Apple and Blackcurrant Cupcakes

So I've become rather enamoured with the idea of using jelly powder to flavour things since using it to make the strawberry and cream fudge.  Hence I bought a few different flavours of jelly in my last weekly shop to have on hand for various things.  When Sunday rolled around and I was considering what to make for the Dundee lot, I decided I wanted to use one of the powders in the buttercream: namely the blackcurrant one.  

When deciding what type of cake to make to go with the buttercream, I tried to think of what flavour combinations I was aware of that include blackcurrant.  The first one that came to mind was apple, since the fruit squash we drink is apple and blackcurrant flavoured and very nice.  This was then followed by lemon since lemon seems to go with pretty much anything.  Not sure which to go with, I asked the fiancé what he wanted.  He said whilst he loves lemon, I've made plenty of lemon cakes and that apple and blackcurrant sounds really nice.  So apple it was.

I did not have any cooking apples when I made this decision though, so the fiancé volunteered to go out to the supermarket to get some for me.  At the last minute I added blackcurrant jam to the list because I thought it would make a nice addition to the cake if it was running through the centre of it.  Now, I made a very silly decision regarding the apples.  In many recipes where it has called for two cooking apples, I've only ever ended up needing one because they're so big.  I've always bought two but always ended up with one left over with nothing to do with it.  So this time I told the fiancé to just get me one because I was certain it would be enough.  You can probably see where I'm going with this.  Whilst the apple itself did weigh the amount I needed to include in the recipe, once it had gone through the cooking process with the cinnamon its weight had reduced by half!  Not good.  I had to quickly cook up some regular eating apples to make up the difference.  In future I'm just going to play it safe and buy the two.

Speaking of cooking apples, it is such a pain!  Mainly because the bases of my saucepans ended up black and stained.  I've managed to clean one but am still trying to shift a large amount of the stuff off the base of the other one.  I think putting the apple and cinnamon into the saucepan as two separate things was a mistake, since a lot of the cinnamon ended up on the bottom of the pan and adhered to it when it got hot.  I'm thinking it would be better to toss the apple slices in the cinnamon first and then put them in the pan.  That would hopefully stop quite so much burning on the base.

The other bane of my existence with these cakes was the decoration.  I didn't want just buttercream on top.  I like adding a little extra flare.  In the first place I really wanted to try my hands at making apple roses.  It didn't seem like it would be very hard: make a syrup; sit apple slices in it for extended period of time; wrap into spirals around each other to make roses.  Well, I made the syrup easily enough and I soaked my apples until the syrup had cooled but I could not get them to stay wrapped around each other.  I think my slices were too thick.  I made them as thin as my cutting ability would allow but I probably need an incredibly sharp knife to get the wafer thin slices I actually need.  So with that proving to be a disaster I had to think of something else.  Then I had a brainwave.  Why not just use my little flower cookie cutter and make tiny apple flowers.  They could be apple blossoms!  And since they had been soaking in the syrup, they would not brown whilst sitting on the cake.  Hence I punched tiny flower shapes out of all my apple slices.  They made quite a cute decoration in the end.  I'll probably use that idea again in future, maybe with different shapes like stars and hearts.  I bet it would work with some other fruit too. Strawberry flowers anyone?

These cakes went down very well.  The fiancé loves the buttercream.  So do I actually.  It tastes very like a blackcurrant drink.  He says the cakes have a texture like apple crumble.  They're not the moistest of cakes but that's made up for with the buttercream and the jam running through it.  It is definitely a more blackcurrant flavour but the apple and cinnamon are there in the background and everyone agreed that if they weren't there it would take something away from the overall taste of the cake.

Recipe - makes 14


Apple Blossom Decoration - inspired by Martha Stewart:

• 125ml/4fl.oz water
• 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
• 50g/1.7oz caster sugar
• 1 eating apple

1. Put the water, lemon juice and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil then remove from the heat and cover.
2. Cut a circle of greaseproof paper about an inch bigger than the pan.
3. Peel and core the apple.  Cut into slices cross-wise about 0.5cm/0.25inch thick and then use a small flower plunger (like these on Amazon) to cut out small flowers.
4. Put the flowers in the syrup, cover with the greaseproof paper circle and leave to cool completely (about 40 minutes).

