I want S'more!

I'm pretty obsessed with American snacks and devastated that Twinkies are not in production anymore! But they can never stop S'mores! If you don't know what they are, its usually a camp fire treat where you squish a toasted marshmallow between two biscuits and some chocolate. Here's my take on a cupcake - S'more fusion. You'll probably want to pick up an exercise DVD when you get the ingredients too. 

Pina Colada Procrastination Cupcakes

Happy New Year to all my readers! I've been away revising for exams... or not. But I'm back with the first post of 2013! I'm going to save you the cliche 'here are my resolutions'. Along with many of you, I've spent the majority of my days procrastinating. I mean to an extreme! But here's one that turned out worth while... Pina Colada Cupcakes.

Mango... because I forgot to keep some pineapple! 

Recipe:

300g flour

230g soft butter

220g sugar

4 eggs

200ml coconut milk

40ml dark rum

140g pineapple, into chunks

Icing:

230g soft butter

90ml coconut milk

1tsp vanilla extract

580g icing sugar

20ml dark rum

100g desiccated coconut

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

1. Cream butter and sugar

2. Add eggs and mix well after each addition

3. Mix in flour and coconut milk in thirds alternating

4. Fill a third of each cupcake case, top with pineapple chunks

5. Cover pineapple with more cake batter

6. Cook for 20 minutes or until stick comes out clean

7. Mix all icing ingredients together in a clean bowl

8. On a low heat, gently toast half the sprinkling coconut 

9. Wait for cakes to cool before piping

10. Pipe and sprinkle half non toasting and half toasting coconut

If anyone was wondering what tip I used for this, Its just a plain open tip. I will get a photo soon! I apologise in advance for all those who have started their New Years 'diet'. Give up and join us on the dark side!

Until Next Time xo

Banoffee Coma

Experimenting with one of my favourite desserts, banoffee pie. It seems the most successful cupcake recipes derive some classics stuffed into miniature cupcake form. So I thought, why not? It went down amazingly well apart from the toffee stuffing. I attempted the old condensed milk heated toffee, but it soon crystallised and the texture was a horrible sandy feeling. Bar this small problem they were delicious!

I had to show you a picture of the pipping since this was my first time using one and I've been addicted to buying all the nozzles ever since. For this particular frosting I used a nozzle similar to the Wilton 1M. I thought I'd got away with saving £4 by buying a different brand, but I later learnt that the Wilton's are more expensive as they're stronger. But I'll leave that decision up to you. 

Recipe:

• 225g plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 110g butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 bananas (mashed up)
• 55ml milk, or buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 115g caster sugar

Cream the butter sugar and eggs. Then add mashed bananas, milk, sugar, salt, baking and bicarbonate. Slowly fold the flour before mixing well. Bake at 170 degrees for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. I used a simple butter cream recipe that you can find anywhere online.

You may want to use actual cupcake cups rather than like me muffin cups as they were so big and sweet it was overkill!

Until Next Time xo