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!

Easter cookies and cupcakes ideas!

Are you ready for Easter yet? If you haven't finished your festive meals, here are a few suggestions of something sweet, of course! One of my biggest pleasures in life is to bake cakes and sweets, so whenever there is a major holiday coming up, it is natural of me to post some recipes on this blog. Decorating cakes is so much fun! So here I am with some Easter inspired cupcakes and cookies recipes, I hope you will love them!

 

I searched all around Pinterest for some inspiration and took some idea from there and decided to create some sort of bunny shapes from frosting while making the ears from sugar paste (or marzipan).

Then I made some Easter egg nests - these are my favorite! -  a few other bunny tails and the ones with strawberries were meant to represent carrots dug up from the ground, but my glazing technique failed me this time and it did not stick to the strawberries, so let's pretend  they are carrots, ok?

I also made some gingerbread Easter egg cookies, now I cheated a bit with these, because I used a dough mix from the store and did not make it myself, but I promise you I spent more than three hours decorating these!

I worked with four bowls or frosting, each in a different color and I messed up my kitchen with glaze, tiny butterflies and food coloring, but I so loved the final result, I mean, the whole designing process gave me such satisfaction!

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Easter is all about pastel colors and fun shapes, so creating these was so much fun for me, just looking at them brings me such joy, I bet that by tomorrow they will be all gone, at least I hope they are delicious too!

Here are the ingredients I used:

For the cupcakes dough: your basic 150 g flour, 120 g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 100 ml milk, 100 g butter and a bit of almond extract - my favorite.

Mixed all these and bake them for 25 minutes at 175 degrees Celsius

For the frosting - I used the same frosting for the cookies and cupcakes:

180 g of mascarpone cheese, 200 ml of whipped cream, a bit of vanilla extract.

You also need food coloring and various cake decorations, you can find them at the baking department in any hyper market.

I hope you like them and I will leave you by wishing you a very happy (and delicious) Easter!

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!

Sunday Appetizer Cupcakes

 

Happy weekend everyone! 

 It's really cold here, even the idea of going out for a 5 minute walk is a bad one, everything inside you freezes up and it's just incredibly uncomfortable. With this kind of weather, all I want to do is read, do research, snuggle up with my cat and drink hot chocolate. 

However, I woke up today with a sudden urge to actually make something useful and pleasant, by that I mean food! There is no other greater satisfaction on this world than eating a delicious meal, but maybe that's just me. So I decided to make a few appetizer cupcakes, which are ideal for a late breakfast or to take on the go when you are in a rush. I love them because you can eat them warm and cold and they taste incredibly good!

 

The fun part is that among the basic ingredients which are flour, buttermilk, eggs and butter, you can mix in anything you want, so I added some olives, ham, baby mushrooms, green onions, cheese and various herbs, like dill and parsley. You simply mix all the ingredients together with a spoon and the result should be this gooey thick paste which you need to put in some cupcake forms and simply leave them in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes at 200 degrees C / 392 F.

 

Don't they look just delicious? 

When they turn a golden-brown color, then you know they are done, but also you can check them with a toothpick, if it comes out dry, then you can take them out.

The dough should have a sponge texture like in the picture bellow.

This is the full recipe I used:

250 grams flour, 80 grams melted butter, 200 ml buttermilk, 1 egg, 1 tea spoon baking powder.

Next, I added like I said: 8 baby mushrooms, 4 slices of ham, some olives, herbs and spices, a bit of Gorgonzola to add more savor and 100 grams of shredded cheese. 

I made once a recipe using dried tomatoes, Gouda cheese and grilled chicken. You can use many, many ingredients, the possibilities are endless!

I hope you enjoyed this recipe and let me know if you tried it, it's sooo easy and fun to make!

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!