Chocolate cupcakes to match

I made these cupcakes to match the birthday cake that I made for my sister. I adore the little red cupcake papers - they look so effective against the chocolate colours and I know they would be brilliant for Christmas and winter cupcakes!
I hand grated all the chcolate shavings using a cheese grater, it was messy but lots of fun! The cakes are chocolate with chocolate buttercream and then chocolate shavings quickly sprinkled on!
My camera has been broken for some time now but i'm pleased to report that I have just purchased a new one so worry not, I can keep baking and taking photos! I took part in the London Triathlon at the weekend - i entered as a team with work and did the running part dressed as a toilet! It was so much fun! That's it now though for my sporting achievements for this year! I've done the Crisis 6k, Race for Life 5k and LT 5k - what with all this running, I deserve a cake or two! I'm looking forward to spending long Sunday afternoons baking in the kitchen again rather than out running or worrying about my lack of training! Give me baking cakes anyday! x

Bites of spooky chocolate cake

I made these for Halloween - little chocolate fairy cakes covered in chocolate icing and then topped with Halloween sprinkles! If you look very closely at the sprinkles you will see little bats and little pumpkins! They are hard to make out but I love the contrast of the orange and black together. Very cool for a dark spooky night!

I made the cakes using the following ingrediants:

85g/3oz self-raising flour
4 tbsp of cocoa powder
110g/4oz caster sugar
110g/4oz margarine
2 medium free range eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp milk

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3 and line a muffin tray with cupcake cases/papers.

I followed this recipe from a new book my lovely sister bought me, I might write a quick book review on it soon, but basically rather than following the usual method of creaming the margarine and sugar together, it said to just put all the ingrediants, all of them, into a bowl and mix away! So easy, so I did just that. Everything went into the mixing bowl all at once (no folding in the flour in this recipe!) and mix until light and fluffly - then place tablespoons into the cupcake papers, into the over, bake for 20 minutes and leave to cool!

It was so simple and easy. Just like that they were done! My only criticism was that the cupcake papers don't stick to the cakes very well. I solved this problem by removing all the papers and serving them as little mini cakes. Once cooled, I covered them in chocolate icing and dipped them in sprinkles. Perfect for halloween, right then, I'm off to carve my pumkin next...

Fairy cakes with buttercream icing

In celebration of World Arthritis Day I made some fairy cakes to take to work. I work at Arthritis Care, a charity that supports and cares for people with arthritis. Every year World Arthritis Day, which falls on the 12th October, helps to raise awareness of the pain and suffering people living with arthritis can face. This year's theme was 'Think Positive'.

I made these fairy cakes and then decided to make buttercream following the recipe in the post below. I used all the tips I learnt in my baking class and piped the writing with a number 1 nozzle. Pink is the clour of Arthritis Care and everyone at work loved them! One thing I did learn from baking these was that sugarpaste does not fare well on buttercream - in fact it goes rather wet and soggy. (I used sugarpaste for the large 'AC' lettters) The next morning I had to take them off and pipe the letters instead!

I will be back soon with baking treats for Halloween, as the spooky day is drawing closer...

Mini cupcakes

I am a little behind in posting all my recent yummy cakes and bakes so here are lots of pictures of some very mini fairy cakes I made a few weeks ago! They are vanilla sponge covered with white icing and then decorated with different sugarpaste creations! I made buttons, roses, flowers, mushrooms and a little pig! Enjoy!

Chocolate fairy cakes with buttercream swirls

I made these little chocolate gems last weekend. I keep seeing fairy cakes and cupcakes in the shops in London with lots of swirly buttercream swirled around on top of the cakes in an array of colours! Peyton and Byrne cakes in St. Pancras station have them! So I thought I would try doing the same on my cupcakes.

I used chocolate buttercream and sprinkled in some bits of dark and milk chocolate flakes I had left over. I then used my piping bag with a giant star shaped nozzle and piped lucious swirls around and around! The only thing I would say is that the little chcolate flakes sometimes got stuck in the tube and caused air bubbles so I think it is better to have a smooth buttercream.

My husband asked me what the difference between a cupcake and a fairy cake was? I said fairy cakes were english and cupcakes were american and slightly bigger! Is that correct? If anyone has any thoughts on this please do let me know as I'm never quite sure! :)

Butterfly Cakes

I made these butterfly cakes by following the recipe in Nigella Express. They are lovely and moist and have a really lovely soft sponge! I was reading Delia's cheat book and I can't believe she has baked a cake containing potato flakes, it sounds totally crazy to me, I can just hear Peter Kay now 'Potato flakes in a cake!' Well, i never! I'm not sure I will ever get around to making cakes with potato flakes or frozen mash or whatever it was but as the saying goes 'Try anything once' so we will see!

I love butterfly cakes, I remember seeing them on cake stalls as a child and I used to think they were so cute! I used my new electric whick to beat together the butter and caster sugar and it was amazing, not only was it really quick and pain free it made the sponnge so light and fluffy, I think they are the best I have made so far! My only tip is to make sure you take the butter out of the fridge a few hours before to make sure it is soft!

You will need the following:

125g soft butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs (i use medium free-range)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp vanilla extract


Preheat the oven to 180c and place 12 paper cases in the cake tray so that it's all prepared!


Using an electric mixer cream together the butter and sugar in a medium sized bowl. The mixture should look light and fluffy. Add one egg and beat again. Add the second egg with a tablespoon of flour and beat again. Using a metal spoon fold in the flour, the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Finally add the vanilla and I always add one tablespoon of warm water to the mixer as it makes the cakes even more yummy!


Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden and then remove them and leave them to cool out of the tray. Using a sharp knife or spoon, dig out a little mound of cake and spoon in a good helping of buttercream. Slice the extra bit of cake into two and arrange on the buttercream so that they look like wings. I added yellow colouring to my buttercream to make it yellow but you can choose whatever coulour you prefer!