cupcakes for the heart

Don't get me wrong, i love preparing, baking & decorating cupcakes! However,when it is for someone special it is so much better... Over the last few weeks I've made space bugs, eye balls, spider webs & flowers, all for special children. All were requests. Children ask for the funniest things, eyeballs??? What made space bugs space bugs? Blue icing of course!! Unfortunately i didn't take any pictures, but every child that ate one enjoyed it and that was enough.
At the moment i have sore arm from an ice skating slip and the 1st thing i thought of when i worked out that I'd be out of action was that i wouldn't be able to bake cupcakes for a little while. Maybe it will give me some time to think up some new ideas? I am very much looking forward to my next bake...

Lemon & Ricotta Cupcakes

Makes 12 Cupcakes

200g Plain Flour

150g Castor Sugar

150g Ricotta

120g Butter

1 Egg

2 Lemons

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

125g Pure Icing Sugar

extra 200g Castor sugar

200ml water

Things you might need:

12 hole cupcake pan; 12 cupcake wrappers; electric mixer or beaters; saucepan; peeler; sharp knife; zester; sifter; juicer.

Firstly some housekeeping...

preheat oven to 180deg. Using a peeler, peel 1 lemon carefully as to avoid the pith (white inner peel) keep the lemon juice for the glaze to be made later. Slice these strips finely and add to saucepan that contains the 2oog Castor sugar dissolved in the 200ml water. Simmer for 20mins and then allow strips to cool in the syrup.

1. Melt butter and zest, then juice 1 Lemon.

2. Sift together baking powder and flour.

3. Using an electric mixer beat egg and sugar together for 2-3 mins, then add the melted butter, then ricotta and zest and finally juice, all while still beating the mixture.

4. Add spoonfuls of flour/baking powder at a time on low speed, then a quick burst to make mixture well combined.

5. 3/4 fill cupcake pans and bake for about 20mins. Should be light golden when done. Allow to cool on a rack.

6. Sift icing sugar into a mixing bowl. Drizzle reserved lemon juice into bowl while mixing on low speed. Icing should be very thick. Nest candied peel on top.

TIP- You can keep syrup for all sorts of things, it can be used as a syrup for citrus based cocktails or as a glaze over cakes or desserts.

This also makes a beautiful dessert, if you use well greased dariole moulds to bake mixture in place of cupcake wrappers, then serve drizzled with icing glaze and dollop of thick cream and garnished with candied zest.

Juice

xx

When is a cupcake a cupcake?

I follow lots of other cupcake blogs and i am a recipe book & website junkie! I have a large collection of beautiful recipe books of which some are in different languages, French, German & Gaelic!! Often i have to translate both language and measurements! It is a lot of fun though. However the one thing that doesn't tend to translate or have any sense of logic is what makes a cupcake a cupcake not a muffin or a patty cake, then throw in Texas muffins and mini muffins, just to confuse even the most even-tempered chef. I feel that i must comment after making 70 cupcakes over the weekend using 3 different recipes. I made 24 of my devil's foodcake recipe, which is adapted from an old American recipe book. It should have made 30, when filled to 3/4 of the paper casing. Another gluten-free recipe should have made only twelve but could have easily made 16!
So, does size matter or is it a case of, what i have always been suspicious of, it's all about the topping??? Personally i'll quite happily look at a cupcake for a long time, maybe photograph it & then eat it, devouring it, pretty quickly!

Devil's Food Cake

A few years ago i found this recipe in an old American cook book. I have changed it a bit to adapt to Aussie grocery availabilities. It's really simple but VERY popular. It tastes great with any type of frosting, but rich ganache is a decadent match. Plain glace icing is just so easy and affordable, and tastes great!




Devil's Food Cupcakes
Makes 18 Cupcakes

50g unsalted butter
115g Plain flour
115g Soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
25g Unsweetened Cocoa powder
125ml Sour Cream



First make sure all ingredients are at room temp, this makes mixing easier and means mixture won't be be over beaten. Oven should be preheated to 180deg Celsius.

Beat all ingredients except for Sour Cream until just smooth then fold through Sour cream.

Gently spoon mixture into cupcake pans so they are no more than 3/4 full.

Bake for 15-20 Min's.

Pipe, spread, drizzle some sort of frosting, preferably a decadent ganache sprinkled with some choc shavings!!!

Vanilla on vanilla cupcakes

My favourite cupcakes are Vanilla on vanilla. They look fantastic in silver foil pans with a single white flower on top. Silver cachous MUST be involved!!! The white flowers, which i also make, look great with a dusting of either red or yellow food colouring powder in the centre with a silver cachous. These cupcakes are great for any special occasion or just for a decadent afternoon tea. They look beautiful on a tiered cupcake stand, are easy to pop into a noodle box to give away after a party.

The cupcake itself is vanilla buttercake and the topping is vanilla american-style frosting. The flower decoration is white royal icing.