When I was 12, I went to the Barossa with my Mum to do some catering work one weekend. I was to help prepare desserts and bring the empty plates back in so we could clear them away. The dessert was sticky date with a toffee shard. I’m nearly 23 years old now, and to this day I have never tasted a sticky date pudding as delicious and memorable as that one. Do you have desserts like that? Or food? Memories associated with food… Mmmmm, food.

Unless I’m completely blind, the supermarkets never used to sell diced dates like this, and the other day I saw they did, so it makes life a lot easier when preparing these because dicing dates takes FOREVER and I’m super impatient.

You absolutely don’t need frosting for these if you don’t want – they are super sweet and moist so you can get away with it. Otherwise, you can look up butterscotch frosting and you’re set. But prepare to go into a sugar coma!

Sticky Date Cupcakes (makes 12)

Ingredients:

• 200g Diced Dates
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 60g unsalted butter
• 200g SR Flour
• 125g brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250ml water

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Put the dates and the water into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Take off of the heat and stir in the bicarb, then add the butter and stir until all melted.
3. Sift the flour into a bowl, add the sugar and combine. Add the date mixture and eggs, and stir until all just combined.
4. Divide into cupcake cases and bake for 17-20 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

Delicious!

This is by far the best and most reliable vegan cupcake recipe I have ever used. Every single time it has come out perfectly, with no hint of it even being vegan – the guests don’t have a clue! And when they find out, they’re amazed they are vegan!

The first time I made these for an order was for the lovely Bel who still even now continues to rave about them

They contain no egg and no dairy, and the substitutes used here are water (to replace milk), vinegar (to replace egg, in a way) and Nuttelex (to replace butter).

• 250ml water (room temperature ~23C)
• 90g Nuttelex / Butter / Margarine (softened)
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla (use just a teaspoon if using butter)
• 1 3/4 cups Plain Flour
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Put liquids and butter (or whatever you use) in first and then add all sifted dry ingredients on top.
3. Mix until all combined thoroughly, divide into cupcake cases.
4. Bake in oven for 17-20 minutes. Use a skewer to check if they’re done or they will lightly spring back when touched.

If you would like them to be chocolate, simply add some sifted cocoa into the mixture when you’re combining the ingredients. It should only take 1-2 tablespoons worth to flavour the mix. Enjoy!

Edit: A few people have asked about icing. I make my buttercream always the same way, one part butter (or replacement) and two parts icing sugar. Add a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Yum

We have success! This went off in the end so perfectly, but I was stressing about not having enough time.. I always over stress, don’t I? I am baking for a promo event on Friday and I will also be appearing at a primary school Ladies Night with my first ever Cupcake Treats stall! But for now, onto the things you want to know…

Oh! I have added a contact page to this website, please send me all your questions if you have any and I will feature them so everyone can know the answer in a Q&A style. I get lots of comment questions and would love to share them!

The Giant Cupcake

Earlier in the week I ordered one of the silicon giant cupcake moulds that are on special and all over informercials. I have to say, I am pretty disappointed. Not only did I use the wrong mixture so my cake didn’t rise high enough (my fault) but when the skewer came out clean and I took it out and got it out to cool, a lot of the mixture had stuck to the sides and didn’t peel away neatly.

Sooo off to the Wilton tin and a different recipe and we have success. I baked the giant cupcake the night before as it is extremely hard to level out the top and bottom when it’s fresh without making a very very big crumbly mess!

I recommend for this that you have a large cake leveller – I know it is a lot of money, but it makes all the difference. You can use any regular cake recipe, or a double cupcake recipe, as one is not enough.

The Frosting

After a discussion with the customer on Friday, due to the weather and the day delay before the event, we decided to go with buttercream instead of whipped cream as the frosting base, and added a lot of crushed Oreo into the mix right at the end.

Paw Prints

If you want to cut anything out of Oreo’s like the picture you will need a metal cookie cutter (plastic might not be strong enough) that is small enough to get your shape. Put all the Oreos IN THE FRIDGE. Cutting them at room temperature will cause them all to fall apart and crack pretty much instantly.

When you’re ready to attempt to cut them out:

1) Place your cookie cutter over the Oreo and press down slightly to make an indent so it doesn’t slip
2) As it is probably uncomfortable to push down with your hands, get a large kitchen utensil (we used a potato masher) or something flat to put over the top and push down really hard.
3) Take the leftovers away and the Oreo should still be inside the cookie cutter. Press down around the edges gently to ease it out, and set it aside.

They are always going to be very fragile, so be careful not to crack either biscuit layer, and when you put them on the cupcake push them right into the buttercream so they don’t move.

