Girls Afternoon Out

So now for something a little different!

It's not often I share events from my life with you, but as food played a big part of this afternoon I thought it would be rude not too.

So I went out with three of my lovely twitter friends, Jools, Michelle and Nadia and we made a little stop on Ladurée for a few drinkies and a bite to eat. 

Well you can't make up you mind what you want to eat without a drink and something to nibble on right. 

I ordered these cute Mini Beef Burgers, they were tiny, but delicious! And those chunky chips. Devine!!

Oooh and what's dinner without pudding right!?! This is mine.

Nads' looked amazing too!!

And it'd be rude not to take a few things home with us!!

(Nads your pic looks better than mine, obvs I NEED that new phone!!)

Thanks for lovely afternoon girlies. 

Now I think I might have to make Macaroons this weekend.

Watch this space. 

Happy Eating ;)

Muffin Minx

White Chocolate Heaven

Here's a little something yummy I made for a joint birthday celebration for my fab friends Alice and Karen.

For the cake -

150g Margarine

150g Sugar

175g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

3 Large Eggs

Mix all ingredients together and then divide between two tins. 

Bake Gas Mark 4 for 40 minutes.

Once cooled sandwich the cakes together with Jam and Butter Cream.

Once sandwiched together, then smooth Butter Cream around the outside.

Then use sponge fingers as a surround, securing in place with a ribbon.

I then covered the cake with white chocolate buttons, layering them out from the centre of the cake.

Was delicious!!! (modest I know!)

Went down smoothly with a couple of glasses of wine!!

Happy Baking

Muffin Minx

When Life Hands You Lemons....

Don't make lemonade. Make lemon cake!!

This is very much a family favourite in our house, and very simple to make, so here goes.

I use one and a half times my standard cupcake mix, so as follows.

225g Caster Sugar

225g Margarine

260g Self Raising Flour

5 Eggs

1 Large Lemon - Juice

1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda

All the ingredients in one bowl and mix.

Then distribute evenly between two cake pans.

Then cook at gas mark 4 for 45 minutes, remove and allow to cool.

Then to decorate -

Butter Icing to fill - 1tsp Lemon Juice to give it a kick.

Lemon Icing to top, Juice of one Lemon, I added a dash of yellow food colouring.

Then Enjoy!!

Happy Baking

Muffin Minx

What's better than a cupcake!? A GIANT cupcake obviously!

So with another occasion at work I found myself back in the kitchen. This time baking a giant cupcake, there are a multitude of moulds available, both tin and silicon. Mine is a silicon one. 

Filling the mould with one and a half times my standard cupcake mix and popping in the oven at gas mark four for about 50-60 minutes. 

Remove from oven and allow to cool before removing from mould. 

I then thought I'd add an extra layer to my cake by painting melted dark chocolate in the base mould to creat a giant cupcake case. 

This took two layers to make and sometime to set in the fridge. 

And voila the cake sits comfortably inside. Then I used chocolate butter cream to sandwich the layers together and covered in vanilla butter cream. 

It was at this point that I realised that the cake was now too big for me to transport easily to work, but luckily I found a suitable cardboard box. Here's hoping yours won't create such a problem. 

Covering with sprinkles to finish. Then the fun part. Sawing through the chocolate case!! 

Enjoy

Happy Baking

Muffin Minx

As Happy as a Pig in.....

Well we've all seen it doing the rounds, the picture of that amazing cake, with the KitKats around the outside and the little pink piggies swimming in the chocolate mud.

Well I couldn't resist it any longer and so I had to give it a go myself, and what better excuse than a colleagues birthday and my cake Thursday at work (every Thursday we take it in turns to bring in cake, amazing idea in principle, but not great for waistlines!)

So having looked at a multitude of pictures of this cake, I decided that unlike the majority I would go against a chocolate cake hidden under a chocolate exterior, there is after all such a thing as "too much" well apparently anyway.

So to make the sponge, I used one and a half times my standard cupcake mixture and baked at gas mark 4 for 40 minutes.

Once cooled I sandwiched these together with butter cream.

I then used chocolate butter cream to secure the KitKats around the outside of the cake, and tied a ribbon round them to keep them in place. Then place in the fridge to set while you do the next step.

Melt 200g Chocolate into 200g Double Cream in  boil over a saucepan of boiling water, once these have mixed, leave to cool not too runny. Then you can pour the mixture onto the top of the cake.

Then place in the fridge to set a little while you make the pigs.

Use fondant icing to make your little piggies. You can buy the perfect pink for it, saving the hassle of colouring white.

Once the chocolate mixture has nearly set, then you can add your piggies to the cake.

Then leave in the fridge to set completely. I left mine over night, and then had the hard task of ensuring that it survived my hour commute to the office!

Then enjoy!!! 

 

Delicious!!!

Happy Baking.

Muffin Minx

Oooh la la...

So this week, I've been very much enjoying a daily cup of tea and this got me thinking about the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea.

What better to kick this idea off than a French Macaroon.

It has also given me the chance to use my new whisk, which much to my delight is PINK!!!

There are several recipes for Macaroons, but this is the one that has worked well for me thus far. Granted I'm not up to fancy brand standard yet, but I see an improvement every time I make them.

Ingredients

175g icing sugar

125g ground almonds

3 large free-range egg whites

75g caster sugar

For the filling

150g butter, softened

75g icing sugar

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 3.

Whizz the icing sugar and ground almonds in a food processor to a very fine mixture, then sift into a bowl - it is the food processor part, that I find makes the most difference with this method, it really helps to make the dry ingredients fine.

In another bowl, whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt to soft peaks, then gradually whisk in the caster sugar until thick and glossy - add any colouring or flavouring at this stage.

Fold half the dry ingredients into the meringue and mix well. Add the remaining, using a spatula to cut and fold the mixture. The spoon into a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle.

Line baking sheets and pipe small rounds of macaroon onto them (working to get them all the same size will be my next mission!) 

Tap the baking sheet on the work surface to release any excess air, to ensure they get a good 'foot' (I hold the tray with one hand and tap the underside of the tray for a few minutes)

Then leave them to stand for 15 minutes until they form a skin, you should be able to touch the mixture without it sticking to your fingers.

Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool.

Then make up your butter icing and use this to sandwich two halves together.

Delicious

Happy Baking

Muffin Minx

Ice Cream Cupcakes

So after a little break, I have now chained myself firmly back to the oven and will be baking at regular intervals once more.

With Summer putting in an appearance every now and again, what better to do that take a trip to the Seaside. And it was in Littlehampton the other weekend with some friends, that I had one of these badboys.

That's right, an ice cream with flake, dipped in chocolate!!! It was quite simply one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. Three things occurred to me.

One - Why had I never had one of these before!?

Two - Why aren't these served everywhere!?

Three - What else could you do to make an ice cream cone that more exciting to eat.

So it was then my mission to combine ice cream and cupcakes.

 I covered a muffin pan in tin foil and used this to secure flat ice cream cones in place.

 Adding sprinkles to the cupcake mixture in order to make it that little bit more colourful.

Filling the cones to three quarters full with mixture, meant that my standard cupcake mixture made filled 15 cones, then bake in the oven for 20 minutes, gas mark four.

 And then when they're out of the oven and cooled, the fun part!

Flakes or Sprinkles anyone?! 

So, faux ice cream anyone!?

Happy Baking

Muffin Minx