Saturday 26 March 2016

Recipe Post 2016 N0.9- Flower Surprise Cupcakes

Happy Easter everyone!

Firstly, thank you so much for all your comments and +1's. I cannot believe that this is my 21st recipe post on BakingBoutique already! How time goes...

I've decided to take this week's post from "The Chocolate Box Secrets" written by Cathy Cassidy and bake Flower Surprise Cupcakes(this recipe was also featured on my Top Twelve Recipes of 2015). Seeing as it is the end of March and the start of Spring, I thought it'd be nice to bake sweet,cute cupcakes!


In order to make these gorgeous cakes, you'll need:
110g of unsalted butter    
110g of caster sugar
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 medium-sized eggs,beaten
Strawberry jam
Lemon curd

For icing, you'll need:

110g of softened butter
220g of icing sugar
1/2teaspoon of vanilla extract  
1/2 tbsp of milk(to loosen to mixture if required)

Method to making this flower cupcakes:

As always, preheat your oven to 180c/350F/Gas Mark 4. Prepare twelve paper cupcake cases in a muffin tin.

Beat together the butter and sugar with either a free-standing
mixer, handheld mixer or the old fashioned way with a wooden spoon until pale and fluffy.

Sift the flour,baking powder, vanilla extract and beaten eggs
into the mixture. Beat until the mixture is smooth.

Spoon two-thirds of  mixture into each paper case and bake for around 15-20 minutes or until the cakes have risen and
look golden-brown and firm to touch.


Cool in the muffin tin for ten minutes before transferring on to a cooling rack.

Once completely cool, use a small sharp knife to cut a small hole in
the top of each cupcake,halfway into the centre. Fill half the holes with strawberry jam and the other half lemon curd. The whole point of doing this is the surprise of not knowing which cupcake you have!

Method to making the icing:
Beat the butter until at a fluffy consistency. Then beat in the icing sugar a little at a time.
Add the vanilla extract to soften the mixture. Add milk to loosen it if needed.
Pipe the icing on to the cupcakes or spread it onto  the cakes with a knife.

I decorated my cupcakes with fondant flowers which I had made myself using the fondant recipe from my Red
Velvet Cookie recipe. 

I must say, mixing the ingredients to old-fashioned way is far more difficult than allowing a freestanding mixer to mix all the ingredients for me. However, it was quieter
and less messy surprisely...

I hope you've enjoyed this week's recipe and have enjoyed Easter for its true meaning. Comment below to let me know how you plan to spend your Easter Holidays or e-mail me to chocolatecupcachocolatecupcakes08@gmail.com and let me know if there are any recipes you'd like me to feature.

Have an eggs-cellent Easter!

#sweetreats xx 


Saturday 19 March 2016

Baking Post N0.8- Piping decorations

Hiya everyone!

I'm really pleased how much you all enjoyed last week's post-my mum certainly enjoyed them.

This week's post was actually requested by one of my viewers. And I remember saying in one of my blog posts last year that I would pick up from icing techniques and post another post on it icing sweet treats. 

Baking has many assets- you bake a cake with all the correct measurements and ingredients and then you ice a cake, decorating the cake presentably. Being an amateur baker, you begin to learn all the assets around baking as well as gain a technique. 

Before I even begun decorating cakes and piping decorations, I had to learn all types of icing and how to make them. This actually took quite a while to master so don't give up if you don't get all of them first try. It takes a lot of resilience and perseverance.

In order to decorate cakes, the icing you need is Royal Icing in a certain consistency. There are four consistencies that royal icing can be made- Cake-covering consistency, run-out consistency and of course piping consistency.  To make royal icing at a piping consistency, you'll need:


2 medium egg whites


450g of icing sugar, sifted

1/4 tsp of lemon juice

1 tsp of glycerine (you can buy glycerine in many supermarkets).

Method to making Royal Icing:

Firstly, place the egg whites and lemon juice into a large,clean bowl. Then, stir in order to break up the egg whites. Add enough icing sugar to form the consistency of un-whipped cream, mixing constantly.

Continue mixing and adding small amounts of icing sugar every few minutes until when you lift the spoon out of the icing mix, the icing on the spoon should be a fine,sharp point(also known as a sharp peak).

Before you begin piping, for those who don't know any piping techniques, the next paragraph will explain what nozzles should be used for certain designs and so on.