Cakes - adapted from Cox Cookies & Cake:

• 500g/16oz cooking apples (or 250g/8oz cooking apples, 250g/8oz eating apples)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100g/3.5oz butter
• 200g/7oz dark brown sugar
• 350g/11.5oz self-raising flour
• 6 tbsp seedless blackcurrant jam (about half a jar of Hartley's)

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and line three 6 hole muffin tins with 14 muffin cases.
2. Peel, core and chop the apples into small pieces.
3. Put into a small bowl with the cinnamon and mix until all the apple is coated in the cinnamon.
4. Transfer into a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, until it turns to mush.  Then remove from the heat and allow the cool.  Strain off any excess liquid through a sieve and weigh out 250g/8oz of apple into a bowl.
5. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the apple and mix together.
6. In a separate, large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy.
7. Add the eggs and mix in until incorporated.
8. Add half the flour and fold in.  Then fold in half the apple.  Fold in the rest of the flour and then the rest of the apple.
9. Divide the mixture across the cases and then bake for 20-25 minutes.  Cakes should be risen and slightly springy to the touch.  A skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
10. Allow to cool in the tins for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.
11. Put the jam into a saucepan and heat gently to liquefy it slightly, stirring as you do.
12. Use an apple corer or a knife to cut a core out the centre of the cake.  Keep the core.
13. Fill the hole with jam and then put the cores back into the cakes.

Buttercream:

• 155g/5.5oz butter
• 310g/11oz icing sugar
• 1 x 23g packet of blackcurrant jelly powder
• 1 tbsp milk
• Violet food colouring gel (optional)
• Apple blossom decoration (optional)

1. Cream the butter in a large bowl until it is smooth.
2. Add the icing sugar and milk and beat until smooth.
3. Add the jelly powder and stir until evenly incorporated.
4. If using, add a bit of violet food gel and beat in until the colour is evenly distributed.
5. Put into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe swirls on top of each cake.
6. Remove the apple blossoms from the syrup and place on top of the buttercream.

 

Sweet and Sour Jelly Bean Cupcakes

Last Saturday I went on a jaunt to Edinburgh to meet up with my very best Bean (aka Jess) because I had not seen her since February and that would just not do.  As is our custom, we went for lunch at Pizza Hut and saw a movie.  We also browsed some of our favourite shops like Waterstones and Paperchase.  As is not our custom, we also ventured into clothes shops together!  And looked at dresses and shoes!  We've become so girly since university it seems.  But it was fun!

Anyway, Bean often makes me lovely felt things, like my number 11 Doctor keychain and in turn I like to make her baked goods!  Previous presents have included the rainbow pinwheel cookies, chocolate topped orange shortbread, vanilla fudge cupcakes and white chocolate cupcakes.  Being me, I like to make something different each time and since she is a bean (and I'm a sock, it's a thing we do), my thoughts jumped to jelly beans!  But did she even like them?  I had to be sure so I oh so subtly enquired into her opinion on them and it turns out she's not overly keen on regular ones but does like sour ones. Well that was okay.  I'd just get sour ones to use.

Well that turned out to be a bit more challenging than I thought since my supermarket did not have them and neither did any other shops in town.  They had sour everything else but not jelly beans.  It was so disappointing.  Luckily though, this was Wednesday and we live in a world that has the Internet.  A bit of searching around found me someone that would send me sour Jelly Belly jelly beans in the post with First Class postage and they should arrive Friday, which they did.  Huzzah!  That meant I didn't have to make something else up on the fly.

So, I had jelly beans.  What kind of cake to do with them though?  Well, since they were sour I thought a sweet cake and buttercream would create a nice contrast, and what could make a generally sweet cake even sweeter?  Golden syrup of course.  Finding a recipe for such a thing was not hard either.  In fact, the one I found was on the site for the brand of golden syrup I use.  I did change the recipe ever so slightly though, and used golden caster sugar in place of regular caster sugar since it would enhance the taste of the golden syrup.  As for the buttercream, I thought vanilla would be nice and simple but is also always ridiculously sweet.

