Green Earth Day Cupcakes - Cupcake Hero

April 22nd is Earth Day. I always do my little bit to be 'green', saving energy, using gray water on the garden, recycling, cloth nappies, it's little things, but I hope they are making some small impact.


This month I decided to go above and beyond the call of duty. The Cupcake Hero theme is... drum roll... Earth Day!


I have stalked the Cupcake Hero blog for a couple of months now, and I love the cakes everyone comes up with. I don't claim to be as good at it as some, but a girl has to keep challanging herself (oh and I simply can't back away from a competition).

My humble contribution to the Earth Day 'Hero is a White Chocolate Mud and Mint Cupcake with Mint Icing. Mud cake! You can't get more Earthy than MUD.


I used as many organic producs as I could get my hands on, milk, flour, eggs, sugar, chocolate and mint from my own garden how green is that?! . Sadly I was quite limited by my rural location. No matter, we soldier on.

I loved the white chocolate mud cake, moist and delicious, I am not a big fan of white chocie but it didn't stop me from eating two of these babies before the icing dried, nor from being sneaky and not sharing the job of licking the bowl with my 3 year old. I did however let her have a cooked one to eat and she ate the whole lot. Not just the icing - the whole cake! She licks the icing from a devils food cupcake but this she ate the entire thing. I was so shocked I let her have another one with out a thought.


I was however quite disapointed with the organic icing sugar. It had a funny smell in the bag, and when I mixed it with milk it was a rather unattractive brown colour. It took quite a bit of green colour to make it look nice. It was still very grainy so I tried warming it to disolve it a little. I started to disolve but it also started to stink! A delicate scent that reminded me of my Aunty's goat farm. Not pleasant. In short I binned it and went for the slightly less 'green' but also slightly less brown and smelly, icing sugar.


Can I say again how much I like this cake. It makes white chocolate taste fantastic, and the mint gives it such a fresh flavour.




I really enjoyed this Cupcake Hero, and looking at the dozen or so cupcakes in my kitchen I think I'll continue to enjoy it for a week or two yet.





White Chocolate Mint Mud Cake

Silghtly modified version of this


300g white chocolate
200g butter
250ml (1 cup) milk
165g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (2 teaspoons natural vanilla essence)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
100g (2/3 cup) self-raising flour
150g (1 cup) plain flour
1 tsp of dried mint


Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius (145 degrees Celsius fan-forced).

Place chocolate, butter, milk and sugar in a large saucepan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat when chocolate and butter have melted, and stir mixture until completely smooth.

Allow mixture to cool at room temperature for 15 minutes.

Add vanilla and eggs to chocolate mixture and stir until well combined.

Stir flours together in a large bowl. Add one cup of chocolate mixture to the flour and stir until a smooth paste forms.

Repeat with another cup of the chocolate mixture.

Add remaining chocolate mixture and mint, stir until mixture is smooth. This gradual method of combining the wet and dry ingredients helps prevent lumps

3/4 fill your cupcake papers with batter ( I got 22 cupcakes). Bake for 25 minutes or untill a skewer comes out clean.

April Daring Bakers - Cheese Cake Pops

This month the Daring Bakers have Elle & Deborah to thank for choosing the challenge; Cheesecake Pops!
What a wonderful sounding desert. It is New Yourk cheese cake, baked and scooped into balls, but it doesn’t stop there, the cheese cake is coated in chocolate and sprinkles.
Sound delicious? Yep.
Taste delicious? Yep.
Look cute? Hell yeah!
Easy? Err... Nope.
Firstly the cheesecake took twice as long to cook as the recipe recomended, mine baked for about 70 minutes, and was still a little too soft in the middle to stay in shape. I had to freeze the balls overnight in order to make them work.
The chocolate coating was easy. I used Green and Blacks Organic Mayan Gold Chocolate, Dark Chocolate and Milk Chocolate. I also added a bit of peppermint oil to the milk chocolate.
I played with sprinkles a little bit, I used almonds, pistachious, coconut, and 100’s and 1000’s.
I didn’t fiddle with the cheesecake at all, it was yummy and very creamy and not too sweet.
The chocolate makes a lovely crisp shell over the soft creamy cheesecake. The dark chocolate was my favorite, the mayan chocolate over powered the cheesecake a little. I loved the nuts my children loved the 100’s and 1000’s but they were a big hit all ‘round. Everyone enjoyed them and had seconds.
Would I make them again? Maybe, if someone begged me, for a special occasion.
I think I might go have another one.

