Tag Archives: White

Jubilee Cupcakes & Top Tips!

Yep, that’s right. I’m still going through my “cupcake mad” phase. Though I’m proud to say that I have learnt a lot since I started! Later in the post I will share with you some top tips on cupcake making. For now, it’s back to my new favourite recipe book: Cox Cookies & Cake.

I wanted to get the basics right this time so opted for a simple vanilla sponge with vanilla frosting. Although as it’s Jubilee week I thought I’ve got to get some red, white and blue in there somewhere! Thought I’d have a bash at triple striped frosting.

Here is what you will need to make 12 cupcakes.

  • 175g Golden Caster Sugar
  • 175g Butter (Room Temp!)
  • 3 Eggs
  • 175g Self Raising Flour
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

  • 250g Butter (Room Temp!)
  • 500g Icing Sugar, sieved
  • 2 tbsp Milk
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • Red Food Colouring Gel
  • Blue Food Colouring Gel

Preheat your oven to 200°C/Fan 180°C and line a cupcake tin with cases.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar together with an electric hand whisk until light and fluffy. This stage is more important than you’d think. Don’t just mix until its combined, keep going until its light in colour and really fluffy. It will help your cakes rise well and achieve a great texture. Be cautious not to overdo it though as you can cause the mixture to split.

Add the eggs 1 at a time and beat with a wooden spoon until incorporated.

Add the vanilla extract and fold in the flour.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that using a good quality vanilla extract really does make a HUGE difference to the taste of your cupcakes. I recently treated myself to Nielsen-Massey pure vanilla extract and boy oh boy the difference is amazing! Well worth the extra few pounds.

Divide the mixture evenly between the cases. I actually got 13 out of this mix but it depends on the size of your tin/cases.

Cook in the middle of the oven for 20 minutes turning half way to ensure an even bake. Check with a skewer at 15 minutes. If it comes out clean, they are done. If there is cake mix on it, they need a little longer.

Leave for 5 minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

To make the vanilla buttercream frosting, cream the butter in a large bowl with an electric hand whisk until softened.

Add the sieved icing sugar a quarter at a time and beat until blended. Add the milk and vanilla extract and continue to mix until smooth, light & fluffy.

Split the frosting between 3 bowls. Add a small amount of red colouring gel to one bowl and mix well. Repeat in another bowl with the blue colouring. Leave the last as it is. If you are using normal liquid colour as opposed to gel, be very careful as they can effect the consistency of your frosting.

Load up 3 small piping bags with the 3 coloured frostings, snip the ends and carefully put into a larger piping bag prepared with a Large Open Star Nozzle.

Test first to make sure all three colours come through, you may need to do a bit of shuffling. Then pipe in swirls on the tops of the cupcakes.

If you are picky like me, you can slice the tops of the cakes to make a nice flat surface to pipe onto. This also creates a Brucey “Bakers Rights” Bonus! Pop them in a bowl and top with whatever left over frosting you have. Nom! Go on, no one will ever know…

And there you have it. Delicious vanilla Jubilee Cupcakes!

So now the basics have been mastered (ish!) I will share some of my top tips with you.

1. Use foil cases as opposed to paper cases. Foil cases help to keep your cakes moist for longer and paper cases do not. They will also stop butter from seeping out whereas paper cases will become very greasy.

2. Use unrefined golden caster sugar instead of white caster sugar wherever possible. This will give a better overall flavour to your cakes.

3. Use all ingredients at room temperature. If you add cold, wet ingredients to room temperature ingredients, it can cause the butter to curdle. (This will create holes in your sponge)

4. Find the hot spots in your oven. These can be the death of 2 or 3 cupcakes per batch if you don’t figure out where you will get the most “even bake” in your oven.

5. Use food colouring gels as opposed to liquid food colours. Liquid colouring can easily alter the consistency of your frostings or sponge mixes, gel colours won’t. You will also get deeper colours from the gels as they are more concentrated.

I hope my top tips will help you in your baking adventures. And I hope they help prevent you learning some things the hard way like I did!

Have a brilliant Jubilee bank holiday weekend guys.

Miss KitchenMason

Caramelised Red Onion & Cheese Pasta!