The colourful nature of the jelly beans meant I finally broke out my beautiful petal cake cases I got from Lakeland ages ago.  Then after I iced the cakes, I had the idea to try and tint the edges of the buttercream with different coloured food gel to make them look even more colourful.  I used red, orange, pink, yellow, green and blue.  It worked rather well actually and I was really pleased with the final appearance.

Since I made spares, the fiancé tried one of them for me.  He then ate the other two spares later in the day.  He thought the buttercream was really delicious, and went really well with the jelly beans.  He also said the cake was really nice and soft.  His only complaint was that the contrast of soft cake with slightly firmer jelly bean was a bit jarring, though he adds, "but then you go, mmmm, jelly bean, and it's not so bad anymore."

Recipe - makes 9

Cakes - adapted from Lyle's Golden Syrup 

• 75g/2.5oz butter
• 50g/2oz golden caster sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 large egg
• 150g/5.5oz self-raising flour
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk
• 100g/3.5oz jelly beans

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.  Put one tablespoon of the flour in a small bowl.
2. Put the butter, golden caster sugar, milk, the rest of the self-raising flour and the vanilla extract into a large bowl.
3. Beat the egg separately and add to the other ingredients.
4. Beat everything together until nice and smooth.
5. Reserve 27 jelly beans for decorating the cakes with then put the rest in the small bowl with the flour.  Toss together to give them a light coating.
6. Tip the contents of the bowl into the cake batter and fold in.
7. Divide the mixture between all the cases and then bake for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

Buttercream:

• 125g/4oz butter
• 250g/8oz icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp milk
• Food colouring gel in assorted colours (optional)
• 27 jelly beans (reserved from the 100g used for the cakes)

1. Beat the butter in a bowl until smooth and creamy.
2. Sift in the icing sugar and add the milk and vanilla extract.  Beat until smooth.
3. Put into an piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe swirls on top of each cooled cupcakes.
4. If 'painting' the buttercream, mix a small amount of gel with a couple of drops of water and then use a small, clean paintbrush to apply it to all the edges of the buttercream.  You should only need to gently sweep the brush along the edges and you will occasionally need to clean off any buttercream that may come away with it.  Use a different colour for each cake.
5. Top each cake with three different coloured jelly beans.

Rose and White Chocolate Cupcakes

I really wanted to make sure I made something for the fiancé to take with him to Dundee this week.  I had felt a bit bad about not doing so last week due to lack of ideas, exhaustion and just not being bothered.  Not that I'm obligated to make anything but I do enjoy having a reason to do it and people to provide feedback.

I didn't want anything too complex so made a point to avoid fancy fillings and the like.  Really, I just wanted a cake and buttercream, it was simply a matter of finding a flavour combination.  And that combination ended up being white chocolate and rose.  The idea came from a large layer cake that made use of both the flavours, but in the opposite way to what I ended up doing.  That cake was a white chocolate cake whose layers were filled with white chocolate chips, strawberries and rosewater flavoured cream.  Mine, on the other hand, are rose flavoured cakes, tinted pink, with white chocolate buttercream, plus a little bit of rose buttercream piped into roses for added decoration.

When I told the fiancé what I was planning, he did pull a bit of a face.  Whilst he had enjoyed my last use of rose he did say that they hadn't been a particular favourite amongst his friends.  I pointed out I was going to be putting rose in the cake this time, rather than the frosting, and would be significantly toning down the amount I used so the flavour should only be subtle.  Plus, how can you turn down white chocolate buttercream?  That stuff is divine!

I decided I wanted to dye my cakes pink in the middle of making the batter.  I thought it would add an extra layer of pretty to the whole thing.  It was also a great excuse to use the food colouring gels my Dad's girlfriend had gotten me.  Usually when I dye food I lose the colour during the baking process, or at the very least it turns out rather dull looking.  Not this time!  The pink I got was beautiful, both inside and out.  I'm rather eager to use the others now and make all sorts of colourful cakes.

The buttercream roses were also a last minute addition for the sake of a little extra flair.  Luckily I'd overcompensated on the ingredients for the buttercream and had about a fifth of what I made left over.  So I added some rose flavouring and a little colouring, popped it in a bag with a small star nozzle and piped something akin to roses.  They look more like spirals really but the overall effect is still rather pretty.  Also, once again I used buffin cases!  I do rather like the buffin cases.  They make for a nice, medium sized cupcake.

