Summer raspberry cupcakes

It's been ages since last time I baked something sweet! Truth be told, the heat has not been very friendly and I wasn't really up to start on the oven to create even more heat inside the house, but I thought of all these wonderful seasonal fruits I love and that really got me into baking again!

 I thought of something simple that I really enjoy doing, raspberry cupcakes! I've never tried this recipe before, hence I was a little disappointed by the way the frosting came out, which, as you can see, it actually turned into a glaze. Not that it is not delicious, it looks really glossy and pink, but it was not exactly what I wanted to achieve.

   

I also put some raspberries inside the though, to add more savor and sweetness to it, and let's admit, we all love a surprise in the middle right?

 

This is how they are supposed to look after 20 minutes in the oven. The inside is so soft, just a typical sponge cake, perfectly made I must say!

   

Now, here's the recipe, if you are interested in trying it.

 For the dough: 2 eggs, 175 grams of flour, 150 grams of caster sugar, 100 grams of softened butter, 1 tbs of baking powder, some almond or vanilla extract, a few fresh raspberries, and 100 ml of yogurt. 

 For the glaze: 150 grams of powder sugar, 100 grams of softened butter, and raspberry syrup made from 200 grams of raspberries. 

 About the raspberry syrup, I really wanted to add the raspberry flavor to the frosting, so I mixed the fresh raspberries with 3 table spoons of water and half a cup of sugar, I let them stir for a few minutes at low heat and then I filtered the seeds, leaving only the heavy syrup. 

I added this to the butter and sugar, mixed them all at high speed and the result was this glossy pink glaze that is so delicious! 

I bet that if I added some whipped cream, the result would've been a rich, foamy frosting instead, but there is always a next time!

Let me know if you are curious to try this recipe!

Happy Sunday guys!

The sweetest Valentine

 

Cupcake ideas for a sweet Valentine's Day!

I don't normally celebrate Valentine's Day, not because I'm single, but because I was never attracted to this holiday in particular, it always felt too...pink for me. However, I decided this time I would try to make an effort an celebrate it in a way that makes me excited and by that I mean baking cupcakes! You might know I am passionate creating this dessert, especially when there is a holiday involved, as you can see here and here. I decided not to skip Valentine's Day and see what I can come up with!

I really wanted to create little marzipan hearts, but I realized I lack the skills, so I opted to use some tiny sugar hearts as decor and since it is Valentine's Day, what kind of frosting can you use if not pink? Even the dough is pink on the inside, too bad you can't see that.

Anyway, instead of creating an outfit post or some makeup tutorials for this occasion, I thought this is a more romantic (and sweet) way to celebrate this day. I hope you feel inspired and don't forget the mandatory glass of wine!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the dough: 200 g flour, 150 g sugar, 2 eggs, 120 g butter and orange zest. Baked for 25 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius.

For the frosting: 200 ml whipped cream mixed with 150 g of mascarpone and 30 g of butter and a bit of vanilla extract. 

I separated the frosting in two bowls and I added some red colorant gel in one of them to make the bright pink frosting.

Easy right? I hope you are willing to try it, I bet it will be a nice surprise for your loved one!

 Good luck and bon appetit!

Black, white and gold

 

 It's Sunday and I am so glad that we are having such a lovely weather here in Cluj, while elsewhere in the country people are freezing under the snow. Living in a region guarded by the mountains has its benefits. Even so, we are not ready to give up our coats and boots but at least we have sunny warmer afternoons and golden sunsets; which is the perfect recipe for a satisfying photoshoot. 

After a few days in a very windy Bucharest, followed by a snow storm (which of course caught me unprepared, my feet were frozen and I had four layers of clothing on me) I returned home with a smile on my face, happy that I got to see a few of my friends there, eat wonderful desserts at my favorite pastry shops and walked around the same streets I walked three years ago while I was a student there. It felt a bit melancholic, but good. 

That is mainly the reason for my disappearance, but I only managed to leave the house yesterday while it was still sunny (it sounds like I am a rat that hates daylight, but I actually had to do a lot of errands and work). We took these photos before our dinner and a disastrous dessert - a Millefeuille is not made out of an ordinary whipped cream and a cheap chocolate sauce , that's all I'm sayin'!

There is nothing more that I hate than to spend money on a food or sweet that has no taste, but oh well, that is how you learn.

 I hope you had a relaxed weekend guys! Let's hope for a relaxed week as well.

 

Wearing: Stradivarius boots, New Yorker bag, no name coat, Pimkie skirt, thrifted sweater, vintage belt and jewelry

Christmas cupcakes ideas!

 

One more day left and Christmas is here! 

I think that actually the most joyful part of this holiday is all the preparation and anticipation for it rather than Christmas day itself - oh wait, there also the gifts opening on that day, nevermind what I just said, that is the most exciting part! 

