Mark This Book for Monday Munchies: Making Cupcakes With Lola!

Hey there! I've been dragging a bit this Monday since I didn't get to sleep much last night, which tends to happen when I work morning shift after a few days off. But now, finally after dinner I've edited some photos for this entry, which is a combination of Mark This Book Monday and Monday Munchies!

Today I'm recommending a recipe book for cupcakes only, that came highly recommended from the very awesome Alma from Alma's Cupcakes when I asked her what book she'd recommend since I already had Cake Days, Primrose Bakery and Eat Me!, and without a doubt she recommended "Making Cupcakes With Lola", and was she right!

As much as I love the Primrose Bakery book and the Eat Me! books, and the Eat Me! book is full of awesome recipes, I adore this one cause it's JUST cupcakes, and it's the kinda book you open and start thinking "I wanna make this" *turn page* "and this!" *turn page* "ooooh, and this!!" and you can go on like that till you run out of pages! I usually put business cards to mark pages for recipes I like and want to make, and I can barely close the book with the amount of cards marking recipes! I think I need to get coloured post-it to avoid damaging the book!

Two of the first recipes I wanted to make and that jumped to the first line as soon as I saw them where the Masala Chai tea cupcakes and the Matcha Chocolate cupcakes! I love tea, and I love chocolate, and I love having chai when I'm in India so those two were a MUST!

So, last Friday I was meeting my friends from college, Pilu and I were having lunch at the new Indian restaurant (and only one, I might add) in town (they have Kingfisher!! = Indian beer) and then we were meeting Esther and Sara for coffee, so I decided to make both recipes on Thursday to have them ready for Friday. I wanted to make half the recipe for both, but since the matcha chocolate cupcakes recipe calls for an egg, and seriously, half an egg? Well, I made 12 of those, and 6 of the masala chai cupcakes!

According to Alma's scale of goodness based on how long the mmmmmmm is, I have to say the masala chai cupcakes were the supreme champion! The three of them kept going "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" at every bite! And I have to say they were damned tasty! The buttercream was delicious, I added a bit of the milk with the tea even if wasn't supposed to be part of the recipe for it, but a bit of milk is a good idea to make the buttercream manageable and not too thick! Which was the problem with the matcha buttercream, a bit too thick, even if I added a bit of milk too. But experimenting is half the fun! I'm thinking of trying the buttercream in this chai recipe with the vegan chai cupcakes from the "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World". And I think I really need to try the recipe for green tea buttercream from the Primrose Bakery book.

And aside from that, I also wanted to share a recipe from the book that I modified to make it a bit more "parents-with-high-cholesterol" friendly, and also added a bit more spice to it, I made it with my friend Irene on Sunday morning!:


Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Makes 12-15

Ingredients:

- 175 gr whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 a pinch f salk
- 2 eggs
- 200 gr brown sugar
- 100 ml vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 large carrots, peeled and finely grated
- 40 gr canned crushed pineapple, drained (or just finely chop canned pineapple and drain well)
- 3 tablespoons chopped walnuts.

Method:

- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Line the cupcake pan with paper liners
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger and salt in a bowl.
- Put the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat until thick and well combined. Add the oil and the vanilla and beat until smooth.
- Add the sifted dry ingredients and beat on low speed/by hand until combined. Stir in the carrots, pineapple and walnuts and mix well.
- Divide the mixture between the muffin cases. Bake in the preheated over for 22-25 minutes or until well risen and a toothpick/cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then on a wire rack till they're cool enough to decorate.

I used the Cream Cheese Frosting according to the book directions, but I think next time, I'll just make them without frosting, cause they're so very yummy, very fluffly and very moisty! And if I make the frosting, I'll use the one Alma gave us in her latest workshop!

Friday Feature: Alma's Cupcakes: Romantic Cupcakes Workshop!

Brrrrr! How's everyone doing? How are my fellow Europeans under the Siberian cold wave? So far here, as in Alcalá and Madrid there's no snow, only cold, and today it's less windy, so it seems less cold than yesterday. Still, a good day to not go out much, but if you have the busiest day, socially speaking, of the last month, it's time to wear warm coat, mittens, scarf and hat!

Today for Friday Feature I wanna share the photos of the other Cupcakes workshop I did last Friday, again with Alma's Cupcakes, the same awesome lady from the beginner's workshop I did on November. This time the workshop was to decorate romantic cupcakes very fitting for the approaching date of V-day. Alma gave us a dossier with recipes and tricks, sharing her new recipe for Red Velvet cupcakes, and then while the cupcake were baking, it was time to start making the decorations!

