The perfect cupcake everytime

Hello you, 

Here I have the simplest vanilla cupcake recipe. It has 4 basic ingredients which all weigh the same. I have made a variety of cupcakes which were all OK but I wanted to master the classic vanilla cupcake. They are so light and fluffy - finished off with a beautiful swirl of vanilla buttercream.

VANILLA CUPCAKE INGREDIENTS

Makes 12 cupcakes

170g Unsalted Butter at room temperature

170g Caster sugar

170g Self raising flour

3 Medium eggs (they also weigh 170g)

1 Teaspoon of Vanilla extract 

RECIPE

1 - Preheat the oven to 170c or gas mark 3. Put 12 cupcake cases in the tins.

2 - Put the butter (at room temperature) and caster sugar into the mixing bowl and whisk on a high speed until creamy and pale. 

3 - Mix each egg in one at a time. Whisk for 3 minutes after adding all 3 eggs until light and fluffy. I always break my eggs into a separate bowl just to make sure the eggs are OK. This way you shouldn't ever get any shell in your cake mix!

4 - Mix one teaspoon of Vanilla extract into the cake mixture.

5 - Place all of the self raising flour into a sieve and put into the cake mix. Whisk the mixture for 4 minutes on high power.

6 - I use an ice cream scoop to put the mixture into the cases. All should be 3/4 full. Put into the preheated oven for 15/16 minutes until golden brown. Don't be afraid that they won't be done, these can be over done quite quickly!

VANILLA BUTTER-CREAM INGREDIENTS 

150g salted butter at room tempurature

150g - 250g icing sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla extract 

RECIPE 

1 - Whisk the butter on a high speed for 3-5 minutes until it changes from yellow to a pale colour. This will make it easier rather then trying to mix the icing sugar and butter at the same time.

2 - Add half of the 150g icing sugar and whisk on high speed with the butter. After this is all mixed add the other half of icing sugar. Doing this in two stages will stop you being surrounded by a cloud of icing sugar!

3 - Add 1 teaspoon of Vanilla extract to the buttercream and mix in.

(The reason I had 150g - 250g icing sugar is that sometimes you need a little extra to thicken up, or if you add other flavourings/syrups it needs less. So adding less means you can always add more.)

4 -  You can either use a palette knife to spread the buttercream on top of the cupcakes but I prefer to use a piping bag. Use whichever nozzle you like - I am using an open star (Not too sure of the actual name) Place the buttercream into the piping bag. If the buttercream seems too slack put it into the fridge for 10 minutes to firm up. 

5 - You can decorate the cupcakes however you wish. There are so many lovely glitters/sprinkles in the shops so decorate how you wish. I did a few different styles - I used pink and gold glitter, purple, pink and blue strands and chopped up chocolate. 

** Temperatures vary on different ovens. I have just written what I find works for me. Please don't hesitate to ask me any questions**

Thank you for taking your time to read this, I hope this helps.

Nat xxx

Easy Dinner Party Recipes

Hello there, 

I decided to write a post on recipes I used recently for my dad's birthday dinner. I am not much of a cook myself. So I feel that anybody could use these recipes. Most of these you could prepare the night before, which for those who are very busy will help out!

***Everything in these recipes I tried to use a low fat alternative as my dad has a heart condition and needs to keep to a relatively low fat diet. So you can use full fat things with them***

Starter 

- Baked Camembert with cooked tomatoes, bread and homemade cheese and chive coleslaw.

What you will need -

1-2 Boxed Camembert (depending on how many people you are cooking for)

2-4 Thyme sprigs

5-6 Tomatoes on the vine (depending on how many people you are cooking for)

Bread to serve

(Houmous optional)

 

Heat oven to 180/200. Take the camembert out of the wrapper and place back in box. Slash the cheese a few times and put the sprigs of thyme in the top. Bake on a baking tray for 20mins or until gooey. This is optional with the tomatoes -

2 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tsp brown sugar

Salt and Pepper

 

Put the tomatoes on a baking tray, cover with the ingredients above and put them in at the same time as the cheese.

 

Serve with the bread and the homemade coleslaw.

