Chocolate Ripple Cake - Happy Australia Day

This is more assembly than baking (as in, there's no baking involved whatsoever), but it's still pretty! Plus, I'm lead to believe that this is an Australian recipe, and it's nearly Australia Day :).

The recipe on the packet calls for 500 mL of fresh cream, but I used slightly less than 400mL. I think I was supposed to start with more on the bottom, but I was being cautious in case I ran out partway through the biscuit sandwiching.

Maybe this would be a good dessert for a black and white party! (Apparently that's a thing.)

After setting in the fridge for about 7 hours (the suggested minimum is 6) the cake (aka chocolate biscuits) was getting towards soft, but still a little bit of crunch. If you want it really soft you'd be better off leaving it overnight so the cream can really soak in. But this was good too!

After checking the price of fresh strawberries I opted to defrost a packet of frozen ones to decorate with.

There's no Vegemite in the cake. It's just part of the Australia Day theme I guess.

Bye Bye Australia Cupcakes

Dear blog,

It's been a while. A really long while. But since I lasted posted I have moved to Japan, so I'm hoping you'll cut me some slack.

These are the cupcakes I made for our farewell party.

The pink ones had Turkish delight chunks and rosewater icing. The green ones were melon flavoured with gold glitter (because lovely friends had given me melon oil and edible glitter and I wanted to try it all out before I left the country!).

I also made gluten and dairy free chocolate and strawberry cupcakes. Because they're still awesome.

I have been baking in Japan, but you'll have to wait until next time for that. Let's face it - this is progress!

Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

Don’t make these unless you want to eat the most awesome thing ever. I’m warning you now.

Apart from the fact that they’re utterly fantastic, these can quite easily be made gluten and/or dairy free. Also egg free, so they’re vegan-friendly. Also, no electric mixer required. Like I said – fantastic (with or without gluten - I've tried both versions and they're equally delectable).

I got the cake recipe from Group Recipes (ßsee post here). I’ve added my tweaks below (doesn’t necessarily improve it, that’s just the way I did it!).

Ingredients (makes a neat 12)

1.5 cup plain flour OR gluten-free plain flour

1 cup brown sugar

Generous 1/4 cup cocoa powder (usually gluten free but check if making GF)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil OR olive oil (either works)

teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vinegar (I just used white vinegar because that’s what I had!)

1 cup water

1.     Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line 12 cup muffin/cupcake pan.

2.     Sift together the dry ingredients.

3.     Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar, and water. Mix together till smooth.

4.     Pour into lined muffin cups. Bake about 25 minutes (test to see if a skewer comes out clean).

5.       When the cupcakes are cool, I suggest scooping a chunk out of the centre of each one and spooning in some strawberry jam (about a teaspoon-ish), then replacing the cake chunk. The jam will kind of soak in, and it doesn’t matter if the surface looks messy if you’re icing over the top anyway.

6.       Use whatever kind of chocolate icing that suits you. But if it needs to be dairy free, try mixing together the following…

• 65 grams of Nuttelex
• 1.5-2 cups of icing sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• A little hot or boiling water as needed to achieve good texture (the heat makes it easier to incorporate the Nuttelex)

7.       Pipe or spread the icing onto the cupcakes. Then decorate with slivers or chunks of fresh strawberry.

  

 Try not to eat them all by yourself… unless that was your plan all along.

Ambition

When I grow up I want to take beautiful photos like Joy the Baker.

In the meantime I might have to try this Strawberry Cucumber Smoothie that she posted about. The combination sounds oddly appealing, like it would be fresh and invigorating. Or, you know, at least a pretty colour.

Strawberry-Cream Cheese Cupcakes

It was so nice to have a week off work over Christmas/New Year. Time to relax and do whatever. I organised an afternoon tea with friends so that I "had" to do some baking.

This is another delight from Betty Crocker's Big Book of Cupcakes - Strawberry-Cream Cheese Cupcakes.

You start with a yellow cake base, add a little square of cream cheese and spoon in a little jam... bake to produce amazingness (<-- anyone who has tasted these cupcakes knows that amazingness is, in fact, a real word).

I was mildly concerned that the jam would bubble and explode and go everywhere. But it didn't. The cupcakes greedily gobbled up the filling as they baked. Less so the mini cupcakes, but that's probably because I gloriously overfilled them.

Now. Cream cheese icing. And swirl.

If you've forgotten the joy of strawberries, you need to remember. Here's something to jog your memory.

A-mazing.

We also devoured other cool stuff, but that will have to wait till next time. Did I mention that I enjoyed my time off work? Happy new year :)

Strawberry Jam Cupcakes

I went to a family christening recently, for beautiful little girl Ava. I wanted to make some girly cupcakes to take along for the party so a combination of strawberries and pink seemed like the way to go.

I used Willow Bird Baking's Strawberry Jam Cupcakes recipe (<-- link here) almost exactly, just increasing the chopped fresh strawberries to a generous cupful. I liked the combination of fresh fruit in the batter and the jam as a filling, plumping up the flavour and the moisture.

Although I did use cream cheese icing, I opted for the version I've used previously (a half batch adapted from Bakerella) because I know how much it makes. I added a little red food colouring and about a tablespoon of Pavlova Magic to improve firmness. I also sprinkled over some girly little butterfly decorations to finish them.

This is what happens when I use food colouring. But thankfully it did wash out before too long.

The cupcakes were well received. My husband said they tasted like pikelets, which I imagine is down to the strawberry jam and batter combination.

I have had problems neatly extracting mini cupcakes from my non-mini cupcake holder wells, and this is my new "hi-tech" solution. I just cut a small strip of tin foil, double it over to make it stronger and position it under the cake so you can lift it out without wrecking the icing :)