Chocolate Cupcakes

Thousands flocked to Earls Court over the weekend to visit The Cake and Bake Show ... obvs I took my opportunity to go & be surrounded by baked goods for the day! Yes, guilty I was up bright and early to get to the train at silly o'clock on the Sunday! My sister and I just could not get over how busy it was. We knew it would be hectic as the show had sold out and more tickets had to be issued, who knew baking was so in vogue at the moment?!?! 

I would however like to highlight very clearly, that I was not one of the mob-frenzied crowd that were fighting for the free sugar samples and recipe cards. A couple of middle aged women got really rather irate at how they couldn't have a recipe card for the Mary Berry demonstration! However, this was nothing in comparison to the tousling for seats in the Cake Kitchen to see live demonstrations... It reminded me a bit of Michael McIntyre's budget airport queue sketch of when everyone is trying to predict when the plane is going to go, suddenly one person decides the plane might be going and then everyone decides 'the plane might be going' and the plane clearly hasn't arrived but everyone starts to queue and starts edging around the queue ... 'all a bit tense' was I think how Michael described the situation. 'All a bit tense' is how I would have described the pandemonium to get a good seat! 

As it happens we lucked out & got a front row view for Mary Berry's demonstration, she was just fab, rather witty and full of cake knowledge. She made a stunning hazelnut roulade, a classic chocolate cake and a tasty dark chocolate, stem ginger rocky road (I know because I had a piece...that woman can bake!)

So after graduating, I'm learning that you do indeed live for your weekends. I'm getting pretty fed up already with copious amounts of photos racking up in my facebook newsfeed of friends still at University having fun on a daily occurrence. So I figured it was only appropriate that I post a recipe that can be shared amongst new friends, old friends or just all for yourself! Hungover or just hungry! A solid dose of chocolate. Everyone likes chocolate, when I moved into halls at university the two sharing things my mummy sent me with were chocolates & a jar of coffee ... no one drank coffee, everyone ate chocolate!! 

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and grated chocolate ... not one bad word in that sentence! Unless you're weird & don't like chocolate. or allergic - I'll let you off.

Makes 16ish Cupcakes

(depending on how full you fill your cupcake cases)

Pre-heat oven to 180°C

Bake to perfection for 16-18 minutes

You will need the following:

Cake

175g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

75g Soft Brown Sugar

3 Eggs

175g Self Raising Flour

50g Cocoa Powder

50g Dark Chocolate, melted

1 Drop of Vanilla Essence

2Tbsp Yoghurt 

1Tsp Baking Powder

Icing

275g Icing Sugar

50g Cocoa Powder

50g Butter

2Tbsp Plain Yoghurt

Decoration

Chocolate for grating 

Edible gold dust if you're keen

Method:

Cream together your butter and sugars

Then sift in your cocoa powder

One at a time add the eggs, make sure each egg is fully combined before adding the next 

Sift in the flour 

Add the melted chocolate & vanilla essence 

Followed by the baking powder

Finally add in the yoghurt 

Divide your mixture into the cupcake cases. Either use an ice cream scoop and put one scoop in each case or fill the cases with mixture just over half way 

Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes, remembering the the golden rules of baking 

Whilst they are baking make the icing by combining the butter & yoghurt, then sift in the cocoa powder & icing sugar. 

Spread a tablespoon of icing on each cupcake 

If you're keen sprinkle with gold dust

It does look quite pretty...

 

Enjoy with friends, old or new ... or on your own!

Frozen Strawberry Yoghurt

"Adiós summer" is how I feel at the moment. The reality of the looming life post university is settling in, job hunting has commenced, friends are applying to jobs, starting their masters or moving into London and on top of the job wobbles, the weather is ducking and diving all over the place ... everything is incredibly shaky in life at the moment. I am stabling my life by organising 'things to look forward to' whilst I pace myself through the application process. My personal favourite is a winter holiday to Morocco; I have wanted to visit for a while now, so shall enjoy the chance to catch some pre-Christmas sun and explore the delicacies that Morocco has to offer! In the meantime, visiting friends is my perfect stabiliser for life at the moment!

So due to the vast amount of uncertainty and my worry that the warm summer days are drying up, I thought I would squeeze in a post that is a dead cert set (apologies)!! With gluts of strawberries on sale at the local market, we had too many to eat at once in our fridge. I thought it a good idea to make good of what we had surplus and make a slightly healthier alternative to ice cream... it is the last chance to get a summery blog in before my onslaught of all bakes autumn roll in! (I cannot wait)

You will need the following:

1 Tub of Plain Yoghurt

(500g or 1kg)

(not the fat-free or low-fat options)

300g Strawberries

1Tbsp Honey

1Tbsp Water

Method:

Chop up 50g of your strawberries and pop them into your tub of yoghurt.

Hull the rest of the strawberries and place them in a pan with the honey and water

Bring to the boil

Fold in your Strawberries

I decided to pop some of the mixture into little pots, to be able to serve with a hot pudding at some point!

Wait for several hours until yoghurt is frozen (best left overnight)

Serve on its own or with a pudding or cake of your choice!!

Enjoy ...