Pink Cupcakes for the Blues

With the weekend’s chocolate chip muffins reduced to a few crumbs and an extra layer of insulation, a long and cake-less day loomed before me.  In the four and a half hour gap between lectures, I had to cram in writing an article, reading the text for the lecture, making and eating lunch and some mindless procrastination. Time was not on my side, but my need for cake overpowered my ability to think clearly. I scavenged through my fridge and baking box and found that I had the ingredients for The Hummingbird Bakery’s mouth-wateringly sweet vanilla cupcakes.

I also found a new toy, purchased on Friday and yet to be unleashed on unsuspecting cakes: food colouring.  Bright pink and bright blue kid-in-a-candy-store food colouring.  The bottle, rather handily, came with a sensible lid which allowed only one drop at a time to prevent any pink and blue colour explosions happening.  I mixed six drops of hot pink colouring with the mixture, paused, and added some more.  I was determined that this time these cakes would be undeniably, definitely and positively pink inside.

The picture does not do the pinkness justice; the colour would have made a Barbie convention look shamefully pasty.  The colour did, however, cause a bit of confusion; on biting into it, one found oneself  thinking two things: ‘Mmm, vanilla’ and ‘Why is this cake pink but does not taste like strawberry?’ I like the colour; it was girly and fun just as I had planned. Next time, however, I think I will go for a strawberry-flavoured pink cake, because sometimes expectations are too ingrained and sensible to deny.

The other colourful fun was the blue icing. This did not go quite to plan. It is difficult to mix icing sugar in a bowl without covering the kitchen in a thin but persistent coating of fine, snow-like sweetness, which is tasty and decorative but not universally appreciated. As such, the butter and sugar were not blended as well as they should have been. Also, I threw milk in without checking the amount, because sometimes when you are making icing, your rebellious spirit kicks in and tells you ‘to hell with this need for exactness’. Turns out that although the rebellious spirit knows how to make delicious blue goo, it does not know how to make icing which is not incredibly runny when piped. The piping itself needs work, but the addition of a special pink (purple) Smartie hid this rather well, or at least distracted from it.

Sadly the cakes were not finished in time for me to take them to my last lectures. I had to make do with a massive, overpriced blueberry muffin.  However, I am pleased with the way these turned out; sweet, fun and topped with a special Smartie, they appeal to the inner child that sometimes need appeasing with cake, chocolate and confusing food colouring.

Chocolate Muffins

It got to Friday last week and I realised that I had severely let the team down; I had gone all week without producing any baked goods.  Worse still, all my housemates were going away for the weekend or, in the case of my lovely model Miriam, a whole week.  What if they found someone else to cook for them?  What if they – no, whisper it – bought a cake from a shop?  This is a slightly melodramatic recreation of the situation; they buy things all the time.  Actual, official products which are of a high enough quality that they can be exchanged for real money.  Still, I have a certain pride in my cooking and I felt this lack of baking was remiss of me.  I therefore decided to make something which would be a comfort on their journeys.  Chocolate was of course the solution there, but it also needed to be something sturdy, something that did not require icing and which meant business.  The answer was the classic chocolate muffin; big and strong in its manly muffin case, but still moist and delicious on consumption.

I used the ever-reliable Hummingbird Bakery recipe and they turned out to be a rich, moist and soul-filling delight.  I am still getting to grips with the oven.  We have squabbles over its penchant for cooking cakes at the back left more than the others.  However, with the muffins it was well-behaved, not burning a single one.  The Sainsbury’s own-brand chocolate chunks and Tesco own-brand cocoa powder also go to show that chocolate cake is brand-blind and always willing to please.

Have my housemates been faithful to my baking?  Luckily for Fox biscuits, no, and who can blame them?  They were, however, very grateful for the send off, although most of the cakes did not survive long enough to fuel the actual journeys.  If, as seems to be the case, the path to forgiveness is made of chocolate muffins, I may have to visit it more often.

Triple Chocolate Flake Cupcakes

A bizarre and slightly alarming habit has formed with me since I have taken up baking.  I have found myself buying books.  This in itself is not a personal revolution; as an English and American Literature student, it is a positively encouraged personal trait.  The new and unusual part of this phenomena is that they are baking books.  Where once I perused the fiction section for hours, I now find myself devouring cookbooks before I go to sleep.  I wake up surrounded by books about doughnuts and sponges.  The latest addition to my growing collection is dedicated solely to the delicate and widely variable treats that are cupcakes.