As in the beginners workshop we started using paste colours and sugar paste/fondant to achieve the colours we want to use for our decorations, using 1/3 of the fondant we were given, and reserving the rest for later.

We learnt to make fondant roses by hand, that are absolutely lovely, quite a bit of work, even more the tiny ones, but also very relaxing! For some reason you completely focus on rolling the fondant and cutting and all that, and your mind completely relaxes and stops going in circles! We made a bow by hand too, used silicone moulds again, and I very happily discovered a brand of fondant that doesn't stick to them as much!

Alma also taught us how to cover a cupcake with fondant and then apply decorations to it, and also, how to use food grade stencils with lustre dust on fondant to create loads of lovely shapes! Using them totally inspired me to work on some awesome St Patrick's Day cupcakes next month! I already ordered the stencils from a pair of webpages in the US, and I'm currently waiting for them to arrive!

The fondant bow, a heart covered with flowers, a silicon mold rose and stenciled cupcake! 

The six cupcakes we decorated and took home!

Tiny fondant roses bouquet (I saved this one, couldn't eat it!)

Bigger roses, with 3 and 5 petals, another one I couldn't eat!

The leaves were made with texturized fondant cutters (that I need!)

Fondant covered cupcakes, with flowers and hearts made with fondant cutters

Next, swirly rose made with buttercream, and fondant rose made with a silicon mold and covered with a wee bit too much edible sparkly dust!

Swirly fondant rose, and on top fondant with a design done using stencils, I love that technique! 

And the fondant bow, used textures and the cut it and shaped it by hand!

I had such a blast with Alma, and her helper, her mom! They both are amazing, so nice, so kind and so funny! Doing workshops with them is always a joy! And that's why the spots for their workshops are gone within less than an hour of being available! Next, I want to attend the workshop for Children oriented decorations! Let's see if I'm fast enough when they come out!

Thank you Alma and Ratatouille for an amazing time, and thanks to my fellow workshop attendees, we found zen on making fondant roses!

Monday Munchies: Mimosa cupcakes & a bonus recipe for healthier than usual cupcakes

Hello everyone! It's a new Monday, and that means either a recipe or a book recommendation, but giving my latest obsession with baking, it's once again time for Monday Munchies, and this time I'm not sharing one but two recipes! And to make the start of Monday better, both are for cupcakes!


I'm gonna start with a recipe of my own invention for Mimosa cupcakes, based on a recipe from Alma's Cupcakes I modified and using some other bits from a recipe for The Cookie Girl's book.


Mimosa cupcakes
Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the base cupcakes:
- 115 gr unsalted butter
- 220 gr granulated sugar
- 250 gr plain flour
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 70 ml skimmed milk
- 50 ml champagne
- 2 eggs

For the orange curd filling:
- 85 gr unsalted butter
- 60 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
- 2 large eggs plus two egg yolks
- 110 gr caster sugar
- grated zest of one big orange
- 1-2 tablespoons champagne

For the buttercream:
- 250 gr unsalted butter, room temperature
- 300 gr icing sugar
- 4 tablespoons champagne
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- grated zest of 1 orange
- Orange colouring to taste

Method:

For the base cupcake:
- Preheat over 180ºC/350ºF and line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
- Beat sugar and butter together till well mixed and it starts to lighten. Add eggs, one by one, beating well till they're well integrated.
- Sift flour with baking powder together, add half of it to the butter and beat at low speed, add the milk. Then add the other half of the flour to the mixture and lastly add the champagne.
- Distribute the butter evenly between the paper cases till they're 2/3 full. Bake for about 20 to 22 minutes. Make sure they're done by inserting a toothpick, it will come out clean. Let them cool in the pan for 5 mins and then transfer to a rack to finish cooling completely.

For the orange curd filling:
- While the cupcakes are baking, heat the butter and orange juice in a pan over medium heat until the butter is melted. In a medium bowl whisk the eggs, egg yolks and sugar together, pour the butter & orange mix, whisk everything together well, and put it back into the pan.
- Continue cooking over medium heat until it reaches boiling point and it starts to thicken, it should be about 5 minutes, remember to stir often so it doesn't stick to the pan.
- Remove from the heat into the bowl and add the orange zest. Once it cools, add the champagne to taste.
- Any left overs can be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Now fill the cupcakes with the curd, using an apple corer to make your holes in the cupcakes, fill them with the curd and add a little bit of the cupcake you took out to close it again.