Cheesecake Pops
Makes 30 – 40 Pops

1135g cream cheese at room temperature

400g sugar

30g all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon salt

5 large eggs

2 egg yolks

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ cup heavy cream
Boiling water as needed
Thirty to forty 20cm lollipop sticks
450gms chocolate, finely chopped – you can use all one kind or half and half of dark, milk, or white (Alternately, you can use 450 grams of flavoured coatings, also known as summer coating, confectionary coating or wafer chocolate – candy supply stores carry colours, as well as the three kinds of chocolate.)
2 tablespoons vegetable shortening

(Note: White chocolate is harder to use this way, but not impossible)

Assorted decorations such as chopped nuts, coloured jimmies, crushed peppermints, mini chocolate chips, sanding sugars, degrees) - Optional

Position oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 160 degrees C. Set some water to boil.
In a large bowl, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, flour, and salt until smooth. If using a mixer, mix on low speed. Add the whole eggs and the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well (but still at low speed) after each addition. Beat in the vanilla and cream.
Grease a 25cm cake pan (not a spring form pan), and pour the batter into the cake pan. Place the pan in a larger roasting pan. Fill the roasting pan with the boiling water until it reaches halfway up the sides of the cake pan. Bake until the cheesecake is firm and slightly golden on top, 35 to 45 minutes.
Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and cool to room temperature. Cover the cheesecake with plastic wrap and refrigerate until very cold, at least 3 hours or up to overnight.
When the cheesecake is cold and very firm, scoop the cheesecake into 2-ounce balls and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Carefully insert a lollipop stick into each cheesecake ball. Freeze the cheesecake pops, uncovered, until very hard, at least 1 – 2 hours.
When the cheesecake pops are frozen and ready for dipping, prepare the chocolate. In the top of a double boiler, set over simmering water, or in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water, heat half the chocolate and half the shortening, stirring often, until chocolate is melted and chocolate and shortening are combined. Stir until completely smooth. Do not heat the chocolate too much or your chocolate will lose its shine after it has dried. Save the rest of the chocolate and shortening for later dipping, or use another type of chocolate for variety.
Alternately, you can microwave the same amount of chocolate coating pieces on high at 30 second intervals, stirring until smooth.
Quickly dip a frozen cheesecake pop in the melted chocolate, swirling quickly to coat it completely. Shake off any excess into the melted chocolate. If you like, you can now roll the pops quickly in optional decorations. You can also drizzle them with a contrasting colour of melted chocolate (dark chocolate drizzled over milk chocolate or white chocolate over dark chocolate, etc.) Place the pop on a clean parchment paper-lined baking sheet to set. Repeat with remaining pops, melting more chocolate and shortening (or confectionary chocolate pieces) as needed.
Refrigerate the pops for up to 24 hours, until ready to serve.

ANZAC Day

ANZAC Day (25th April) is a pretty special day in Austrila, so special it has it's own dedicated biscut. I have seen ANZAC biscuts on several blogs lately, some American, some with ingredients like orange essence, honey, or dried fruit, one even labeled the biscut as a 'cookie'.
As patriotic Australian there are some things you just don't mess with. You can eat our kangaroo's, you can poke fun at our beady eyed Priminister (heck we do it) but you don't muck about with ANZAC biscuts.
There are two kind of people in Australia, those who like their ANZAC's crunchy and those who like them chewy.
I like mine chewy, that's why this recipe is my favorite.

ANZAC Biscuts
1cup plain flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desicated coconut
125gms butter, chopped
1/4 cup golden syrup
1/2 tsp bicarb soda
1tbs boiling water

Preheat over to 180C
In a large bowl mix flour, sugar, oats and coconut, make a well in the middle.
In a glass jug combine chopped butter and golden syrup, heat in microwave until butter is melted melted.
Add hot boiling water to bi-carb, it will fizz up. Add it to the butter and golden syrup, then add all liquids to the dry ingredients.
Stir until totally combined.
Roll tablespoon sized balls and place on a greased tray, flatten slightly with you hand.
Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Coffee Break?

This recipe is from my newest recipe book Womens Weekly 'Cupcakes'. The first thing I must do when I buy a recipe book is bake something from it the same day, to prove to myself (my husband) that it is money well spent.




I chose the Mochaccino cupcakes. A chocolate and coffe cupcake with a plain whipped cream topping. The idea is to serve them in coffee cups with the cream taking the place of the froth on top of the mochaccino, with a light sprinkle of cocoa.

Mochaccinos

Makes 12

165g butter

100g Dark eating chocolate, chopped

290g caster sugar

170 ml water

60ml coffee liqure

2 tbs or 8g coffee granules

150g plain flour

2 tbs cocoa powder

1 egg

Decoration

300ml Cream, whipped

cocoa

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C,

Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, water, liqueur, and coffee is a saucepan over low heat, stir untill smooth. Allow to cool for 15 minutes.

