Tuesday, 22 May 2012

My Much Loved Oreo Cupcake Recipe


Yesterday it was my cousins birthday so I thought it would be nice to bake some Oreo cupcakes to take with us when we visited him. I have baked Oreo cupcakes so many times and I have adapted the original recipe I had a number of times, but I think I may have just managed to perfect it with the latest experiment, here's what I did..... 


Ingredients
{Makes 12}
150g Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
150g Caster Sugar
3 Large Eggs
150g Self Raising Flour
Pinch of Salt
1.5 packs of Oreo Biscuits
12 mini Oreo Biscuits (for decorating)

Frosting
Half a pack of Oreo biscuits
500g Icing Sugar Sifted
160g Unsalted butter (at room temperature)
50ml Whole Milk
Couple of drops of Vanilla Extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c, middle shelf ready. Line a 12 hole cupcake tray with cases and a whole Oreo Biscuit for a little surprise!. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Then add the eggs one by one, beating together after each addition. 
If at any time the mixture looks like it has curdled then add a little bit of flour and beat it like mad until it looks uniform again. To be honest, even if it looks a little curdled it does not really affect the texture of the cupcake - it will still taste delicious. 
Add the flour and mix, together with the salt, and then fold in half a packet of the Oreos (crumble them up first).

In the oven

Divide the mixture between the 12 cupcake cases and then bake for around 25 minutes (oven temperatures are often not very accurate and vary so much) or until they feel spongy and smell cooked. 
Once the cakes are cooked remove them from the oven and leave them to cool completely in the tin.

Frosting

Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed

Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed.

Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

Now fold in the remaining half packet of crumbled up Oreo Biscuits 
It is quite hard to pipe the mixture onto the cupcakes because of the Oreo bits but if you have a piping nozzle big enough for the Oreo bits to get through then it is worth a try. 
You can decorate the cakes with your mini Oreos if you wish.

Serve with a cold glass of milk!

Tuesday, 15 May 2012

White Chocolate and Raspberry Cupcake Recipe

We went to our friend's house on the weekend for a barbecue and I thought it would be nice to take some cupcakes with me so I baked these white chocolate and raspberry cupcakes for the very first time and I also baked some of my trusty Oreo cupcakes as they always seem to go down particularly well.

I am quite annoyed I didn't take better photos of the cupcakes I didn't really have much time to take many photos, next time I bake I will definitely take more photos.



I experimented a bit with the recipe, I adapted it slightly from one of my favourite cookbooks:
 "Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery" by Martha Swift and Lisa Thomas.



 This is the recipe how I made them

Ingredients

Yields 12 Cupcakes

110g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

180g Caster Sugar

2 large Eggs

125g Self-raising Flour, sifted

120g Plain Flour, sifted

125ml milk at room temperature (semi skimmed)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons seedless raspberry jam 

25g White Chocolate Drops

(1)Preheat the oven to 160 F fan / 180 F / 350 C / Gas mark 4. Line a 12 hole muffin tray with big cases.

(2) Cream the butter and sugar (I use my mixer with the paddle attachment) until light, pale and smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, mixing for a few minutes after each goes in. Meanwhile sift the flours into a bowl and in a jug mix the milk and vanilla.

. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked.
(3) Add one third of the flour to the butter mixture, then one third of the milk mixing just to incorporate each. Do this twice more with each until all the flour and milk is used. Fold in the raspberry jam (stirring the jam first to loosen if you need to) to give a good rippled effect. Fold in the white chocolate drops. 

Spoon or scoop the mixture to fill 2/3 of the cupcake case


(4) Leave in the tins for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Icing

30g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

15ml Milk, also at room temperature (semi skimmed)

Drop or two of Vanilla Extract

125g Icing Sugar, sifted

100g good quality white chocolate 

3 tablespoons Double Cream

Final Topping: Fresh Raspberries 12 to 24

(1)In a food mixer with the whisk attachment (for ease) whisk the butter, vanilla, milk and half the sugar for a few minutes until smooth. Gradually add the remaining icing sugar, beating well between each addition.

(2) Melt the white chocolate, either in short (20 second) bursts in the microwave or on top of a pan of barely simmering water on the cooker top – take care that the water does not touch the bowl. Leave to cool a bit.

(3) Once cooled add the chocolate and cream to the vanilla icing that you have made to turn it into white chocolate icing.

(4)  Finally place a raspberry or two on top.


Note: if you make this icing ahead it will need to be kept in the fridge due to the cream, beat well before using if you do this.

I hope you enjoy your cupcakes as much as I did!

Monday, 14 May 2012

10 Months Old

I can't believe it Zayd was 10 months yesterday! On Saturday we saw signs of his first tooth coming through so we now know he definitely won't be toothless on his birthday! 
We took advantage of the sunshine yesterday and went to the park briefly to take some pictures I decided to share some of my favourite ones with you.






I kept trying to get a photo with Zayd in the air but I couldn't get the timing right! (Maybe next time I will master it) This one will have to do for now.


We then took the rest of the pictures at home as the weather was getting a bit chilly!




He has only recently learnt how to clap and now he literally can't stop! haha




Well that will be all from me today I will be back tomorrow with my Raspberry and White Chocolate Cupcake recipe!









Friday, 11 May 2012

It's official I'm in love with Pinterest!