Last week was a busy one for the business – I had one major corporate order and then a small donation order for a friend of my Mum’s who was leaving the child care centre where my siblings attend. We decided to make ‘Good Luck’ Cupcakes, with my new red fondant (beats hand colouring!) and some letter cutters.

These cupcakes are simply vanilla cake base with white rolled fondant and then red fondant star shapes and letters. A very simple but very cute way of getting a message across

I’d like to present an improved Vanilla recipe, which is based off of the very tasty Chocolate one, which is a very spongy moist cupcake.

Vanilla Cupcakes

• 1 cup SR Flour
• 1/3 cup Plain Flour
• 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
• 110-120g butter (it depends on how moist you like them)
• 2 eggs
• 1/2  -  3/4 cup milk (depending on batter)
• 2/3 cup caster sugar

Method:

1. Line cupcake trays. Preheat oven to 170C (160 fan-forced). Beat softened butter, add sugar and vanilla essence.
2. Add eggs one at a time, beating until just combined.
3. Add half of the flour (sifted) with 1/4 cup of milk, and repeat for the remaining half. If the batter is too thick, add some more milk.
4. Spoon into cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out just clean. Check at 15 minutes!

Giant Cupcake Recipes are coming soon! Enjoy

The photo above was from my first test run of dairy-free. I chose to use one of my existing vanilla cupcake recipes but simply replace the dairy ingredients with Nuttelex and Soy Milk. As yucky as soy milk may sound to some people (my Twitter feed reacted quite strongly to the thought of it!) you can’t taste it at all in this recipe.

Dairy-Free Vanilla Cupcakes (makes approx 18 regular / 30 mini)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups Self-Raising Flour
• 2/3 cup Caster Sugar
• 2 eggs
• 115g Nuttelex (or any other vegan margarine)
• 1/2 cup Soy Milk
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 175C (160C fan forced). As always, I recommend you use an oven thermometer.
2. Beat the Nuttelex, sugar and vanilla essence together – you don’t need to pre-beat the Nuttelex as it’s already soft.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time and mix until combined. It might look as if it’s seperated at first but will mix together.
4. Sift the flour and add half in with half of the soy milk. Repeat with the remaining half.
5. At this stage, if it seems too thick, add 1-2 tablespoons worth of soy milk, but don’t add too much!
6. Spoon into cases and bake for 15 minutes or until skewer comes out clean.

“Buttercream” Frosting

Ingredients

• 150g Nuttelex
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence
• 3 – 4 cups Icing Sugar (sifted)
• 1 – 2 tablespoons Soy Milk

Method

1. Beat Nuttelex with Icing Sugar (and vanilla essence), adding it one sifted cup at a time.
2. It should start to get fairly thick after the third cup – you might not need a fourth. Give it a taste test to see if the balance of sugar and Nuttelex is even. If you find it is too thick, add the soy milk in in very very small amounts (that’s why I’ve written maybe 1-2 tablespoons) until it is at the right consistency to pipe or spread on the cupcakes.

Remember, if it’s too thick and you use a plastic disposable piping bag, it’ll split the sides of the bag. I know this from experience If you’re not sure how thick it should be, it should be thick enough to hold it’s shape but not too thick that when you mix it by hand it is tiring. If you add too much liquid in, you’ll have to add a whole lot more icing sugar to even it out.

Here’s what the second run looked like (using fondant hearts and colouring in the icing)

Happy baking!

I finally figured it out to a standard I’m happy with.

When I made these cupcakes for the first time I used liquid food colouring. After that, I had the Wilton gel and used that for a few times. I was still getting the bright pinky colour and was scratching my head. Gel colouring is great for colouring fondant but not really in baking.

After a bit of research and the last post where I was voicing my concerns for the loss of the red cake, I have worked it out.

Red Velvet Cupcakes (makes 12 large or 18 mini)

Ingredients

• 1 cup Self-Raising Flour
• 115g unsalted butter (also known as roughly one stick of butter)
• 1/3 cup Caster Sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon cocoa
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• cochineal and red liquid food colouring

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 175C (160C for fan forced). This is also the point where I remind you that having an oven thermometer is one of the greatest things you can do for your baking!
2. Beat butter until fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla and mix until all combined.
3. Add eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
4. In a seperate cup, measure out the buttermilk and add cochineal and red food colouring until you have a bright red. Only add a little bit at a time to see the colour start to come through. Mix it through with a small whisk, as buttermilk is thicker than normal milk. (FYI, cochineal is a dark purpley-red colour, so you’ll want to add that first, mix, and follow with red).
5. Sift flour and cocoa and add half into the mixture with half of your red buttermilk. You should get a red that’s not too fluroescent and not too light, thanks to the cocoa and cochineal colours. Add the other halves and mix until combined but don’t overmix.
6. If you’re not happy with the colour here, add a little bit more red/cochineal colouring. Don’t add anymore cocoa to try and get it darker or it will go more of a brown than a red. For reference, I don’t use any more than a teaspoon of cochineal and a tablespoon of red.
7. Spoon it into your baking cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Check at the 15 minute mark. If you leave them in too long, they will brown on the top and contrast with the red of the cake.

