Sunday 7th October 2012

I spent most of Sunday in my kitchen baking, it was awesome.  Made some Red Velvet Cupcakes followed by Shortbread Biscuits.  Both recipes were taken from an awesome website I found called "Baking Mad", they have some amazing recipes, very easy to follow.  Here is the link, in case you are interested.....

http://www.bakingmad.com/?gclid=CObh2a3b6bICFQu7zAodtAMA2w




Red Velvet Cupcakes

 Recipe for the Cupcakes:-

75 grams pure cocoa powder 

1.50 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract Blend   

125 grams Butter unsalted, softened  

250 grams Golden Caster Sugar   

4  Free Range Eggs Yolks 

240 ml Buttermilk  

1 tsp Salt  

325 grams Plain White Flour, sifted 

1 tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda  and 1 tsp White Wine Vinegar 



Method:-

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (fan 160°C)/350°F/Gas Mark 4). Line two 12-cup muffin tins with cupcake papers. 
2. Sift the cocoa and mix with the vanilla in a small bowl. Set aside. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl, using an electric hand mixer set on medium-high speed, or a free-standing mixer. 
3. Once the butter and sugar mixture is pale, light and fluffy, add the egg yolks, one at a time, and beat until everything is combined. Add the cocoa mixture and beat well for another minute to combine. 
4. Stir the buttermilk and salt together and add it to the butter and sugar mixture, a third at a time, alternating with the flour. Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the vinegar and blend into the batter. Then, with your mixer on high, beat everything together on a high speed for about 5 minutes, until you have a smooth, glossy batter. 
5. Fill each cupcake case to three-quarters full. Bake for 18–20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the cupcake centre comes out clean.
6. Cool in the tins on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove the cakes and cool completely before frosting.

 For the Frosting:-

240 ml Milk  

3 tbsp Plain White Flour

1 pinch Salt  

225 grams Dark Chocolate either dark chocolate or white chocolate, broken into pieces 

200 grams Butter unsalted, softened  

300 grams Icing Sugar   

2 tbsp pure cocoa powder (omit if making white chocolate frosting) 

1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract Blend (omit if making white chocolate frosting).

Method:-

1. Whisk the milk, flour and salt in a small saucepan over a medium heat until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 1–2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl and allow to cool.
2. Melt dark or white chocolate. Set aside to cool. 
3. Beat the butter, sugar and cocoa (if using) together until fluffy. Add to the cooled chocolate followed by the milk mixture and vanilla extract (if using). Beat together until smooth, then spoon into a piping bag with a small plain or star tube. Pipe immediately on to the cupcakes.

Tips
It is really important that an electric hand-held or freestanding mixer is used to blend the cupcake batter thoroughly, so that a loose, glossy mixture is achieved.  Also don't use Muffin cases like I did, this recipe is very rich and they ended up been too much for one person.  One mistake I did make was that I did not let the melted chocolate cool enough so my frosting was very runny (had to leave it in the fridge for about 3 hours to thicken).  But having said all this, they are well worth the effort, they are DIVINE!!!!



 

Shortbread Biscuits



What a lovely easy recipe to follow ~ easy to follow, quick and done within 10 minutes (preparation time).  However the recipe states to bake for 15 minutes, I found this to be too long (the biscuits came out a bit dry but nothing beats having them with a cuppa) so I would bake for 10 minutes and whilst they were cooling down, I sprinkled a bit of Caster Sugar on them (not included in recipe).  My boys love them!!  I made these whilst waiting for the cupcakes to cool down before making my icing..... well worth it........



Ingredients (makes 16 biscuits):-

150 grams Plain White Flour
100 grams Butter  
50 grams Golden Caster Sugar
Vanilla Extract, a few drops 

Method:-

1. Set oven to 180C/gas mark 4 and grease a baking sheet.
2. Sift flour into a bowl, then add the sugar cut up the butter into cubes and add to the other ingredients.
3. Rub the buuter into the flour and sugar with finger tips. When the dough starts to form add the vanilla.
4. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface and use cuter to cut out shapes.
5. Place on baking sheet and bake for 15-20mins. When golden, take out of the oven and cool on rack.

(Please note that these are not my recipes.  They can be found on www.bakingmad.com)