For the champagne buttercream:
- This is the moment that I absolutely adore my KitchenAid more than I could ever think I'd love a kitchen appliance, and also the moment when I need to cover my dear Miss Marple (yes, I named her Miss Marple) with a kitchen towel to avoid the dreaded icing sugar storm!
- Sift the icing sugar and add it with the butter and the champagne to the KA bowl. Start mixing first at low speed for about 1 minute and then for 5 more minutes at high speed.
- Now you can use the food colouring. I wanted the frosting to look a bit like orange juice, but I only had an Americolor orange, and ended up with these lovely salmon cupcakes instead. I just didn't want to add more colour and end up with neon orange cupcakes!
- Decorate using Wilton's 2D pipping tip to make pretty roses and add some sprinkles to top them up. Some sugarpaste orange wedges would have looked very cute too!

And now, for today's second recipe, one that I was super happy to find at La Dulce Magdalena's blog! This recipe is for more-healthy-than-usual Red Berries Cupcakes! As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it for my parents (their high cholesterol leves means they can't really eat any butter-filled cupcakes) and also, it's ideal for my vegan friends to try, since they only have to find a replacement for the eggs and egg whites in the frosting! So without further ado, I give you Magda's Red Berries Cupcakes!


Red Berries Cupcakes with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
Makes 12

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
- 150 gr non-hydrogenated soy margarine
- 190 gr cane brown sugar (non refined)
- 1 vanilla bean
- 2 eggs (or egg replacement)
- 80 ml soy milk
- 190 gr whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
- A handful of frozen or fresh red berries, I added red cranberries

For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
- 4 pasteurized egg whites (or egg whites replacer)
- 220 gr granulated sugar (important, NOT icing sugar for this one)
- 340 gr non-hydrogenated soy margarine
- Here the recipe called for raspberry extract and pureed red berries to add, but since I had only the red cranberries for the butter and no raspberry extract, I added 1 teaspoon lemon extract.

Method:

For the cupcakes:
- Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF and line the cupcake pan with paper liners.
- With a knife open the vanilla bean and scrap the seeds. Mix them with the sugar and soy margarine and cream together for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs, one by one, beating well after each one. Next, add the soy milk beating till well incorporated.
- Sift together flour and bicarbonate of soda and add to the batter, mixing till well incorporated, don't overbeat. Now add the red berries mixing with a spatula.
- Distribute the batter evenly between the paper liners, about 3/4 full, depending on how many berries you've added, the more berries the less they'll rise in the oven.
- Bake for about 25 minutes, test with a toothpick. Leave to cool in the pan for 5 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to let cool completely.

For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream:
- Heat up water in wide pan, put the egg whites and sugar in a medium bowl (that will fit our pan) and using the bain-marie method, heat up the egg whites and sugar, it should reach 60ºC, but if you don't have thermometre, leave it on medium heat and stir till all the sugar is well integrated, no grains left.
- Tranfer this to the cold KA bowl (I left it for a while in the balcony in Jan, very effective), let it cool for a bit, and beat on high speed till the meringe starts forming soft peaks, and they're cooled off (that's very important!) we start adding little by little the soy margarine in pieces. Again I'll say it, make sure when you start adding the margarine, the egg whites mix are not hot, or the margarine will melt and it'll be a disaster of epic proportions and non-salvageable.
- After adding all the margarine, add the extract and beat on high speed for about 8 to 10 minutes. Now, in the beginning it'll look all curdled and icky, but no worries, it'll get better! Keep on beating and you'll get the most light, bright and fuffly meringe buttercream ever! If you wanna add the the pureed berries, lower the speed, add it and beat till combined.
- I used Wilton 1M pipping tip to create some nice roses with it!

After making this amazing Swiss Meringue buttercream I just had to kiss my KA!

And I leave you with these two recipes and some nice & yummy looking photos. Have a great week!

Monday Munchies: Chocolate with Fluff and Nutella Cupcakes!

Hey there! Late Monday today entry today, cause I've gone to have breakfast with my friends with uni (I took some carrot cake cupcakes with me for them) and then came home for lunch and then straight to work, so I'm just sharing my first improvisation for cupcakes that I made for my youngest nephew, Alex!

So for Monday Munchies: Chocolate with fluff & nutella cupcakes! For the base cupcakes, I used the chocolate recipe from Alma's Cupcakes (from the little booklet with recipes that she gave us during the beginners' course).

Chocolate with fluff & nutella cupcakes!

