Three Gingerbread Cupcakes

Well, first, an apology, I didn't manage to get a photo of these cakes because the picture i took went straight onto my laptop, which was then burgled. So no photo, just a picture.

Ahem, on with the cakes, so there are three types of ginger involved, hence the name - ground ginger, fresh ginger and glace ginger - oooooooh! So you get a nice gingerbready cake that has lumps of ginger in and is all warming.

The frosting is a bit like the blueberry one in that you whip some cream and some sugar and some ginger and then put it on top.

I really liked these cakes and I'm not the bigest ginger fan, and was a bit nervous of the glace ginger cos it sounds a bit gross. But no, very very nice.

However, Daisy didin't really like them "cos ginger, innit" - not everyone is a fan of ginger it seems.

I think cos they have all the ginger I bet they're really good if you have a cold or have bad digestion. So, cakes can be good for you!

Maple Walnut Delights

Well, what a lot of maple syrup - half a litre to be precise. Couldn't imagine that much actually fitting into the recipe, sounds like so much. Also, I made them not in cupcake big size, but in mini tiny cupcake sizes. That meant there awere 60 mini cupcakes wafting around, and they got wafted into our tummies and into my friend's pub - where they provided a much needed sugar rush, and to my friend's party where real Americans said they were good.

The cake however wasnt too sweet, most of the KAPOW came from the icing, which was a cooked meringue frosting. It was quite easy to make and pretty tasty, but you could definitely feel it when the sugar hit.

Daisy-o-meter said they were "a grower". Rachel's reaction favoured all the sugar. I think they are nice, but I don't think people really like maple enough over here. Poor maple walnut delights.

Apple-Cranberry Crumble Cupcakes

To my mind these sounded a bit rubbish -and, to my mind, they were a bit funny. This may have been compounded by two factors:

1) I was very distracted when I made them, as I was waiting for the result of my MA

2) It's not quite the season for the "fresh cranberries" that Wagman recommends, neither is it the season for frozen ones. Rehydrated Sainsburys "snack-style flavoured cranberries" are not I think the same as either. Especially when you don't have enough of them and bulk them up with redcurrants (see picture). Oops.

Also I burnt the apple sauce that you had to put in the cake mix (though points I feel for it being HOME MADE, at least).

So the ingredients were wrong, or burnt, and I was incapable of timing them being in the oven, so the tops got burnt. Basically, my baking skills were vanquished by this silly silly recipe. Dammit Wagman, you beat me with seasonal fruit and wholesomeness!

However, Rachel liked them and the Daisy-o-meter said "more-ish" - which you could pun into "Moore-ish" (ha ha) if you wanted.

So, they may not be courgette, or lemon meringue, but they are actually the ones I've eaten most of - but that may be because I am too shamed to give them away (apart from to Carl - he's a cake-fiend).

A word on the topping: Wagman says Crumble, I say better to put left-over apple sauce on the top because it then goes all caramelly and chewy. Better than crumbly, according to Rachel.

Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes

I think these were the Cupcakes that I was looking forward to the most. They caught my eye when I first throught about doing all of this and I was just so excited for them. And they are lovely. Well, I am a massive fan of them. Others however, are less convinced. Also there are many stages to the making of the cupcakes.

Stage the first, you have to make something called a "Lemon Cream" - see video - I realised this was lemon curd after I'd done most of the making of it. Oh dear, and I made it a little runny because of this. Faux pas. But now I have half a jar of runny curd as a by-product - good save, especially on crumpets (jar in right picture). Making this curd was all about heating, in yes, a bain maries and whisking for ever, and it still wasn't quite right.

Stage the second, making the cupcakes. You know, I'm gettin quite familiar with how Wagman thinks. So I made the cakes, no probs. Decided as magnificent a cake as these deserved to be only made in Monster Muffin size, so you know, they satisfied.

Third stage, cutting little pits out of the cakes and putting the runny curd in. Cake mining I call it. Pretty fun and you get little nibbles of cake to have. Nice.