So the final verdict?  The fiancé liked them when he tested the one I cut up for photos.  I also rather liked the bite I got out of said cut-up cake.  And his friends?  Well, everyone loved the buttercream and they all agreed the cake was a lovely texture.  Mixed reviews on the rose flavour though but I expected that.  Rose does seem to be one of those like it or loathe it flavours.

Recipe - makes 12


Cakes - adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days

• 80g/3oz butter
• 280g/10oz caster sugar
• 240g/8.5oz plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp rose extract (or 1 tbsp rosewater)
• 240ml/8.5fl.oz whole milk
• 2 large eggs
• Pink food gel (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line a 12 hole muffin tin with either buffin or muffin cases.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the butter, caster sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until you get something that resembles fine bread crumbs.  This is more easily done with a hand mixer but can be achieved with a spoon though you may need to use your hands to rub in the last of the butter lumps.
3. In a jug, mix together the milk and rose extract.
4. Add the eggs to the rose milk and whisk with a fork.
5. Add three quarters of the milk mixture to the dry ingredients and beat in until smooth.
6. Add the rest of the milk plus a few drops of food gel if using, scrape down the sides of the bowl and then beat until smooth once again.  Add a little more food gel if you want to brighten up the colour.
7. Distribute evenly amongst the cases, filling about two thirds to three quarters of the way up each case.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.  Tops should be slightly springy and a skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
9. Allow to cool on a wire rack whilst you make the buttercream.

Buttercream:

• 140g/5oz butter
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 100g/3.5oz white chocolate
• Rose or rosewater extract
• Pink food colouring

1. Melt the chocolate by breaking into small pieces and placing in a glass bowl over a pan of gently simmering water.  Do not let the bowl touch the water.
2. Beat the butter in a large bowl until smooth and creamy.
3. Sift in the icing sugar and mix together until smooth.
4. Add the melted chocolate and beat in until fully incorporated.
5. Transfer about a fifth of the buttercream to a separate bowl and then put the rest into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle.
6. Pipe a swirl of buttercream on top of each cooled cake.  
7. Add two or three drops of rose extract (more if you use rosewater) to the reserved buttercream, as well as a few drops of pink colouring.  Beat until smooth.
8. Put into a piping bag fitted with a small, closed star nozzle.  Pipe small roses onto the side of each buttercream swirl.  I did one on each cake first then went back and added another to each and then a third to make sure each cake got the same amount.

 

Strawberry and Cream Fudge

 

Pinterest is a site I like to go to when I'm feeling stressed or irritated with the world or having a sad day, and probably my favourite section to browse is food.  Just trawling through pages and pages of pins can be quite soothing.  I have found some new dinners to add to my repertoire (oh three cheese, spinach lasana and chicken parmesan, how I love you!), which is great since I need more variety.  The well-eat plate we have at school has been making me feel bad (stupid vegetables).  I have also stumbled across many a recipe I want to try out for the blog.  Whether this was one of them or not I'm not one hundred percent sure, since out of some weird pride thing I don't pin recipes for the blog: I bookmark them.  Of course, I also bookmark things from all over the net so...yeah.  I think I found this through Pinterest though.  I don't remember googling fudge recipes.

It was the picture that initially attracted me to this recipe.  Seriously, this woman's photos are beautiful!  And her fudge looks amazing.  I wish mine had come out looking that smooth.  I probably used too small a knife.  I also wish it was as beautifully bright in colour but white chocolate over here always gives things an off-white-ish yellow colour and my pink always seems to be slightly dull.  Anyway, once I read the ingredient list I knew I definitely wanted to make it because it was all things I liked and seemed pretty easy to put together.  No temperature monitoring is always a plus!  Flavouring with jelly powder is such a clever idea.  I used Hartley's strawberry flavour, since I had that in my cupboard.  Makes me wonder if I can use other flavours to make other fudge.  I bet I could make three layered citrus fudge if I used orange, lemon and lime jelly powder!  Guess I know what the next fudge recipe I try will be! 

