Friday Photos: Defiance by CJ Redwine inspired cupcakes!!

Hi there again!

Remember the cupcakes I was thankful yesterday for being inspired to make? Well, here you can read all about half of them! ;)

This Friday Photos is the result of my brain wave & inspiration yesterday to take part on a contest!

What contest you may be wondering? Well, as it happens, CJ Redwine the author of one of my favourite books from last year, Defiance, is hosting a contest on her blog for the chance to win an annotated ARC of the next book in the series, Deception! Getting any ARC is super cool (Advance Reader Copy) since the book doesn't come out till August, but an annotated one? That's like 10 times cooler!

The contest called for us the readers to create something inspired by Defiance, be it a poem, photos, a cake... and even though I'm thinking of also trying to get some photography inspired by the book done, I just got the idea of baking some cupcakes!

I wasn't too sure of how to decorate them, so I decided to re-read the book last night and instantly started getting ideas! So this morning I was up bright and early with plenty of energy and super excited to start baking and decorating!

 Yeah, those are all the tools involved... a wee bit of a mess!

The cupcakes recipe is for lemon cake cupcakes, since lemon cake is Rachel's (the main character) favourite dessert, with a lemon buttercream, with fondant decorations.

And then it was time to start piping the frosting to then decide how to distribute all the fondant decorations I had made.

Celtic knots, ribbons with initials, sticky buns, a wrapped parcel and leaves from the forest, it all has a significance in the book. I wanted to include one of the "Cursed Ones" but my modelling abilities are not up to par for a wingless dragon creature yet!

The Celtic knots might be my favourite part, I love how they look and I love using the stencils with fondant!

 Don't they look cool? I love those designs! Also, I spent quite some time trying to get a fondant colour that would match the cover colour! Yay for gel colours! At one point my hands were looking as if an unicorn had barfed on them, so many colours! I think after all the hand washing and the dish washing I got rid of all of them...

So there you go! Those are half the cupcakes that kept me busy and happy yesterday. Whatcha think? They're not poetry, but I think they look quite awesome, even if I say so myself! Wish me luck on the contest!

Thankful Thursday: Days off and inspiration.

Hello everyone!

I'm a bit behind on some of my book entries, cause I have a few reviews pending, but I've been down with a cold, and my brain wasn't at full capacity!

Today for Thankful Thursday I'm just happy for having days off to recover from being sick, to rest, to switch off my brain from work, and specially this week, for having the energy and inspiration to bake, decorate and photograph a special dozen of cupcakes!

I've had such a blast and I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, so I'm feeling quite grateful!


More on said cupcakes soon! ;)

Monday Munchies: Piwi's Tiramisu Cupcakes!

Hello everyone!

New Monday, new week and finally new blog entry and new recipe: Monday Munchies is back!

Quite a while back I shared the recipe of a Cottage Cheese Tiramisu that me and my mum found at our usual cooking magazine Cocina Fácil (Easy Cooking) that we modified a bit, and that everyone in the family totally adores! 

So it was only natural that I wanted to turn that recipe into cupcakes!

Piwi's Tiramisu Cupcakes

I opted for a basic vegan vanilla recipe for the base cupcake, since it'd be the most similar to the lady fingers taste.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup soy milk

- Pinch tumeric powder

- 1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar

- 2 TBS constarch

- 3/4 tsp baking powder

- 1/2 tsp baking soda

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/3 cup sunflower oil

- 3/4 cup granulated/brown sugar

- 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Pre-heat oven at 350ºF/180ºC. Line tin with papers. Beat tumeric powder with milk, cook stirring often in medium-low heat till the milk starts simmering, about 2 to 3 minutes, when milk has yellow hue, remove from heat and let cool for about 5 minutes.

Add vinegar to milk and whisk to curdle. Beat oil, sugar, extract and milk till foamy. Sift in flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until no large lump remains. Fill liners about 2/3. Bake 20 to 22 minutes.

