Easy Peasy, yummylicious Vanilla Cupcakes

Having experimented with different variations of vanilla cupcakes, I came across this 'Simple white cake' recipe from allrecipes.com which had well over 750 reviews, all which were positive. It's also a recipe that is easily adaptable for cupcakes and different flavour experimentation too. I'm mid baking at the moment so well see how they turn out, i'm hoping to go for light, fluffy and not too dense. There's nothing worse than a dense tasting cupcake that's feel heavy. I noticed that in some UK 'fairy cake' recipes they don't use milk, which i think is the magic ingredient.

Recipe by Scottosman on Allrecipes.com

Ingredients (makes 12 cupcakes)

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

Quick buttercream recipe from Allrecipes
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 3 drops food coloring, or as needed (optional)

Directions

1. Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.
2. Pour in milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add food coloring, if using, and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached.

Mouthwatering, tasty goodness @ Paradise Catering

Rollo with fresh almond - vegan sweet Lenten treats!

Skaltsounia (Σκαλτσούνια) - perfect traditional Greek sweetness for Lent. It's super scrumptious little roll filled with what reminds me of mince pies and is covered in icing sugar, so you gotta love this!

Mini Greek style Brownies & chocolate cream!

Greek sweet orange pie

Chocolate pie! Bring on the ice-cream!

Valentines Cakes: Part 2

Τούρτα Αγίου Βαλεντίνου - Valentines Day Cake part 1

We've been doing a series of cake hats lately - it seems this is what they want here, so in the lead upto Valentines day, here is a krema chocolada capello with fondant icing.

More Valentine's Day tourtes to follow on Thursday!

Buttercream baby!

Buttercream is simply the essence that makes a cake what it is, be it cupcake or any kinda cake. I remember stuffing my face with Walnut layer cake as a kid, which had 2 layers of buttercream. I would only buy the cake if it was substantially and sufficiently loaded with the stuff!

I've got a load of cupcakes that will need to be lathered in buttercream in the upcoming weeks, so i've pulled some recipes i've found on Martha Stewarts website amongst a few other top foodie sites.

Billy Reece of Billy's Bakery in Manhattan's recipe for Vanilla Buttercream

Makes enough for 30 cupcakes

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Betty Crockers Vanilla Buttercream Frosting Recipe

3	cups powdered sugar
1/3	cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2	teaspoons vanilla
1-2	tablespoons milk

In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.

Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar. Frosts 13x9-inch cake generously, or fills and frosts an 8- or 9-inch two-layer cake. Browned Butter Buttercream Frosting: In 1-quart saucepan, heat 1/3 cup butter (do not use margarine or spreads) over medium heat just until light brown. Watch carefully because butter can brown and then burn quickly. Cool butter. Use browned butter instead of softened butter in recipe. Lemon Buttercream Frosting: Omit vanilla. Substitute lemon juice for the milk. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel. Maple-Nut Buttercream Frosting: Omit vanilla. Substitute 1/2 cup maple-flavored syrup for the milk. Stir in 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts. Orange Buttercream Frosting: Omit vanilla. Substitute orange juice for the milk. Stir in 2 teaspoons grated orange peel. Peanut Butter Buttercream Frosting: Substitute peanut butter for the butter. Increase milk to 1/4 cup, adding more if necessary, a few drops at a time.

Ooh, so many flavours, so much experimentation!

Clean Monday: Καθαρή Δευτέρα

Clean Monday (aka Ash Monday) is a quite an annual food event in the Greek calendar; no meat is cooked on this day as it's the beginning of Lent among Orthodox Christians. This is also a day where copius amounts of shellfish is consumed and need I say more about Ouzo???
For the next 40 days/7wks, the devout abstain from meat and dairy products (or anything that derives from animals with red blood; no milk, cheese, eggs, yoghurt etc - wow this is going to be hard), until Easter Day as the body & Spirit is cleansed of impurities and prepared for the Resurrection. Most Greeks nowadays tend to fast according to their own variation of the rules: some people abstain from meat and dairy products on Wednesdays and Fridays (which have religious significance in the Greek Orthodox Church), others abstain from meat the whole week except for Sunday, while others may give up milk in their coffee, and some only fast during Holy week (Megali evthomatha).

I have no idea what the menu for this day is, but so far the most popular dishes from my recce on the web are:

Taramosalata - Fish Roe (ταραμοσαλάτα)
Flame Grilled Octopus (χταπόδι στη σχάρα) - or cooked in a wine sauce
I'll be washing mine down with vast quantities of tsipouro
Calamari - my favourite, with lashings of fresh lemon juice
Gigandes Beans/Fasolada
Pickled Cauliflower and Carrots
Lagana Flatbread

Valentine's day ideas

Here are some divine inspiration to kick off this month from Bakerella, flickr, Cupcakes take the cake & The Scootabaker! Enjoy!
I came across TheScootabaker who had some awesome ideas for V-day cupcakes, i think i'll be having a go at making a selection of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with strawberry buttercream heart fillings, then perhaps attempt making some filligree style choc hearts to put on top of the buttercream with heart shaped sprinkles. Yum






I found a great recipe for the chocolate cupcake from Joy of Baking which i'll be using again as it's dead easy. The cupcakes turned out moist and also quite light and spongy... but maybe not enough chocolate for my man's liking so may have to add more chocolate.

Chocolate Cupcakes:

1/2 cup (50 grams) Dutch-processed cocoa powder

1 cup (240 ml) boiling hot water

1 1/3 cups (175 grams) all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup (200 grams) granulated white sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly butter, or line 16 muffin cups with paper liners.

In a small bowl stir until smooth the boiling hot water and the cocoa powder. Let cool to room temperature.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

Then in the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat only until incorporated. Then add the cooled cocoa mixture and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup two-thirds full with batter and bake for about 16-20 minutes or until risen, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have completely cooled, frost with icing. You can either spread the frosting on the cupcakes with a small spatula or if piping, use a large Wilton 1M open star tip to make lovely swirls.