Small Gingerbread Cakes

Let me start by saying that, although these aren't as sweet as you might expect, they are incredibly moreish, and the keep surprisingly well. My mum liked them so much, in fact, that she put half of them in the freezer so that she could have them even when I'd gone back to uni! The eagle-eyed among you will notice that my measurements are twice what the original recipe called for. That's because I can't be dealing with half an egg, it's just too much of a faff. Also, I only made six of these, but I overfilled the muffin trays so I could easily have made eight. I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of the blanched almonds, but I rather like them!

Here's the recipe I was working with:

Small Gingerbread Cakes (makes 6-8)

Bare Necessities:
8oz/225g Plain Flour
2oz/55g Butter
2oz/55g Sugar
1tsp Ground Ginger
1/8tsp Mixed Spice
1 Egg
1tsp Baking Soda(Bicarbonate of Soda)
2tbsp Treacle
70ml Milk
6-8 Blanched Almonds

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Lightly grease a muffin tin and place one blanched almond at the bottom of each slot.
3. Breadcrumb together the flour and bicarb with the butter.
4. Mix in the sugar and spices.
5. Beat in the treacle, egg and milk until fully combined.
6. Pour the mixture into the muffin tray.
7. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until cooked through.
8. Leave to cool and enjoy!

Mint Choc Chip Cupakes

So my love affair with mint and chocolate is no new thing, but I had yet to transfer them from their classic ice cream form to a cakey alternative. I found this recipe whilst moseying through a pile of Usborne recipe cards which, though written for children, has some really excellent recipes in it! The recipe that I've used was actually for petit fours cases, and so I've adjusted the recipe accordingly (as well as making a few of my own changes as well. And yes, unlike my last cupcake bake, I actually bought the correct size cases!



Mint Choc Chip Cupcakes (makes 20)

Bare Necessities

For The Cupcakes:
80g Caster Sugar
80g Margarine
80g Self-raising Flour
3tbsp Cocoa Powder
2 Eggs
2tbsp Plain Chocolate Chips
2tbsp White Chocolate Chips

For The Icing:
250g Icing Sugar
3tbsp Water
1tsp Peppermint Essence
Green Food Dye
Large Chocolate Buttons

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F.
2. Place 20 paper cases onto the tray.
3. Beat together the sugar, margarine, flour, cocoa powder and eggs until fully combined.
4. Mix in the chocolate drops.
5. Evenly distribute the mix into the paper cases and pop into the oven.
6. Cook for 15 minutes or until cooked through.
7. Place the cupcakes onto a rack to cool.
8. In a small bowl, sift in the icing sugar, and then pour in the water, peppermint essence and a few drops of food dye.
9. Mix the icing until smooth and lump-free. I use a fork to mix it, as it helps get rid of the lumps easier. At this point you can add more food colouring to achieve the desired shade of green. Remember that it will affect the consistency of the icing though.
10. Once the cupcakes have cooled, drop a small dollop of icing onto each one. The cupcakes should come up a little bit shorter than the cases, so you can spread the icing right to the edges to get a clean effect.
11. Place a single button onto the centre of each cupcake.
12. Put the cupcakes in the fridge to let the icing set, and then tuck in!

Beautiful Butterfly Cakes

So a bit of a blast from the past here. I don't know about you guys, but when I was little, pretty much every birthday party featured these yummy little treats. Even though they're essentially just iced cupcakes, there's something about the little 'wings' that makes them so much more than that.

The eagle eyed among you may have noticed that in the photos I only made 12 cupcakes but in the recipe I've said that it makes 24. This is in part to my determination do only do one batch of 12, but also due to the fact that I only had muffin cases which are much bigger than cupcake cases. Lesson learned - get the correct size cases. Alright, now onto the recipe!


Beautiful Butterfly Cakes

Bare Necessities:

For the Cakes
150g/2/3cup Margarine
150g/2/3cup Sugar
3 Eggs
2tsp Vanilla Essence
150g/1 1/2cups Self Raising Flour
1 1/2tsp Baking Powder

For the Icing
100g/2/3cup Butter
300g/ 2 1/2cups Icing Sugar
1tbsp Milk
1tsp Vanilla Essence

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/340F.
2. Place 24 cupcake cases in a cupcake tray.
3. Beat together the margarine, sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder until fully combined and light and fluffy.
4. Divide the mixture equally between the cases.
5. Pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through.
6. Place the cupcakes on a rack to cool.
7. Beat the butter until creamy and gradually add the icing sugar. (I added 100g a time, which helps make less mess)
8. Add the milk and vanilla and beat until thick and creamy. At this point you can gradually add more milk or icing sugar to achieve the desired consistency.
9. Once the cupcakes are cool, carefully slice off the top of the cupcakes.
10. Slice the tops in half. This will create the 'wings'.
11. Spoon a medium dollop of icing onto the cupcakes.
12. Slot the 'wings' into the icing.
13. Pop in the fridge to keep cool or enjoy straight away!

Very Yummy And Oh So Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

So I recently read somewhere that if you use olive oil instead of butter that, instead of them becoming oily and gross, they actually just become more moist, so I decided to try that with these cupcakes and it actually worked out really well! These cupcakes were so moist and rich and delicious, and the chocolate icing really just tops them off!






Very Yummy And Oh So Moist Chocolate Cupcakes
Bare Necessities
(makes about 12 cupcakes)

For The Cupcakes
1 1/2cups/150g Plain Flour
1cup/225g Sugar
3tbsp Cocoa Powder
1/4tsp Salt
1tsp Baking Soda/Bicarbonate Of Soda
1tsp Vanilla Essence
90ml/6tbsp Oil
1cup/250ml Water
15 Marshmallows


For The Icing
1/2cup/112g Butter
2/3cups/65g Cocoa Powder
3 1/4cups/400g Icing Sugar
100ml Milk
1tsp Vanilla Essence


1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C and line the cupcake tin with cupcake cases.
2. Whisk together all the cupcake ingredients (apart from the marshmallows) together until the mixture is completely smooth.
3. Put one marshmallow in each cupcake case and then pour the cupcake mixture equally into each of the cupcake cases.
4. Pop the cupcakes in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the cupcakes are cooked through.
5. Once the cupcakes are cooked and leave them to cool.
6. Beat together all the icing ingredients until they are light, fluffy and smooth.
7. Put the icing into an icing bag and then put the icing bag in the fridge to cool for half an hour.
8. Once the icing is cooled, pipe it onto the cupcakes and enjoy!