halloween witch cupcakes.

How awesome are these Halloween witch cupcakes? Created by my lovely friend Beni, she's not only a babe but an incredible baker. Head to her Instagram for some brilliant baking inspiration, healthy recipes and of course the odd selfie. (I tried her banana bread and I can confirm it was delicious!) When I saw these cupcakes on her feed I knew I had to ask her to kindly write up a guest recipe for me. So, over to Beni for her spoOoOoOoOoky recipe...

I have a recipe for a witchy doo, 

Where they dine on yummy treats just like you, 

First, you add 3 puppy dogs tails and a bucket of slimy snails ...wait. I'm only joking... this is actually a spookily sweet cupcake recipe perfect for any Halloween party! 

guinness cupcakes.

Another Nigella Lawson favourite. I've adapted her deliciously indulgent Guinness cake recipe to create cupcakes. Complete with a hint of chocolate (okay maybe more than a hint...) these Guinness cupcakes are make with a moist stout infused sponge and topped with moreish cream cheese frosting. 

easy lemon and rose petal cupcakes: #icakeyou.

And so on to part three of my #ICAKEYOU collaboration with Betty Crocker. These baking treats were a midweek pick-me-up to my team at work. Having made the lovely Betty Crocker red velvet cake and used their mixes for my carrot cake pops, I couldn't wait to get my hands on their lemon cake mix to give these cupcakes a whirl. After using their lemon sponge and simple lemon buttercream, I sprinkled with edible rose petals and... ta da!

strawberries & cream cupcakes.

Strawberries and cream: the first sign of Summer. The days are getting longer, you've got a bottle of Pimms at the ready and you just about dare to bare your legs. With Wimbledon kicking off this week, no doubt they'll be lots of strawberries and cream inspired recipes being rustled up. I've kept it classic with cupcakes, made with vanilla sponge and topped with a light crème fraîche cream topping.

product review: tesco easy home bake vanilla cupcakes and frosting.

i've always seen these diy little kits in supermarkets and wondered how easy they really are. i mean, fresh ingredients and a little home baking therapy conquers all, but when i saw this kit in tesco i thought it looked a little different. 

i thought as i was just getting plain vanilla ones that i'd make them look like cute flake cupcakes :) this was just as well as i found the icing quite hard to use so it came out a little bit like mr whippy anyway! 

nevertheless, both the cupcake mix and icing tasted really nice and it was so easy that i would recommend it for novice bakers! the sponge mix was a good consistency and easily went into exactly 12 cupcakes (even though it bizarrely didn't specify how many it would make) so it would be great for those wanting to try out their icing skills!

would recommend for:
♥ a quick fix for some easy cupcakes
♥ a way to practice your icing
♥ a fun activity for a little one

royal wedding cupcakes.

shopping list

for the cupcakes
♥ 130g self raising flour
♥ 130g caster sugar♥ 130g unsalted butter
♥ two eggs♥ one teaspoon of vanilla extract♥ two teaspoons of milk
♥ paper or silicon cupcake cases
makes twelve cakes

for the topping
♥ 120g butter
♥ 250g icing sugar
♥ a splash of milk♥ silver balls
♥ food colouring
♥ decorations, fruit, flags, well whatever you like

preheat the oven to 200 degrees, and line a cake tray with the cases. next is the part where you find out cupcakes are far more easy to make than you may have previously thought. i'm only just getting into baking and i was pleasantly surprised :)

you quite literally put all the ingredients except the eggs, milk and vanilla extract in together. though it works well if you put in the flour last, and gradually. combine the mixture with a blender, whisk, or, if you studied at hogwarts, your wand.

beat in the eggs one by one. and then lastly the
spash of milk and extract of vanilla.
note: do not be tempted to try a bit of vanilla extract
thinking it will taste like a mouthful of premium icecream.
it won't.

spoon the mixture into the cases and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, checking the cakes are golden.

a good tip for testing if they are ready is spiking a skewer into the cake and if it comes out dry and with no sponge stuck to it, it is ready. remember to remove before putting them back in the oven. we do not want sponge kebabs.

allow to cool on a rack once ready ready for the next, and very exciting, part, the decorating. i personally followed the beebs method for basic buttericing but changed the ratio to suit this particular recipe.

similarly you could change whatever you decorate the cupcakes with. add chocolate? nuts? flaked coconut? coloured sprinkles? seeing as of course, to make these for the royal wedding is perhaps a bit late now. though there's always pippa and harry? sigh.

i used pink colour food colouring for the, well, pink icing and arranged silver balls in union jack and W and K formations. rather fiddly i'm afraid. i had also hoped to use the blueberries to make a natural blue food colouring (not just because the supermarkets had sold out of blue food colouring, ahem). but blueberry juice isn't actually blue.

who knew?