Fourth stage, making meringue and putting it on top and then putting the cakes back in the oven. Phew. At this point we talked about meringue and how crispy merignue is best. Difficult, however to make a crispy meringue without drying out the cake as crispy meringue really needs to cook for ages. So ignored that and made sticky meringue, only a few minutes in the oven.

And then you could eat them, and my are they tasty!

Yet, the Daisy-o-meter liked them, but preferred the orgasmic brownie and Rachel said they were nice in a very polite manner. Steph however thinks they may be the best so far. I like that opinion.

Despite the many stages, they only felt like a faff cos I was really hungover. Not cos they are finicky. (I do defend things I love, but other diss, like Trawlermen.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes.

I do not like Peanut butter. I think it is pretty gross, so I wasn't really looking forward to preparing these ones. I think Peanut M & Ms are OK, but would never ever be a first choice. All those different Reeses things - don't care!

So the cake is basically a nice sponge, to which you add some peanut butter, this makes it go a light brown colour. Wagman said you had to use SMOOTH, but I rebelled and used Rachel's supply - which is CRUNCHY. Crunchy worked out well - you got little snippets of peanut here and there.

Also I made them in all 3 sizes, as in the picture which was good. You get mouthful sized evening cakes and snacky medium and massive monster muffin. Well good.

However, the frosting was pretty amazing. You had to do melting and whipping over a bain marie and then quite a lot of cooling, and then some more whipping, but by the end it was well good. Very chocolatey and quite peanutty, but in a good way, not a bad way. Quite like fudge. Very nice. I was so impressed I even went and got some Reeses Pieces to go on top, that you can see in the aerial view. That shows my dedication.

The Daisy-o-meter was in favour and thought they were "a contender" - but I hope not for gladiators.Quite a few people, like Emma, preferred these to the brownie ones.

Erin showed his dedication to these ones by refusing to even try the brownie ones "in a statement of cupcake monogamy". You don't get better than that.

Brownie - recipe 5

These are the Brownie cupcakes the fifth recipe recreated from Cupcakes Galore - the cover of which the Brownie ones are resting on ever so nicely. I like chocolate, quite a lot, I really like chocolate brownie, but am less keen on a nutty brownie, so it was with some trepidation that I followed Wagman's advice and put walnuts in the mixture. But it was a good turn. I enjoyed.

The icing, is "Walnut Fudge Frosting" and I was quite excited, but to make it there are many steps of boiling and cooling and Faffing. I cursed the frosting tat wouldn't cool, got fed up with melting things over bain maries, but in the end it was OK. The goodness of the icing outweighed the faff. The minstrel on top is a personal touch.

Daisy and I took some of these cakes to Rachel's play - with a thermos. There were admiring glances (of the cakes, as well as us). But too much chocolate in the interval meant we got the giggles during the serious drama. Oops!

The Daisy-o-meter reckons the Brownie cupcakes are in the running for best cupcake! Shock! Definitely have the best frosting apparently. (I do like the frosting - quite want a cake just made of frosting.)

Rachel's reaction is probably summed by her inhalation of two after she came off stage and the licking of the spoon when we got home - and a few more cakes. Also shows that the frosting rocked.

I suspect the Moore-Creamer-Payne House will soon be a house of fatty bombatties, never mind!

Blueberries and Cream

Oh yes, so after the chocolates and the cougettes. Blueberry, healthy, antioxidant blueberry - of course all the vitamins and stuff survive baking. I made these ones in two sizes. Mini cupcake and muffin! (Tins courtesy of mother)

Wagman says that these cupcakes should be a vibrant blue colour. I found if you use nice fresh Co-op blueberries they don't. In fact no colour is imparted and they stay cupcake coloured. But it is nice to find a whole blueberry in a cake. One of the 5 a day. Definitely.

The frosting was a change - a cream based one with sugar and blueberries. Nice. However I tried to make it fancy by using an icing bag to put it on - looked the same as if I had used a spoon. Disappointing. That is clearly a skill to improve.

I also invented the evening cake (see left) - yes an elegant blueberry cake for the evening time, in special elegant papers and with silver balls on the top. They were great. I took them to an adult dinner party thing.

Natalie said they were almost as good as the courgette, Liz liked them.

