Strawberry and Chocolate Cupcakes: Recipe

I've eaten more chocolate this year because the winter went on and on, I'm not a chocolate snob, but a bar of Lindt Excellence Strawberry Intense Dark Chocolate is hard to beat. The chocolate has pieces of freeze dried strawberries running through, it smells of summer and reminds me of strawberries dipped in chocolate.

The strawberries for the cupcakes were bought but it
shouldn't be too long before I am picking my own strawberries

For the vanilla cupcakes:

Makes: 9 cupcakes

You will need: 12 hole muffin tin lined with 9 cupcake cases

115g softened butter, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 115g self raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together with an electric mixer for two minutes.
3. Spoon into 9 cupcake cases and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool.

For the vanilla buttercream:

You will need:

175g softened unsalted butter, 350g sifted icing sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract.

1. Beat the butter in a bowl to soften. Add the icing sugar gradually, add the vanilla extract, and beat until the icing is very smooth and pale in colour which will take 5 minutes using a stand mixer.

To decorate:

I used a 1M icing nozzle to pipe the buttercream. Cut a square of chocolate in half and place on the buttercream, top with a whole strawberry.

More recipes you may like:
White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes
Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans Cupcakes
Mini Strawberry Victoria Sponges

Photographs taken using the Nikon D3200.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Banana and Chocolate Chip Cupcakes taken with the Nikon D3200

Looking at bananas in the fruit bowl turning from black to blacker, resisting throwing them out and then feeling pressured into using them happens far too often in my house, so let's do some baking. All you need are a few store cupboard/fridge ingredients to make the cake batter and hopefully a few cupcake cases.  I used nine tulip cupcake cases and shared the batter between them.

The recipe by Mary Berry for the banana and chocolate chip cupcakes can be found on the Daily Mail website, I substituted the caster sugar for soft brown sugar and left the milk out to prevent the chocolate chips sinking to the bottom of the cupcakes.

Banana and Chocolate Chip Loaf

Mary Berry to the rescue for those black banana recipes, the banana and chocolate chip loaf is one of the best I have ever eaten - I try to remember to leave the milk out of the recipe because I've always found the chocolate chips sink to the bottom of the loaf, in this instance I forgot and the chocolate chips sank....This loaf improves with keeping and turns lovely and sticky, a drizzle of chocolate on top of the loaf will totally transform it's otherwise plain appearance.

Both the cupcakes and loaf freeze perfectly.

More suggestions for using up those ripe or over ripe bananas:

Nigella's Chocolate Banana Muffins
Banana Blueberry Cakes

Recipe: Baileys and Walnut Cupcakes

I am mostly drawn towards coffee and walnut cupcakes but this time I left out the coffee in the cake batter and used Baileys in the buttercream.  Good idea - yes?

For the cake batter I prefer to use salted butter or to make them lighter substitute some of the butter with margarine.  I always use unsalted butter for my buttercream, it's all down to individual taste, and I know salted this and that is everywhere, but I don't think salted buttercream will ever be for me.

The recipe below is for 9 cupcakes - cupcake cases vary and these are medium size to allow for rising but leaving enough room for the buttercream topping.

This month I need to concentrate on eating less sugar, but failed, I grazed on seeds and then ate a slice of Christmas Cake........

You will need:  9 muffin cases and a muffin tin

For the cupcakes:

175g softened butter
175g caster sugar
175g self raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
100g chopped walnuts

For the Icing:

250g softened unsalted butter
500g sieved icing sugar
1 tbsp Baileys
Walnut halves to decorate

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC.
2. Add all the cake ingredients in a bowl and beat for two minutes with an electric mixer. Stir in the walnuts.
3. Spoon the batter into the muffin cases.
4. Bake for 20 minutes or until cooked.  Cool for 10 minutes and then place on a rack to cool.
5. For the icing: beat the icing sugar and butter together until fluffy.  Stir in the Baileys.
6. Pipe or spread the buttercream over the cupcakes and top with walnut halves.
7. Can be frozen decorated.

