipe specifies. Personally I can’t stand it and I prefer to use buttercream, which tastes and looks so much more appealing. Of course I had to dye my buttercream pink and add some Valentine sprinkles. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Valentine’s Day and being spoiled rotten.


Love Buns

Ingredients
For the buns
125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp real vanilla extract
2-3 tbsp milk

Buttercream Icing
150g (5oz) butter, softened
300g (11 oz) icing (confectioners) sugar, sifted
1 tbsp milk
¼ tsp vanilla extract
Edible pink food colouring
Sprinkles for decoration of choice

Take everything out of the fridge to bring to room temperature - this makes a huge difference to the lightness of the love buns later - preheat the oven to 200oC/fan oven 180oC/gas mark 6.

Put all the ingredients for the buns, except for the milk, into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel, to make a smooth dropping consistency.

Divide the mixture into a 12-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers or heart patterned cases, and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes. They should have risen and be golden on top: you want a little peak if possible.

Let them cool a little in their tin on a rack, and then take them carefully out of the tin to cool in their papers, still on the wire rack.

To make the buttercream, beat the butter until soft. Add the icing sugar and stir until it’s just mixed in, then add the milk and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy. Add few drops of food colouring and beat.

Spread the icing on thickly with a palette knife on top of each cupcake or put the icing into a piping back and make a large swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate each cupcake with your chosen sprinkles.

Ollie my grandson is now 3 months and a bundle of love and joy in my life!

Glitter Heart Cookies

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Valentines Day is a time for romance and love with chocolates and sweet treats normally at the centre of things but nothing can beat the love, passion and enjoyment that go into baking your own treats! My boys love cookies and what could be better than baking them a batch of these Glitter Heart Cookies to show them how much I love them! The original recipe for these cookies is the Gold Dust Cookies I made over Christmas, courtesy of Nigella Christmas. I loved the idea of using the recipe and turning them into Valentine themed cookies with heart shaped cookie cutters and pink glitter. If you’re looking for a simple but fun cookie recipe, try these delicious lovable cookies!
Glitter Heart Cookies

Makes about 30, depending on size

Ingredients
90g soft butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or vanilla extract)
200g plain flour, plus more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt
Edible pink dust or glitter flakes

Preheat the oven to 180oC/gas mark 4 and line a baking sheet or two with baking parchment or Bake-O-Glide.

Cream the butter and sugar together until whipped soft and pale, then beat in the egg, followed by the ginger (or vanilla), flour, baking powder and salt and continue mixing until it all comes together to make a soft dough.

Form into 2 discs, wrap each one in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it and sprinkle a little more flour on top. Then roll out to a thickness of about 5mm.

Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on the lined baking sheet/s. Keep the scraps of the first disc, to mix with the scraps of the second and roll and cut, re-roll and cut, until you’ve used up the mixture. This is wonderfully pliable dough, which makes it an unstressful joy to work with.

Bake in the oven for 18-12 minutes: this depends on their shape, how many sheets are in the oven at the same time, and whether on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after 5 minutes. When they’re ready, expect them to be tinged a pronounced pale gold around the edges; they’ll be softish still in the middle, but will harden on cooling.

Take the sheets out of the oven, remove the cookies, with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Using a small (unused) paintbrush or eyeshadow brush, dip in the edible pink dust or glitter flakes, and give each cookies its gilded coating.

White Chocolate Love Heart Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

If ever there was a day for Love Heart Sweets, it’s definitely Valentines. These retro sweets have been around since I was a child; in fact production of them began in 1933 and was part of many a childhood romance. The messages on each sweet are all love related and over the years the messages have changed, I certainly don’t remember “Email me” or “Fax Me” as a child but then again most kids in the 70’s wouldn’t have had email or a fax machine!! So this week the idea came to me to find the perfect cupcake recipe and adorn each cupcake with a love heart and it wasn’t long before I came across this simply amazing recipe. These cupcakes have a lush white chocolate, milky, sweet flavour and the sponge is moist and fluffy. The cupcakes are then topped with this unbelievably delicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting, that you will love! Each cupcake is then topped with a love heart, which was my favourite part.

White Chocolate Love Heart Cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes 18 Cupcakes

White Chocolate Cupcakes:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1/3 cup butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

2 large eggs

4-oz white chocolate, chopped

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup plus 1 tbsp milk (low fat is fine)

Preheat oven to 160oC/fan 140oC/325F. Line muffin pans with 18 cupcake liners.In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.In a small, microwave-safe bowl, melt the chopped white chocolate by heating it in 30 second intervals in the microwave. Stir well with a fork between each interval and cook only until the chocolate is smooth when stirred.In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light. Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by melted white chocolate and vanilla extract. Working in two or three additions, alternate adding in some of the milk and some of the flour mixture, ending with a final addition of flour. Mix until just incorporated and no streaks of flour remain.Divide batter evenly into prepared muffin cups.Bake at 325F for 20-23 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the tops spring back when lightly pressed with a fingertip.Cool on a wire rack.

