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Champagne cupcake recipe time!

STRAWBERRY CHAMPAGNE

Candied Strawberries:

•  1/2 cup sugar

•  500g strawberries, hulled

Champagne Cupcakes:

•  1 1/2 cups cake flour

•  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

•  1/4 teaspoon salt

•  125g unsalted butter

•  1 cup sugar

•  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

•  3 egg whites

•  1 cup rose Champagne

   

Strawberry Filling:

•  Leftover simple syrup from candied strawberries

•  About 1/2 cup rose champagne

•  2 tablespoons cornstarch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water

•  500g strawberries, hulled

Champagne Buttercream:

•  250g butter, room temperature

•  3 cups confectioners’ sugar

•  1/2 teaspoon vanilla

•  Pinch of salt

•  1/4 cup rose champagne

Make the candied strawberries:

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring sugar and 1/2 cup water to boil, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat; let cool completely. Preheat oven to 90 degrees C. Slice strawberries lengthwise as thinly as possible. Dip slices in cooled syrup; place on parchment-lined baking sheet. Reserve syrup. Bake until dry but still bright red, about 3 hours. Immediately transfer chips to a wire rack to cool completely.

Bake the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with dry mixture. Pour batter into tins and bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Make the strawberry filling: 

Take the remaining simple syrup and pour it into a measuring cup. Add enough champagne to get to 1 cup (you’ll need about 1/2 cup). Pour mixture back into the pan and cook over medium-high heat until the mixture is reduced by about half. Whisk in cornstarch and allow the mixture to thicken. Pour into food processor bowl and allow to cool. Add strawberries and pulse until combined.

Make the champagne buttercream frosting: 

Beat butter in bowl of stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla, salt, and champagne; beat until frosting is creamy.

Assemble the cupcakes: 

Using a small paring knife, cut a small cone from the top of each cupcake. Fill with a heaping teaspoon of filling. Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, swirling decoratively. Finish them off with a couple of candied strawberry chips, and serve.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

CHOCOLATE CHAMPAGNE

Champagne Cupcakes:

•  1 1/2 cups cake flour

•  1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

•  1/4 teaspoon salt

•  125g unsalted butter

•  1 cup sugar

•  1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

•  3 egg whites

•  1 cup fruity white Champagne

•   

Chocolate Filling:

•  Lindt chocolate ball

•  Lindt chocolate squares

Champagne Buttercream:

•  250g butter, room temperature

•  3 cups confectioners’ sugar

•  1/2 teaspoon vanilla

•  Pinch of salt

•  1/4 cup fruity white champagne

Bake the cupcakes:

Preheat oven to 176 degrees C. Place cupcake liners in a muffin tin. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and beat in egg whites one at a time. Beat in flour mixture and champagne in three alternating additions, starting and ending with dry mixture. Pour batter into tins and bake 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Make the champagne buttercream frosting:

Beat butter in bowl of stand mixer until light and fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar 1 cup at a time, beating after each addition. Add vanilla, salt, and champagne; beat until frosting is creamy.

Assemble the cupcakes:

Using a small paring knife, cut a small cone from the top of each cupcake. Fill with a Lindt ball. Using a pastry bag fitted with a star tip, pipe the buttercream onto each cupcake, swirling decoratively. Finish them off with chocolate squares, and serve.

Makes 18 cupcakes.

These are really the best cupcakes i have tasted in a long time. Give them a go.

Recipes adapted from http://www.20somethingcupcakes.com/2012/02/strawberries-and-champagne-cupcakes/ 

Death by chocolate flop?

Being over worked and very tired, getting home a bit late and realizing I still have to bake about 24 cupcakes, my body kicked into over drive mode. It was almost as if my body was just moving, but my mind was already asleep. So it was a friends last day at work and she wanted something chocolate, she loves chocolate, so the baking cogs starting turning and my mind went on a whirl wind of ideas.

Naturally I make a killer chocolate icing, so that has to top this cupcake, and in the middle a creamy chocolate filled ball, and little chocolate chips inside this beauty and I thought, bob’s you’re uncle. But being so tired I totally forgot to add baking soda to a very trusted chocolate cupcake recipe. And to top it off I added twice the amount of baking powder. And as I put these beauties in the oven I realize this crucial fact. Oh boy now I start stressing, thinking my word am I going to stand here the whole night? Now I have to remake and re-bake more cupcakes. So I pour myself a glass of wine and wait for 20 minutes to be over.

