Chocolate and Hazelnut Cupcakes

Good morning girlies!

A few weeks back I used my Hummingbird Bakery cookbook that Darren ♥ bought me for Christmas to make these gorgeous cupcakes! I am on Weight Watchers at the minute and I won’t lie to you I’m struggling. I was doing so well before Christmas and was 2 pound away from my stone award I’m back up to 8 pound lost, 8 pound in 17 weeks is rubbish, but I’m not giving up. The week that I decided to make these I didn’t go to Weight Watchers and the bad eating carried on for 2 weeks, when I went back to Weight Watchers I had gained 4½ pound! It was well deserved and very easy to do!

Pages 14-45 in the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook muffin cases were used  instead of cupcake cases, with muffin cases this recipe makes 12 and on Weight Watchers they are 10 pro points each. If you were to make them in cupcake cases the recipe would make 18 and the pro points would be 7. I followed the recipe and made 12 in muffin cases.

1 ate 4 of these cupcakes (greedy cow! Haha)

100g plain flour

20g cocoa powder

140g caster sugar

1½ teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g butter, at room temperature

120ml whole milk

1 medium egg

120 Nutella

36 whole hazelnuts to decorate

Frosting

250g icing sugar, sifted

80g unsalted butter, at room temperature

25ml whole milk

80g Nutella

12 silicone cases or a 12 hole tray

Makes 12 cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170’C (325’F) Gas 3.

Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric whisk with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.

Slowly pour the milk into the flour mixture, beating well until all the ingredients are well mixed. Add the egg and beat well (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula).

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

When the cupcakes are cold, hollow out a small section in the centre of each one and fill with a dollop of hazelnut and chocolate spread. (the cute outs are lovely with a bit of nutella on them!)

Frosting

Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed. Slowly pour in the milk, then when it is all incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

Stir in the hazelnut and chocolate spread by hand until evenly mixed into the frosting. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the frosting on top and finish with 3 hazelnuts per cupcake. Voila!

This recipe said to use muffin cases instead of cupcake cases which are a little bigger, however next time I make these I will use cupcake cases because I prefer my cupcakes to be a little deeper in sponge!

Nom Nom Nom!

♥

Low Fat Cupcakes – 9 Pro Points on Weight Watchers



Hello my lovelies!! I have a few scheduled posts to get up but thought I’d get this up asap. I haven’t said too much about Weight Watchers on here because I was doing Slimming World before and failed miserably at it. I done WW about 8 years ago and got to a pound away from my goal, since then it’s all changed with the introduction of the new(ish) pro points system. I will go further into this after the New Year and I have got my stone award. At present I have lost 10.5 pounds and got into the previous stone which I haven’t seen for about 2 years now.

A while back I uploaded a few recipes and told you all about my love for baking, well I’ve missed it, so thought I would use the Weight Watchers ‘build a recipe’ feature on their website (you have to be a member to access it) to work out the pro points of a cupcake. My old cupcakes were a whopping 14 pro points, but with some tweaks here and there I have got them down to 9 pro points each. They were really yummy, I will admit I could definitely taste the difference however this didn’t stop me munching 4 of them! Where is my will power when I need it! I still lost a pound at Weigh in so wasn’t too bad.

When the cakes are cooked they don't go a nice brown colour like they do when cooked with butter, I think this is due to using Flora Light margarine. They were still yummy!

Makes 12 cupcakes

100g Flora Light

120g Self Raising Flour

2Tbspns Cornflour

110g Caster Sugar

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 large Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Topping

175g Unsalted Butter

250g Icing Sugar

1tsp Vanilla Extract

Red food colouring (use the tip of a cocktail stick, so not to use too much)

100’s and 1000’s

I made 12 but before I had the chance to whip out the camera Darren had pinched one!

Maybe a light cream cheese frosting would have bought the pro points down even further, but I was happy with what I had made. It's definately something I could play with, I've never tried cooking with Canderel sweetner before, so wasn't sure if it would work. Have any of you baked with sweetner instead of granulated sugar?

If you try them let me know how you get on, they’re really yummy!

♥

Malteaser Cupcakes

Hey girlies, these cupcakes go down beautifully with a cuppa! I have made 2 batches of these now and I think I may prefer them to my Carrot Cake! They are so easy and rise beautifully!

For the cupcakes:

200g softened butter

150g caster sugar

50g brown sugar

A couple of drops of vanilla extract

4 medium size eggs

200g plain flour

10g baking powder

Pinch of salt

80g Maltesers

For the buttercream:

250g butter

500g icing sugar sifted

A couple of drops of vanilla extract

55g roughly crushed Maltesers

Optional

Wilson 1M piping nozzle and piping bag for swirly tops

1. For the cupcakes: Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a cupcake/muffin tin with cupcake cases.

2. Cream together the butter and both sugars until it is light and fluffy. I like to use an electric hand whisk to do this with.