The first recipe I tried was a chocolate cupcake with a melted chocolate centre.  I felt this reflected my motto that adding chocolate to chocolate can never be a bad thing, and, also, I like chocolate.  Instead of using the plain chocolate suggested by the recipe, however, I chopped up a Cadbury’s flake and scattered the crumbs on top of the Hummingbird Bakery’s chocolate icing.

So far so good.  As it turned out, there was only one problem; the chocolate didn’t melt.  Or rather, it may have done, but because I was desperate to ice the cakes I let them cool down and the chocolate solidify.  The mixture also did not quite spread to the recipe’s eight, and I ended up with six instead.  As it happened this was perfect, leaving one cupcake for everyone and enough fridge space for everyone else.  The piping of the icing did not go quite as smoothly as I had envisioned, despite the useful tips in my new book.

Although my basic chocolate logic was correct, the application was problematic. However, this book has proved to be a lovely addition and a source of inspiration for a few upcoming cupcake escapades.

Mississippi Mud Pie

Cupcakes, muffins and doughnuts are all very well, but I felt it was time to attempt something a bit trickier in order to gain favour with my housemates.  As such, I returned to my old nemesis: the Hummingbird Bakery’s Mississippi Mud Pie.

With a glaringly obvious crack down the middle, it was not the most photogenic of pies, but it stood, brave and bare without its cream topping, just a sprinkling of cocoa powder between its crisp surface and complete nakedness. 

Pastry always requires a stern word with the dough and a little prayer to the God of Pastry before it goes in the oven.  Thankfully this time it seemed to work, as it came out short and golden brownish.  The middle involved a mixture of chocolate and golden syrup so that was less of a worry, although next time a small sacrifice to the God of the Top of Pies might make it more even.  Or, failing that, something scientifically accurate.

So was it pie-fect or pie-tiful?  It was described by one housemate as sex in a cake, so this perhaps suggests it is closer to the former.  It was also responsible for a mini fight and a bit of friendly bullying, which is always the response bakers are looking for.  As such, it seems that the mighty Mississippi Mud Pie has at last been mastered.  Let’s hope that it is a permanent victory and that future attempts do not see me eating humble pie.

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes and Mini Sponges

A few happy coincidences occurred to bring these into existence.  Firstly, I found out that my housemates like cake; but then again, in all honesty, who doesn’t.  Perhaps less predictably, they also like strawberries.  In the final happy twist of fate, the farmers market on campus is selling these sweet, juicy, big red strawberries that taste like heaven in fruit form.  These were all the excuses I needed to whip out The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and make these old favourites again.

There was a slight glitch.  When the cupcakes came out of the oven, they also came out of the cases.  It might have been something to do with the new cases - cheerful colours with white polka dots – but the faithful old white ones also let me down.  This suggests that it was the mixture itself.  The strawberries were extra ripe and a bit squishy, which could have made the cases slip off.  In any case, while some behaved themselves and stayed put it was clear that a rescue mission was in order.

I had never iced cupcakes in that pretty, delicate, swirly way; I usually just slap mounds of it on until there’s a satisfactory cake to icing ratio.  The first few cupcakes were a bit of an experiment, with lopsided results, and the last few were not much better, but with a coating of forgiving digestive biscuits and two well-placed strawberry quarters, they almost looked refined.  Now for the rescue operation.  I decided to make them look like mini strawberry sponge cakes.  I turned them out of the cases so the strawberries were on the top and then covered these in piped icing, digestives and strawberry quarters.  They almost looked deliberate; delicate treats for garden parties, picnics and chilly October days.

So how do you show your supremely supportive, downright delightful and entirely excellent housemates your appreciation?  While others may choose some form of interpretive dance, for me the solution is a piece of cake.  Or maybe just a strawberry.

For Grace, Jonny, Miriam and Tom

Flavour of the Month - October 2011

Everyone knows that the most important part of October is at the end, and that it is just an excuse to dress up, eat treats and generally have a great time.  Halloween will soon be upon us, and there are a couple of goodies I've got my eye on.

Halloween Cupcake Cases

Accessorize, £2.50 for 20

They contain cake, are apparently encased in a bat and are covered in frightfully cheerful-looking skulls: what's not to love about these lovely Halloween cupcake cases? With these in your kitchen, everyone will be wanting a treat.
Buy them here.