I came across Pinterest whilst googling something about 5 months ago and I have to say I can't believe I it took me so long to find it! I think it's possibly the best website ever, as it's sooooo addictive. For those of you who are not yet familiar with the website it's basically an online pinboard where you can pin all of your favourite things whether it be products that you have seen online to recipes to absolutely anything. You can also "follow" some of your favourite pinners so that when they pin something new it will show on your feed.



If you would like to follow my pins you can do so by finding me here:

 It is such a great way to keep everything organised I have a board for virtually everything! I have recently started putting decor ideas together for each of the rooms in my new house! Here are a few examples of some of the items I want to get for the new house 














 I have also "pinned" so many project ideas recently I don't know what to attempt first! Here are some of my favourites:






Lastly my absolute favourite .... the ruffle throw (this would be extremely time consuming though!)

Well that's all from me today I hope to see you all on pinterest soon!

Have a fabulous Friday!
xxx




Thursday, 19 April 2012

Customised Black Shirt with Lace Cuffs Tutorial

Hi everyone, the last few days I have been out and about with my parents they went back home today so I took the opportunity to try and get some projects finished that I had planned for sometime. The first project I did was customise a black work shirt that I had, I found it a bit too boring so I thought I would add some lace to the cuffs. This is the first tutorial that I have ever done so please bare with me ; ) I hope it makes sense if it doesn't please ask me to clarify.

For this project you will need the following items:

Shirt
Scissors
Lace (at least a 150cms) I used a scalloped edged lace trim
Ribbon (1m in length)
Fray stop
Needle and thread or a sewing machine
Pins
Wonderweb

First step is to remove the existing cuff I just cut this off you may want to hem it to give it a better finish but this part won't be seen as the lace will be placed over it.


Now you need to start pinning the lace to the sleeve I overlapped the lace over the sleeve by about 1.5 cms. I then gathered the lace in a pleat style fashion and pinned each pleat to give it a "ruffle effect" I did this until I got to the end of the sleeve


Once you finish pinning it should look like the image below, I then used my sewing machine to do a straight stitch to hold the lace in place, I then removed the pins and did another straight stitch. 


The shirt I used the cuffs originally closed with cufflinks hence the opening, I decided to leave it open so that it could be closed with ribbon as the ribbon also hides where the join is between the lace and the shirt.


For this next step you will need to cut the wonderweb so that the width is thinner than the width of the ribbon (otherwise it gets extremely messy!) You have to be very careful not to get the wonderweb on your iron as it is a nightmare to remove.

Now you will need to allow enough ribbon to cover the join of the 2 materials leaving excess each side to either tie in a bow or knot (I left about 5 cms for knots)
Now carefully place the wonder web under the ribbon and iron on top of the ribbon 
You can also stitch the ribbon in place if you wish to to ensure it is really secure.
Once you have done this apply fray stop to the edges of the ribbon to ensure the edges don't fray.




It should look like this when you have finished


Friday, 13 April 2012

9 Months Old Today and Coconut Cupcake Recipe

Hi All, I am very sorry for my absence from blogland! I have been away on holiday and have also been extremely busy with the whole house hunting saga as unfortunately we still haven't managed to find anything (we do have 5 viewings tomorrow however so please keep your fingers crossed for me!)

I really wanted to do a post today especially as Zayd is 9 months old today, I cannot believe where the time has gone my little boy is growing up soooo fast! I have taken quite a few photos of him lately and thought it would be nice to share them with you all.










I have also been doing a spot of baking recently and today I made some coconut cupcakes as my parents are visiting at the moment and my dad loves cakes (any excuse for me to bake!) 

I used my Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook but adapted the recipe slightly as I didn't want to make them with pineapple so I added more coconut to compensate.



Here is my adapted Coconut Cupcake Recipe:


Ingredients:
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120ml coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
80g desiccated coconut plus extra for decorating


Frosting ingredients:
250g icing sugar
80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25ml coconut milk

Makes 12
Oven 170C/325F/GM3


1. Put flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.
2. Mix coconut milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, the beat into the flour mixture on medium speed until well combined. Add egg and beat well. Stir in the 80 grams of desiccated coconut. 
3.  Spoon cupcake mixture on top until two-thirds full and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 mins, or until light golden and sponge bounces back when touched. Leave to cool slightly in tray before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting
Beat the icing sugar ad butter together on medium/slow speed. Turn mixer down to slower speed and pour in coconut milk. Once all milk has been incorporated, turn mixer up to higher speed and continue beating until frosting is very white, light and fluffy (5-10mins).

When cupcakes are cold, spoon frosting on top and finish with a sprinkling of desiccated coconut.

And then Voila there you have it! Enjoy!




Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

Thursday, 15 March 2012

Quick Hello

Just a quick hello today, I have been very busy house hunting today. I plan on getting a few projects done over the next few days as I won't have time to do them when I move, one of the projects on my to do list is painting the bedside cabinet in the loft room (you can just see it in the corner of this photo), it's currently green but I'm not sure whether to paint it white with a distressed finish or a grey weathered finish? 


I absolutely love the grey weathered look I have seen some lovely pictures on Pinterest which have given me some inspiration not sure what to do .......... decisions decisions!!!





Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with at least one completed project to tell you about!

Sodia 
xxx