Saturday 2 November 2013

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting



I always wanted to bake Red Velvet cupcakes as they look so pretty. 
I've search the Internet and found this Recipe from Nigella.com
I think I put a drop too many of the red gel colour as I didn't have red food past.
 After eating half a cupcake, my tongue was bright red. 
As you can see in the oven they look like they were glowing. 


But once they were out the oven, the colour was deeper and no longer bright red. 

The cupcakes were very soft and fluffy. 
And tastes really good. 


I piped rosettes to them and they look like roses. 






Chocolate sour cream muffins



I just found my love with sour cream, it makes the cakes moist and soft. 
Muffins are easy to make so when my children wants a cake, I'll whip up some muffins for them. 
These muffins are rich in chocolate flavour. Adding ganache makes them even more scrummy.
Great for cold nights like today with a cup of tea in front of the telly. 
 

 

 
Ingredients:
(A)
120g plain flour
15g good quality cocoa powder
1/2. Tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4. Tsp salt
30g caster sugar
50g chocolate chips
(B)
75ml sour cream
45ml whipping cream
1 egg
55g melted butter
50g brown sugar

Method:
Preheat oven 190c
Mix (A) your dry ingredients in a bowl
Mix (B) your wet ingredients in another bowl
Make a well in bowl A and pour B in the middle
Using a balloon whisk, mix gently 8-10 times to combine your ingredients. Your batter should look lumpy.
Don't worry if there are still flour visible that will come together when it bakes in the oven.
Bake for 25-30mins. I would check it at around 20mins.
Mine took 24mins as I used cupcake cases instead of muffin cases. So there's a smaller cake to bake.
 

Banana & Walnut loaf cake



My children are not big fans of bananas, we always have one or two over ripen bananas left in the fruit baskets. My friends make banana cakes or loaf for their children but the idea of having a mushy fruit in a cake didn't appeal to me. 
I haven't tried a banana cake before so I thought I'll give it a try and see what the outcome would be. When it was baking the aroma of bananas filled the air & I was actually quite looking forward to trying it. 
May I say, after one mouthful how scrummy it tasted, it wasn't mushy at all.
The cake was moist and fluffy, and with the added walnuts it gave it a nutty flavour which complimented each other. 
My verdict: definitely a keeper, and I shall be baking this again but now to wait for my bananas to ripe in the fruit basket! 








Ingredients:
125g Butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 lrg eggs, beaten lightly
200g plain flour
1. Tsp bicarbonate of soda
1. Tsp vanilla extract
100g sour cream
40g chopped Walnuts
200g mashed banana

Pre heat oven 180c
Grease a 9x5 loaf tin or 7inch round cake tin and line bottom with baking paper

Cream sugar and butter til pale and fluffy.
Add eggs slowly and whisk at the same time to combine.
Add sour cream, vanilla & mix then add mashed bananas & mix til all combined.
Fold in flour and soda.
Add the chopped walnuts and mix well.
Bake for 40-45mins and wait 5 minutes before you un mould the cake.
Cool completely to serve.