Caramel Mudcake Birthday

I suppose it's semi-awkward, but I nevertheless enjoyed making my own birthday cake. I decided it was time to prove that I actually CAN make a full-size cake, although I don' think it comes out as pretty as cupcakes would. (I like how they're little and cute.) But it was my birthday, so I had to inject some maturity (*cough*) into my birthday cake.

I blogged the recipe for this caramel mudcake and icing a while back in cupcake form. It's just the same here, except you bake it for the actual suggested time (like a grown-up :p).

A bit rough around the edges. I suppose I should have somehow make the icing thicker so it didn't ooze off the sides so much. Or just put on less icing. Ideally, I suppose, I would have just iced the top and let dainty little caramel rivers drip down the sides. But I wanted icing all over it, so a little bit of pooling around the bottom was inevitable.

Even though I made it I still got to blow the candles out.

I even got to cut it. I hereby declare that this cake adequately serves 16 people... after a big pizza/pasta lunch. Birthday!

Peanut Butter Cup Birthday Cupcakes

For my husband's birthday I wanted to make something a bit special. He's a peanut butter cup fan so I had a bit of a search around and found a recipe from Something Shiny for "Dangerously Decadent Cupcakes" (<-- link here) - a rich chocolate cake with creamy peanut butter icing and a mini peanut butter cup baked into the centre. I knew what I had to do!

Armed with my special ingredients (sour cream, heavy cream and a large packet of Reese's mini peanut butter cups!) I embarked on my somewhat messy adventure.

I was surprised that the batter looked so fluffy and light considering the fact that it was all hand-mixed, but I guess that's mostly the influence of the sour cream. I thought these were very cute with the chocolate pressed into the top, all ready for the oven.

Peanut butter cups successfully baked into the centres. I froze the chocolates before use (as suggested in most recipes like this one) but to be honest I don't know if it makes much difference to the end result. You'd have to try using them un-frozen to find out. (Go on, I dare you.)

Time to make the icing, and my bench mixer finally came out. The initial mix of peanut butter, unsalted butter and icing sugar was pretty crumbly, but it became much more icing-like once the cream went in.

With the creamy, peanut buttery icing complete, I set my trusty Wilton 1M star tip to work.

You may notice that I've omitted the chocolate coating that Something Shiny used in the original recipe - I decided that the cupcakes were sufficiently decadent just like this!

I iced these the night before they were to be consumed and was a little concerned about how the cream in the icing would fare, so kept them in the fridge overnight, then took them out a couple of hours before they were to be eaten. They were still slightly cool, which made them nice and firm to bite into.

My only regret was that I didn't make more!