I made a point to read all the comments left by people on the original blog too.  You can find out all about various problems and solutions doing that.  The main one seemed to be that you had to make sure you boiled it for the full amount of time, or the white layer won't firm up properly.  Also that you should definitely use chocolate chips (or morsels in the original), not chopped chocolate since the chips have something in them that helps them hold their shape.

I was rather pleased to discover that the recipe I use to make marshmallow fluff does in fact produce exactly 200g/7oz of the stuff.  I really wasn't sure if I would need a double batch or not so I made one and then weighed it.  Absolutely perfect!  Hurrah!  I did also discover that you can buy the stuff over here in the UK.  Sainsbury's apparently sell it (at least it's listed on their search results for online groceries).  So I could have bought it but the fiancé said it probably wouldn't taste as good as homemade, what with preservatives and all.  I agree.  Plus, it takes barely any time to make and is pretty easy.

Sadly, my white layer did not come out quite as firm as I think it is meant to.  Perhaps it wasn't quite five minutes when I took it off the heat?  It could also be because I didn't put cream of tartar in my marshmallow fluff.  Oops.  Or even because I used homemade fluff?  Maybe I should try it with the jarred brand.  The pink layer is firmer thanks to the gelatin in the jelly mix.  However, this doesn't bother me at all.  Whilst it does make the fudge a little sticky it doesn't stop it from tasting WONDERFUL.  It is seriously delicious.  So creamy and the strawberry is just perfect.  Incredibly more-ish indeed.  I really have to stop myself going into the fridge or I'll be eating far too much and my teeth will suffer for it!  I suppose the well-eat plate isn't getting to me as much as I thought it was.

Recipe - adapted from Shugary Sweets

Makes about 90 bite size pieces

• 500g/17.5oz granulated sugar
• 185ml/6.5fl.oz double cream
• 170g/6oz unsalted butter
• Pinch of salt
• 300g/10.5oz white chocolate chips
• 200g/7oz marshmallow fluff (see below to make your own)
• 1 tbsp strawberry gelatin powder

1. Prepare a 33x23cm / 13x9inch tray by greasing it and covering in greaseproof paper.  It is also recommended to have the chocolate chips, marshmallow fluff and gelatin powder all measured out and to hand so you can add it to your mixture quickly.
2. Melt the butter, sugar, cream and salt in a large pan placed over a gentle heat.
3. Once melted, increase to a medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
4. Boil for 5 minutes, stirring constantly as you do.  Make sure to do the full five minutes otherwise it will affect the texture.
5. Once 5 minutes is up, remove from the heat and whisk in the chocolate chips and marshmallow fluff until it is smooth and thick.
6. Pour half the mixture into the prepared tray and tip about to spread it over the whole thing.
7. Add the gelatin powder to the remaining mixture and beat until colour is evenly distributed and it is smooth.
8. Pour on top of the mixture in the tray, aiming to cover all of it.  Use a knife to smooth it out and then a fork to swirl it with the white layer.
9. Chill in the fridge for at least four hours (though overnight is better).
10. Once firm, remove from fridge and cut into pieces with a knife  (I made an 15x6 grid to get 90 pieces).  Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Marshmallow Fluff - adapted from Bake me I'm yours...Sweet Bitesize Bakes

• 1 large egg white
• 125g/4.5oz caster sugar
• 25g/0.75oz golden syrup
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.
2. Place everything except the vanilla extract in the bowl.
3. Whilst it is heating, stir with an electric whisk for several minutes (about 10) until you get shiny peaks.
4. Remove from the heat and whisk for another two minutes to thicken it up.  
5. Add the vanilla and whisk in too.
6. Allow to cool.

 

Ferrero Rocher (Chocolate and Hazelnut) Cupcakes

So after I met the challenge for After Eight cupcakes so successfully I was asked for Ferrero Rocher cupcakes by the fiancé's friends in Dundee.  Now I know such a thing has been done before, several times in fact (so many different pictures came up when I Googled it) but for the most part they've baked a Ferrero Rocher into the centre of the cake, or placed one on top.  I didn't investigate beyond photos, because I like developing my own ideas without being too influenced by someone else's (because where's the fun in that?).  Incorporating a Ferrero Rocher is fine and I'm sure it is delicious but I wanted to make things difficult for myself and try and recreate the thing in cake form, complete with all its layers!  That shouldn't be too difficult, right?

