easter bunny cupcakes

Forgive me: I am not in the least bit religious. At all. But Easter is my version of baking heaven. Sure, Christmas is great, with Santa and things of a sparkly nature, but what could be better than pastel colours, baby animals, flowers and an abundance of chocolate?! And despite living in the Southern hemisphere, starting to feel the evenings cool and watching the leaves turn brown instead of green, I am still forever compelled to make something cute and Spring-inspired. Usually, I would have had something planned weeks in advance, but this year, Easter has really snuck up on me. Realising that it's now less than a week away has left me feeling like I've missed out on so many adorable baking opportunities. So over the weekend, I was desperately trying to think of something cute and not too time consuming to make, and I just… couldn't. I don't know came over me, quite honestly. I was utterly uninspired.

After hours of being frustrated, intermittedly killing time looking at pretty dresses online and stopping for multiple tea breaks, I decided to decorate cupcakes using a grass tip, which I've been dying to do for a while now. Now, I don't even remember the last time I made cupcakes… so in order to make them as cute as possible, I burrowed miniature fondant bunnies into the grass-topped cakes, leaving their cute little bottoms exposed. I then realised my Easter cake last year also featured a rabbit's bottom, and who can blame me?! There are few things are cuter than a rabbit's backside.

Of course I wanted to make carrot cupcakes to go with anything rabbit related, despite the overwhelming urge to do something painfully chocolatey. And these cakes are oh so easy! They're light and fluffy and simply wonderful, and only use one bowl. It's been way too long since I've had carrot cake. Feel free to add walnuts or pecans if that's your thing, but I'm a carrot cake purist. No nuts allowed.

Ingredients (makes 16)
For cakes:
250 mls vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
215 gms caster sugar
2 cups coarsely grated carrot (approximately two large or three small carrots)
150 gms self raising flour
125 gms almond meal
1 tsp ground cinnamon

For cream cheese frosting:
125 gms cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or good extract)
2 cups icing sugar
a touch of green food colouring

For decorations:
About 400 gms fondant
Pink, orange and green food colourings

Firstly, make the decorations. These are really easy, albeit a little time consuming. I made enough rabbits for half of the cakes, topping the remaining with little carrots. The rabbit bottoms were about 4cm in diameter, and the tales about 1cm across. In retrospect, I would have done some bunny ears to poke out of cake tops, too.

For the cakes, preheat your oven to 180C and two standard 12 capacity cupcakes tins with cupcake liners.

Whisk together the oil, eggs and vanilla. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until combined. Divide mixture evenly amongst prepared cases-- approximately two tablespoons of mixture per case works out perfectly. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool completely.

To make the cream cheese frosting, beat the cream cheese and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sifted icing sugar, and beat at a high speed until add a good piping consistency, adding more icing sugar if necessary. Add green food colouring very sparingly-- a little goes a long way-- and with a piping bag fitted with a grass tip, cover each cakewith tufts of grass.

Top cakes with a burrowing bunny, or a couple of carrots.

As I was decorating, I longed for some oreo crumbs to make the carrot-topped cakes look more like small garden beds. This concept would also be adorable on a large cake, too, with bunny bottoms and ears sticking in and out of burrows on the surface of the cake. Oh, cake regret! I suppose there's still four days until Easter Sunday...

Recommended baking soundtrack: Shearwater - Animal Joy.

jam doughnut cakes

It's been a while since I've felt utterly in love with a new cookbook. Where I have swooned over the whole contents of a book, cover to cover, rather than just a few recipes out of many. Where the photography and styling are perfect, and the recipes are well written. I think the last was Meg Ray's Miette, and considering that was almost a year ago, it was about time something else came along to make my heart all aflutter. I saw the front cover of Tea With Bea, and became instantly smitten. I spend hours pouring over food magazines and cookbooks. Honestly, hours. I have a method that I rarely deviate from that consists of much excited flicking, followed by at least one good full-reading. And I was so very excited when I first sat down with this book. Every layer cake looks even more beautiful than the previous one, and oh, do I have a weakness for layer cakes.

As beautiful as these each recipe is, it feels almost criminal that this is the first recipe I've made from this book, simply because of the other recipes that were competing for my attentions. That and these cakes are just so damn easy to make! If you have a sweet, cakey craving that needs to be filled quickly, look no further. I've included my recipe for a quick raspberry jam, but if you were to use a good store-bought jam, you could have these in your mouth within the hour.