Haunted House Cupcake Stand

Accessorize, £10

It's no trick, this clever and kitsch novelty cake stand will set your cupcakes off in fiendishly fun style.  An almost scarily cool centrepiece for any Halloween party.
Buy it here.

Doughnuts

Ah, October; the gentle introduction to winter, the month of mild, crisp mornings and chilly, grey evenings.  The time when you find yourself getting reacquainted with the coat you said goodbye to in March, and thinking about how you quite fancy a pair of those sweet little mitten-gloves, with the Fair Isle pattern that whispers coaxing promises of softness and warmth whenever you pass Accessorize.

At least, that is what October is meant to be like.  Although you wouldn’t think it to look at me (after two weeks in Corfu I’m still so deathly pale that I frighten ghosts), I love sunshine and basking in a belated summery glow as much as the next person; but this is going too far.  So, turning an angry back to the weather, I decided to make a fried dessert, designed to provide slovenly policemen, hungry theme park goers and a particular cartoon character with a healthy layer of winter fat.  All together: mmmm, doughnuts...

In reality, that came out sounding more like: er, doughnuts?  I used the recipe from Roald Dahl’s Revolting Recipes for ‘Bunce’s Doughnuts’, and while they were definitely not revolting, they were also not very much like doughnuts.  A weird mixture between bread and bagels, maybe, but not the irresistible, sugar-drenched, custard-oozing feat of pure, deadly joy that is American doughnuts.  In fairness, it would have been difficult to fit the oozing part in, as the middle was rather taken up with being a hole, but the point still stands that if you are expecting those amazing, melting buns of wild hedonistic delight, this recipe is not for you.  That said, they came out tasting nicely of cinnamon and the texture, although it was different, was still tasty. 

I should probably mentions that there were two separate altercations with two different fire alarms during the frying process, and that from this I have learnt that frying large batches of doughnuts will result in sore eyes, a vexed housemate and a newfound respect for hot oil as a powerful and dangerous enemy.  If you make these and burn yourself on the oil, it may not hurt at the time; it will, so run it under the tap for ten minutes (or some minutes, anyway; I don’t entirely believe anyone has ever held a burnt limb under a cold tap for more than six minutes and seven seconds without getting bored), dry it and put washing up liquid on, as this cools it down.  I also learnt that the better doughnuts were the ones that were rolled the thinnest.  I’m not very good at rolling out dough (I’m way too impatient to wait for it to bend to my will) but I eventually learnt the knack and the extra effort was worth it.

So the doughnuts, like the weather, turned out to be very nice, but still a disappointment for someone expecting something else.  In fairness to the recipe, these are tasty, but a cookbook devoted purely to dangerously unhealthy doughnuts is on its way at the moment.  Sorry to all the super-tanned summer fans out there, but I’ll also be hoping that those sunny, cold, real autumn days are on their way too.

White Chocolate and Strawberry Jam Muffins

I’m told that it is socially acceptable to eat muffins for breakfast, even if they contain very breakfast-unfriendly things.  My love for chocolate is well-documented, and while I approve of chocolate mixed into breakfast things – Coco Pops, Nutella, Coco Pops Munchers – I cannot reconcile lumps of it for breakfast.  However, I decided to put my personal feelings aside and make something that people could eat at breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Or even brunch.  So I settled on muffins; but what kind?  Chocolate seemed obvious (at least to me) and something healthy.  OK, so jam is not that healthy, but it contains fruit and gives lovely gooey centre.

I used the Hummingbird bakery’s recipe for blueberry muffins, then mixed in about half a jar of jam and folded in 200g of chopped up white chocolate.  I spooned the mixture into cases then added a teaspoonful of jam to each one, and popped them in the oven.

They did taste of strawberry jam, so that much was a success.  The problem was that the jam and chocolate chunks sunk to the bottom of the muffins and stubbornly remained there while the rest of the cake obediently left the case.  In fairness, a combination of jam and chocolate doesn’t taste bad, but a combination of jam, chocolate and cake tastes better.  Next time, I will add the jam after the cakes have cooked, in order to guarantee gooey goodness at the centre.  

So they were a miss in terms of the ingredients staying in the cake, but the flavours worked well, turning it into something a bit like a glorified jam sandwich.  And they’re socially acceptable at whatever time of day; right?