Rainbow Cupcakes

My little sister begged me to make cupcakes for her to take to school for her birthday. I wanted to make something that looks bright and fun so I came up with these rainbow cupcakes. By the way it’s not my own recipe; I actually found it on you tube.

Ingredients

1 ¾ Cup Plain flour

½ Cup Caster sugar

2 eggs

4 tbsp oil

1 Cup Milk

½ tsp salt

2 tsp Baking powder

Red food Colouring

Blue food colouring

Yellow food colouring

How to make

1.     Preheat oven to 180oC and put cake cases in a cup cake tray

2.     Put the flour, salt, baking powder in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon

3.     In another bowl mix the eggs, oil, milk and sugar with an electrical mixer

4.     Put the dried ingredients in with the liquid ingredients and mix with an electrical mixer

5.     Separate the cake batter into six cups

6.     In each cup add a different colour including red, blue and yellow

7.     Mix red and yellow to make orange, blue and red to make purple and yellow and blue to make green

8.     Add ¾ tbsp of each colour into a case in the order of a rainbow, one colour on top of the other.

9.     Put into the middle of the oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer from the centre of the cake comes out clean.

10.   Leave it to cool for 10 minute then they should be ready.

Tip: To make it look and taste great you can add a dollop cream I made cream with extra thick carnation cream and 2 tbsp icing sugar and whisked. to finish off I added some chocolate sprinkles on top.

Raisin Cake

I made this cake on a boring day with such little ingredients. I just picked out ingredients that were in the cupboard and decide to make a raisin cake.

Ingredients

250g Plain flour

250g Butter

250g Caster sugar

½ Cup Milk

2 eggs

1 ½ Cups raisin (Soaked in warm orange juice for 10 minutes)

2tsp Baking powder

2 drops vanilla extract

How to make

1.     Preheat oven to 180oC

2.     Grease a round cake tin and place grease proof paper at the bottom

3.     Mix the butter and the sugar together

4.     Add the eggs one at a time and then mix until fluffy

5.     Sift the baking powder and plain flour to the mix then mix it with an electrical mix until it has blended well

6.     Add the soaked raisins and fold into the batter

7.     Pour in the milk along with the vanilla extract and mix well

8.     If too dry add some more milk and If too runny add some more flour

9.     Transfer the mixture to the round cake tin and place into the centre of the oven

10.  Cook for about 30 minutes or until a skewer come out clean from the centre of the cake.

11.  Take it out and let it cool for 10 minutes and serve

Tip: I served the cake with some extra thick carnations cream I had in the oven. I added 2 Tbsp Icing sugar and mixed then served it on the cake.

White chocolate brownies

Yum, I love white chocolate, it’s just the greatest. I have an idea! Let’s make white chocolate brownies.

Ingredients

255g white chocolate

255g unsalted butter

150g plain flour

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

How to make

1.     Preheat oven to 180oC

2.     Grease a square or rectangle tin with butter and place grease proof paper at the bottom of the tin.

3.     Melt the white chocolate and butter together

4.     Add the caster sugar and take off the heat

5.     Sift and add the plain flour to the mixture

6.     Add in the eggs one at a time to the mixture

7.     Mix the mixture with an electrical mixer

8.     Transfer the brownie batter to the tin and shake it gently to spread it evenly

9.     Place the tin in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre come out clean.

10.  Once the brownies are done set it aside to cool for 10 minutes then take out of the tin and it would be ready to serve.

Red Velvet Cake

I made this lovely red velvet cake on Valentines Day/my sister’s birthday. I was so pleased with the finishing of it. It looked so presentable and tasty. This is a true dessert for the loved ones.  

