After Eight Cupcakes

Hi everyone,
     I wanted to try and make some cupcakes that I hadn't made before that I thought would be to everyones taste and a real chocolatey treat and I came across a recipe for After Eight cupcakes on a brilliant blog site called anniesnoms.com. She has an amazing collection of cake recipes in order from A-Z... its fair to say I was salivating at the recipes before I even got to C!! First one on the list is After Eight Cupcakes and I thought oooo they sound good (and my work collegues are chocoholics so I knew they would go down well!) so I thought yep Im going to make them ones...and I did! Usually I am not a great fan of chocolate sponge with a chocolate topping myself... but these were definately an exception! I thought I would share the lovely recipe with you all so you could make them for yourselves and see how good they are. The recipe is so easy to follow and the decoration is simple. From prep time to decoration, these cakes took me about an hour and a half to do, including cooling time so not that long!
 Delicious and quick... What more could you want!


After Eight Cupcakes recipe
Makes 12

Recipe from Recipes From a Normal Mum

Ingredients for the cupcakes:

> 100g plain flour
> 1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
> 1tsp cream of tartar
> 20g cocoa powder
> 100g dark brown sugar
> 120g butter/marg
> 2 eggs
> 1tsp vanilla extract
> 25g natural yoghurt

Ingredients for the ganache:

> 1tsp peppermint extract
> 100g dark chocolate (original recipe called for white chocolate, I wanted to add to the decadence so used dark)
> 50ml double cream
> 12 After Eight Mints, broken up into rough pieces to garnish

Method:

> Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C and line a cupcake tray with 12 liners.
> Sift the flour, bicarb, cream of tartar and cocoa into a medium sized bowl and stir until mixed.

> Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer.
> Beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

> Add in the eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until well incorporated.
> Add in the flour mix and natural yoghurt.

> Mix until well combined, about 1 minute on med-high speed.

> Divide between the cupcake liners, about 2/3 full.
> Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
> Transfer to a wire rack as soon as possible to cool.
> Once cooled completely, start on the ganache.
> Place the cream into a small saucepan and over a low heat, bring to a simmer.
> Whilst the cream is heating, break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl.
> When the cream has come to a simmer, take off the heat and pour over the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and then add in the peppermint extract and mix until combined.

> Spoon the ganache onto the top of the cupcakes and smooth with the back of the spoon. About a teaspoon per cupcake.
> Place the broken After Eights on top of the ganache to finish the cupcakes off.
> Will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

And this is the finishing product...

Over to you cakebakers :-)
xoxo

Teacup cupcakes

I am loving cupcakes in teacups at the moment and think they are so adorable and creative! I think they are really nice for when you have friends over or for a little after dinner treat that look different to a normal cupcake. I have been looking at so many pictures online and have added a few of my favourites to this post so you can all have a look. I have some silicone teacup moulds like these ones (to the left)....
that I plan on using soon (watch this space) but in the mean time.... oogle at these little beauties...

Teacup cupcakes can be baked in silicone moulds like the ones below or they can be baked in the usual way and placed in a china teacup for a more vintage tea party look and I think both are fab!






























I think using vintage teacups give teacup cupcakes a different look to the silicone moulds because the cupcake is tucked into the cup after they have been baking in wrappers. These make lovely table decorations for a tea party/wedding/buffet.







 I also came across these creative cupcakes which I thought were cute and have a teacup theme, without the use of a teacup!

Happy Easter

Hi Cakebakers!
    I hope you all had a lovely Easter break and made some delicious yummy treats to share with your families and friends. Last year I made some chocolate cupcakes with a mini egg nest on top so I thought I would try something a little different this year.

I found a really interesting recipe online for creme egg cupcakes, baked with a creme egg inside so I thought I would give them a go!

As recommended in the recipe I found, I froze the creme eggs ( taken out of their wrapper and put in a freezer bag) and done this the night before I planned on making them. This is done to prevent them burning/melting inside the cupcakes whilst they are baking.

I used a chocolate cupcake recipe to make the cupcakes and half filled the cupcake wrappers with the mixture....like this...

I didn't pour any more mixture into the cases as I thought they would rise too high and spill over (but perhaps I should have as the recipe recommends pouring further mixture over the creme eggs).

The cupcakes rose perfectly and smelled delicious when they came out of the oven.

 

I decided to decorate the cupcakes like an egg, white vanilla buttercream topped with a dollop of yellow buttercream to resemble the yolk of an egg... then top the cupcakes with another creme egg.

 

Me being me, I decided to cut into a cupcake to look at what I hoped would be a delicious gooey egg inside but that didn't happen! There was evidence that a creme egg had been put in it, but the gooey centre had leaked out into the cupcake mixture and stuck to the bottom of the cupcake wrapper so just the shell of the creme egg remained.... I was a little disappointed!

 

 

 

Despite this.... they still tasted fab and my workmates enjoyed them! Some of them were lucky enough to get part of a creme egg inside that hadn't melted!

 

I am not sure why the eggs split in the cupcakes but think it might be because of one of the following:

1) I didn't pour mixture over the cupcakes once they were in the wrappers

2) I might have pushed the creme eggs too far into the mixture so that the bottom of them were touching the bottom of the cupcake wrapper, therefore were close to the tin and the heat melted them

3) I should have let the cakes bake slightly before pushing the creme eggs into the mixture.

 

Next time I make these I think I will try a different method. After looking a bit further online I found a different method to make creme egg cupcakes which might work better:

http://www.anniesnoms.com/2013/03/cadbury-creme-egg-cupcakes.html

 

I think I will try this method the next time so that the taster has a flavour of the creme egg with every bite.

If anyone has any tips for how to stop the creme eggs leaking inside the cupcake batter...feel free to share your knowledge...it would be welcomed :-)  

Happy Easter!!!
xoxo