Chocolate and Redcurrant Christmas Cupcakes

The sharpness of redcurrants and the richness from chocolate go beautifully together. I made chocolate cupcakes and added some redcurrants to the batter. After baking and cooling they were topped with my favourite cupcake chocolate fudge icing.

To make the frosted redcurrants all you have to do is whisk an egg very lightly and brush the fruit with the egg white, dip the fruit into sugar and leave to dry overnight on baking paper - frosted redcurrants are delicious.

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes - National Cupcake Week 2012

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes or lemon meringue pie? My favourite is lemon meringue pie - I almost forgot National Cupcake Week and these cupcakes were made at lightening speed. So quick, that when I browned the meringue with the blow torch I set fire to a couple of the cupcake cases. You wanted to see the photographic evidence, now that's just mean.....

Until late today I had no idea that I was going to make these, the lemon curd is from a jar I had in the fridge, nothing wrong with that provided you use a good one. Home made lemon curd is always fabulous and these cupcakes would have been on another level of loveliness if I had planned ahead.

The meringue wasn't easy to pipe onto the puddle of lemon curd and kept on moving around, other than that, they were a breeze to make.

Makes: 9 cupcakes

You will need: 12 hole muffin tin lined with 9 cupcake cases

115g softened butter, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 115g self raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon vanilla essence.

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. Place all the ingredients into a bowl and beat together with an electric mixer for two minutes.
3. Spoon into 9 cupcake cases and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool.

For the Meringue

2 egg whites, 50g caster sugar, a very large pinch cream of tartar

1. Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together until soft peaks form. Add the sugar a little at a time and beat until stiff and glossy.
2. Place the meringue into an icing bag fitted with a star tube.

To Decorate

1. Dollop a spoon of lemon curd on top of the cupcakes and swirl round to make a puddle.
2. Pipe the meringue onto the puddle of lemon curd.
3. Either place the cupcakes back into the oven 230ºC for 5 minutes until golden, or use a blow torch and brown the meringue taking care not to set fire to the cupcake cases!

This is my entry for the Calendar Cakes Challenge and this month is of course cupcakes. Hosted by Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes -  Rachel from Dolly Bakes is this months host.

Recipe: British Cherry Cupcakes and British Strawberry Cupcakes

Going for Gold! Two British fruits to adorn the top of my cupcakes, strawberries are nearing the end of the season and British cherries are in the shops, both are more fabulous than fabulous this year.

It is possibly a crime to spray cherries gold but I think I can get away with it at the moment.  To be fair, I did decide not to spray the strawberries as well......

The cupcakes are the usual chocolate sponge mix, although I splashed the cash and used a very good cocoa powder, good cocoa powder really does make a difference to the chocolate sponge.

Makes:  12 cupcakes

You will need:  a twelve hole muffin tin lined with muffin cases.

For the cupcakes:

100g self raising flour, 125g Stork SB, 125g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 2 tablespoons warm milk, 3 level tablespoons cocoa powder.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Sift the self raising flour and cocoa into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix all together for 2 minutes.
3. Divide the mixture between the cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked.
4. Cool in the tin.
5. Decorate.

The July Calendar Cakes Challenge is hosted by Laura Loves Cakes and Dolly Bakes.  The host this month is Laura and the challenge is The Olympics - I chose to use gold cherries and a Union Jack box.

The Simple and in Season challenge is hosted by Fabulicious Food and Homemade by Fleur.  The host this month is Fleur and I chose British Cherries and British Strawberries.

Chocolate and Blackcurrant Cupcakes

Chocolate and Blackcurrant Cupcakes are a surprising combination of flavours and seem to work really well together.

My cupcakes are a chocolate sponge mix with a handful of blackcurrants stirred in gently. I frosted some of the blackcurrants for decoration and they are so delicious it was a few for me and a few to decorate the cupcakes. 

The pretty cupcake stand is by Tala, I made twelve cupcakes but unfortunately I was clumsy and three were knocked over. I think I did quite well,  it could have been nine knocked over and three left to decorate the stand! 

We Should Cocoa is hosted by Chele of the Chocolate Teapot and Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog - Choclette is the host for this months challenge Chocolate and Blackcurrants.