Makes 12

Ingredients:

- 115 gr butter, room temperature

- 220 gr granulated sugar

- 2 medium sized eggs

- 240 gr plain flour

- 30 gr cocoa powder (without sugar)

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 120 ml semi skimmed milk

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

- Preheat the oven at 180ºC (350ºF). Line the cupcake pan with paper cases.

- Cream the butter with the sugar till whitens and is well mixed. Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each one till it's well combined.

- Sift together the flour, with the baking powder and cocoa. In a glass mix the milk with the vanilla extract.

- Add half the flour to the mixture and mix well, then add half the milk and beat till well combined again, then add the other half of the flour, beat well and lastly, add the rest of the milk.

- Distribute the mixture on the paper cases, till about 2/3. Bake for about 22 to 25 minutes, or till a toothpick comes out clean,

- Let cool in the cupcake pan for about 5 mins, and then place in a rack to let cool completely.

Once cooled off, with an apple corer, take a bit off each cupcake, taking care not to get to the bottom of the cupcake!

Then fill them up (not till the very top!) with Fluff! (Marshmallow cream, yum!), I used a pipping bag to fill them up.

Once they're full with Fluff, it's time to put back the chocolate bit we took out, though the Fluff might pop it out a bit! To fix that, I melted a bit of Nutella (I did it in the oven, since it was hot from baking them), and I used it to cover the cupcakes, to keep the chocolate bit in and to finish it off! I added a few snowflake sprinkles!

They looked pretty nice, and Alex absolutely loved them!!

Monday Munchies: Cupcakes Workshop with Alma's Cupcakes!!

Hello everyone! How's the week starting? I hope very good, and if not... take a peek at all the yummy pics I'm sharing with you in this entry, and you'll be sure to cheer up!

This past Saturday I finally attended a course/workshop by Alma of Alma's Cupcakes and Objetivo: Cupcake Perfecto for beginners. After reading Alma's blog, trying some of recipes and seeing all her amazing progress in the world of cakes, cupcakes and cookies, I was extremely excited to attend this 4 hour-class and it was everything I expected and more! Not only I got tons of practical tips and recommendations, learnt about fondant and ingredients, but also had an absolute blast with Alma, her mother (the helper) and the other ladies that were attending the workshop (with my friend Esther too!).

Since my poor brain it's not at its best today, after two night shifts on a row, and depriving myself of sleep during the day so I can sleep tonight, I'm just gonna say a few things: I'm even more obsessed with cupcakes and baking in general, I have a mile long list of things to buy and I NEED A KITCHEN AID!!!

Now, before going for the photos... THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, ALMA!!

Alma's super cute logo

Alma's Peggy Porchen's rose!

Getting a cupcake ready to be filled in with yumminess

The working table, with the materials and the recipe book!

Esther and me, with Alma, the most adorable teacher in existence!

The workshop was already decorated for Xmas!

Esther posing with one of the cupcakes made by Alma

Another amazing flower cupcake made by Alma!

Amazing cakes!

The cakes with Peggy roses!

These are the cupcakes that Esther decorated!

I made too many fondant decorations that I took home with me!

My cupcakes ready to take home and my diploma!

Cookie monster, Yoda, Bobba Fett...

My six cupcakes! They're so cute I don't wanna eat them!!

A Handmade Birthday!

Hallo everyone! Such a late entry!

But, it's gonna be a short one too, cause today is my birthday!! (less than an hour left here in Spain) And I just wanna share a few photos of some new food I've made today for my own (and friends & family) treat, and how I've celebrated my b-day!

Yesterday I went with two of my besties to Madrid, to try cupcakes in a few bakeries that I discovered through Objetivo Cupcake, and to buy some baking goodies at some of the shops that I found out about in the same blog! Pilu, Sara & myself started the afternoon eating sushi for lunch, yum yum!

Sara & Pilu!!

Sporting my Vivifromage Sushi top!

Afterwards, we went on search for cupcakes! We started with Happy Day Bakery, a bakery with a lot of American style and very yummy cupcakes too! I tried a Red Velvet and it was really nice!

We decided to drop by Comercial Minguez, a shop for everything baking related, and I was so overwhelmed that I only bought a pair of sprinkles and some super cute liners for Holidays time... and! I saw Alma, from Alma's Cupcakes, my future cupcake teacher! But since I wasn't sure it was her, I was a bit shy to go and ask her... silly me!

Then we went to Cream Bakery, but it was closed cause they were prepping for Sugar'09, the baking national fair that is this week, and so were other shops that I had checked online, so we decided to go back home. We've agreed we need to plan another trip for more cupcakes!

