Chocolate and Peanut Butter Cupcakes

Rosaline and I have come to the joint decision that there is nothing better in the world than the chocolate peanut butter combination. Nothing. However the idea of an actual peanut butter cupcake has never really appealed to me so in order to achieve this glorious taste combination in cake form, I made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter icing which, if I may say so myself, was extraordinary. 

I'd found these a while ago on Bakers Royale and was waiting for the perfect opportunity to make them, although really an excuse wasn't necessary. Due to the fact that Rosaline and Polly(our number one fan) love this combination so much and are currently doing their exams I thought these would be an excellent way of cheering them up. And so I set to baking them.

My mother said they were 'the best chocolate cake she's ever eaten' which is possibly the highest accolade I could achieve. I'd never made chocolate cake with sour cream before but obviously it went down well. 

Jubilee Cakes Part Two

Okay, so although most people celebrated the Jubilee yesterday, it's actually the official Jubilee on Tuesday with the parade and such. Therefore this post could still come in useful... if not you can just look at the cakes.

As Rosaline said, we love the Queen and the Jubilee and just everything about this ridiculously long weekend. And what better way to honour the Queens Diamond Jubilee than with cake. My street had a street party, and although I avoided the cupcake competition (it was full of five year olds which was slightly embarrassing) I did make a cake and lots of little cupcakes as our contribution to the food side of things.

I thought I was being very original with my cake design, but it turns out almost everyone had the same idea. However one can never have too much cake, and it was all eaten by the end of the evening which in my view indicates success.

Diamond Jubilee Cake

Jubilee Week End is here!! Woo. We love the Queen; she’s everything that is great about Great Britain and she colour blocks like a pro.

So to celebrate her diamond jubilee we have gone all out. Like, seriously. We are in our sparkly diamond jubilee element. Why don’t they come around more often?!

Some people think we’re a bit weird. But there is nothing wrong with loving cake and the Queen, people. Nothing wrong at all.

So I’ll keep it short because, errm, I meant to be revising for my history A Level, but the Queens Diamond Jubilee only comes around once and when cake has got be baked CAKE HAS GOT TO BE BAKED and, well, you know, its important to get your priorities right.

So here are my two Union Jack Cakes and Royal Garden Party Cake

Royal Garden Party Cake

Union Jack Cake

Let Them Eat Cake! Oh no wrong Queen... But eat cake anyway

Diamond Jubilee Cake



Just cos we heart her. Look at her colour blocking fabulousness. And she's so cute! I want her as my grandma

Recipe to come I promiseeee but, like I say, I’m a busy girl with revision to do and – ok alright, I’m not fooling anyone: I’m off out to celebrate a long week end and I think that it being a Diamond Jubilee Long Week End warrants wearing as much diamonds/sparkles/glitter as possible.

Have fun, I’m crossing my fingers it doesn’t rain, stay sparkly and God save old Queenie!

Roz

-xx-

Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes

Wait! Don't stop reading just because you read the words 'gluten free.' (unless you're coeliac in which case read on!) I know it's tempting, but I promise these are nothing like the gluten free cakes you buy in shops. They're rich, moist (ew) and really quite delicious - almost more brownies than cupcakes.

I'll admit, the challenge of making a gluten free cake scared me at first. I did a ridiculous amount of googling/recipe book trawling before stumbling across what I thought was the perfect recipe. The pictures looked delicious and the reviews were great. However I then read the ingredients.... 'xanthan gum' 'tapioca flour'... these unfamiliar words did make me question what on earth I was letting myself in for but I decided to just go for it.

This attitude changed considerably after discovering that you could only buy said unfamiliar ingredients in health food shops and I'd left it a little late to be health food shop trawling. So after about an hour of near hysteria in Holland and Barrett I did some emergency googling and found a much easier, flourless chocolate cupcake recipe.

They were really easy to make, deliciously fudgy and very well received by gluten-free people and gluten eaters alike.

One Direction Topped Cupcakes (yes, really)

First of all, HUGE apologies for neither of us posting for over a month, I know our faithful follower (hi Polly) was very disappointed but I think our looming exams are a good enough excuse.

However, I realised that staring out of the window and rearranging my desk doesn't actually count as revision so I decided to do something productive and bake not once but twice (don't worry the second bake will be blogged about soon). Our friend Scarlett has been away living the high, exam free, life of a chalet girl for almost five months and she came home a few weeks ago which was extraordinarily exciting! So to mark the occasion, we threw her a surprise party in my basement which, if I may say so myself, was very well executed and (hopefully, she may be lying...) was a complete surprise. 

And what's a surprise party without cupcakes, especially One Direction ones. 

Before you ask, my mum - being the fangirl that she is - bought me the cake toppers for Christmas and I'd been saving them for the perfect occasion.

Possibly the best carrot cake ever

So about 2 years ago, I had to make a healthy cake for food tech (yes I did food tech gcse and yes it's a real gcse don't be rude) and I just googled carrot cake and found this recipe -I justify my eating extraordinary amounts of it by telling myself it's healthy, it's not THAT healthy but sshh - I changed it slightly to fix my brief and then made it in my lesson. Unfortunately I doubled the mixture and then put it all in one deep cake tin, meaning it didn't cook for like an hour and a half which isn't good when your lessons are fifty five mins...
But anyway when it eventually cooked and iced it turned out to be absolutley delicious and somehow became slightly famous and I ended up baking it all the time and even got paid once which was quite exciting.And then I got more and more work and had less money (walnuts are expensive when your mother refuses to pay for ingredients for your 'bloody baking') so I stopped making it as much but it was my friends birthday and she is a big fan so I thought I'd make her cupcake versions, I used the same recipe but just cooked it for a shorter amount of time and if I may say so they turned out rather well :)

First Day of Spring

 Guys!! It’s officially the first day of Spring and, while we do concede that we might be being slightly overoptimistic, today does have a certain Spring-like air about it. We are thrilled!

The sun is shining, blossom is on the trees, there is a vase of daffodils on my table, I’m imagining rabbits with white tails cheerfully hopping somewhere and I for one am wearing my favourite flowery dress.

(One should always be suitably dressed for the occasion, I feel)

Yes, Spring may, might, possibly finallyyy (and temporarily I’m sure) have sprung. And so on this jolly day we welcome all the great things that come with the entrance of Spring. I’m envisaging lamb for lazy Sunday lunches, hotcross buns with melted butter in the morning sun, wearing my new pastel pink blazer, going for premature picnics and eating Easter eggs. Woo!!

So, to celebrate this long awaited day, I thought I’d make something suitably cheerful; Sweet and Simple Strawberry Cupcakes. These are very quick and easy to make, and bring a little extra bit of (sweet) Spring Cheer to today.

This is the first recipe I’ve tried from my newly bought ‘Saved by Cake’, and am so far loving it