Ingredients for cake

2 ¼ cups plain flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2oz red food colouring

115g unsalted butter

1 ½ Cups sugar

1 cup butter milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

2 eggs

Ingredients for frosting

55g Butter icing

2 cups icing sugar

600ml double cream

How to make

1. Preheat oven to 350oC

2. Grease and flour cake pans

3. Combine sifted flour and salt into a bowl

4. Pour coco powder into a small separate bowl, add red food colouring and whisk until smooth.

5. In large bowl beat 115g of butter and sugar. Until fluffy then add the egg one at a time.

6. Add a little flour to the butter, sugar and egg mix at a time. Add butter milk, 1tsp vanilla extract and the died coco paste and baking powder. Mix the ingredients until the batter is the same colour.

7. Divide the batter evenly, place in 2 round baking tins and bake until the tooth pick comes out clean.

8. Let the cake cool and then take out of the trays and let it cool.

9. Spread butter icing on one layer of the cake, this would be for the base, and then put the 2^nd layer on top.

10. Sift icing sugar into a bowl with the double and mix with an electrical mixer.

11. Slowly stir in vanilla extract stir until well combined.

 12. Cover the whole cake with frosting and put in the fridge (Crumb coating).

13. Finish frosting the cake by frosting the whole of the cake on the top and sides.

Lemon Drizzle Cake

This cake had a Pretty Lemony Aroma to it once it came out of the oven and it had a soft sponge texture with a pleasant lemon taste to it. 

Ingredients
225g unsalted butter, diced
225g golden caster sugar
3 medium eggs
150ml milk
225g self-raising flour, sifted
1 finely grated zest and juice of lemon
1 finely grated zest and juice of orange
100g golden granulated sugar

How to make
1. Preheat oven to 170oC and place baking sheet in a baking baking tin about 24cm.
2. Put the butter and caster sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk  until pale and fluffy. add the eggs one at a time.
3. Scrap down the sides add the milk and whizz until creamy.
4. Add the flour and baking powder then add the zest and mix the mixture once again.
5. Put the mixture to the round cake tin and gently move the tin around to even the mixture.
6. Bake for 30 minutes until it becomes golden and the skewer comes out clean from the centre.
7. Leave it to cool and then take it out from the tin.
8. Add the juice of lemon and orange with sugar into a bowl and quickly whisk with a fork.
9. Spoon the mixture over the top of the cake and leave it to allow the juice to sink into the sponge.
10. Then it is ready to be served.

  

Chocolate Shortbread Fingers

The other day I was looking in one of the recipe books that I borrowed from the library and found a simple quick recipe. Chocolate Shortbread fingers. All that was needed was 4 simple ingredients that I could reach out from the cupboards.  It took about 15 minutes to make the biscuits and 20 minute for the baking time. The recipe said to use plain chocolate for the coating but I used white chocolate.
Ingredients 
1cup Soft margarine
1/3 cup icing sugar
2 cups plain flour
200g White Chocolate Melted

How to make
1. Heat oven to 160oC and grease 2 baking sheets.
2.  Put the Sugar, Flour and Margarine into a mixing bowl and rub in the margarine until the mixture starts to look like bread crumbs.
3. Role the mixture out and cut into shapes, then place onto the baking sheets.
4. Let them bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until they are just about golden brown
5. Remove them from the oven and baking sheet and leave them to cool on a cooling rack.
6. when they are cool, dip the fingers into the melted white chocolate half way so that half of the biscuits are coated and then leave them to set.

Recipe Books

So me and my sisters went out today to go swimming and buy a few bits and bobs that we need at our nearby stores. After buying our bits and pieces we still had a bit of time left before the swimming session started, so we decide to go into the library. It was practically inviting us in. So we went to the library and headed into different directions. I went straight into the food and cooking section. It was a small library so there was not many books unfortunately and there were only to books that really caught my attention so I borrowed them. I couldn't look at them much as I was rushed by my sisters. Anyway...
This is what I chose
More Fast Cakes by Mary Berry
Gorgeous Cakes by Annie Bell

I had a quick good look at the books when I came home and they looked really good. So much to do with these books. There is just so much to learn. Anyway, if you're interested then go to your library and browse for them. If there are any other books that you can recommend to me I would love to know.