Starry’s back, back again, starry’s back, tell a friend.

Yes I found my camera lead so I am extremely happy to have pictures yay! AND look what I have to share with you….

See those sprinkles? They’re Dr Oetkers Barbie sprinkles. They were hard and not that tasty so not that impressed with those. Still they look pretty and the edible sugar was pretty!

From this you would assume I have masses of free time and stuff. Um, no… Work has been a bit manic and I have been very stressed . Baking is very theraputic though and with a lovely BF to help with the cleaning up (and eating) it’s even nicer. Works a bit of a sod of late so pretty things cheer me up. The cupcakes were for my moms birthday. Which was last Sunday, mothering Sunday for all you Americans. Take a look at the rest…

I didn’t take that photograph by the way if it doesn’t look like my usual style lol, Sean did. I love those toppers. I didn’t have any letter cutters (Now I do, thank you ebay and Nigella) nor any piping bags (grrrrr ebay seller for not sending them on time). But they were just as effective imho. Cupcakes are all me, icing is courtesy of Betty Crocker, if you’ve ever tried to make butter cream without a mixer you appreciate why I used shop bought. Doesn’t taste as nice but still yummy. Making them rainbow was not so hard. Four layers spread across a cupcake liner…

Is it necessary to do a how to?

I’m having some people round tonight and I’m cooking but while I’ve got a spare minute waiting for people to arrive I thought I’d share this with you:

A yummy cupcake recipe! So called for their two tone icing. I had fun icing them hehe.

Minstrels Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 150g Stork SB (Or if you can’t get that: Butter – softened)
• 150g Golden castor  sugar
• 175g self-raising flour
• 3 medium eggs
• Quarter tsp Baking powder

Butter Cream (White)

• 50g Butter
• 120g Icing sugar
• 3 tbsp Milk
• 30g white chocolate chips/chunks, melted.
• pinch of salt

Butter Cream (Dark)

• 50g Butter
• 120g Icing sugar
• 3 tbsp Milk
• 30g Dark chocolate chips/chunks, melted
• pinch of salt

A little cocoa powder is good for dusting.

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 180c/350f, line a muffin tray with 9 muffin papers or 12 medium sized cupcake cases.
2. Sift your flour into the bowl, add the sugar butter and baking powder. beat your eggs lightly with a fork and add the the mixture.
3. Mix with electric mixer till light and fluffy, about 2 mins.
4. Divide mixture between your cases. They should be around 2/3 full.
5. Bake for around 20 mins. Cakes should be golden brown and spring back at your touch.
6. Place on a cooling rack after cooling for 5 minutes in the pan.
7. Now make your butter cream. Add all your ingredients to the bowl but the chocolate. (you can mix it separately if you prefer hence I gave separate measurements). Be sure to sift the icing sugar. Mix well until light and fluffy. Your chocolate should be still melted but cool. If it’s hardened, rewarm in the microwave.
8. Divide mixture in half and add white chocolate to one. Mix in. then add dark chocolate to the other. mix in well.
9. Check your cakes are cool. If they are not pop your frosting in the fridge till the are. If you have a piping nozzle you can pipe on your icing. Have fun and get creative. Other wise swirl on with a knife or spatula.

Enjoy!

As the chocolate flavour is quite rich I’ve used plain cake but the icing would go just as well with a chocolate cake.

Must go get ready now! Have fun!

I made cupcakes!

I found some oh-so-cute Donna Hay cupcake mixes in Sainsbury’s and I had to get some. The adorable little cases sold it for me. At 99p each they were a bargain for 12 large cupcakes. Was going to make them for my friends birthday but she was being fussy. So yesterday evening to stave off the boredom I made the chocolate batch. I bought lemon coconut ones too…

They were very easy and made monster sized cupcakes the size of small muffins. My only small gripe is that they didn’t exactly fill the cup cake trays like on the box. I think I may try making some of her recipes from scratch instead and see how nice they come out. The button thingies are sweet but entirely inedible!

I also finished the booties off yesterday morning while watching the Prestige (Which was really good!) god knows why I woke up at 6 am!!

All priced, boxed and on Ebay already. They don’t sell for much but they keep me amused.

I prefer this pattern with the crochet strap.