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Cupcakes & Muffins

Halloween Cupcakes: Spider and Brain & Guts Cupcakes

2 November 2009 – 9:23 pm

This year’s halloween was the first time I’m “celebrating” it. I’ve been lucky to have friends who are game enough to dress up to the nines and suit up with the best costume they can think of, and in return I wanted to bake something fun and freaky for them.

So, for that I give you…

Spider Cupcakes

and

Brain & Guts Cupcakes (adapted from Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella’s Brain Clot Cupcakes)

The whole cupcake baking process was easy peasy Japaneasy: a basic vanilla cupcake and a basic buttercream cupcake recipe will do the trick. You just have to fill in the blanks with your creative (and freakishly gross and colourful) imagination.

I used my trustworthy vanilla cupcake recipe (adapted from Exclusively Food) for these cupcakes:

Vanilla cupcakes
Makes approximately 24 cupcakes

240g unsalted butter, softened
2 cups caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 cups self raising flour, sifted
1 cup buttermilk

1. Pre-heat oven to 175 deg C. Line your muffin tray with paper cases.
2. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Add eggs one at a time. Beat in vanilla and buttermilk.
3. Add 1/2 of the sifted flour to the butter batter, and then beat until just combined. Add the remaining flour and beat well.
4. Divide the batter on to the cases evenly.
5. Bake for 20 – 22 minutes. Cool before frosting.

Vanilla buttercream

Ice 24 cupcakes

200g unsalted butter, softened

21/2 cups icing sugar mixture, sifted

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp milk

1. Beat butter until soft. Add icing sugar.

2. Add vanilla and milk. Add more sugar if frosting is too runny, or milk if it’s too solid.

Decorating the cupcakes involved some raw materials ie candies, a little bit of shopping, and a few helping hands.

Spider Cupcakes

Half of the prepared buttercream

2 tbsp cocoa powder (to add to buttercream)

Licorice roll, chopped into small strips

Silver dragees for eyes

Chocolate nuggets or bullets

  1. Add the cocoa powder to have the amount of prepared buttercream. Mix until well combined.
  2. Pipe on to cupcakes.
  3. Arrange the lollies like so: place the chocolate bullet in the middle of the piped buttercream. Arrange 4 licorice strips on either side of the chocolate bullet to resemble spider legs. Place two silve dragees on one end of the chocolate bullet as spider “eyes”, and voila! you have spider cupcakes!

Brain & Guts Cupcakes

Half of the prepared buttercream

Red, blue, and yellow food colouring

  1. Put about 6 drops of red, 4 of blue, and 4 of yellow food colouring. Mix until well combined – this should resemble a grayish/light cream colour.
  2. Add about 4 drops of red food colouring – mix until reaching a marbled red tinge. Do not mix too well as you’d want some hints of red colouring in the buttercream.
  3. Pipe squiggles on to the cupcakes to either resemble brains or guts. Enjoy!

Disgusting, aren’t they? But they were oh so delicious and were an instant hit in the party! We even gave some to a couple of trick or treater groups that knocked on the door and tried to gatecrash our party :)

Trick or Treat!!!

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Cupcakes & Muffins

Banana Cupcakes & Espresso Cupcakes

23 August 2009 – 11:36 am

A box of cupcake goodies as a sample platter for Mr J’s workmates and my sister’s best friend.

Not much to say about them except that I’m really really happy with the way they turned out. I think I’ve pretty much perfected the banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and it is by far my most ordered cupcakes. I have a little technique with the bananas that gives the cupcakes that extra sweetness and “banana-ness” and I’ve received compliments about the espresso cupcakes.

I’m reposting the recipes here as per your request (see how much I love you dear foodies?).

Banana Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Makes approximately 12 – 14 cupcakes

Recipe adapted from Exclusively Food’s Banana Cake


125g unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups soft, brown sugar

2 very ripe bananas (medium size), mashed

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/3 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

Pinch of salt

  1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Line your muffin tin with paper cases.
  2. Mix together mashed bananas, butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla extract.
  3. Slowly add buttermilk.
  4. In another bowl, sift flour, bicardbonate soda, and salt. Add this to the wet ingredients and mix to combine.
  5. Divide batter evenly on to the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes.
  6. Cool on rack. Enjoy!

Cream Cheese Frosting

250g cream cheese, softened

80g butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

  1. Beat cream cheese and butter until softened.
  2. Add icing sugar and beat until well combined.

…

Espresso Cupcakes with Espresso Buttercream

Recipe adapted from Best Recipe’s Easy Coffee Cake


125g butter

3 eggs

1 cup caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp instant coffee powder dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water

3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup sour cream

  1. Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Grease and line a cake tin with baking paper.
  2. Beat the butter and sugar until creamy.
  3. Add the eggs to the butter one at a time.
  4. Mix the vanilla and the dissolved coffee, and then add this to the butter/eggs mixture.
  5. Sift flours together, and add this alternatively with the sour cream to the coffee/butter mixture.
  6. Pour batter on to prepared cake tin. Bake for 30-40 minutes. Test if the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer in the middle – if it comes out clean, then it is ready. If it comes out with some batter, add another 5 minutes to the baking time. Cool before frosting.

Coffee Buttercream

100g soft unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp milk

1 tsp instant coffee powder dissolved with 1 tbsp hot water

  1. Beat butter until light and creamy. Add 1 cup of icing sugar, beat into butter, and then add the rest.
  2. Add vanilla and milk. Beat until combined.
  3. Add dissolved coffee to the butter. This will look curdled so put your beater/mixer on high and beat until well combined.
  4. Frost cake using prepared buttercream. Enjoy!

…

And with a little bit more batter left, I tried being playful and made little babycakes. Yes, I’m weird and bored like dut!

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