It always seems they’re not quite done when you poke a skewer in and it comes out clean, but the top springs back a lot. Believe in the skewer – and point it in on an angle if you’re unsure to double check. And don’t delay – they really do start turning brown quickly and you want them as spongy and red as you can get.

Leave them to cool completely before you store them anywhere or the cases will peel away from the cupcakes (due to humidity in cooling).

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 225g Philadelphia cream cheese (cold)
• 110g unsalted butter (close to room temperature, but not too melty)
• 3-4 cups sifted pure icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk (only if really needed)

1. Beat the butter until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and icing sugar one cup at a time. I say 3-4 cups because it depends on how the butter responds, especially what temperature it is at.
2. When the sugar and butter are all combined and it’s a huge gluggy mess your mixer is having trouble with, throw in the cream cheese (chopped). It should mix through straight away.
3. Mix until *just* combined and taste test – if it tastes like all the ingredients it’s done. If it tastes too cream cheese or butter mix some more until it’s all combined.

The key to this is not to overmix it – as much as you want to! You should have a nice thick sweet tasting frosting with that cream cheese kick. If it’s too thick to pipe, leave it for 3-4 minutes covered in cling wrap or add a tiny bit of milk. If you add too much it’ll go runny beyond repair so be veeery careful with adding liquids at the end.

As a little extra, the hearts in the picture are just white fondant, coloured with Wilton red gel colouring, and cut out with a tiny heart cutter I have for just that. I only use the 1M Wilton tip for piping as it’s the best icecream swirl there is.

I delivered a lot of orders for Cupcake Treats for this, as it was my Valentines special – and they are all amazingly perfect and taste delicious. I had some left over and my housemates loved them (so did all of my clients)!

All this considered, I decided to make a batch of double chocolate this morning. It was going to be triple chocolate but I ran out of chocolate!

Double Choc Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 120g butter (Normally it’s 100-110, but I am trying more as the weather is affecting them)
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• ½ cup milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180ºC or 160ºC fan forced. This is where the oven thermometer comes in handy!
2. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until all combined. Add eggs one by one and mix until just mixed through.
3. In a seperate bowl, sift the Self Raising flour and cocoa. Add to the mixture with milk. Stir until just combined.
4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Genache Frosting

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup Thickened Cream
• 200g Dark Chocolate (You can use milk chocolate if you like, I used a combination of both as I was running low)

Method:

1. Break the cooking chocolate into pieces and put aside in a bowl that will be large enough to hold the chocolate and cream.
2. Put the cream into a small saucepan and stir over medium heat. Bring to the boil.
3. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the bowl and stir until chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. This may take up to five minutes before everything melts through.
4. Leave the bowl to cool down and then place in the fridge until cold, but not solid. If you’re in doubt about whether it is ready to use, take the bowl out and mix thoroughly with a large spoon. If it holds when you tip the bowl onto its side (and doesn’t move) it’s ready.

If you’re piping it with a plastic piping bag, be careful – if the grenache is too thick you will split the piping bag for sure. You can always leave the bowl on your kitchen bench for five minutes and try to pipe it again.

These tasted magnificent! Happy baking xx

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 100g butter, softened
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. Lightly beat the eggs, add the butter, vanilla and sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
3. Add half the flour and milk and mix until just combined, then repeat with the remaining half.
4. Line a cupcake pan with paper cases. This recipe can make up to 18, even though it actually says 12!
5. Fill the cases to just above half and put in the oven for 15-20 minutes. Test if they are ready when a skewer comes out clean.

And now for the butterfly part!

Buttercream Ingredients:

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 cup butter, room temperature

Buttercream Method:

1. Mix all ingredients until well combined. It should be a light and fluffy texture. Add more icing sugar if it is too runny or if the butter taste is still very strong.
2. Place mixture into a piping bag/gun and set aside.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut a circle into the top of each cupcake. You can do this from a downwards sloping angle so it creates a crater. Take the top off but don’t throw it away, this will become the wings!
4. Pipe the centre with icing. Cut the top in half and place it into the icing standing upright as wings.
5. Dust with icing sugar.