With bated breath I pull them out of the oven, they look perfect, almost oozing chocolaty goodness. This being form the chocolate chips in the batter which created little pockets of chocolate. I let them cool, and immediately try one...surprise surprise, they are thick, moist and crunchy on the outside. My word it tasted like a love affair between a cupcake and a chocolate brownie! YES it’s a brownie cupcake, pure perfection, from what was supposed to be a complete flop...

Champagne celebrations!

It’s been a while cupcake lovers! Things have been hectically busy, with Christmas looming around the corner...eeek! So much planning to do, so little time. And not to speak of all the red velvet I have been making. Please can this fad pass, I have red velvet coming outa my ears!

Well I have been dying to make champagne cupcakes for ions and finally got the opportunity to try. I found a lovely recipe and all I can say these are indeed scrumptious, bubbly filled cupcakes that are worth a try. I opted for white and pink champagne, going into a strawberry filled cupcake and a chocolate stuffed vanilla cupcake. The recipe calls for lots’ champagne so get your bottles ready, and I found it said you will have one glass left after all the cooking is done...mmm I had a few more, hiccup! I tried to make a strawberry chip for the top of my one cupcake, but it takes 3 hours in the oven to dry ;-(. And I had a lot of champagne and was feeling incredibly sleepy twelve o'clock at night. So mine was slightly floppy and very sticky, but still nice ;-)

Remember to always borrow a bit here, create a new cupcake and love what you do! Recipes to follow soon!

The cookie madness continues...

Crazy crazy times, work is so hectic that I have little to no time to get ito the kitchen and bake :-( But I prevailed and with a tired body, I ventured into my kitchen and set the baking fires alight.

It seems that the cookie monster has taken over my life. Oh boy…he is every where I go, on tv, on radio, in the office! Eeeeekkk, so I decided it is high time I created a cupcake for the cookie monster. My friends daughters birthday is coming up soon, so these blue gems where a perfect idea. And ideally her daughter is also obsessed with the cookie monster. BONUS!

So I baked yummy choc chip cookies, made electric blue icing, got some chocolate disks and made these adorable looking cookie monsters! Everyone enjoy!

Marshmallow mumbles

Work work work has been so busy, so blogging has been left behind :-( but I'm back again and with these lovely little babies…so appropriate for a baby shower. A dear friend contacted me asked she wanted chocolate and pink, and whala, marshmallow mumbles appeared. These delectable treat is one of my trusted chocolate cupcakes recipes, stuffed in the middle with a soft and squishy marshmallow, and topped it off with lovely marshmallow flavoured meringue icing. I added a lovely pink daisy and a few pink crystals…yes it is for a beautiful little baby girl!

I made a nice pink icing as well a lighter pink icing, I actually ate a lot of icing…mmm meringue is my favourite icing in the world. 

C is for cookie...2!

So the cookie addiction has not ended! These cupcakes, where also to die for. And the chocolate chip cookie recipe, well lets just day I have been making cookies almost every night this week. Tiny little mini goodness that are oh so crispy, crunchy and chocolaty all at the same time. And the cookie dough frosting, fists will fly when you whip out this batch! So the recipe will follow next week meanwhile, feel free to drool over the photos so long, and as usual there is always a surprise inside this little gem :-)

Sticky Chocolate Brownies

Yummy is all I can say about the recipe that follows. I am actually as you all know a cupcake makers, but I believe I’m not to shabby in other areas in the kitchen. These brownies are very renowned in my circle of friends, so I decided to share them with you all.

The only warning I give with these brownies...is that you must love chocolate, and lots of it, and butter, sugar.

8 big brownies/ 12-15 smaller brownies

170g                butter

280g                castor sugar

200g                brown sugar

125g                plain chocolate

125g                dark chocolate

2tbsp               golden syrup

4                      eggs

2tsp                 vanilla extract

200g                flour

2tbsp               cocoa powder

1tsp                 baking powder

250g                pecan nuts (chopped)

pinch of salt

Pre heat oven to 180 °C.

Place butter and both chocolates in pan and melt.

Slowly add sugars and the syrup until the mixture become s smooth.

Remove form heat and allow to cool.

Beat eggs and vanilla together.

Whisk into cooled chocolate, sugar and butter mixture.

Sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.

Fold carefully into the chocolate, sugar, butter, egg and vanilla mixture.

Fold the pecan nuts into the mixtures

Spoon mixture into a lined/greased pan.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the top is crispy and the edges start to shrink away from the sides.

The inside of the cake will be soft and gooey and soft to touch.

Place extra chopped pecan nuts on top of the brownies.

Leave the brownies to cool completely. Cut into squares.