Whisk in flours and cocoa, add egg. Use a 1/3 cup measuring spoon to poor batter into cupcake cases. This helps to keep the cupcakes an even size.

Bake 50 minutes, cool on a wire rack.

Top with whipped cream and sift over some cocoa so they look like little coffees. You can remover the cases and place in a similar sized coffee cup, and then top with the cream and cocoa for a really cute way to serve them.

Beat that yeast

I love to bake pretty much anything. There is only one thing that slows me down; yeast. I'm not scared persay, just rather intimidated by it.

I also love to challenge myself, and there's something very useful-feeling about making bread. Cakes are lovely, pretty and yummy, but honestly, if we really, really (and I mean realy) had to we could live with out it. In this house at least, bread is a staple, an everyday thing, and it just can not be done without. Not with a 3 year old that beggs for sandwiches at least twice a day.

One of my regular blog hangouts is Baking Bites, yesterday while crusing the blog for yummy things ( not hard to find, pretty much every recipe!) I noticed these. Oh my gosh, do these look yummy or what?!

The best thing about them is that Nicole says they have a soft crust. In my opinion the worst part of home made bread is a thick, crunchy crust. I don't go for crusty bread. That is one of the reasons I loved the sound of these cute little rolls.

The other is that they are made with yogurt, not with milk or butter. So definately low in fat.

I stuck my little babies is the oven and almost right away you could smell them. *sigh* lovely.

Make these, you seriously wont be dissapointed.

Soft Yogurt Sandwich Rolls

3 1/2 - 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tbsp active dry yeast3 tbsp honey

1 cup water, warm (100-110F)

1 cup yogurt (nonfat/lowfat is fine; I used Greek-style)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 1/2 tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl, combine 1/2 cup flour, the active dry yeast, the honey and the warm water. Stir well and let sit for 10 minutes, until slightly foamy.S

tir in yogurt, vegetable oil, salt and 2 cups of the remaining flour. Gradually stir in more flour until you have a soft dough that sticks together pulls away from the sides of the bowl (This can all be done in a stand mixer with the dough-hook attached, as well).

Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding additional flour if necessary to prevent sticking, until dough is smooth and elastic, or about 5 minutes. Place in a lightly greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Turn risen dough out of bowl and onto a lightly floured surface.

Gently deflate, pressing into a rectangle.

Divide dough into 10 even pieces with a board scraper or a pizza cutter.

Shape each piece into a round roll. To do this, take all the corners of one of the squarish pieces you just cut and pull them together, pinching them to create a seal. This will pull the rest of the dough “tight” across the top of your roll, giving you a smooth top.

Place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough.

Once all rolls have been formed, press down firmly on each one to flatten. Cover with a clean dish towel and let rise for 25 minutes.Bake for about 20 minutes, until rolls are deep golden on the top and the bottom.

Cool on a wire rack.

Store in an airtight container.
Makes 10 rolls.

Red Velvet

This cake was for my Aunty’s birthday. I didn’t want to do the usual chocolate cake so I stepped out of the box a little and did a Red Velvet cake.
I did a bit of research on line and found tones of recipes and blogs of Red Velvet. A lot of people aren’t impressed with the cake, its main charm being it’s colour not it’s flavour. I took this into consideration when I choose the recipe with the most cocoa and then beefed up the cocoa content to enhance the chocolate flavour.
I was aware of some peoples aversion to the cake because of the food colouring required but I didn’t think this would hurt, the kids didn’t show any side effects, and they all ate a lot of cake!
The cream cheese icing was a nice accompaniment to the cake, though I wonder what it would have been like with a whipped ganache, quite tasty I think.
It was very necessary to do a 'crumb coating' on this cake, a crumb coating is a very thin layer of frosting spread over the cake and refridgerated, to stop crumbs from getting in the frosting.

When icing a red cake with white icing it would be plain dumb not to do a crumb coat. ;)

The finnished cake looked fantastic, the cake was moist and soft, slightly chocolately, very yummy. The cream cheese icing was sweeter than I thought it would be, but still had the tang of the cheese and complemented the cake nicely, but flavour and colour wise.

Red Velvet Cake

INGREDIENTS:

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

3½ cups cake flour or 3 ½ cups plain flour minus 7 tbs

½ cup unsweetened cocoa + 1 tbs1

½ teaspoons salt

2 cups canola oil

2¼ cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs

6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food colouring

1½ teaspoons vanilla

1¼ cup buttermilk

2 teaspoons baking soda

2½ teaspoons white vinegar

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 22cm layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.

2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.

3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food colouring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.

4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.

5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.

Cream cheese icing
(225g) cream cheese, softened
(110g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
(450g) confectioner's sugar, sifted)
Beat the cream cheese with the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until very smooth.

Spread evenly on the cake.