Tea Time Treats is hosted by Kate of WhatKateBaked and Karen of Lavender and Lovage - Karen is this months host and the challenge is Cake Stall Cakes.

Thank you Tala for the pretty cake stand.

Tala Bun Tray: Review

One day I must take a photograph of my baking tin cupboard, on second thoughts perhaps not, because my hubby will see just how many baking tins I have in my collection. My defence is they all come to a good home where they are well looked after and well used!

Tala kindly sent me their Bun Tray for review and I used this to bake my cupcakes. The tin is non-stick, sturdy, quite weighty, withstands high temperatures, not at all flimsy and more importantly doesn't warp in the oven.  The cupcake cases didn't get crushed in the tin, which pleased me, and the cupcakes cooked perfectly too.  You can even put the bun tray in the dishwasher, fridge or freezer.

Bun Tray with a RRP of £10

The Tala team want to share in Britain's baking triumphs and have now launched a Happy Baking Days website.  This allows their community to discuss their Tala bakes and you can add photographs and recipes.  There is a very useful Top Tips section on the site, all the bakeware you will ever need.

Thank you Sophie and Tala for the review product.

Chocolate Chip and Banana Cupcakes

I've made this recipe so many times now, there are always over-ripe bananas in my fruit bowl. The blacker the banana, the lighter the sponge will be. My favourite cupcakes are always going to be the ones topped with chocolate flake, even though some of them were decorated with chocolate eggs. The puddle of chocolate on top of the cupcakes is a mixture of dark chocolate and unsalted butter gently melted together.

The recipe is from one of my favourite food writers Annie Bell who is the principal cookery writer for YOU Magazine. I always tear out the recipe section from the magazine and tuck them away in my Annie Bell cookery books for future use.

Crafty Cupcakes by Ann Pickard

I know you shouldn't describe the contents of a book as cute but I am going to say it anyway, the decorated sugarpaste cupcakes are very cute. There are 30 cupcake projects including a smiley snake, bunny rabbit, cute dog, new baby and wedding cupcakes.

The author shares with us her knowledge to make fabulous sugarpaste novelty models in ten easy steps, with photographs to accompany each stage. There are also recipes for making cupcakes, buttercream and royal icing. For each cupcake project there is a materials list and reference to techniques, templates, equipment, ingredients and stockists.

This is an inspirational book for beginners and those of us who would like to achieve professional looking cupcakes with the wow factor.

Crafty Cupcakes is written by the very talented Ann Pickard who qualified as a baker and cake decorator in 1983, and opened her own shop The Icing Centre, in 1986. Ann runs a successful cake decorating business in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset and has written two other books for GMC publications, Cake Characters and Cakes for Occasions.

ISBN 9781861088536
Price: £9.99
Publisher: GMC
Publication Date: March 2012
Available from Amazon

Thank you GMC for the review copy.

Valentine's Day Chocolates, Cookies and Cupcakes

Chocolates are a great way to decorate cupcakes and the Hearts and Kisses and Chocolate Hearts look really pretty. The foil cupcake cases are my own and I made the chocolate cupcakes too. The Chocolate Heart Lollipop could also be used to decorate a cake.

I fell in love with Mr & Mrs Love Bears Gingerbread and the Heart Shaped Gingerbread too. The box of strawberry and vanilla mini heart shortbread's smell wonderful and will go beautifully alongside some strawberry or vanilla ice cream.

A cute selection of goodies from Sainsbury's - and there are lots of other Valentine's Day products in their stores.

Thank you Sainsbury's.

Cupcake Homeware - Store Twenty One

Store Twenty One have lots of ideas for presents and Christmas gifts for cupcake lovers! They have kindly sent me a selection of cupcake goodies to satisfy all of my cupcake needs including a Cake Slice Money Box, Cupcake Spoon Rest, Cupcake Salt and Pepper Pot and Cupcake Mug with Lid.


3 Tier Cupcake Stand holds 13 cupcakes and is designed to show off your creations at their best. The stand comes ready for easy assemble and after use will easily dismantle for storage.

The Giant Cupcake Mould is made from non-stick flexible silicone. These are very popular and you can let your imagination run wild decorating one of these huge cupcakes.