Hence my first task was looking into exactly what made up a Ferrero Rocher.  I knew it was chocolate and hazelnuts and I had eaten a couple in my life (I'm not really a nutty chocolate person) but I wanted to get this right.  Wikipedia describes them thusly:

"..a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with hazelnut cream...and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnut."

Now, I knew said 'hazelnut cream' was a chocolate cream so obviously my version would be something similar and when you think hazelnut and chocolate I think most people are going to think of Nutella.  So that was that bit solved.  For the most part, the rest was obvious: a chocolate cake, chocolate buttercream and chopped nuts, plus a whole nut dipped in chocolate to go in the centre.  I knew I wanted to find a cake recipe that used a lot of milk, as well as cocoa powder, since it is meant to be milk chocolate and I always get nice moist cakes when I do that.  I had many books of chocolate cake recipes to hand though so finding one of those was pretty easy (I found it in the second book I looked at).  Really, the only problem I had with that bit was actually finding hazelnuts, since my supermarket didn't sell them.  I eventually managed to grab some in Holland&Barrett.

The bit I had to think a lot about was the wafer shell.  How on earth was I going to achieve that?  My solution was to make tuille wafers, which are really thin biscuits which can be moulded into shape right after they come out the oven.  I decided to shape them into rings to sit inside the centre of the cakes and would then fill them with Nutella and the chocolate covered hazelnut.  A good plan in theory, except for one obvious flaw that I was aware of but figured was worth ignoring for the sake of experimentation: biscuits take on the taste and texture of the things around them.  That's why you don't store two different types of biscuit together in the same tin.  So of course, whilst the wafer started out nice and crispy, it went soft once it had been sitting inside the cake for a while.  This was not detrimental to the cake but it was a little disappointing.  Hence I'm tempted to say that part of the method is optional, though the fiancé says I should include it anyway because not doing it might take something away from the overall cake.  I'm wondering if next time I should bake the biscuit inside the cake?  Maybe that would make a difference?  Though filling it afterwards might be difficult since it wouldn't be easy to work out exactly where to cut the hole.

I will admit, I was a bit disappointed when I had finished them.  I was worried about the soft biscuit and I wasn't sure if I should have covered the tops of the cake with melted chocolate or not.  I chose not to because I thought I would lose a lot of the nuts in the dipping process.  I was also hugely annoyed at myself for not checking my supply of muffin cases to see if I had enough gold foil ones.  I was just convinced I was fine, only to discover on the day that I only had three.  The rest had to go into brown ones which didn't look anywhere near as good.  So when the fiancé ate the one I cut up for photos I was worried about what he might say.

Turned out it I was worrying over nothing (as I have a tendency to do it seems) as it was good things apparently.  He really liked it.  Lovely light, moist cake with the crunchy hazelnut.  The crunch from the nuts made up for the loss of the biscuit, which almost disappeared into the cake taste-wise.  Almost.  He also alieviated my concerns about not dipping in chocolate by saying he thinks that would have overwhelmed it and the nuts would have been lost flavour-wise.  They were very well received by his friends too and ended up competing with previous favourites such as the chocolate orange buttercream, After Eights and hot chocolate cupcakes.  Another success in that apparently they were just like a Ferrero Rocher.  Huzzah!

Recipe - makes about 14

Cakes - adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery: Cake Days

• 80g/3oz butter
• 280g/10oz caster sugar
• 200g/7oz plain flour
• 40g/1.5oz cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 240ml/8fl.oz milk

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and line muffin tins with 14 muffin cases (ideally gold foil to get that Ferrero Rocher feel).
2. In a large bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder until you get a mixture that resembles sand in texture.  To get the last of the lumps of butter out you may wish to rub it in with your fingers.
3. Put the eggs and milk in a jug and whisk together.
4. Pour three quarters of the egg milk into the dry ingredients and mix in until incorporated.
5. Scrape down the edges of the bowl and add the rest of the liquid, beating until smooth and even.
6. Divide the mixture amongst the muffin cases, filling about two thirds full and then bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes until risen, springy to the touch and a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Let them cool in the tins for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

Tuille Wafer Rings - adapted from The Great British Bake Off: How To Bake
You will end up with more batter than you need but I figured it's better to be safe than sorry because the wafers can snap if you're not quick enough to shape them.
This is also optional.  You don't have to make the wafer shells for the centres if you don't want. 