In order to pipe correctly, it is important to have your icing at the consistency written above. If the icing is too stiff, it will be quite difficult to pipe. On the other hand, if it is too soft, the icing will run to freely, be difficult to control and you'll lose definition. The larger the nozzle on the piping bag is, the stiffer the icing needs to be. However, if using a very fine writing nozzle, the consistency needs to be slightly looser. Remember:


  • When piping cream, use only a small amount at a time
  • Always keep your work area clean when you pipe to avoid crumbs, dirt or blemishes appearing on your finished cake.
  • Plan your pattern before piping.
  • Intricate designs are best piped on to the silicone paper and left to dry then fix onto a cake with a dab of royal icing.
  • Always practice first- a board, cake tin or an upturned plate all make good surfaces.
To pipe beads and dots:

The size of beads depends on the nozzle used and the pressure
applied to the piping bag. Start with icing of a slightly softer consistency so that there are no sharp points on the ends of the beads. In order to prevents sharp points, hold the nozzle upright just above the surface then squeeze out some icing onto the surface to make a bead. Pull up sharply to break the icing.

To pipe rosettes/roses:

Place a star nozzle onto the the piping bag. Hold the piping bag
straight above the surface. Press out some icing to the size of the rosette you want, meanwhile lifting the bag slightly to give the rosette space. Stop pressing ,then pull sharply to break the icing.


To pipe a basic flower:

Fill the piping bag with a petal nozzle (fourth nozzle in picture). Half-fill the bag with "sharp beak" consistency royal icing.  Begin by piping a petal- keep an even pressure and pipe an closed horseshoe shape. Slowly rotate the icing nail/spinner or rotate the paper if you do not own  a icing nail and pipe the second petal. By the time you pipe the third petal, two-thirds of the flower should be piped. If not, the petals are either too fat or too thin. Keep rotating to pipe the remaining two petals.Pipe a contrasting bead of icing in the centre and leave to dry.

And that's a couple of ways you could decorate  cakes,cupcakes,biscuits,tray bakes and so on. I hope this is useful to you. I plan to make another blog post based on decorating sweet treats sometime this year.

Please do send me pictures of how you got on in today's post to : chocolatecupcakes08@gmail.com or comment below and let
me know what you think.  If there is anything you'd like me to feature on BakingBoutique,just let me know via email, comments or through Google+.

Hope you have an awesome day!

#sweetreats xxx  


PS: Join in Earth Hour tonight from 8.30pm. For more information, visit their website:













Saturday 12 March 2016

Recipe post NO.7- Mini Cherry and Almond Loaves!

Hiya everyone!

Thank you so much for your really kind comments last week.
As I said in last week's post, I am going to share the recipe on how to make mini cherry and almond loaves.

 I found this classical cake in a recipe book I was given on my 8th birthday! I find this relates to the season we're in now or quite close to- Cherry trees would blossom in Spring and there are cherries included in this cake. 

So, without further ado, here's how you make it:

For these spring-themed almond loaves,you'll need:

85g of lightly salted butter

70g of caster sugar                      
1 egg

1 egg YOLK (please try not to get the egg white in as well)

70g of self-raising flour

1/2 tsp of almond extract

55g of ground almonds

55g of natural glace cherries, roughly chopped

2tbsp of flaked almonds

55g of icing sugar

2 tsp of lemon juice

Method:

Before you begin adding ingredients, pre-heat the oven to 180c/350F, Gas Mark 4.

Start by placing the 12 section silicone mini loaf tray onto a baking tray. If you don't have these, just grease and baseline individual mini loaf tins.



Place the butter,caster sugar,egg and egg yolk,flour, almond extract and ground almonds in a mixing bowl and beat together until smooth and creamy( I obviously use my free-standing mixer but if you like to mix the old-fashioned way with an wooden spoon, please do so). Stir in the glace cherries. 
  

Using a teaspoon, spoon the mix into the tray sections and level with the back of the spoon.

Break up the flaked almonds with your hands and bake in the 
pre-heated oven for 20 to 25 minutes until risen and firm to touch.


Leave in the tray to cool for five minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely. 

Beat the icing sugar and lemon juice together in a small bowl and drizzle oven the cakes, with a teaspoon. Leave mini loaves to set.


 



And that's the recipe to making these very quick and simple bakes.

Do e-mail me to chocolatecupcakes08@gmail.com and let me know how you got in if you managed to bake this week's recipe on BakingBoutique. Or, comment below and let me know what you thought of this week's blog post. 

But for now...

Keep baking!

#sweetreats xxx

Saturday 5 March 2016

Post No.6- The Liebster Award!

Hiya everyone!

This week's recipe post on BakingBoutique was actually going to be mini almond and cherry loaves. However, I have recently discovered  that I have been nominated for the Liebster Award! I was super-happy when I found a comment under last week's recipe saying I was nominated! 

For anyone who doesn't know what the Liebster Award is, it's basically exploring bloggers who have less than 1,000 page views and aren't well-known. I personally feel this is a great opportunity for anyone to share their blogs with other bloggers. Without further ado, I am going to answer 11 questions that were chosen for me and two other nominees for TLA.

My first question was: What is your favorite food?