So in honor of this holiday, as I felt very festive, I decided to make some Winter themed cupcakes which I am totally excited about. The idea came into my mind in a minute and in the next hour I was out purchasing all the necessary ingredients. The decorating ideas came into my mind as the baking process went all along, so naturally, I was missing some red pigment or some glitter, I'm also not too happy about the cupcake paper forms, they started to disintegrate in the oven, but after all this, at least they are insanely delicious and my level satisfaction was sky high!

 

I have my snowmen which I made with extreme care out of fondant and I used some pretzels and chocolate tiny bubbles as I like to call them, as decor

Next I have my polar bear paws made out of chocolate glazed biscuits and chocolate almond dragees - I actually had to glaze them myself because I could not find anywhere small chocolate biscuits with glaze on them - it was mission impossible IX

Aaaand my little reindeer and snowballs, I used the same fondant for both, some dragees and lots of coconut flakes as decor!

For these cupcakes I used simple ingredients, like 250 g flour and sugar, 3 eggs, a teaspoon of baking powder, 100 ml sour cream, 170 g of butter and some vanilla extract for the dough. Baked in the oven for 20 minutes and done!

For the white icing, I used 100 g of cream cheese, 25 g of butter and 50 g of powder sugar.

As for the brandy icing I used 200 ml of whipped cream, 30 g of powder sugar, one tablespoon of soluble coffee and a bit of brandy for flavor.

Simple right? The decorating part is the most challenging but also, fun to do!

With this, I am wishing you all a very Merry (and sweet) Christmas and I hope you are also feeling as festive and joyful as I do! 

See you soon!

The sweetest Halloween

 

Happy Halloween guys! 

 I overdone it this year, as I am not very much into Halloween, it's not a traditional holiday in my country, but it started to grow on me, the pumpkin carvings, the candles and the costumes, it creates such an eerie atmosphere and cozy at the same time. Additionally, I wanted to make something sweet for this occasion, so I though a few themed cupcakes will be just the right thing! 

I got inspired from various recipes and photos around the web and I wish I had a fondant to create more funny or scary shapes to decorate the cupcakes, but I didn't have time to make one or order it online, but there is always next year!

 For a first run, I am quite pleased with these cupcakes, the dough was very easy to make, your typical flour, eggs, butter, sugar and with a twist of fresh savor given by the scraped orange peel. I also added a coat of icing, made from powder sugar and a spoon of lemon juice, just to balance out the heavy taste of sugar. Next, I added the chocolate frosting and the strawberry frosting for the brain looking like cupcakes - they were the sweetest! 

For the other decorations I used scraped biscuits, a red pigment to paint and marshmallows.

We decided to carve the pumpkin after I made the cupcakes, needless to say, there were gone in about 10 minutes, so that is why the pumpkin appears faceless in a few photos and two-faced in the others. 

Anyway, I hope you're having a great (and creepy) night and maybe you'll feel inspired with my cupcake ideas!

 

Bonus, here is a photo of my black cat, the "scariest" cat you'll ever see; she is currently in a zen, lazy mood, as always.

Coconut cupcakes with rum chocolate frosting

Hello everyone, I am back with a new cupcake recipe, because the weekend is coming and we need to celebrate it with goodies!

Obviously, I don't need a specific holiday or event to bake cupcakes or even special cakes, I just love to make them and I hope you will enjoy this recipe as much as I did!

Here is what you need:

For the dough:

120 g white chocolate

100 g coconut flakes

120 g butter

120 g sugar

125 g flour

2 eggs

1 teaspoon of baking powder

120 ml coconut milk

For the frosting:

 90 g dark chocolate

75 g butter

2 table spoons of rum essence

50 g powdered sugar

100 ml liquid cream

Ok, first thing's first, you need to melt the white chocolate with the butter on bain-marie while stir it continuously, then you put it aside and let it cool.

In the mean tie, you need to mix the yolks with 60 g out of those 120 g of sugar, then you need to add the white chocolate mix (mine turned brown because I added just a bit of dark chocolate in it too)

Next on, you need to mix the coconut flakes with the flour and baking powder, alternating with the coconut milk. 

In another bowl, you will need to whip the egg whites with the remaining 60 g of sugar and then incorporate it with the rest of the mix.

The dough will not be creamy because of the coconut flakes, so it will have a rough texture, but that is ok.

You need to preheat the oven at 175 C degrees and put the dough in the cupcake forms and let them back for 25 minutes.

This is how they should look like after they are done baking, you can leave them to cool and move on to making the frosting, which is the best part!

You need to melt the dark chocolate with the 75 g of butter, add the rum essence and let it cool.

After this you need to whip it with the liquid cream at a high speed so it can turn into a soft and voluminous cream - I forgot to picture this, I am sorry!

You can then decorate the cupcakes with the frosting and add some colorful decorations as you wish, there are so many option to choose from at the baking counter, from tiny marzipan flowers to silver/golden confetti-like sweets and so on! You only need imagination.

And that is it!

I hope you enjoyed, happy baking and have a lovely weekend!