laurasaur

So I was preparing cupcakes for my 3rd lesson of the first Wilton course and I decided to try my own recipe. Bad move, considering they shrunk so bad from the cases they are completely unsuitable.

On the other hand, I feel these are moist, Dense and Rich almond babycakes. They have a dense tight crumb and marzipan flavour… my favourite..

These pull away from the cases so are best served without.

90g cream cheese
90g butter
2 eggs
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp almond essence (optional)

1/2 cup ground almonds
1/3 cup all purpose/plain flour
1/3 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth. Beat in sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time until smooth. Add essence.

Add all dry ingredients and mix all together until no flours showing.

Fill cupcake liners or a small cake tin and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly golden on top.

This is not my favourite, I don’t like butter/spongey cake.. and to be honest I don’t really love LOVE nutella, and next time I would definately increase the nutella to cake ratio.

Original Recipe from [BakingBites], adapted from Donna Hay

10 tbsp(140 grams) butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups (200 grams) sifted all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
Nutella, approx. 1/3 cup

Preheat oven to 325F/160F. Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. Or 2 small heart tins and 4 cupcakes.
Cream together butter and sugar until light, 2 minutes. Add in eggs one at a time, until fully incorporated. Don’t worry if the batter doesn’t look smooth. Add vanilla. Stir in flour, salt and baking powder until smooth.

Fill each muffin liner with batter. They should be 3/4 full. Top each cake with 1 1/2 tsp Nutella. Swirl Nutella in with a toothpick, making sure to fold a bit of batter up over the nutella.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 12.

Ok so I have been wanting to take cake decorating courses for ages, and I finally realised no one was ever going to surprise me with these courses – despite dropping massive hints ha ha – so I enrolled myself and I went to my second lesson last night. It’s been a long time since I have been in that kind of environment and I really enjoyed myself.
The best part was learning that I didn’t have to buy the course 1 kit, I had most of the items in it, which meant I could buy some other stuff instead!! So I bought the cake leveller (so unnecessary but anyone who has seen a layer cake I have made knows I need this), a big stepped spatulata, and a dough scraper. Along with some disposable bags, extra couplers, flower nails… ok so you end up spending a bit more than you expect but hey its fun.

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Once again I try to replicate a cafe classic. This time I actually semi-succeeded. I made these with frozen berries which is why my batter is still white, when you make these with fresh berries you will end up with pink batter.

As with all muffins, do not overmix the batter or they will be tough and chewy (not in a good way).

250ml (1 cup) milk
1tsp white vinegar or lemon juice
125ml (1/2 cup) oil (I use canola)
1 egg

300g flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g caster sugar
180g white chocolate cut into chunks
200g of berries (mix of what you choose)

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Line 12 hole muffin pan with muffin papers.

Mix all wet ingredients (milk, vinegar/lemon, oil and egg) together. In a seperate bowl mix together all remaining ingredients.

Tip the wet mixture into the dry and stir genrly until combined (only mix until no more flour is showing).

Spoon into muffin cases 3/4 full or more for the dome effect and bake for approximtely 20 minutes or until centres spring back when pressed.

These cookies are really good. Very chocolatey, not much batter, but soft and chewy and just yum.

Recipe adapted from [Smitten Kitchen]

100 grams caster sugar
120 grams brown sugar
115 grams butter, cold, cubed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
175 grams flour
200 grams chocolate, chopped
130 grams roasted almonds, chopped

Adjust the oven rack to the top third of the oven and preheat to 300F (150C). Line three baking sheets with baking paper.

Beat the sugars and butters together until smooth. Mix in the egg, vanilla, and baking soda.

Mix flour into the batter. Mix in the chocolate chips and nuts.

Scoop the cookie dough into 2-tablespoon (5cm) balls and place 8 balls, spaced 4 inches (10cm) apart, on each of the baking sheets.

Bake for 18 minutes, or until pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.