Let the cupcakes cool for about 5 minutes in the tin, and then move them to a cooling rack to let them cool completely. Meanwhile make the chicory coffe and the cottage cheese cream.

Cottage Cheese Cream

Ingredients:

- 500 grams goat's cottage cheese

- 100 grams icing sugar

- 4 egg whites

- pinch of salt and drops lemon juice

Method:

Mix the goat's cheese with half the sugar till creamy. Beat egg whites on high speed with the salt and lemon juice, when soft peaks start forming add the rest of the icing sugar. Beat well, fold in with the cheese cream. Refrigerate till needed.

To assemble, make a hole in the cupcakes with an apple corer, soak the cupcakes with the chicory coffee (don't be shy!) and fill in with the cheese cream. Top with the cake topper and then pipe a dollop of cream. Sprinkle with Nesquik! Enjoy!

These were very much liked by my nephews and my co-workers, but on my first try, I was a bit sparse with the coffe soaking, so I'll be more indulgent next time!

Wearing Handmade Wednesday: A cover for my KitchenAid!

Hey everyone!

How's Wednesday going? Mine started a bit on the not so good side, but nothing that a paracetamol and some extra sleep couldn't deal with!

Today we're back with Wearing Handmade Wednesday, and this time is an awesome collaboration of two very talented ladies: Jamie of Warning Label Creations and Kylie of Fabulosly Fierce!

I wanted a cover for my KA, and I didn't want any of the old boring ones I'd already seen, so I decided to ask Jamie and see if she wanted to attempt making me a custom one, including some custom embroidery that Kylie would do, and it worked great! Embroidery panels on the side and cupcakes fabric, it's absolutely perfect!

It's practical, decorative and cute, and my Miss Marple KA couldn't be happier with her cover!

Friday Photos: I got a KitchenAid for Reyes!!

Hello everyone! Happy Friday!! Today in Spain is gift's day, ¡Día de Reyes!!

So today, I want to show off my gifts, or at least, the big one: My KitchenAid!!

Finally, I can make proper buttercream for my cupcakes without losing my arm! And frankly, it looks so super cute in purple! It matches also my Dolce Gusto coffee maker! I'm really really happy and soooo excited to finally have it here!! I'm thinking of naming her Miss Marple, since it rhymes with purple, and I feel like giving her the name of a British character!

 My dear KA aka Miss Marple with my embroidered apron by Fabulously Fierce and Cookie Girl's cook book!

 These awesome French Toast cupcakes are from Cookie Girl's book: Eat Me!

Monday Munchies: Lemon Muffins!

Hello everyone! Somewhat regular blogging from India! From my tablet, using my sister-in-law's wifi... while we're planning G's nephew b-day party! So in that festive mood, I leave you with a yummy recipe for Monday Munchies!

Lemon Muffins

Makes 16-18

Ingredients:

- 2 or 3 lemons

- 60 ml lemon yogurt

- 300 gr plain flour

- 2 eggs

- 180 gr sugar

- 15 gr baking powder

- 125 ml sunflower oil

Method:

- Wash and dry one lemon, you'll need the grated zest. Squeeze all lemons, to get 125 ml of lemon juice (use more lemons if need be, mine were small, so I used 5). Make sure you filter it so there won't be any seeds. Beat eggs and sugar in a bowl till they whiten and double their size. If you do it with electric mixer it'll be easier and done in a shorter time.

- Add oil, juice, grated zest and yogurt and mix well so there are no lumps. Sieve in the flour with the baking powder, and mix again till al ingredients are well mixed. Let the batter sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Preheat oven at 180ºC.

- Prepare the muffin pan with liners (since it yields about 16 to 18, you might need two pans or make two turns in the oven) and fill them up till 3/4. Bake for 20 minutes. Once they're done (test with a toothpick and if it comes out clean, they're done) get them in a rack to cool.

