Cute Christmas Cupcakes

These cute cupcakes could be a case in point when it comes to how addictive baking and cake decorating can be. I decided last night that I would whip up a "quick" batch of Christmas pudding cupcakes, but 6 designs and several hours later this was the result! I have to say I was a little cross-eyed by the end!

The cupcakes are vanilla using my new favourite cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book. The result is a lovely moist sponge, probably due to the addition of milk:

• 80g unsalted butter
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 240ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Then slowly beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until they form a fine breadcrumb consistency. Next beat together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs. With your whisk on a slow speed, pour three quarters of the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well before adding the remaining milk mixture and beating to a smooth consistency. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

For regular cupcakes the recipe calls for the cases to be two thirds full but for these cupcakes you don't want the cake to rise too far above the top of the case so I filled them a little less. You should be able to make 12-16 cupcakes from this recipe, if not more.

To decorate I buttercreamed the top of each cupcake and cut out circles of sugarpaste using Ateco circle cutters before adding the embellishments. For one or two of the elements, regular sugarpaste would be too soft, so I added some CMC to the paste in advance which causes it to set harder and therefore allows you make things such as the robin's wings and reindeer's antlers! The antlers also have a spaghetti support inside!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 12 yummy cupcakes and a partridge in a pear tree!

Afternoon Tea: The Langham Hotel

Another Sunday…another afternoon tea! It may be a tiny bit extravagant but my excuse is that it’s all in the name of research!! So today’s tea was at the Langham Hotel which is on Regent’s Street. It certainly is an opulent setting…very art deco. Expectations were high for this tea as it was awarded the Tea Guild’s Top London Afternoon Tea 2010, the Oscars of the tea world! So what did we eat, well we enjoyed the Festive Tea with the following patisseries: 

• Mini mince pies
• Festive eggnog cream
• Christmas chocolate log cake
• Mini gingerbread house
• Spicy mandarin orange
• Cranberry and morello cherry macaroon 

The spicy mandarin orange was particularly tasty, along with the macaroon! We also had a selection of cakes from the special Bijoux Tea which are based on the designs of jeweller Stephen Webster. These included:

• Crystal Clear Diamond - Lightly perfumed Guinness macaroon with blackcurrant jelly
• Poison Apple - Red peppercorn and dark chocolate shortbread
• Razor Ribbon Ring - Silver needle jasmine mousse with apricot
• Armadillo Ring - Roasted green pistachio Chantilly with airy meringue sponge
• Dagger Done - Valrhona white chocolate creme with strawberry and white balsamic

All these delights were washed down with champagne and a special festive blend tea. As you can see all the cakes looked spectacular and they were very tasty... however, I think I must be an old fashioned girl at heart as they were all a little too fussy for me... as were the sandwiches!! The scones however, get top marks...they were the best I've had in a long time... and I've had a few!! ;-)

So was it better than Fortnum and Mason last Sunday... in a word 'no'. At Fortnums you can while away the hours and enjoy some smart but tasty favourites. At the Langham hotel we were rushed out for the next sitting!!

However, I would recommend it as the patisseries looked fabulous...little works of art and they did have this amazing gingerbread house in the entrance which gets extra bonus points!

Christmas Pudding...

Missed Stir-up Sunday...don't panic...there's still time to make your Christmas pud, and this version made in a slo-cooker is delicious. Or perhaps you've always wanted to make a home-made pudding, well why not try this one...it's so easy. I have to say I've never been much of a fan of Christmas pudding but a couple of years ago we tried this one at home and I haven't looked back since!

Don't forget Stir-up Sunday was the traditional day when everyone in the family would take turns in stirring the pudding, whilst making a wish... why not give it a try with your family?

• 50g plain flour
• 1tsp mixed spice
• 100g fresh white breadcrumbs
• 150g shredded suet
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 400g mixed dried fruit
• 50g chopped blanced almonds
• 1 small carrot, finely grated
• Finely grated rind and juice of 1 orange
• 2 eggs beaten
• 15ml black treacle
• 15ml brandy or dry sherry
• 75ml beer or milk

To start put your slo-cooker on high. Then sift the flour into a bowl and add the spices, breadcrumbs, suet, sugar, fruit, nuts, carrot and orange zest and then mix thoroughly. Whisk the eggs, orange juice, eggs, treacle, brandy and beer or milt togherther and add to the dry ingredients before mixing again.

Grease a 1.2 litre pudding basin and spoon in the mixture and level off the top. Once done, cover with greased foil, make sure the foil is securely covering the pudding basin. Then put your basin in the slo-cooker and pour in water three-quarters of the way up the sides. Place the cover on your slo-cooker and cook on high for 10-12 hours.

When done, leave to cool completely before wrapping in foil. The pudding should then be stored in a cool, dark place until Christmas! On Christmas Day you can reheat the pudding in the slo-cooker by preheating it on high for 20 minutes before putting in the pudding with water around the sides. Reheating takes 8 hours on low or 4 hours on high.

* Adapted from New Recipes for your Slo-cooker

Weekly Bake-Off: Mississippi Mud Pie

Do you love baking and are you a fan of Mary Berry? Then perhaps you should check out the Weekly Bake-Off blog. I recently discovered the Weekly Bake-Off where the aim is to work through all one hundred recipes in Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes, one per week.

The recipe is set by the host every Monday and then should you take on the challenge a picture of your efforts should be tweeted by the end of the week before all resulting pictures are rounded up on the blog at the end of the week.

The recipe this week was Mississippi Mud Pie! I've never made it before so was a little apprehensive as to what it would be like but in fact it turned out quite well. I followed the recipe faithfully, it called for 39% cocoa plain chocolate which I couldn't seem to find but when I googled it... turns out this is Bourneville! However, were I to make this again I think I would go for something a lot more chocolatey as the taste test panel felt that although quite tasty, it didn't quite deliver that chocolate intensity that you might expect and that it was not quite chocolatey enough. They also described the texture as half way between a mouse (or a mousse even!) and a torte.

When cooking the sides puffed up massively above the height of the tin which was quite alarming when the middle stayed put...however, don't panic, when you take it out of the oven it cools in the tin and sinks back down to level again!

Overall, I enjoyed the bake and will definitely be joining in with the Weekly Bake-Off again. Why not give it a go as it's a great way to widen your repetoire and Mary Berry's recipe book is currently only £4 on Amazon... a bargain. Happy baking!

For the crust:

• 100g crushed digestive biscuits ( I blitzed mine in a mini food processor)
• 50g butter, melted
• 25g demerara sugar

For the filling:

• 200g plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids)
• 100g butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 1 tbsp boiling water
• 300ml single cream
• 175g dark muscovado sugar
• 6 large eggs, beaten

Grease a 20cm springform tin and heat the oven to 180c/Fan 160c/Gas 4. First make the base by mising together, the biscuits, the melted butter and the demerara. Press the biscuit mixture in to the base of the tin in a even layer.

For the filling, break the chocolate in to pieces and then gently heat it in a pan with the butter, coffee powder and boiling water until completed melted. Once ready remove from the heat and then beat in the cream, sugar and eggs. The prepared mixture is then poured in to the tin over the biscuit base. Bake in the oven for around 1 hour and 15 minutes or until set. Leave to cool in the tin, before removing and serving with whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

* Adapted from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes (My Kitchen)