3. Add all the vanilla and then the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. If the mixture begins to look like it has curdled add a couple of tbsp of the flour and beat well until the mixture looks smooth.

4. Using a metal spoon fold in the flour, baking powder and salt (add them altogether) and then stir in the Maltesers.

5. Divide the mixture equally between the 12 cupcake cases and bake in the oven for about 25 mins or until a skewer (or toothpick) inserted in to the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Once cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin. (I don't use a tin, I use silicone cases from Asda)

6. For the buttercream: Using an electric handwhisk, whisk together the butter, icing sugar and vanilla until it becomes pale and fluffy.

7. You can either dollop the buttercream on top of each cupcake and spread it around with a knife. Or for a more professional look fit a piping bag with a 1cm star nozzle and pipe the buttercream on top of the cupcakes. Sprinkle on some crushed Maltesers to finish.

IF YOU DONT USE A MUFFIN TRAY OR SILICONE CASES THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS! (they were still yummy!) =D

♥

Carrot Cake

Hey girlies! I had another go at baking the weekend and made this Carrot Cake for my Father-in-law ♥ to be, it went down a storm. I think if I was to make it again I think would only make it 2 layers deep and maybe use the rest for cupcakes or something, it was a big cake!

Ingredients

350g light soft brown sugar

3 large eggs

350ml sunflower oil

350g plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

2tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp ground ginger

350g peeled and grated

75g finely chopped walnuts or raisins

For the icing

200g icing sugar

10-15 ml (2-3tsp) freshly squeezed orange juice

65g unsalted butter, softened

¾tsp finely grated rind unwaxed orange

You will also need

3 x 20cm/8in cake tins

Baking paper

Special Thanks to Darren for making the icing and decorating the top =D

 

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/Fan 150ºC/325ºF/gas mark 3.

2. Lightly oil three sandwich tins and base line with baking parchment.

3. Place the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl and beat together with a wooden spoon until the mixture is smooth and thickened. Sift over the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and ginger then fold in until well mixed. Fold in the carrots and walnuts or raisins.

4. Divide the mixture between the prepared cake tins. Bake in the middle of the oven for 30-35 mins or until golden, risen and the middle bounces back when lightly pressed. Leave to cool in the tin for 5 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

5. For the icing: Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl, add the soft butter, orange juice and rind. Use an electric whisk on low, to beat this until it is well mixed.

6. When the cakes are cold, peel away the baking parchment. Divide the icing between the three cakes, spreading it evenly over the top of each. Stack the cakes one on top of the other. Top with the walnut halves and orange rind curls. Store in a cool place.

We were a little impatient with icing this cake and Darren ♥ was rushing me a bit because we had to get it round there quick. The cakes were still warm and the icing was melting slightly but it still looked good and tasted good so that’s all that matters.

I should have taken some home for me and Darren ♥ but it was baked for Dad ♥ so it was only fair I had to leave it. Look out for my next installment in the baking series!

♥

Red Velvet Cupcakes (or Orange like mine!) =D

This is going to be a new section on the blog, I love baking cakes and since me and Darren ♥ bagged ourselves a new fan assisted oven I thought I would try some cupcakes. We were off to our friends house later that night so thought I could take some round with us. The cakes I made in my previous oven were coming out like biscuits so I knew it was the oven that had to be changed. These cupcakes came out taller than me, they were huge!

Recipe: (this will make 12 cupcakes)

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tbspn cocoa powder

20ml red food colouring (preferably Dr. Oetker's as red food colourings vary in strength)

½tsp vanilla extract

120ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

½tsp salt

½tsp bicarbonate of soda

1½tsp white wine vinegar

For the cream cheese frosting:

For the frosty topping:

300g icing sugar, sifted

50g unsalted butter, at room temperature

125g cream cheese, cold

100s and 1000s

You'll also need:

100s and 1000s, water daisies, individual cupcake cases, I also used silicone holders as I didn’t have a 12 holed oven tray, they work brilliantly and are safe up to 220’C.

Method

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

2.Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.

3.In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick, dark paste. Add to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour, and beat until everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the mixer down to low speed and add the salt, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.

4.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 mins, or until the sponge bounces back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Mine are Orange cupcakes! Maybe I should have put more food colouring in?

5.Meanwhile for the cream cheese frosting: Beat the icing sugar and butter together in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat until it is completely incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 mins. Do not overbeat, as it can quickly become runny.

6.When the cupcakes are cold, spoon over the cream cheese frosting on top, sprinkle on the 100s and 1000s and add the water daisy (optional but they look shit hot!)

Ahhh They're so pretty!

Are any of you keen bakers too?

♥