Spooky Halloween cupcakes

I had SUCH a blast making these little guys for a friends' little boys' Halloween themed first birthday party!

They are a mix of vanilla, chocolate and red velvet sponges topped with vanilla buttercream. I made all the little fondant toppers by hand, putting my Sugarcraft course into practice! Cute little spiders, ghosts, Frankenstein heads and pumpkins

One of the simplest toppers (bar the sprinkles) was the gravestone. 

It is simply half of a Biscoff biscuit and I wrote RIP on each using Wilton's black decorating icing squeezed into a piping bag fitted with a fine writing tip. Luckily I had both a piping bag and tip to hand because I had thought that the icing would actually come with something to write with - apparently not! You could alternatively use Royal Icing or melted chocolate. I then crumbed some biscuit crumbs on top to act as the "dirt".

The sprinkles are a mixture of some I picked up back in September from TK Maxx, some black sugar sprinkles from Hobbycraft, some chocolate vermicelli sprinkles and popping candy sprinkles both from Sainsburys.

To colour the buttercream and fondant I used the Wilton food colouring gels. 

I hope that this has given you a bit of inspiration to get baking this Halloween!

Mini Nutella baked donuts

Ingredients:-

150g plain flour 

1tsp baking powder

½tsp salt

110g caster sugar

120ml milk

2 large eggs

20g unsalted butter (melted)

1tsp vanilla extract

Frosting:-

2tbs Nutella

12 squares of dark chocolate (sorry this isn't very precise, it was a bit of an experiment!)

Makes 24 mini donuts

Preheat your oven to 170 degrees. You'll need a mini donut pan for these, like this and grease it like your life depends on it otherwise you'll never get these little buggers out of it when baked! I used sunflower oil and brushed it on and particularly in the centers of the donut pan.

Combine all your dry ingredients. Then combine all your wet. Then using a stand mixer (because I'm lazy) pop the dry ingredients in and gradually add the wet while mixing slowly. I found that I didn't need all of the wet to give a good batter, you don't want it too runny, More the consistency of pancake batter.

Then pour or using a teaspoon fill each of the holes, about 3/4 full and pop them in the oven for 8-10 minutes until light golden and coming away from the edges. As soon as you've removed them from the oven, slide a sharp knife around the edges to loosen them, otherwise they will be really awkward to remove, then pop them out using the knife and leave to cool on a rack. They wont take long.

Then add both the Nutella and dark chocolate squares to a small pan and heat gentle on the hob until it resembles a ganache like consistencey. Remove from the heat and dip your mini donuts into the Nutella goodness, pop them back on the cooling rack and then sprinkle on your desired sprinkle and leave to set.

These are best eaten on the day of making. Thankfully that isn't hard because they are so yummy!

Oaty breakfast bars

I can go from one extreme to the other for breakfasts. One day it can be overnight oats with berries, almond milk and a sprinkling of cinnamon or superfood powder, the next it can be a slice of cake! These are the perfect in between for me, they satisfy my sweet tooth, yet have no refined sugar, no butter and the addition of a nut butter gives them a protein boost.

Ingredients:-
225g  porridge oats
50g almonds, skin on
60g mixed seeds
60g raisins
50g Rice Krispies
100g maple syrup
100g peanut or almond butter
125g  honey

Method:-

Lightly grease a 13x9in baking tray and line with cling film.

Pop the oats and almonds in a food processor and blend until fairly well broken down. They wont stick together if they're too chunky.

Then tip into a large bowl then add the seeds, raisins and Rice Krispies and mix.

Heat the maple syrup, peanut/almond butter and honey in a small saucepan over a medium heat until melted together. 

Then pour this over the oat mixture then stir well making sure that all the oats are coated in the syrupy peanut buttery mixture.

Tip into the tin and spread out evenly using a spatula. Lay a sheet of cling film over the top, then press down firmly (I like to use the bottom of a glass to do this) to squash the mixture flat. Leave in the freezer for about an hour to harden.

Remove the top layer of cling film, then tip out onto a board and cut into bars or squares, whichever takes your fancy.

To keep, layer them up between sheets of greaseproof paper and store in a sealed box in the fridge, they get super sticky so the greaseproof paper is a must!

I cant guarantee that these will last for a whole 5 days of breakfasts - that's all I'm saying!

Playing with Russian piping tips

I ordered a bundle of Russian piping tips from eBay and they arrived this week,. Cue much excitement! Honestly I was like a child on Christmas Day! If you've never heard of these, you're not alone, I don't remember how and why I stumbled across them... sometime during my YouTube research on buttercream flowers no doubt, but I am really pleased that I did.

You need to ensure that your buttercream is a little on the stiffer side, otherwise the flowers will just flop, and wont hold their shape. Practice is key with these babies as well. My first attempt of roses on cupcakes a couple of weeks ago went undocumented on here for good reason! Can't wait to play with these some more.

The actual cake here is vanilla sponge sandwiched together with raspberry jam - recipe to follow!

Let me know if you've tried these Russian tips and your thoughts.