The Daisy-o-meter has officially swung in favour of the Blueberry "they make me wet", rather then the courgette.

Black and White

I was very excited about the Black and White Cupcakes, they have bi-coloured icing and bi-coloured cake. Essentially they are chocolate marble cakes with chocolate and normal icing. I thought they were the best and i think are my favorite so far. Ha.

But still Wagman is all about separating the eggs and whites. Faff. And she's not very good at explaining how to make the chocolate fudge icing - mine was a bit crunchy as I didn't put enough water in. Boo. But also nice to have a range of textures.

The cakes did go fast.

However, despite my favouring of them, still apparently not as good as courgette. Although LAuren said that they were "like the best parts of America put into a cake". Carl wolfed them and only let NAtalie have half a bite.

The Daisy-o-meter said that the main problem with them is that they're not exotic enough - the previous recipes mean that you expect so much more than what is essentially vanilla and a-bit-chocolatey cake mixed together.

But the most important thing is that I Like them the most. And I learnt about icing.

Chocolate and Coconut; Recipe 2

Well, after the dubious beginning with courgette and pinenut, I had very high hopes for Chocolate and Coconut. The ingredients seemed good, a nice combination. But the recipe was a FAFF!

They're cakes - separating and whisking yolks and whites separately and grating 120g of chocolate (and that does actually take forever) - FAFF. And for what, quite dry, not particularly coconutty cupcakes. Despite the fact I added extra coconut essence (mostly because I have some and don't get to use it often). Wagman - naughty!

I also had a problem with how American the recipe is - instant choclate desert was necessary for the topping, for dear Gail, is clearly a very specific thing. The problem is she never says anything further. Grrr. Not even a nibble of a hint. Nothing in the entire book about what this magical substance may be. So I returned to 1979 and used Angel Delight.

Despite this and despite the fact everyone loves chocolate cake, the reactions tell a strong tale:

Rachel's Reaction: "I preferred courgette"
Natalie's Note: "I preferred courgette"
Laura's Law: "I preferred courgette"

So far courgette appears to be winning. However the Daisy-ometer liked these as "the flavour is more expected - it takes a while to get the courage to eat a courgette".

As for the kittens, what a result, they like Angel Delight!

On with the next ...

Courgette and Pine Nut: Recipe 1

I was slightly confused as to why any author would put a recipe like this as the very start of their book - sounds good for pasta, but less good for cake. Perhaps Gail Wagman (authoress of Cupcakes Galore) wanted to show how 'out there' and 'with it' the book is ...

SO I grated my courgette and made my cakes - mixture quite green. Forgot that I had no scales, no used guessing as a means to measure the ingredients. I made fairy cake size ones - a few burnt on the bottom and then I tasted one - CHEESY I thought, oh dear

Part of the task is to make the special frostings as well - this one was Cream Cheese frosting. As usual I made my icing mistake and managed to use too little sugar. Runny. But tasty. Decorated with a few pine nuts - classy!

So, I thought they were cheesy what did others think - Wagman says of the cakes:

"One way of using up courgette and getting your kids to eat it too. They'll never know but they will surely ask for seconds. And it will be a great hit with adults as well."

So I have no children, but tested them on the next best thing - boys. and kittens.
Erin - "really good"
Carl - " they're nto chocolate
Nicky - "i could eat a hundred of these"
Kittens ate the icing off the top of half a dozen, but not the cake. clearly cats like icing, not cake.

On the Daisy-ometer "pretty good - NOT cheesy, other than purposeful creamcheesey"

So, all in all, I might not have been a fan of my first try, but others were - and that's the important thing

Aims

I decided as I am relatively unemployed at the moment to cook all the recipes in order from the book "Cupcakes Galore". There are several reasons for this:

1. I have quite a lot of spare time as have finished my MA and left one job.
2. I like cake, but make it for others more than myself.
3. When I do make cake it is generally chocolate brownie - excellent, but also limited.

Essentially I want to be a bit busier, give people cake and learn about new cakes myself.

Cupcakes Galore was a present frommy Mum a couple of years ago and I have baked from it - stuck together pages show this - but only a couple. This is now a project.