Countdown to Valentine's Day

Can you believe that Valentine's Day is coming up?  I feel like we've only just finished Christmas--in fact, my boxes of Christmas decorations are still in boxes in the hallway because we haven't had a chance to put them away in the loft (attic) yet.  Valentine's Day is just around the corner though, so it's a good time to start booking babysitters, making reservations, making cheesy cards, etc.

To begin the Valentine's season, here are some pictures of some cupcakes we recently made.  We actually made the cupcakes for a bake sale at my daughter's school, and the girls helped to decorate.  Well, Miriam helped to decorate and Anya ate lots of frosting and sprinkles.  They did a few different styles, but here are the heart cupcakes that they were the most excited about.

We just made plain vanilla cupcakes, but added chopped up caramel and chocolate.  (Good in theory, but I wouldn't recommend adding the caramels.  When it melted as it baked, it left holes in the cakes rather than being gooey liked I hoped for.)  The frosting is a mix of about half a pot of Elmlea (low-fat cream) whipped together with about a tablespoon of butter, about half a tablespoon of vanilla extract, about two tablespoons of cocoa powder, and enough powdered sugar to reach the right consistency (probably about a cup).  The girls added heart sprinkles because if you're baking with kids (or my sister), you can never go wrong with sprinkles.  We also sprinkled on edible glitter just because I love the stuff.

So happy early Valentine's Day everybody.  No matter what your plans are, I hope you have a fantastic day.

Simple Chocolate Cupcakes

It's always good to have a few recipes for home-made treats that are relatively quick and easy to make, and you know will turn out perfectly every time.  One of the best treats is a chocolate cupcake.  They're perfect for almost any occasion (including when you just need a chocolate fix).

My daughter wanted to visit her old preschool.  She wanted them to be able to see how grown up she is in her school uniform, and to wish them a Merry Christmas.  So the girls and I made chocolate cupcakes together.  This is the kind of recipe that still turns out well when you're letting your kids do all of the measuring and mixing.

For my simple chocolate cupcake recipe, click here.

We gave them the cupcakes with a Christmas card.  We wanted to individually wrap them so that all of the teachers and other workers could bring one home with them, and wanted to make them Christmasy.  Here's what we did.

To add a Christmasy feel, we made a mint chocolate icing.  I used a piping bag without a nozzle.  To be even more festive, add some crushed candy canes into the icing and then sprinkle a little on the top.  We sprinkled edible glitter on the top because it looked festive and reminded us of snow.

To individually wrap them, we used plastic sandwich bags.  We put them in then tied around the bag with scraps of festive ribbon.  This is great because you can use up any scraps you have leftover from wrapping presents or other festive activities.  We had a mix of different red and gold ribbons.

These made a delicious and really simple Christmas gift.

Birthday Cakes

It seems like there have been a lot of birthdays lately, and so we made several birthday cakes in May. I always think that a cake makes a nice birthday gift that is home-made and yummy.

This cake was a gift for a student of mine for her 14th birthday. She likes doodling, and loves the way that I doodle, so I did some food coloring painting on her cake. The fondant work isn't as nice as I'd like, but she still loved it.

Chocolate Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour
1/3 cup cocoa

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup vanilla sugar (if you don't have it, just use normal sugar)

2 Tsp. baking powder

2/3 cup milk (room temperature)

1 egg (room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (room temperature--it should be soft, but not melted)

1 Tbsp vanilla

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Grease and flour a medium sized cake tin.

2. Sift in the dry ingredients, then stir lightly. Add the remaining ingredients and mix into a smooth batter.

3. Bake until a knife comes out clean (about 25 minutes).

To decorate:

1. Either make and roll out fondant icing, or roll out pre-made fondant.

2. Heat jam of choice in a saucepan, stirring constantly, until it starts to boil. (I used home-made rosehip and apple jam.)