I was slightly reluctant (well, for about three seconds) to make these when I read to the part about rolling the warm cakes in butter. I love butter as much as the next person (okay, probably more than the next person), but I really thought a butter bath would make these cakes heavy, but it surprisingly doesn't. I think they're as doughnutty as a cake could possibly be.

Ingredients (makes approximately 22)
Recipe from Tea with Bea

For cakes:
3 cups plain flour
1 2/3 cups caster sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 half cups buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup sunflower oil

For coating:
250 gms butter, melted
2 cups caster sugar

For quick raspberry jam:
250 gms raspberries
200 gms caster sugar
1 tsp lemon juice
half a vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped.

If you're making your own quick raspberry jam, place the berries and lemon juice in a small, heavy-based saucepan, and simmer for five minutes, stirring constantly. Bring to the boil, add vanilla bean and seeds, and allow to bubble for five minutes without stirring. Add the sugar, stirring until dissolved and continue to boil for a further two minutes until slightly thickened and jammy. It will still be a fairly runny jam, but this is okay for these cakes. Remove vanilla bean and allow to cool while you make the cakes.

Brush two 12-capacity muffin tins with melted butter. Preheat oven to 180C. Prepare a piping bag with a plain nozzle.

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add wet ingredients, and stir until just combined. Do not overmix, or your cakes will be heavy.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes, keeping a watchful eye. Cakes should be lightly golden, and a skewer inserted into the middle of each should come out mostly clean, perhaps a bit crumby.

Immediately remove cakes from pans and onto your work space. Submerge cakes, one at a time, into melted butter before rolling in caster sugar.

Fill prepared piping bag with jam, and push the nozzle into the centre of the underside of each cake, and fill each with jam until you can feel and see that’s it's full-- you'll see jam start to ooze out when you're filling it if it's taken as much as it possibly can.

These are best eaten as soon as you're finished filling them, as they'll still be warm, but they're still wonderful as they've cooled down and the jam starts to become absorbed throughout the crumb of the cake. They may not be as light tasting as a doughnut, but how can a hybrid of two of my favourite things in this world possibly be a bad thing? I can only imagine they'd be just as wonderful filled with chocolate sauce, too...

Recommended baking soundtrack: Horse Feathers - Cynic's New Year.

elderflower cupcakes

I adore subtle floral flavours in baking: rosewater, orange blossom, lavender. So, why has my elderflower consumption up until this point been solely limited to a mixer that compliments gin (which is a pretty amazing combination, gin-lovers)?! Thankfully, I was surprised to discover not only whoopie pies, but a beautiful selection of cupcake recipes in 'Let's Make Whoopies', a fantastic and wonderfully presented book by Sophie Grey. My favourite, of course, was this attached recipe.

Elderflower is incredibly light and refreshing, and works perfectly with citrus. It's flavour is pretty subtle, so when adding it to the cream cheese, you may find you need more than what I've specified below. Sophie's original recipe suggested using elderflowers in addition to elderflower cordial in the cake mixture, so if you're lucky enough to be in a warmer climate than I currently am, give this a shot.

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe slightly adapted from Sophie Grey's 'Let's Make Whoopies' 

For cake:
175 gms self raising flour
2 tsps elderflower cordial
125 gms butter, at room temperature
175 gms caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
40 mls milk

For frosting:
50 gms butter, at room temperature
250 gms cream cheese, at room temperature
500 gms icing sugar, approximately
3 tsps elderflower cordial (or more, to taste)
green food colouring (I use Wilton Kelly Green)

Preheat your oven to 180C. Line a 12 cup capacity cupcake tray with liners.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy (about five minutes), scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly. Slow the speed of your mixture down, and gradually add the beaten egg, a little at a time, again, whilst scraping down the sides of your bowl. Gently fold in the flour and milk, being careful not to over-mix. Stir through the elderflower cordial.

Divide the mixture evenly among your 12 cases (just over 2 tbsps per case), and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, until golden and lightly springy to the touch. Remove from tray immediately and cool on a wire rack.

When the cupcakes have cooled, mix the cream cheese and butter with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Gradually add icing sugar, about 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. You may find you need more or less icing sugar than recommended - this is really up to personal taste. To pipe your mixture, it should be able to hold it's shape. Add a very small amount of food colouring before filling a piping bag with a star tip, and generously piping frosting onto cupcakes.

