My craft projects…

I have recently took up a new hobby after wanting to replace some cushions in the home, it’s something I have wanted to do for a while but although I have a lot of adventurous craft ideas I’m not so good at making them happen. I was pleasantly surprised to find it not as difficult as I first thought! With a lot of help and insipration from my friend fee I managed to make some fab penguin cushions 🙂 after searching online I have found lots of ideas to be getting on with although it may take me some time to get through them all!

My friends blog is well worth a visit, she has some fab creations and a really cute dog! fee’s blog

Here are a few of my first creations 🙂

^gift for my friend Ali ^

Cupcakes (basic recipe)

This recipe is especially for my friend Ali , she likes to bake but always cheats with cake mixes! (Much to my disgust! Lol) I’ve told her how easy it is to make cupcakes from scratch and thought I’d post it on here for others to have a look 🙂

This recipe can easily be doubled or used as a basic Victoria sponge recipe if divided between 2 shallow cake tins.

You will need

(Makes 6 large cupcakes)

110g self raising flour ( for plain flour add 2 tsp baking powder)
100g unsalted softened butter
100g caster sugar
2tsp vanilla extract
1egg
2tbsp milk

Method

There are so many techniques that people use for sponge, I find the all in one method works well for a basic sponge. I have included 2 techniques in this recipe 🙂

The ‘all in one’ method

• Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer until well combined

The creaming method

• Place butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix until light and creamy.
• Gradually mix in the egg and vanilla.
• Fold in the flour (and baking powder if using plain flour) a little at a time.
• When mixture seems to appear stiff add the milk and then continue to add the flour.

BAKE

Separate into 6 muffin cases and bake in a preheated oven at 180c gm4 for 15-20 mins until cakes spring back when touched.

BASIC BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

150g butter
300g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
1tsp milk

Whisk all ingredients together until light and fluffy, start slowly making sure icing sugar doesn’t fly everywhere.

Using a star shaped nozzle, fill a piping bag with the buttercream frosting and pipe swirls on top on cooled cupcakes starting from the outside working into the middle.

VARIATIONS

I will be doing separate posts for other cupcakes as I tend to bake a few different types, these are just 2 of my favourite recipes that I bake. You can get many different decorations now from the supermarket such as stars, silver balls, glitter etc which make a simple cake look special! Fantastic given as a gift 🙂

Vanilla chocolate marble cupcakes (picture)

• Make cupcake batter as normal, when well combined split the mixture into two equal portions and mix 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder into one half.
• One teaspoon at a time, fill the cupcake cases with alternate chocolate and vanilla batter until 3/4 full.
• Take a teaspoon handle and gently swirl the 2 mixtures together in the cases, careful not to over mix.
• Bake as normal 180c gm 4 for 15-20 mins
• For the chocolate frosting I just add a teaspoon of cocoa powder into the basic buttercream frosting.

Sticky jam cupcakes

• Make basic cupcake batter.
• Put 2 teaspoons of batter in each cupcake case and make a small dip in the middle.
• Place a teaspoon of jam in the middle of each cupcake and then continue to fill with remaining batter.
• Bake as normal 180c gm4 for 15-20 mins, when cool decorate with buttercream frosting
• As I say this is my fool proof cupcake recipe that I always fall back on, and once you’ve mastered this you can become quite inventive with flavours and frostings.

Happy baking 🙂

Waiting patiently

Was browsing through old photos and came across this delightful picture of one of my friends dogs, yoshi waiting on my mat in the kitchen for the latest bake 🙂 he’s always sniffing around for treats and always appreciates all the cooking that goes on in our home whenever he comes round!