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

4-oz cream cheese, room temperature

¼ cup butter, room temperature

1-oz white chocolate, melted and slightly cooled

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tsp milk or cream

2-3 cups confectioners’ sugar

18 Love Heart Sweets

In a large mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese, butter and melted white chocolate. Beat in vanilla and milk, then add in the confectioners’ sugar gradually until the frosting reaches your desired consistency (make it a bit stiffer if you wish to pipe it onto the cupcakes instead of spreading it with a knife).Spread frosting onto cupcakes with a knife, or transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a wide tip and pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Top each cupcake with a Love Heart Sweet.

Don’t say it with words – say it with Love Custard Cupcakes!!

Valentine’s Day is almost upon us, and what better way to show that special someone in your life how much you love them, than to bake them a batch of romantic cupcakes, cookies or a heart shaped cake! I love Valentine’s, and part of the celebration I love the most is the baking, it’s where the enjoyable part begins for me and my love for pink, hearts, glitter and anything girly comes into its own. I started my Valentine baking fun today with a batch of Love Custard Cupcakes; these tasty bundles of love are deliciously moist and the buttercream frosting is luscious, all the right ingredients you need to let your loved one know what they mean to you. Plus...women and cakes? They’re a partnership made in heaven – he can’t go wrong.

Love Custard Cupcakes

Makes 12

Ingredients
100g custard powder
200g softened butter
2 eggs
4 tbsp milk
140g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour

To ice the cupcakes:
75g butter, softened
550g sifted icing sugar

2 tbsp custard powder
4 tablespoons milk
A drop of red food colouring
Hundreds and thousands, to decorate


Heat the oven to 180oC/fan 160oC/gas 4 and place 12 paper cases into a muffin tray. Beat the custard powder with the butter, eggs and milk, then stir in the sugar and fold in the sifted flour. Spoon into the paper cases. Bake for about 20 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool completely.

In a bowl beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add the custard powder and the icing sugar, beating well.
Slowly beat in half of the milk and beat. Add a drop of red food colouring and beat. Beat in additional milk, if needed, to make a spreading consistency. Decorate each cupcake and finish with a sprinkling of hundreds and thousands

Happy Valentines Day~ Chocolate Heart Sponge Cake

Happy Valentines Day, hope your having a day full of love and romance. My hubby has taken today off to spend it with me and he surprised me with another bunch of red roses, his main gift to me didn't arrive on time and his not too pleased, he was looking forward to presenting it to me (a heart pendant) this morning with my card and roses. So I have that to look forward to and our romantic meal out this evening ;o)

This morning I had to bake this Chocolate Heart Sponge Cake for a client who wanted this made for her husbands birthday tomorrow. The recipe is by Nigella Lawson but I have changed the filling. It is a gorgeous chocolate sponge, with whipped cream and strawberry filling and topped with a chocolate ganache and sugarcraft hearts.

Chocolate Love Hearts

Love is in the air...!! Valentines is a day of expressing love, exchanging gifts, cards, flowers, chocolates and romantic meals. I know many people say it's all commercialism but then again what isn't nowadays? So for Valentines I'm doing what I love to do best, baking! I've baked my boys (hubby and son) these gorgeous chocolate sponge hearts with pink buttercream icing (sorry my decorating skills are not brilliant) and placed a sugarcraft heart on each one. Happy Valentines!

Red Roses and Little Mocha Kisses

Valentines came early for me this year. I woke up this morning to a very special romantic surprise from the most special man in my life. I came across roses all over the house and each one had a post it note attached with a lovely message. I had to find 12 roses in total, each one had been hidden in a different place in the house. The first rose was placed in our open fire place in the bedroom with a pre-Valentines card and inside the card there was a message with, "just to let you know, you have 11 more to find". I had so much fun finding the roses and I had the biggest smile on my face, infact I still do! It was the best thing to wake up to ;o). Who said romance was dead? I'm lucky to say it definitely lives!

Every Valentines I love to bake my hubby something special and as they say food is definitely a way to a man's heart! So after my rose hunt this morning I decided to bake up some of these gorgeous Little Mocha Kisses, filled with chocolate buttercream. These are perfect to serve with coffee after your Valentines meal. Hubby and I have a table booked at our local Italian for a Valentines meal tomorrow evening but these will be a lovely treat for when we get back!

Wishing everyone a day full of romance and love, Happy Valentines!