It seems amongst all the recent madness in my life, I have been consumed with macarons, five layer tiered cakes, and other time consuming treats that I've forgotten how satisfying making a quick and easy batch of cupcakes can be, not to mention how much easier they are to travel with! Im sorry I left you, cupcakes. Let's make up. 

Recommended baking soundtrack: Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle.

koala lamington cupcakes

Summer has finally arrived, a month or two late. However, I am not saying "finally" with any sense of relief. I love warm afternoons and evenings if a fan is present, but humid days are not my cup of tea. In fact, it makes it very difficult to enjoy my cup of tea. My Australia Day celebrations - aside from including a day off work - involve no tradition or routine. This year I decided to bake some treats for my new-ish coworkers, as if I needed an excuse.

Lamingtons usually require a chocolate glaze-esque coating covered in coconut, and despite this being my intention, found my cakes a little less rounded than I would have liked. I stuck with a buttercream merely so I could make chubby charactier-ridden koala faces, rather than sad, lifeless, two-dimensional faces. You get the idea. Go with whatever works for you, your cake results and your taste-buds.

Ingredients (makes 12)

12 vanilla cupcakes (see here for recipe)

100 gms unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup cocoa
4 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup milk
2 cups shredded coconut.

12 black jelly beans
12 pink marshmallows
24 Valrhona crunchy pearls (or any other small brown chocolate/candy)

For the chocolate buttercream, whip butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add cocoa and about 1 cup icing sugar and beat on a low speed until combined. Increase speed and beat until smooth. Add 1 tbsp of the milk and the remaining icing sugar and beat until creamy. Add remaining milk until desired consistency - you want a smooth, fluffy buttercream.

Generously frost each cupcake with chocolate buttercream, leaving about 2 tbsps aside. Place coconut in a shallow bowl and dip each iced cupcake into the coconut to coat. Decorate with a jellybean nose and two crunchy pearl eyes.

For the koala ears, cut each marshmallow in half lengthwise. Thin the remaining butercream down with a few drops of milk, and with a small palette knife, coat the outside edges of each mallow-half in chocolate frosting and then toss in coconut. Your ears should be moist enough to stick onto the cakes, but if they have trouble sticking on, secure with a dab of buttercream mixture.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Pearly Gate Music - Pearly Gate Music. 

oh, honey cupcakes with marshmallow icing

Lately, wherever I look I seem to find dreamy, honey inspired sweets. Naomi from hello naomi recently created an absolutely stunning bee hive cake. Linda from Bubble and Sweet made some busy bee cookies, topped with wonderful little bumble bees. And now, Donna Hay's October/November issue is filled with honey inspired desserts, including cookies, panna cotta and bundt cakes. I want in on this action.

I've used a beautiful honey cake recipe to make cupcakes topped with a fluffy, light vanilla marshmallow frosting. I credit my bees to Linda at Bubble and Sweet, though hers are much more inspirational! Don't be put off by the extra work - they are fiddly but so simple, and add so much to the otherwise rather plain looking cupcake.

Ingredients (makes 15)
For cakes:
200 gms unsalted butter, softened
185 gms soft brown sugar
3 eggs
1/3 cup honey, warmed
280 gms self raising flour

For icing:
3 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 tsps glucose syrup
pinch of cream of tartar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
dash of yellow food colouring

For decorating:
200 gms fondant
yellow food colouring
black food colouring

For the cakes, preheat your oven to 180C. Line two standard muffin tins with 15 paper cases.
Beat the butter and brown sugar until light and cream. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Fold in the honey and flour until combined. The mixture should be beautiful and creamy.

Divide the mixture among 15 cases and bake for 20 minutes until lightly golden. Transfer to a wire rack immediately and cool completely.

Meanwhile, for your bumble bees, tint roughly 180 gms of fondant yellow to make the bee-bodies. Roll small balls into oval shapes at your desired size. My bees are about 1 - 1.5 cms and this quantity of fondant made about 30 bees. Using either a fine paintbrush or a toothpick, paint stripes, eyes and a smiling mouth on each of your bees. Allow to dry. Using the remaining uncoloured fondant, squish small amounts to form wing shapes. Press two wings onto each bee, using a little water to secure if necessary. Set bees aside to dry and firm up slightly.

