Cupcakes!!

Cupcakes - don't they just sound beautiful on the lips.

Truly morsels of utter delishness!!

Had a busy day making treats for my daughter's preschool teachers, but it was much enjoyed. I wasn't sure what type of cupcakes to do, I mean how can you possibly decide on only one flavour of cupcakes. It's like being asked a trick question! And then if you do dare to choose one flavour out of all, you feel bad for all the other flavours you've let down. How cruel can one be.... (I shudder to think)

So finally after a long process of elimination - I decided on vanilla cupcakes with blue-grey swiss meringue buttercream frosting, some very chocolatey oreo cupcakes with oreo buttercream frosting and a batch of vanilla cupcakes filled with raspberry jam and again my favourite, swiss meringue buttercream frosting (yum yum!). Here are my creations:

I was quite chuffed with the results and the teachers were over the moon when we took them in. The oreo recipe I found when I was looking for a perfect, moist chocolate cake which i then modified to make into cupcakes. It's from the Hershey's website and I must say. It. Is. Fabulous!

The Best Chocolate Cupcake Recipe - Hersheys     (makes 30 cupcakes)Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup boiling water

Method:

1. Heat oven to 350°F/Gas Mark 4/170 Celsius. Line muffin cups with cases.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Fill cups 2/3 full with batter.
3. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

The swiss meringue buttercream is sooo gorgeous, silky and smooth. It sets well and stayed out for the whole day without even losing any sharp swirls - Hurrah! And the added bonus that Mr WWW really liked it cos it's not overly sweet, goes to say how many boxes it ticked for me. I think I could dedicate a whole post about SMB and I may do one day when I have a bit more time [sigh]. My fave recipe is the one from dyannbakes.com, its so easy to remember:

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Ingredients:

4 oz egg white

8 oz ( 1 cup) granulated sugar

12 oz (3 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
Pinch of salt

Method:
1.Combine the egg whites, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and place over simmering water.
2.Continuously beating with a whisk, heat until egg whites are hot and all the sugar is dissolved (~140 degrees). If the sugar is not completely melted, your final product will be grainy
3.Remove from the heat and place on the mixer. Whisk on medium speed until meringue is stiff, and the mixing bowl is cool to the touch. The meringue will be white with a bright sheen, and very sticky!
4.Switch to the paddle attachment if using stand mixer (or carry on with hand mixer), and on medium speed add the butter a few cubes at a time. Please note, if the meringue is not completely cool, the butter will melt instead of combining evenly. 5.Continue beating until all the butter is incorporated. At one point it may appear as if the mixture has broken, looking watery and separated like curdled milk (and your face will droop in despair). Continue mixing, it will all come together.
6.Increase speed to high, and beat until smooth.
7.Add flavorings of your choice and tint with colouring paste. Avoid using liquid colouring as it will thin the buttercream and result in softer swirls.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :-) ....and boy did I enjoy it!!

ANYWAY....going back to the point of the post, I made the cupcakes for the teachers but still felt like I wanted to do something more. I've been going through a biscuits and cookies phase of late and had dried cranberries and hazelnuts at home and so the Cranberry and Hazelnut Biscotti was born. It was a recipe modified from a book for Cranberry-Pinenut Biscotti, I will post the recipe soon. I cant remember the name of the book and I'm at my parents place so will add recipe as soon as I get back!

They tasted divine and the combination was perfect. Obviously I did have to do the taste-test with my sis-in-law and she gave a thumbs-up and done the dunking into my latte and it was another thumbs up from me.

Been on the south coast for 2 days now, and loving the change in weather. Gorgeous sunny long days spent in the garden and quality time spent with all.

Sis is here from Wales too so let the baking begin! She has promised to make a few recipes so watch this space!