Cupcake Clock will appeal to all cupcake lovers!

Cute Cupcake Doorstop in pink.

The brand: Store Twenty One is a value clothing and lifestyle products retailer selling great value fashion clothing and homewares for the entire family through over 200 stores over the UK.

Standard Delivery(UK) is 2-4 working days, delivery costs and returns policy can be found here, and once you have placed your order you will be able to track its progress.

Thank you Louisa and Store Twenty One

Chocolate Cupcakes - Menier Cooking Chocolate

Menier sent me a brochure with some wonderful ideas for using their chocolate including a recipe for Braised Venison with Autumn Vegetables and Chocolate Sauce, Curried Lamb Stew with Bitter Chocolate and White Chocolate Raspberry and Lime Drizzle Cake. They are encouraging us to be more experimental and creative with chocolate in our home cooking but I was drawn like a magnet to my gold foil cupcake cases and edible glitter!


The chocolate melted easily, my method is to put the chocolate into a basin, place over a pan of gently simmering water. Remove the pan from the heat and let the chocolate melt over the residual heat. This ensures the chocolate melts without overheating.

Cooking chocolate doesn't necessarily mean good eating chocolate but these bars of chocolate are very impressive. My husband particularly liked the white chocolate which surprised me because usually he prefers either dark or milk chocolate. I now wish I had put a thicker layer of chocolate on top of the cupcakes because it tasted so good.

A few fascinating facts regarding the brand: Menier was founded in 1816, making it the oldest brand in the world. Their expertise guarantees its chocolate has the best flavour, as it has been ground for longer than standard cooking chocolate to make the texture smoother and the taste better.

They were the first company to introduce blocks of chocolate and prides itself on being the number one dark chocolate brand in the cooking chocolate market. The dark chocolate contains 70% cocoa.

Menier chocolate is available in major supermarkets nationwide with a RRP of £1.19.

Thank you Emma.

Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

It's coming up to that time of year again! These happy little men are surrounded by snow and a dusting of silver glitter.

The cream cheese frosting makes a welcome change from the usual buttercream and pipes really well. If you find the frosting is a little soft just pop it into the fridge covered for a few minutes to firm up. Don't be tempted to use anything other than full fat cream cheese, I used Philadelphia, or you won't be able to pipe the swirls.

Makes: 12 cupcakes

You will need: a twelve hole muffin tin lined with muffin cases.

For the cupcakes:

100g self raising flour, 125g softened butter, 125g caster sugar, 2 medium eggs, 2 tablespoons milk, 3 level tablespoons cocoa powder

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. In a bowl beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and milk, fold in the sifted flour and cocoa powder until the mixture is smooth.
3. Divide the mixture between the cases and bake in the centre of the oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked.
4. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack.

Cream Cheese Frosting

200g Philadelphia Full Fat Cream Cheese at room temperature, 400g sifted icing sugar, 70g softened butter.

1. Simply mix all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.
2. Pipe swirls on top of the cupcakes.

Giant Chocolate Buttons Cupcakes - National Cupcake Week 12-18 September 2011

It's National Cupcake Week and I decided to make some very easy chocolate cupcakes and decorate them with giant chocolate buttons.

The Giant Chocolate Buttons are from Marks and Spencer and look like real buttons. They come in a fabulous box with a real button attached, all of the buttons are in individual wrappers to stop the chocolate getting marked. Brilliant product.

I am not going to take any credit for the idea of using these buttons because the lady who owns my local coffee shop makes cupcakes topped with these, so lets say, I just borrowed the idea. I know she won't mind and will be flattered that I went home and made some too.

I have been having some problems with cupcake cases from one of the large supermarkets getting squashed in my muffin tin. By this, I mean when the cupcakes have been removed from the tin the concertina's on the cupcake cases have squashed themselves into the baked cupcake, it doesn't happen to all of them though. I think this is because the cupcake cases are too large for the tin. It isn't a problem that I have encountered before. Has anyone else had any problems with cupcake cases or am I on my own with this problem?

Happy Cupcake Week!

Chocolate Covered Coffee Beans Cupcakes

It seems that once I get a theme going, I just don't know when to stop. Not so long ago, it was cupcakes and flowers and now it is cupcakes and chocolate.