So this week I knocked up an old favourite of mine that I haven’t had for a while. Caramelised red onion, crumbly white cheese (of your choice) and pasta.

This serves 2.

What you will need:

  • 1 Large Red Onion
  • Crumbly White Cheese
  • 1 tsp Golden Caster Sugar
  • 2 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
  • Pasta of your choice

This time I used the deliciously creamy & crumbly Lancashire cheese. I have also used White Stilton which works very well too. Use your imagination, why not try a blue cheese for depth of flavour if that’s your bag?

Anyway! What you need to do is slice up the red onion & fry in a heavy non stick saucepan in a little bit of oil until soft.

Then sprinkle over the sugar and add in the vinegar, crank up the heat & keep cooking until sweet, sticky & caramelised.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to packet instructions & crumble up your chosen cheese ready to scatter on to the pasta.

When your pasta is cooked, mix the caramelised red onion & the crumbled cheese in & serve on warmed plates with some garlic bread.

It only takes about 30 minutes to make so makes a perfect mid week supper. Also, it doesn’t make too many pots! Bonus!

Hope you enjoyed this post & thanks so much for reading. Please support my blog by subscribing on the home page.

Until next time!

Miss Kitchen Mason

Jelly Cheesecake!

Yep, Jelly Cheesecake. Tastes a wrong as it sounds!

So I thought, just to prove that everyone has disasters  in the kitchen, that I would share with you one of my most recent epic fails!

This cheesecake should be called a White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake. Now that sounds delicious! Hopefully when I share what went wrong for me, you guys can avoid all the mistakes I made haha!

I got the recipe from the Philadelphia iPhone app. If you are lucky enough to own one like me, or an iPad, it is free from the app store. If you don’t then here is where you need to go. White Chocolate & Raspberry Cheesecake.

The following is what you will need.

  • 200g Digestive biscuits
  • 50g Butter (I would change to 60g)
  • 400g Philadelphia Original
  • 150g Caster Sugar
  • 1 tsp Lemon Rind, grated
  • 2 tsp Powdered Gelatine
  • 200g White Chocolate
  • 200ml Double/Whipping Cream
  • 150g Frozen Raspberrys

Firstly, lightly grease a 20cm spring form pan.

Bash the digestives in a bag until they resemble fine crumbs. Melt the butter in a pan then mix the two together. Press this into the bottom of the prepared pan & set to one side. I found that there was too little butter in this mix and it ended up being too crumbly. So next time I would probably bump it up to about 60g.

Next, in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the white chocolate & set aside to cool.

Then lightly whip the cream in a bowl & set to one side.

Mix the Philadelphia, lemon rind & caster sugar in a bowl then combine using an electric whisk until smooth.

Dissolve the gelatine in 50ml of boiling water and allow to cool. Always add the gelatine to the liquid and not the other way around.

Now it’s confession time. Note that the recipe calls for 2 teaspoons of gelatine and not 2 tablespoons. This would be a major fatal error on my part! Don’t bake whilst you are tired, or horrific mistakes like this can me made! But it doesn’t end there. Confession no.2. Be careful that you wait until the gelatine is cool and not cold. Because, if like me, you add the gelatine when it is cold, you end up having to slowly go through the entire mixture to find all the solidified bits of jelly you have just inadvertently stirred through your cheesecake! DOH!

Anyway… Next you need to combine all your ingredients. Add the white chocolate into the Philadelphia mix and combine thoroughly. Then add the cooled gelatine and stir until combined thoroughly. Then fold in the whipped cream until combined – and finally add the frozen raspberrys.

Pour this over the base you prepared earlier & allow to chill for at least 3 hours.

Hopefully, if you avoid all the silly mistakes I made due to tiredness & general stupidity, your cheesecakes will turn out delicious!

The flavours, I must admit, are absolutely gorgeous. I was gutted with the texture but all you can do is have a good giggle at yourself and think, well, if we didn’t make mistakes we would never learn anything! Haha!

If you have any funny kitchen mishaps you would like to share, please feel free to leave a comment. It would make me feel better to know that I am not the only one who makes silly mistakes!

Once again, hope you enjoyed the read. And if you like what you see please support my blog by subscribing!

Miss Kitchen Mason