• 1 large egg white
• 60g/2oz caster sugar
• 35g/1.25oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
• 35g/1.25oz plain flour

1. Grease 2-3 baking trays with butter.
2. Melt the butter and then allow to cool.
3. Whisk the egg white to stiff peaks.
4. Gently whisk in the sugar a little at a time until incorporated.
5. Add the melted butter and vanilla and whisk in.
6. Sift in the flour and carefully fold in with a metal spoon.
7. Spoon a teaspoon of mixture onto the tray and spread into a thin rectangle about 10cm long.  You'll probably get four to a tray as they do spread quite a lot.
8. Bake for about 5 minutes, until they are pale gold and the edge have started to brown.
9. Remove from the oven, let stand for about 15 seconds and then use a palette knife to separate them from the tray.  Do this one at a time and as soon as you pick one up, bend it into a ring shape that is of a smaller diameter than your cakes.  If you ended up with quite wide biscuits (making for tall rings, which I did) you can quickly cut them in half first and then bend them.  If the biscuits on the tray firm up too much for bending, pop them back in the oven for about a minute to soften up again. 

 Chocolate Buttercream:

• 140g/5oz butter
• 280g/10oz icing sugar
• 100g/3.5oz milk chocolate

1. Melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of lightly simmering water (but not touching the water).
2. Beat the butter in a bowl until creamy.
3. Sift in the icing sugar and mix in until your buttercream is pale and fluffy.
4. Pour in the melted chocolate and beat until evenly incorporated.
5. Put into a piping bag fitted with a large, round nozzle.

Assembly:

• 75g/3oz hazelnuts, plus 14 extra ones for the centres
• 25g/1oz milk chocolate
• 100g/3.5oz Nutella

1. Melt the chocolate as for the buttercream.
2. Dip the 14 hazelnuts for the centre in the chocolate to coat them completely and then leave to set.
3. Put the Nutella in a small saucepan and heat it gently, stirring as you do until it has a slightly runnier consistency, just to make it easier to get into the cakes.  Transfer to a small bowl.
4. Sit one of the wafer rings on top of each cake and use as a guide by cutting around the outside of it to make the hole in the centre of the cake.  Depth of the hole will depend on the height of the ring.  Make sure to keep the bit you cut out.  If not using the wafer ring, just cut a core out the cake and go to step 6.
5. Place the wafer ring inside the hole.
6. Put 1 teaspoon of Nutella into each hole, followed by a chocolate covered nut.  Add more Nutella if you have enough.
7. Cut the very top off each core you cut out and place it back on top of each cake.  Press down gently.
8. Pipe a flat spiral of buttercream on top of each cake, starting from the outside and working your way to the centre.
9. Crush the remaining 75g/3oz hazelnuts into small pieces and then dip each cake in them, making sure to cover all the buttercream.

Chocolate and Avocado Cake

I admit,  I was sceptical.  I am completely well aware that you can use fruit and vegetables in cake batter.  Carrot cake is a thing after all, and I've read banana is a great substitute for...well, most things actually.  But this is my first time seeing avocado.  Especially as from what I understand it's not usually considered a 'dessert' fruit.  I've seen it used in savoury dinners and salads and as a dip.  It's not exactly sweet (I figured I'd try some whilst working with it. Decided I didn't like it) so would it really hold up in a cake?  Particularly in the buttercream since that's where it's flavour is going to be detected.  Well, I like trying new things so I figured why not?