Mr W and I went on a shopping spree for cake toppings and to make the cupcakes even more calorific, I have a box overflowing with wonderful chocolate cake toppings. The great thing about this theme is, I/we get to eat any decorations that are left over.

I made a vanilla cake base, piped with buttercream and simply topped them with these fabulous chocolate covered coffee beans from Waitrose.


You will need: A muffin tin lined with 12 cupcake cases

115g softened butter, 115g caster sugar, 115g self raising flour, 2 eggs, 1-2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

1. Beat together the butter and caster sugar until soft and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly to the mixture, together with the vanilla extract and milk. Fold in the flour.
2. Divide the batter between 12 cupcake cases and cook in a preheated oven 180°C for 20-25 minutes until golden.

Buttercream Icing

250g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 tablespoon hot water

Simply mix all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cupcakes

I couldn't resist buying a box of White Chocolate Raspberries dusted with freeze dried raspberries, from Marks & Spencer, this beautifully designed box sold them to me immediately.


I could have just eaten the lot, but I decided to top some cupcakes with them and share the remainder with my husband, I would have felt guilty forever if I hadn't saved him any chocolates.

Makes: 12

You will need:

115g butter at room temperature, 115g caster sugar, 2 eggs, 115g self-raising flour, 2 tablespoons milk, grated zest of 1 lemon.

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
3. Sift over the flour and fold in by hand. Stir in the milk and lemon zest.
4. Spoon heaped tablespoons of batter into each paper case and bake for 20-25 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
5. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.

Buttercream Icing

This recipe isn't as rich as a normal buttercream icing because my husband finds the topping a bit much.

You will need: 167g softened butter, 500g sifted icing sugar, two tablespoons hot boiled water.

Simply whisk all the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES

My strawberries are fabulous this year and I think the squirrel has got the message at last that my strawberries belong to me and not to him!


I was very fortunate a couple of years ago and won a huge prize from Rocket Gardens which included a fruit garden, a spring and autumn vegetable garden, herbs and other garden goodies as well. I couldn't use all of the prize and I donated lots of it to my Grandson's school who have an allotment, which is supervised and run by a very keen gardener, namely the caretaker. He couldn't contain himself with excitement when I told him his school and the children were to share in my good fortune and I know they have had lots of fun with all of the plants Rocket Gardens sent to them on my behalf.

I made some lemon cupcakes, topped them with butter cream and half a strawberry - delicious.

Makes: 12 cupcakes

You will need: A standard size 12 hole cupcake tin lined with paper cases.

125g softened butter, 125g caster sugar, 2 medium eggs, finely grated rind and juice of 1 lemon, 125g self-raising flour.

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, lemon rind and juice. Fold in the flour.
3. Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake in the centre of the oven until the cakes have risen and are just firm to the touch in the centre or bake for about 20 minutes.
4. Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Buttercream

You will need:

175g softened unsalted butter, 350g sifted icing sugar, 3 tbsp boiling water, few drops vanilla extract.

1. Beat the butter in a bowl to soften it. Add the icing sugar, boiling water and vanilla extract, and beat until the icing is very smooth and pale in colour.

Cupcakes and Sugar Sprinkles

I have recently been sent some samples of Dr. Oetker Sugar Sprinkles, Polka Dots, Citrus flavour strands, Shimmer sugar and Cake Release Spray (a new product due to be in the shops towards the end of May).

I mixed some toffee sauce into the butter cream, put a blob of toffee sauce in the centre and then sprinkled on some delicious Fudge Chunks.

Dr. Oetker can be found on Facebook or visit their online store.

Thank you Dr. Oetker and Yasir.

Teacup Cupcakes

These fun teacup cupcake silicone cake moulds are a must for a little girl's birthday party or if you have a cupcake party of your own.

There are four reusable oven safe silicone baking cups and they come with four saucers to put your cups on, after you have decorated them.

Find Me A Gift sell lots of baking gifts such as cake moulds, cake candles, kitchen gifts, just to name a few. They also sell unusual and unique gifts and gadgets for every age and occasion.

Thank you Jo.