Today, for my birthday lunch, I decided I wanted to make home made mini pizzas, with goat's cheese and zucchini, and chicken brochettes! The mini pizzas recipe will be up on the blog soon, and the chicken brochettes recipe is HERE!

And in the afternoon and evening I had some friends come over, to spend some time catching up, so I baked some Chai Latte cupcakes, with a recipe from "Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World" and instead of the suggested icing, I used a honey buttercream from a new blog I've discovered, Carrot Cake! Very yummy!!




I got some nice pressies, some of them handmade! and also spent some awesome time with friends and family, so it was a very nice birthday! Tomorrow will go back to work, with the leftover cupcakes, to share with my co-workers!

Monday Munchies: Chocolate cashew cupcakes with cream cheese and orange marmalade icing by Alma's Cupcakes!

Hello everyone! How's the week starting? I hope that at the worst, as good as mine is!

This week is my b-day week, so I've decided to pamper myself as much as possible! And to start the week right, I've been to the Spa this morning where I got a Japanese treatment and a full body massage... bliss!

And to share a little bit of goodness with you all, I'm sharing a super yummy cupcake recipe as my Monday Munchies entry of this week!

As usual as of late, this recipe is taken from Alma's Cupcakes blog: Objetivo: Cupcake Perfecto, but it's a bit of a mix of two of her recipes.

Chocolate & cashews cupcakes with cream cheese & orange marmalade icing!

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

- 100 gr white sugar

- 100 gr unsalter butter

- 100 gr regular flour

- 2 eggs

- 3 tablespoons cocoa

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- 1 tablespoon milk

- 2 tablespoon crushed cashews

Method:

- Preheat the oven at 180ºC (350ºF) and put the cupcake liners in the mold. Cream sugar and butter until white and fluffy. Shift the cocoa, flour and baking podwer all together and add to the butter and sugar mix, folding carefully, add the milk and mix till well combined.

- Once well mixed, add the crushed cashews and fold in. Fill the liners up to 2/3 only and bake for about 20 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

For the cream cheese & orange marmalade icing (I used Alma's recipe for the cream cheese icing for her Red Velvet cupcakes, just adding the marmalade):

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons orange marmalade

- 125 gr cream cheese (the full fat version, Philadelphia style)

- 60 gr unsalted butter (room temperature).

- 300 gr icing sugar

Method:

- Mix the icing sugar with the butter (be careful, if doing it by KitchenAid or similar, cover it first). Once it's well mixed, add the cream cheese and mix till white & creamy, don't overmix it or it will get melty. Then mix the orange marmalade and fold it in. I'd recommend mixing only one tablespoon in two times, so it won't change the consistency of the icing too much. You can pipe the icing with a pastry bag or with a spoon for a more rustic look.

- You can decorate with some cute sprinkles, or if you don't have any, add a cashew on top of each cupcake as I did!

- Enjoy! Yum, yum!

Monday Munchies: Alma's Red Velvet Cupcakes!!

Hey, hi, hello everyone! Today might be Monday, but since it's my day off, and I'm in a bit of a sugar high... it's a pretty good day for me! ;)

For Monday Munchies this week I'm sharing a recipe from Objetivo: Cupcake Perfecto, the blog of my cupcake inspiration and future teacher in a workshop, Alma from Alma's Cupcakes!

Here's her recipe: Red Velvet Cupcakes, and for those who can't figure out the Spanish via Google translate, here's the one you can find in Joy Of Baking, that is essentially the same. For me it's just that Alma gives you some tricks to adapt things to the Spanish way (how to sub for the buttermilk) and she makes it sound simple (and delicious) enough to make you want to try it!

And now, to show off some pics of the process!:

Here the batter looked that I had overdone the red food colouring...

Alma's recipe was for 8 big cupcakes, but I got 11 regular sized ones!

Cream cheese icing: sinfully delicious!!

Once they were done I ate two cupcakes on a row... and that's a first!

Six of them all ready to be taken to work tomorrow!

My icing abilities still need a lot of work, but with the Wilton 1M tip from Alma's kit from For The Cakes and Alma's tutorials, I'm getting better! I do need that November workshop, but I won't be such a lost case for Alma then!

These have become my favourite cupcakes, no contest! The icing is delicious (after eating what was left in the pastry bag, I decided I needed to wash the bowl before I ended up licking it clean!) and the cupcakes themselves are really fluffy and just plain yum!