The make the marshmallow icing, combine the egg whites, sugar, corn syrup, cream of tartar and 100 mls water in a heatproof bowl (preferably the bowl of your electric mixer to save on washing up). Sit the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisk quite vigorously for five minutes until mixture is light and foamy. Alternatively, if you you have handheld beaters, you could use these - it will save you time and sweat! Remove from heat. Add vanilla and beat with electric mixers on a high speed until stiff peaks form. Add the food colouring until the desired strength of yellow and beat until just combined.

Generously pipe fluffy icing onto each cake using a plain 1cm tip. Top with a bumble bee. I find it better to secure bees with a toothpick, pierced through the the cake, but this is not necessary.

These cakes were a huge hit at work today, with all 16 being scooped up before I left for the night. Perhaps next time I'll fill them with creamed honey, or even a honey infused custard. Custard makes everything better.

Stay tuned for more honey inspired recipes over the weekend!

Recommended baking soundtrack: Ola Podrida - Belly of the Lion.  

congratulations madelyn & brad

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of being a bridesmaid and a baker for one of my dearest friends - Madelyn - on her special day. I've known and adored Madelyn for over ten years, so I felt truly lucky that I could contribute to her and Brad's wedding day. Her only request was for the cupcakes to be based on a batch that I made for her birthday the previous year, which were baked with inspiration from her all-time favourite sweet - caramel slice. And for there to be eighty of them.

The original cakes were a simple caramel mudcake, filled with caramel fudge sauce and topped with rich ganache. I did, however, have doubts at how these would look on a cupcake tower in the middle of a formal dining room.

I've baked for large formal occasions and weddings before, but baking for a close friend for their wedding brings a little more pressure than I expected. I knew she would be happy with whatever I chose to do (and she really did leave the decorating up to me!), but I really wanted these cakes to be as special as the couple Madelyn and Brad are. If you knew them, you'd understand, though I think this might be a common feeling with the marriage of friends.

So, I subtly tweaked the appearance of the cakes to make them look a little more classic-- this is always easy enough to do with a whipped (chocolate) butter cream piped on each cake. I also stamped some fondant with the happy couple's initials and topped each cake with either a 'B' or an 'H'. This was a really simple but classy way of adding the colour of our bridesmaids dresses and the accent colour of the room into the dessert.

This is also reflected in the tiered caramel mudcake that sat atop the cupcake stand for Madelyn & Brad to cut.

It was an absolutely beautiful day. Again, congratulations Madelyn & Brad. Everyone who knows you loves you even more as a married couple xo

cupcake day for rspca

RSPCA Cupcake Day is a wonderful event where two of my favourite things comes together: cats & cakes. Alright, cats and dogs & cakes. Admittedly, in previous years I have been too busy to make a decent effort for this wonderful cause and although this year was no different, I thought I'd give it a go.

For those of you not in the know, RSPCA's cupcake day is the largest bake-off in the Southern hemisphere, supporting RSPCA to do what they do best - running shelters for abused, injured and abandoned animals, and investigating cases of animal cruelty. A number of lovely people sponsored me online, and I was also supported by my co-workers who purchased cakes both out of a desire to assist, and maybe a little bit of pity.

The cake is a simple vanilla bean sponge with a strawberry custard filling.

Three dozen cakes all boxed up and ready to go!

If you're interested in this fantastic cause, it's not too late. You can still sponsor me, or donate to RSPCA any time of year.

annette's birthday bash

Clockwise, from bottom: Raspberry & coconut cake, chocolate & cherry cake, white russian cake, chocolate & orange cake, ginger & honeycomb cake. Centre: Lemon & coconut meringue cake. 

I had the pleasure of attending - and baking for - one of my dear co-worker's 60th birthday on Saturday evening. 60 guests, 70 gluten-free cupcakes. Two days of baking.

Annette is the perfect customer. She had all six cake varieties chosen weeks before the event, and had bought me almost all of the ingredients the week before! To make sure the cakes were as fresh as possible, I decided to do the baking on Friday, the decorating on Saturday. This meant a relaxed pace without stress, and even some room for failure. I didn't, however, anticipate running out of ingredients I simply never run out of - cream, ground ginger, caster sugar. So instead of finishing at around lunch on Saturday, I was boxing them all up five minutes before walking out the door. Despite the severe feeling of anxiety, there's something so wonderful about baking-adrenalin. What's even more wonderful is seeing a whole room full of people consuming your baked treats.