A bit of background: I LOVE STICKY DATE PUDDING. When I was 11, I did some catering work with my Mum up in the Barossa, and we were serving a lunch and dessert combo at a wine event. It was.. some mignon thing, and the greatest sticky date pudding I’ve ever had in my life. Since then, I’ve been unable to find one the same. It was just magnificent. Maybe one day I’ll be able to recreate that delicious flavour… *sighs*

But we’re talking cupcakes here not puddings! But.. The reason these are sticky maple and not sticky date is that… uhh.. I didn’t really feel like using dates. I found this recipe that included real maple syrup and wanted to give it a go, as I thought it would be a really interesting flavour.

Ingredients:

• 50g Butter
• 100g Brown Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 2 tbsp Maple Syrup (if you can, try to use real maple syrup)
• 150g Self-Raising Flour

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160C and line your cupcake tin with 12 cases.
2. Cream butter and sugar, add maple syrup.
3. Add 2 lightly beaten eggs until just combined (don’t overmix)
4. Add in the flour a little bit at a time. If the mix is too thick, add the third egg and mix through.
5. Spoon into the cases and bake for 15-20 minutes. Use a skewer or piece of spaghetti to see if it’s ready, as if you press the top it will feel like it’s not done. If the skewer comes out clean, take them out!
6. Put somewhere to cool and enjoy.

Now as you can see from the picture I didn’t decorate it (I actually ran out of energy this day, we made three different lots and it was hot), but here’s the recipe I would have used. Note that this IS a syrup like the sticky date puddings have, so if you want this to be easy to eat at a party/something, you might want to do it in a smaller quantity and drizzle over the top lightly.

Syrup Ingredients

• 3/4 cup Brown Sugar (sorry about the change in measurements, I know the actual recipe is in grams!)
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1/4 cup boiling water

Syrup Method:

1. Combine all ingredients until melted/mixed and microwave for a minute or so. It should be a slightly thin liquid mixture. If you let it sit for a little while it should turn into a thick syrup, but don’t let it cool down too much.
2. Poke a few holes with skewers in the top of each cupcake and use a teaspoon to drizzle the mix down into the cupcake. Each cupcake should have about 3 teaspoons worth.

Finally, to decorate, whip up some cream and pipe a small swirl on the top, and drizzle a little bit of cooled syrup over the cream. You can skip the above step and just do this one if you don’t want the potential mess. Ready to serve, yum!

I’ve been so busy lately organising things for Cupcake Camp Adelaide, testing out new recipes and sourcing the finest bakers… This afternoon I got a burst of energy after spending the last five days with this mutant cold/flu thing. I’m on the mend, so here’s what I did today.

JELLY. SLICE. CUPCAKE THINGS. They’re cheesecake, jelly and awesome all in a cupcake case. Here’s the recipe and all the tips you’ll need to make it successfully.

Method:

• Crumb the Yo-Yo biscuits, pour over the melted butter and mix well.
• Line a cupcake tin (or two) with 12-18 cupcake cases. It depends on how much you put in each one to how many you’ll end up with.
• Press an equal amount of biscuit base into each one with the back of a spoon. If you need to, you can use your fingers to press out around the edges.
• Dissolve two heaped teaspoons of Gelatine into 3/4 cup of hot water.
• Beat the condensed milk in a clean bowl, slowly adding the Gelatine mixture. Add the lemon juice and continue to beat for 3-4 minutes.
• Pour onto the biscuit base of each case.

Now, the way I did this part is that I poured the mixture until the biscuit base was just covered. It actually seemed to be enough, so pour slowly and make sure every case you’ve lined with the base gets the gelatine/condensed milk mixture.

• Depending on the temperature of your kitchen, the mixture might set quickly but if it is warm pop the tray(s) into the fridge for five minutes.
• While it’s in the fridge, make up the jelly using 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. When it cools (this too you can put in the fridge) get the trays back out.

Note: If the gelatine layer hasn’t set enough and if the jelly mix is still too warm, the two layers will mix together. It’s all going in the fridge anyway, so when in doubt, put it back into the fridge for another 2-3 minutes!

• Pour the jelly over the back of a teaspoon so it doesn’t disrupt the gelatine layer and distribute the mixture evenly between all of your cases.
• Pop it in the fridge for an hour or two, and when the jelly has set, you’re done!

If you wanted to do this in a big slice form, you can use a big square pan and follow the same method! Just cut it up into squares afterwards (or fingers) and serve.

Yummy! The sticky maple and red velvet recipes will be along in the next two days, keep an eye out! Also you have until the 31st to register for my giveaway – comment on ANY entry to enter (to make it easier for you guys) and I’ll draw the winner on November 1st