3. Paint the jam over the cooled cake. I used a silicone pastry brush.

4. While the jam is still hot, lift the fondant over the cake and smooth.

5. Use a small paint brush or point (the point of a wooden skewer works well for details) to paint the cake with food colouring.

My daughter Miriam celebrated her 4th birthday in May! On one hand she seems so big and grown up, and on the other hand it's hard to believe that my little girl is already four. The only thing that she asked for was a pink bike with a pink helmet, so she was very excited to get a bike for her birthday. (We're still working on learning to ride it...unfortunately her little sister gets a bit jealous and tries to climb on with her, so it's hard for Miriam to really ride it. Also, she has a weird tendency to petal backwards.) She enjoyed some other goodies, like new art supplies, as well.

Miriam's favourite food in the world is strawberries. So it wasn't really a surprise that she asked for a strawberry birthday cake shaped like a butterfly.

Strawberry Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup strawberry milk powder (like strawberry nesquick, only I used Asda's brand)

2 Tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk (room temperature)

1 egg (room temperature)

1/4 cup butter (room temperature)

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

(if desired: add a handful of chopped dried strawberries)

Instructions:

Follow the same instructions as for the chocolate cake above. (Sift dry ingredients, then blend all of the ingredients. Bake in a greased and floured pan at 350F/180C.)

To decorate:

1. Roll out fondant.

2. Boil strawberry jam. (Do not overboil because it will go too thick and sticky. Bring it to boiling point and then remove from heat.)

3. Paint the cake with the jam, and then cover with fondant.

4. Smooth and cut off any extra fondant.

5. Decorate! I cooked this in a butterfly shaped cake mold, so then I just decorated with coloured icing and candles.

Cupcakes

Miriam wanted to bring cupcakes to preschool to share with her friends. Here's a recipe for easy plain cupcakes.

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cup flour

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tsp baking powder

2/3 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup butter

1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Mix all ingredients with an electric mixer to make a smooth batter.

2. Bake in paper or silicone cupcake cases at 350F/180C for about 17 minutes.

3. Decorate. I piped on a simple chocolate butter cream (butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract, a few drops of milk, and cocoa), and then Miriam added pink sprinkles.

All of the cake recipes are variations on my standard cake recipe that can be adapted to pretty much any flavour and always turns out perfectly. To see the full recipe (adapted for lavender cakes), click here.

Happy Birthday to anyone else who's celebrating birthdays right now!

Easter Cakes (Lavender Cupcakes)

I hope that all of my lovely readers had a fantastic Easter. We really enjoyed our Easter. It was really nice for all of us to just have some time off and be at home together. We've enjoyed things like pancake brunches and crafts with the girls. We also redecorated our kitchen over Easter! (I'll try to post pictures of it later because it is so cute.)

We had some people coming over on Easter Monday for dinner, and Miriam really wanted to make "Easter Cakes". So we made some lavender cupcakes. The lavender just seemed appropriate for Easter--so light and delicate, the flowery taste just seems like spring and new life. Anya helped me to make the cake (she loves mixing), and Miriam helped to decorate them (she loves sprinkles). They are a great desert because they are so light that they are almost refreshing...except for the buttercream icing I put on top, obviously. I just did a simple buttercream with a splash of vanilla extract and food colouring to make it lavender coloured.

For my super easy recipe for lavender cake (or cupcakes), click here.

Chocolate Cupcakes!

Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients:

170g flour

100g cocoa powder

170g sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

120g butter

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp salt

1. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt together. Mix well.

2. Cream together the sugar and wet ingredients in a seperate bowl.

3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredient mixture. Add a little at a time and mix well.

4. Bake at 180C/350F for about 15 minutes. I used reusable silicone cupcake cases, but you can use the disposable paper ones as well.

To decorate:

I made a chocolate buttercream icing, but added in marshmellow cream and a generous splash of vanilla extract. Pipe onto the cupcakes. I bought sparkly pink sprinkles and sugar hearts to sprinkle over the top.