Happy birthday, Annette.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Andrew Bird back catalogue. 

tiramisu cupcakes

I will always, always choose tea or tea flavoured items over coffee. Because of this, I just never got tiramisu. Now, I know tiramisu is more than just coffee flavoured sponge, but it is so often done wrong you can hardly blame me. That was all until a lovely friend took me to Cafe Sopra in Waterloo. It was then and there that my opinion and affections for tiramisu changed for the better. 

This little cake comes nowhere near my Sopra experience. I've seen many incarnations of tiramisu in cupcake form, but a lot are underwhelming. At the very least, this cake is just a good tiramisu should be: simple. Martha Stewart's sponge recipe originally called for cake flour, but I've substituted with gluten-free plain flour, and due to it's cornflour-ish texture, I think it works perfectly. 

Ingredients

(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)

For cakes:

1 1/4 cups gluten-free plain flour sifted
3/4 tsp gluten-free baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

55 gms unsalted butter, chopped and softened
3 large eggs

3 egg yolks
1 cup caster sugar

For syrup:
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon freshly brewed very strong coffee (or espresso)
30 mls marsala
1/4 cup caster sugar

For frosting:
1 cup double cream
225 gms mascarpone, room temperature
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted

Coca powder (or chocolate shavings), to dust.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners.

Sift together cake flour, baking powder, and salt. Heat milk and vanilla-bean pod and seeds in a small saucepan over medium heat just until bubbles appear around the edge. Remove from heat. Whisk in butter until melted, and let stand 15 minutes. Strain milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, and discard vanilla-bean pod.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk together whole eggs, yolks, and sugar. Set mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, and whisk by hand until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm, about 6 minutes. Remove bowl from heat. With an electric mixer on high speed, whisk until mixture is fluffy, pale yellow.

Gently but thoroughly fold flour mixture into the egg mixture in three batches. Stir about 1/2 cup batter into the strained milk mixture to thicken. This will make it easier to incorporate in into the mixture. Fold milk mixture into the remaining batter until just combined.

Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until centers are completely set and edges are light golden brown, about 20 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely.

One cakes have cooled, brush tops of each evenly with coffee-marsala syrup; repeat until all syrup has been used. This will take a while as you'll need to wait for each addition of syrup to be absorbed before adding the next addition. Be patient-- you really do need the full amount of syrup on each cake for it to have the right amount of flavour. After the final brush of syrup, allow cakes to sit for further 30 minutes.

With an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk heavy cream until stiff peaks form (be careful not to overbeat, or cream will be grainy). In another bowl, whisk together mascarpone and icing sugar until smooth. Gently fold whipped cream into mascarpone mixture until completely incorporated. Dollop or pipe frosting onto cupcakes. Dust generously with cocoa powder.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele - The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele.

toffee apple cupcakes

Almost all of my co-workers are currently obsessed with 'Eat Me!', a delightful culmination of cookies, cakes and slices courtesy of Cookie Girl, and with very good reason. Not only is the extended title (The Stupendous, Self-raising World of Cupcakes and Bakes According to Cookie Girl) fantastic, but it's so
refreshing to have a baking book with new ideas on cupcake flavours with no pretense or snobbery. One of which is toffee apple cupcakes.

At the age of about 7, I remember my sister and I begging and pleading with my Mum to buy us a toffee apple whilst spotting them in the produce section of the supermarket (umm, what?!). They were one of the few things that Mum, in all her wisdom, denied us during our early childhood-- the list also including nutella and roll-ups. However, I suppose all adults eventually cave into their children, and we must have caught Mum on a good day, because we were finally victorious in getting our toffee apples. I don't really remember actually eating the toffee apple. Perhaps my memories are clouded with the overwhelming joy of getting what I wanted for so long. More likely that it was so dreadfully underwhelming once I had made it through the toffee surface that the consumption simply wasn't memorable. Regardless, there's something wonderful about toffee apples, and toffee apple flavoured things. So in seeing Burch & Perchese's take on a toffee apple, I wanted to try it. Well, a much easier and more simplified version.

Ingredients (makes 12)

(Recipe adapted from 'Eat Me!' and Burch & Perchese)

For cakes:
110 gms unsalted butter, softened
110 gms demerara sugar
2 eggs
170 gm apple, peeled, cored and grated
110 gms self-raising flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted

For caramel:
200gms dulce de leche
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted

For toffee apples:
350g caster sugar
50g water
35g liquid glucose
2 granny smith apples, peeled

red food colouring, if you like

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Cream the butter and the sugar together, bring aware that the mixture won't go as pale and creamy as usual due to the coarse grain of the sugar. Stir in the eggs, followed by the apple. Add the flour and baking powder and mix gently to combine. Divide mixture amongst cases, and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cakes comes out clean. Remove from tin immediately and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the caramel, mix dulce de leche with icing sugar, ensuring there are no lumps of unmixed icing sugar. Pour onto cakes and smooth, if needed.