 

Cheese and Chive Coleslaw

What you will need -

 

1 White Cabbage

1 Carrot coarsely grated

1 Red Onion halved and thinly sliced

3 Tbsp low fat mayonnaise

3 Tbsp low fat natural yoghurt

1 Tsp Dijon mustard

20g of chives

100g reduced fat mature cheddar grated

 

Cut the cabbage in half, then into quarters. Remove and discard the core, then thinely shed the cabbage. Put into a large mixing bowl. Then add the carrot, onion, mayo, yoghurt and mustard. Snip in most of the chives.

 

Mix all together. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and chill. When ready to serve add the cheese and the remaining chives.

Main

- Steak with peppercorn sauce. 

Chips, onion rings and Garden Peas.

Steak 

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp red wine vinegar

125ml beef stock

2 heaped tbsp double cream

 

Oven Chips

Onion Rings

Garden Peas

 

Heat the oil in a frying pan. Season the steak with salt and pepper. Fry for 2-3 mins (RARE) 4-5 (MEDIUM) Rest for 5 mins while you make the sauce.

 

Pour excess oil from the pan and add the red wine vinegar. Let this bubble, then add the stock and boil until it reduces by half. Stir through the cream. Add any extra pepper you think it may need.

Serve with Chips, onion rings and peas.

 

** I had a rump steak and fried it for 1 minute 30 seconds each side**

** This was a perfect medium/rare**

Dessert 

- Black Forest trifle 

You may serve this in a big dish or in large wine glasses. 

I found this dish in Dunelm Mill for £3.99

You will need - 

 

500ml fresh ready made low fat custard

100g plain chocolate, broken into pieces

400g pre made choolate brownies

Jar of cherries or cherry pie filling x2

300g double cream

200ml reduced fat crème fresh

25g icing sugar

grated chocolate and cherries to decorate

*** with the cherries you can choose what is available. Fresh cherries, cherry pie filling or tinned ***

 

First put the fresh custard into a pan with the broken chocolate pieces. Gently heat, stirring until the chocolate has melted. Cover with cling and leave to cool.

 

Arrange the brownies, cherries and custard however you like in your chosen dishes.

 

Lightly whip the cream, icing sugar with the crème fresh until soft peaks form. Then place on top of the custard. Grate chocolate and place a cherry on top if you have it.

Chocolate Mint Marbled 4 Layer Cake

 

Cake

 

250g Unsalted softened butter

250g Caster sugar

4 Large eggs

225g Self Raising Flour

1 Tsp Baking Powder

25g Cocoa Powder

1/2 Tsp Mint Extract

1/2 Tsp Green food colouring

 

** I doubled these quantities to make 4 cakes, you can always just do 2** 

 

Cream Filling

 

150ml Double cream

15g Icing sugar

1/2tsp Green food colouring

 

Mint Cream Frosting

 

600ml Double Cream

50g Icing Sugar

1/2 Tsp Mint Extract

1/2 Green food colouring

 

To decorate

 

250g unsalted softened butter

500g icing sugar

Cocoa powder and Green food colouring to colour

1/2 Tsp mint extract

Small bar of dark chocolate

Bag of mint chocolate aero bubbles

 

Preheat the oven to 180c and grease 4 8" cake tins.

 

Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together.

Crack the eggs in one by one and mix together.

Fold in the flour and baking powder.

 

Separate the mixture into two bowls.

 

In one bowl add the cocoa powder, add as much or as little.

I prefer making it quite a deep rich brown colour.

 

In the other bowl add the green food colouring and mint extract.

I wish I had added a little more colouring, as they looked more yellowy when cooked.

 

Then take a spoonful of each mixture and place in the cake tins.

It doesn't matter where you place them as you swirl them all together when finished.

 

 

 

Place in the middle of the oven and cook for 20mins/or until golden brown.

** cooking times may vary**

 

Take out of the oven and place on cooling racks.

 

 

 

While the cakes are cooling you can make the creams and icing.

** Again depending on how many cakes you make you will need to vary the ingredients you use**

 

Place the cream, icing sugar, mint extract and green food colouring into a mixer.

Blend together until firm.

 

Once the cakes are cool, sandwich them together with the cream.

 

The frosting isn't that much different - but when mixing you want to take it a little bit thicker.

It needs to be quite stiff as you need it to cover the whole cake.

 

 

 

Mix together like before and cover the whole cake with it.

 

 

 

Finish off with buttercream decorations and aero chocolate bubbles.

 

 

 

** Cooking times may vary**

 

 

These recipes worked really well for me, so if I can do it anybody can!

Thank you for reading,

 

Nat xxx