So how did this come about?  Well, today is the fiancé's Mum's birthday and so obviously that's an excuse to make a cake.  Question was, what kind of cake?  When I asked the fiancé, his response was that she liked the angel food cake I made her last year.  I hate repeating myself though, even if that's partly because I want something I can post about on this blog.  So I was still lacking inspiration by the time Friday last week rolled around and I needed to know so I could make sure I had all the ingredients before I ordered my groceries.  Now Friday I was doing the fiancé's Mum a favour and sitting in her house waiting for people to come and pick up a giant parcel.  I ended up waiting on them for a total of 6 hours, which is really quite boring.  To amuse myself I borrowed her laptop and did what I usually do when I can't think of anything better to do (or don't feel like doing any of the things I actually brought with me), which was browse around on Pinterest.  Recently I've been trying to expand what I make for my dinner so I've been hanging around the food section a lot.  It was there I stumbled across a pin about a chocolate and beets cake.  The cake itself wasn't what got me though, it was the accompanying comment, which mentioned chocolate and avocado cake and it being really good.  Now, I know the fiancé's Mum likes avocados so thought this could be a bizarre yet interesting thing to try and make.  It helped that there seemed to be a lot of positive feedback for the cake from followers of the blog. 

And that's how I ended up with this cake recipe.  As for the buttons for decoration, I knew I was going to be doing that regardless since she loves buttons and I have a button mould, albeit it a tiny one that only makes three buttons at a time.  There are 42 buttons in total.  They also were originally standing up in the middle but then they wouldn't fit in my carry container so I had to smoosh them down a bit.  Ah well.

I've never worked with avocados before.  They are such a weird fruit!  I was having a good giggle as I peeled them and scooped out the inside.  I have no idea if mine were ripe enough but they were a bit of a pain to mash up.  I probably could have done with putting them in a proper blend rather than using a stick one, but alas my one broke.

I was really nervous about this cake since it was a bit of a wild card.  I was dreading it being awful, despite all the good reviews on Joy's blog.  I shouldn't have worried though.  It went down really well.  The fiancé's Mum thought the buttercream tasted like a strange, cherry marzipan.  Her Mum, who was there too, did not agree.  They both ate their slices though and the chocolate cake got lots of compliments.  Very moist and you wouldn't know it was made with avocado.  Personally I think the aesthetic left a little to be desired.  The buttercream did spill over edges slightly and in an uneven manner so it looked a bit messy.  The buttons were also a bit dulled because I did that awful thing of putting them in the fridge to set but that's because I had so many to do and no patience at all.  Even with putting them in the fridge it took me three hours to do them all.  I will say though, I love the wonderful, bright green colour of the buttercream.  I think it looks amazing against the chocolate cake.

Recipe - adapted from Joy the Baker

Makes 2 x 20cm/8inch round cake layers

Cake:

• 400g/14oz plain flour (I used gluten free)
• 60g/2oz cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 400g/14oz granulated sugar
• 60ml/2fl.oz vegetable oil (I used sunflower)
• 70g/2.5oz soft avocado meat (about 1 medium avocado)
• 500ml/17.5fl.oz water
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and grease two 20cm/8inch round cake tins.
2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.  Stir together.
3. Scoop the avocado meat into a medium bowl and mash thoroughly.  You may want to blitz it in a blender (I used a stick blender to give me a hand).
4. Once thoroughly mashed, mix in the oil, water, vinegar and vanilla extract.
5. Add the sugar to the wet ingredients and mix well.
6. Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry and whisk by hand until smooth.
7. Distribute the batter evenly between the two cake tins.
8. Bake for 30-40 minutes until cakes are risen, slightly springy to the touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
9. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins before transferring to a wire rack.  Let them cool completely before frosting.

Buttercream:

• 200g/7oz avocado meat (2-3 avocados worth, ideally very ripe ones)
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 450g/1lb icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the avocado meat in a bowl (leave out any bits that have brown spots).  Mash thoroughly. (Again, I blitzed mine with a hand blender.  It probably wasn't as ripe as it could have been.)
2. Beat the lemon juice into the avocado meat until it lightens in colour and is smooth (though I had a few bits of avocado floating round in mine but don't think it really mattered in the long run).  You might want to use an electric whisk.
3. Add the icing sugar a little at a time, beating in after each addition.
4. Add vanilla extract and beat in.

Assembly:

• 100g/3.5oz dark vegan chocolate (optional for decoration)

1. Place one cake round on a plate.
2. Cover the top of it with half the avocado buttercream, smoothing it out with a spatula.
3. Place the other round on top and press down gently.
4. Cover the top of this one with the remaining buttercream and smooth out.
5. If making chocolate decorations, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl placed over a pan of gently simmering water. 
6. Pour chocolate into moulds (may have to be done in batches) and allow to set.
7. Decorate.