For the toffee apples, scoop balls from the apples with a 2cm melon-baller and place in a small bowl of water until needed. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Place the sugar, food colouring (if using) and water into a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently over medium heat. Use a pastry brush dipped in a bowl of water to brush around the sides of the saucepan, to wash down any crystals on the side of the saucepan. Once the syrup is boiling add the glucose and continue cooking until mixture reaches 165C on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and transfer to a cool, clean pan. Working quite quickly, pat each apple ball dry with paper towel. Using a toothpick, dip each apple ball into the syrup, coating as evenly as possible. Place toffee apples on baking tray to cool.

Top cakes with toffee apple. Be aware that the toffee will dissolve, particularly any surface touching the caramel topping. Because of this, these really are best eaten within half an hour of making to ensure they taste as wonderful as possible... and they really are wonderful! Eating a miniature toffee apple is so satisfying - it's the perfect toffee:apple ratio. The sweet sticky caramel also compliments the slightly tart apple cake.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Electrelane - The Power Out. 

feature: la fête nationale- crêpe suzette cupcakes

Sigh. My last possible opportunity to use Bastille Day as an excuse. Honestly, I feel a tad exhausted, having also committed to other baking projects during the week. But aside from this, I still have recipes up my sleeve and painfully wish this week could be stretched out another few days. No profiteroles! No macarons! Millefeuille! Criminal, I'm aware. But on this final day, at this late hour, I bring you crêpe suzette cupcakes.

I feel a little ashamed to admit there was no flambé-action. But I did take as many of the flavours and textures of the traditional dish as I could when turning them into a cupcake-- orange, alcohol and crêpes, of course.

Ingredients

For cakes:
125 gms unsalted butter, chilled and chopped
1 cup caster sugar
4 tsps finely grated orange rind
3 eggs
125 mls milk
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted

For sugar syrup and candied peel:
1 cup caster sugar
zest of two oranges, thinly sliced
1/4 cup Grand Marnier or Cointreau

For whipped cream:
300 mls thickened cream
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

For crêpe (will make about 10 crêpes):
1/2 cup plain flour
220 mls milk
1 egg
20 gms butter, melted
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat the oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Place the butter, sugar and orange zest in a small saucepan and stir over a low heat until sugar has dissolved. Transfer to a large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the eggs, flour and milk and beat until just combined.

Divide the mixture evenly among cases and bake for 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To make the lemon syrup, place the alochol, sugar and 125 mls of water in a small saucepan. Stir over a low heat until sugar has dissolved. Add the orange zest, bring to the boil, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until syrupy. Strain syrup into a heatproof bowl or jug, reserving candied rind.

Pierce each cake with a few holes using a skewer. Generously brush each cake with warm syrup.

For whipped cream, place cream, icing sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until almost stiff peaks. Just until the mixture holds its shape, but is still soft and velvety. Nothing is worse for piping on cakes than over-whipped cream. Pipe the cream onto cakes using a piping bag fitted with a large star-shaped tip.

For crêpe, sift flour into a large bowl, making a well in the centre. Whisk milk and eggs in a jug with a fork to combine. Add to flour mixture and use a whisk to stir, gradually drawing in flour to make a smooth batter. Stir in 1/2 tablespoon of butter. Cover. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Heat an 18cm (base) crêpe pan over medium heat. Brush with a little of the remaining butter. Pour 2 tablespoonfuls of batter into centre of pan and swirl quickly to coat base. Cook for 2 minutes, or until golden and lacy. Turn and cook for a further 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Cover with foil to keep warm. Repeat with remaining batter, if using, greasing pan in between crêpes. Dust with icing sugar.

Cut a crêpe (or more, if needed) into ribbon strips, about 1cm wide and 5cm long.

To finish cakes, place a few strips of candied orange peel onto each cream peak. Top with a ribbon of fresh crêpe.