My favorite food would definitely be pizza(I surprisingly had a spicy chicken pizza yesterday-it was delish). Even though they're not the

healthiest food, pizzas are really tasty and perfect for picnics,parties and just chillin' with friends. 

The second question was: What place are you most happy in?

I have two places that make me happy. One is when I'm in my kitchen,baking. I feel the kitchen is just a safe, relaxed place for me to do what I love to do and because of that it makes me super-happy. Another place that makes me happy is a park near
to where I live.When you're in the park really early in the morning, it's so beautiful and serene and a amazing place to be active and also enjoy.

The third question I was asked was: Why did I start bloging?

I decided to start a blog because I wanted to try something new. I wanted to see what I could learn from the experience of sharing what I do with the world. And I can say that I've certainly learnt a lot and discovered other bloggers too. Blogging is just one of many things that make me smile and makes me think "Oooh I can't wait to publish this post". Even if not many people view your blog, it's still a great thing how you can blog your emotions, hobbies,thoughts and wonders with the world confidently.

The fourth question was: What do I  love most about my country?

In England, the weather may not be as tropical or sunny as the Caribbean (where my descent is originated). However, it is still a beautiful place and has a lot to love about it. There are many parks, attractions, views to admire and even a couple of seasides and beaches and there just so much to see, take pictures of and try out. It's truly wonderful.

My fifth question was: If I was a superhero, what power would I have?

If I was a superhero, I would like to have the power to fix any disasters that happen in the kitchen whilst baking. At times when a bake has not gone to plan, sometimes I wished I had powers to change that. Otherwise, I would like to have the power to control nature.

The sixth question was: What is my favorite type of holiday?

Mine would be a gorgeous,sunny day at the beach, reading a book with sunglasses, listening to music on my iPhone and taking a dip in the sea! I adore hot weather!







My seventh question was: What phone do I have?

I actually have two phones (a little greedy). I have a Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and an iPhone 5. Although I'm happy with both my phones, I would like to trade my Samsung phone off for the next upgrade.

The eighth question is one that I've been asked before- if I were an animal, what would I be and why?

I answered that I would be a cross between a giraffe and an elephant. I say this because a giraffe is tall, original and quite gracefully(like me) but then an elephant have large feet ,is very loud and majestic. I'm not exactly majestic but I do have LONG feet and I am pretty loud. Therefore, putting the two animals together reflects my personality greatly. I'd be a Giraphant!

The ninth question was: Do I have a crush on  anyone particular?

Well...my crush would actors Jaden Smith or Rahart Adams. Both are good-looking, really funny and are awesome at acting.



My tenth question was: Do I have a favorite social media site?

I've recently signed up to Pinterest and I absolutely LOVE it. I've pinned so many pictures on Pinterest that I can't even keep count. One day, I'LL post some pictures for others to pin. Though it'll never be as much as I have pinned. Another favorite social media site of mine is Tumblr. It has loads of super-cute and pretty pictures. Those are my favorite social medias. However, I'm hoping to free up some eternal space on my Samsung so I can download Snap Chat.

My final question was: What is  your favorite film(s)?

About a month ago I never had a favorite film. But now my favorite film has to be Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn Part Two. It may be an old film but I am a fan of romance and supernatural beings.



Those are all the questions! I would like to say a very big thank you to Stella (a.k.a onegirlblogger) who nominated me and anyone else who reads my blog.

The bloggers I have nominated for TLAs is: booandkisses(www.booandkisses.wordpress.com),

Abby-Louise (http://abeeesaurus.blogspot.co.uk) & El the Bookworm (http://girlsvsworldx.blogspot.co.uk/), (https://adayinthelifeoftheanonymousme.wordpress.com/), and mypastelblog (https://mypastelblog.wordpress.com/).


The 11 questions I have for these AMAZING bloggers are:
1.If you could be the Queen of your country for the day, what would you do?
2.What is your favorite blog post and why ; it can be one from your blog or somebody else's e.g: Zoe's 3 way Pancake Recipe is my favorite blog post because it has some AMAZING serving suggestions.
3. What would be your dream location and why?
4.What/who/where do you get your inspiration from?
5. If you had never started blogging, what would you have got into?
6.Why do you think you deserve to win TLAs?
7.Has blogging always been a part of your life?
8.What is your favorite outfit?
9.Who is  your celebrity crush?
10.Who is your favorite blogger (if you have one)? 
11. What is your favorite book/movie and why?

I hope you've all enjoyed this week's post. I will get back to the usual posting next week. Please comment or +1 if you liked today's post or any of the bloggers I've mentioned. If any of you would like to take part in the Liebster Awards, go to their blog:http://liebsterawards.blogspot.co.uk/ .

But for now... keep baking!

#sweetreats xxx