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!

Shopping Handmade: Pilu's Birthday with home baked cupcakes!

Friday is here, once again, and this blog entry is dedicated to last Friday and my friend Pilu's lil birthday celebration and gifts, all done the handmade way!


I had promised Pilu I'd make her the delicious Mojito cupcakes from Heaven is a Cupcake blog, so on Thursday evening I got onto baking them, and they came out looking pretty yummy! I used the "Happy Birthday" liners I got from the Cupcake Social, and once again went with some shortcuts for the recipe, using Mojito mix instead o white rum & lime & peppermint extract, and for the frosting, I used the Flying Bird Botanical's Lavender Mint cacao, it really gave them a lovely minty flavour!




I was waiting for some bakery boxes I had ordered from Paradise Cupcakes, and they luckily arrived on Friday, so I could pack up a dozen frosted cupcakes without them being squished or arrive looking all wonky.






I used a bit of ribbon from my last SugarKitty corsets order and a HK as a panda sticker to give it the final touch. And yes, I am aware cupcakes are not corsets, but hey it was the only ribbon I had handy!




My parents drop me at Guadalajara's train station on their way to the cottage, where Pilu picked me up (thankfully I didn't have to take the train with two bags of presents, two boxes full of cupcakes and a handbag) and we drove to order some sushi to take, and two Sapporo beers for the birthday lunch!




We returned to Pilu's house with our loot and set up table to eat our veggies tempura, small sushi & maki set and the restaurant special, salmon & tuna tempura maki! Miss Indy, Pilu's doggie was hoping she'd get a bit of food, but sushi & beer is not for doggies!











What she did get was a new Fabulously Fierce Pets collar, cause her old one is too small for her now, she's grown quite a bit in the two months I haven't seen her! She's such a gorgeous and loveable puppy! I also got Pilu a pair of leash bags, and she absolutely loved them! They're perfect to keep treats for the doggies when walking them, or for keeping your phone & keys if you have no pockets!

Miss Indy modeling one of the leash bags!

After lunch, it was time for the presents, while we made room in our tummies for the cupcakes! I got her a ComfortRead pillow from Inverness Studios, and she absolutely loved it! She's as much as a bookworm as I am, and I knew she'd love the idea of having something to rest & hold the book while reading in bed or on the sofa, and with the pocket to keep the bookmark, no more fumbling around for it! And can also be used as a travel pillow, cause it has a handle.




Since she's a huge tea lover like myself, I got her two tea kits from Purpose Design, a chai tea kit, and a herbal tea kit. Both are amazing, and smell great!




I also got her a RockyTheZombie t-shirt, I knew she loved Rhi's shop cause she had seen my t-shirts and loved them, and even signed up for Etsy to buy a RTZ baby tee for a friend's baby boy, so I just got her a Zombie Kitty tee in green, her favourite colour! She absolutely loved it, and I think I might have got her hooked for good to RTZ...




She also loved her b-day card, custom made for me by the talented Deb of On Cupcake Moon with Miss Cinnamon in them, and that I hand stamped with my Skull And Cross Buns cupcake stamp!


After all the gifts, we moved to the kitchen and decided to prepare some nice & spicy Chai tea to go with the cupcakes, with her new kit that includes the recipe! I prefer to throw all the spices & tea directly in the milk and boil it all till the colour & smell is right, so that's what we did, we overdid it a bit on the sugar, but otherwise, it was really yummy!






Once the tea was ready, we went onto devour the cupcakes, which Pilu really loved, cause she ate three right away! I ate two, and poor Alberto, Pilu's boyfriend arrived in time to eat the last one of the box! Luckily for him, there was another box!








After we enjoyed a tea with cupcakes and chit chat, we decided to go for a walk with Indy, since the day was great & sunny, without being hot, a lovely early autumn day! The perfect ending for a very nice day & a great way to burn those cupcakes down! ;)