My boyfriend ate two of these it one sitting. As much as he loves cake, it seems I'm always ordering him to eat more to get as many opinions as possible, and this - this eating without encouragement - is a rarity, so I take that as a compliment. I think the alcohol content in the syrup could be increased slightly. Tasting the syrup itself lead me to believe it was perfect, but when infused throughout the cake it loses a bit of its sharpness. I suppose this will always come down to individual taste, but just keep this in mind. 

So this is it. The end. My apologies for brutally destroying French tradition. Avec amour. 

Recommended baking soundtrack: St Vincent - Marry Me. 

feature: la fête nationale - apple tarte tatin cupcakes

Apple tarte tatin is such a classic, simple, but oh-so-delicious dessert. My first homemade experience was a Donna Hay recipe for individual strawberry and vanilla bean tarts, and despite requiring a criminally small amount of effort, was so unbelievably delicious that I simply can't ignore this French treat in my Bastille feature. So, mine is not quite a tart. I did consider incorporating puff pastry somehow... but I think all this baking is somehow affecting my creative ability. That or I just really wanted to go to bed last night. I think some kind of pastry decoration would really finish it off nicely, though. It needs a bit of crunch.

Ingredients (makes 12)

For cakes:
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)
1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 tsp baking powder, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
110 gms unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs
90 mls buttermilk

For caramelised apples and caramel sauce:
80g butter
4 red apples, peeled and cut into thin slices
1/2 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
160 mls thickened cream

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake liners in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl. Cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce speed to low. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in three additions, alternating with buttermilk and ending with dry. Scrape the sides of the bowl throughout to ensure mixture is evenly beaten.

Divide mixture evenly among cases. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of each cake comes out clean. Remove from tin immediately and cool on a wire rack.

For caramelised apples, place butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until butter is melted begins to foam. Add apples slices to pan in a single layer to ensure even caramelisation. You may have to do multiple batches if necessary, so divide ingredients as required. Cook for about two minutes on each side until lightly browned. Add brown sugar and cream to pan and stir to coat apples. Cook until mixture thickens, then remove from heat.

Arrange apple slices on each cupcake, and spoon over warm caramel sauce.

The brown sugar pound cake doesn't have a fine crumb like most cupcake recipes, but I think its thickness really works in this case. You could substitute it for any caramel/apple cake recipe if you'd prefer a more moist cake, but I back Martha on this one.

I suggest eating them warm with a dollop of cream, as you would a classic tarte tatin.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Mélanie Pain - My Name

feature: la fête nationale - crème brûlée cupcakes

The quintessential French dessert. My all-time favourite dessert. Can I disappoint traditionalists twice in one week? Heck yes, I can. First in a tart, and now in a cupcake. 

Ingredients (makes 12)
Recipe adapted from Indulgence Cupcakes

For cakes:
185 gms unsalted butter, softened
160 gms caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
3 eggs
125 gms self-raising flour
30 gms plain flour
125 mls milk

For custard:
275 mls milk
3 egg yolks
55 gms caster sugar
2 tbsps plain flour

extra caster sugar, for burning

Preheat oven to 180C. Place 12 cupcake cases in a 12 capacity cupcake tin.

Beat the sugar, butter and vanilla together in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add the eggs, onw at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flours together and fold through the butter mixture alternately with the milk. Divide the mixture evenly among the cases. Bake for 15 minutes until golden, or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Remove cakes from tin immediately and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make the custard filling, place the milk in a saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat. Beat the egg yolks, sugar and flour until thick and pale. Gradually whisk in the milk. Return to the saucepan over a low heat and stir until the mixture bubbles and thickens. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly while preparing the cupcakes to be filled.

Using a small, sharp knife, cut a hole our of each cake, leaving about a 1cm border at the edge. Discard (or eat!) cake middles. Fill the cavity of each cake with about 2 tsps custard. Refrigerate until custard is set.

Sprinkle the custard of each cake with caster sugar, and caramelise with a culinary torch until crispy and golden. Beware of the cupcake liner! If your cupcake liners sit quite high, it may be best to remove the cakes from the cases when using the torch.

Because of the relatively high egg content, these cakes are so lovely and dense, and work wonderfully with the silky custard and crunchy crust. A nice change from what people traditionally expect a cupcake to be.

These really are best eaten immediately to enjoy the crack of the caramelised sugar. Similar to the crème brûlée tarts, you can always store extra cupcakes in the fridge and caramelise when ready for consumption.

Recommended baking soundtrack: Françoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu