get passionate about brownies - brownie cupcakes with passion fruit topping!

well by now, most of you who read this blog will know that i am a HUGE chocolate fan...i just adore the stuff and one of my favourite ways to enjoy chocolate is in the shape and taste of the humble brownie...

A chocolate brownie, also known as a brownie, Bangor brownie or Boston brownie, is a small, rich, chocolate baked cake-slice, named after its brown colour.

crikey - what rocket scientist decided to name brownies brownies after its brown colour!!!! here i was hoping for some great story to go with my post and instead i'm left with this...well let's move on to the creation itself...

i was at the sunday market...again...(well it is one of my favourite haunts to pick up delicious delicacies for my cupcake creations) and spied that passion fruit curd made by the same company whose sauces i used for my cheeky chocolate cupcakes and in my butterscotch bananan bread. they have sample jars of all the sauces open on the stall with crackers in a bowl so you can try before buy...and it works a dream. the passion fruit curd just kinda melted in my mouth. honestly i could just eat the curd out of the jar...no need for anything else...it's that good!


so i snapped it up and brought it home and figured it would be the perfect complement to some brownie cupcakes that i've been dreaming of making for awhile now.

i'm sure you'd agree that the lovely yellow of the curd with the deep brown of the chocolate topping is almost too good to resist...almost but of course, i had to have my taste-test. LOVED these. the brownie was yummy. dense and fudge-y. i just topped these with melted chocolate...added nothing...i like my chocolate to remain as chocolate! and then the spoon of passion fruit curd and a cranberry. i like it...it's kinda like a lovely exotic accessory to the brownie!

take a peek outside and inside...i just love the way the chocolate topping has set and kept its lovely cupcake shape!

so the recipe...

Brownie Cupcake

4 oz dark chocolate ( i like to use 70%)
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
3 eggs
3/4 c. plain flour
1/8 t. salt

melt the chocolate in a double boiler with the butter until combined.
remove from heat and leave to cool.
whisk in sugar until incorporated then add vanilla extract.
add the eggs one by one, beating each one before adding.
add flour and salt a few tablespoons at a time until fully combined.
batter will be runny and quite difficult to navigate into cupcake cases!
bake for 20 mins at your usual baking temperature.

Topping

a bar of baking chocolate

melt chocolate, leave to cool then spoon onto cupcakes and leave to cool and set. pop a teaspoon of passion fruit curd (if you're lucky enough to have it!) on top and a cranberry. yummy!

la vie en rose with rose tiramisu cupcakes!

so what could possibly be better than seeing life through rose-coloured glasses? taking it one step further of course and enjoying it with rose-flavoured tiramisu cupcakes, of course!
i'm off to a friend's house later to help her celebrate her birthday and what better than something slightly pink, pretty and rose-flavoured? as you know i have been dying to use that new rose syrup i just bought and the thought of light, delicate tiramisu tickled with the delicious heady aroma of rose...well it seems to me a perfect summer birthday treat.

and for toppings well...when you read the back of this chocolate wrapper how could you not let it adorn a rose-flavoured tiramisu cupcake...i mean, the words themselves had me seriously salivating!

i had to have a sneaky taste of the chocolate on its own and it really was lovely...subtly rose-flavoured (and let's face it...that's the way you have to go when using rose...otherwise i think you might running the risk of inebriating yourself...it's just so heady...yeah, i know i keep saying that but i can't think of any other word to aptly describe the effect of roses). the pistachios offered a subtle crunch...will definitely buy this again just for the pure eating enjoyment!

so now for the recipe...this is similar to the tiramisu i made before a long time ago and of course the only real alterations were the substitution of rose syrup for vanilla essence or anything else that seemed a flavouring. i contemplated whether to use the coffee syrup to flavour the sponge but then thought that it would give a nice contrast...the bitterness of the strong coffee and the aroma of the rose. it did! was really happy with the final result. there was a strong enough hint of rose and yet the cupcake remained light and airy and delightfully delicious!

Cupcake

6 eggs, separated
3/4 t. cream of tartar
1 c. sugar, divided into 2
3 T. water
3 t. rose syrup
1/8 t. salt
1 c. sifted plain flour

in a mixing bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until foamy.
using 1/2 cup of the sugar add the sugar 2 tablespoons at a time, beating the egg whites constantly until glossy and they stand in peaks.
in a small bowl, beat egg yolks until thick (about 3-5 mins)beat in remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, water, rose syrup and salt.
sprinkle sifted flour over whites and fold in gently.
add beaten egg yolk mixture and fold in.
fill cupcake cases 2/3 full and bake in a preheated oven for 15 mins.

Coffee Syrup

1/2 c. icing sugar
1/2 c. water
5 t. coffee powder

in a saucepan, combine water, icing sugar and coffee powder.white stirring, bring to the boil, then remove from heat.
allow to cool.

Icing

2 c. mascarpone cheese
1 c. icing sugar
3/4 c. double cream

beat together the mascarpone and icing sugar until well combined.
add cream and beat until fluffy.

Assembly

poke holes into cooled cupcakes...i find a fork doesn't make big enough holes.
the syrup has trouble seeping through so i use a knitting needle!
spoon 3 teaspoons of coffee syrup over each cupcake...allowing syrup to soak through.
ice with mascarpone cheese icing and drizzle with rose syrup.
top with chocolate bits, shavings, sprinkles or whatever takes your fancy!

for those of you interested in finding out more or ordering the chocolate used in this recipe, you can go check them out at Skelligs Chocolate Company - check out their other amazing flavours too!

thirst-quenchingly delicious lavender, lemon & mint ice tea!

so what DOES one do on a sunshine-y summery day when one is forced to exchange spatulas for paint brushes and help paint the house exterior??? (apart from be over-protective of one's hands and complain non-stop about the untold damage that this job is doing to fingers that should be insured for millions, like Fred Astaire's legs, simply because of the delectable delights they are capable of creating!)

well, when site foreman (aka dad) is not looking, quickly nip off to the kitchen, reach into cupboard for newly bought and much treasured lavender syrup, find a jug, pop in two tea bags, pour in hot water add 2 tablespoons of honey, let sit for a few minutes (while trying to pretend that you're looking for some painting gizmo or other!), then add mint leaves, sliced lemon, lots of ice and enough cold water to fill up the jug add 3 tablespoons of lavender syrup. stir not too vigorously and pour yourself a giant glass full. decorate with real lavender sprigs plucked from the garden, find a nice cosy spot (away from site foreman!) and enjoy the lovely sweet aromatic coolness in peace.

fanciful flavours to tantalise the taste buds...

so it was a lovely sunny summer's day this morning and decided to pack a picnic and head to the Powerscourt Waterfall in Co. Wicklow. just spectacular! anyway after full bellies and copious sun-kisses enjoyed by the side of a babbling brook, i just simply had to arrange a stop off at Powerscourt House to check out the Avoca Shop...it is a must because it is always stocked with such amazing delights. every time i go i always feel like there is never enough time to properly explore...there's really THAT much stuff in the shop. and today, it did not disappoint...so here i am to tantalise your taste buds with a hint of future flavours of cupcakes...

lavender...syrup and chocolate...how divine...and i have been aching to make some lavender cupcakes since just about ever...i love the relaxing aroma of lavender...so soothing and calming

and from one fragrant flower to another...yes, with summer in the air, everything IS coming up roses, as we have been blessed with beaming sunshine these past few weeks and it just puts you in the mood for all things flower-y and flour-y! rose cupcakes...hmmm...scent-a-liciously divine!

and this final jar of goodness...strawberry and champagne jam...sounds almost too good to be true and with Wimbledon tennis tournament just around the corner, these sound like the perfect ingredient for another heady summer treat.

stay tuned, my friends and you know you won't be disappointed!

(now where do i hide all this stuff so it is not sneakily devoured by a hungry brother on a midnight snack hunt...?)

variation on a loaf cake in cranberry, macadamia and white chocolate minor!

ok so you're probably figuring by now that the rosemary loaf cake went down a treat. in fact it went down such a treat that most of it disappeared shortly after it was made...i tried to swat off grabbing hands while it was still cooling as long as i could, otherwise it would have just crumbled away while knives were shamelessly used to (what i can only describe as) hack it apart. hungry stomachs often have no thought for the gentle procedure of slicing a cake and no concern whatsoever for the mess of cake crumbs and chunks they leave behind!

anyway, always one to experiment with something new, when i remade the recipe today, i wanted to try adding something different. so i left out the rosemary and instead added cranberries, macadamia nuts and white chocolate. i like that combination and have used it before in cupcakes. again it was super easy to make and with just the different ingredient being added at the end. smelled lovely in the oven and when it came out. took a bit longer than the rosemary loaf and i think i ended up leaving it in there for about an hour and 15 minutes.

the taste was fabulous...a charming melody of melted white chocolate, tangy cranberries and lovely crunchy macadamias. it all went together harmoniously with the moist vanilla flavour of the cake. this is definitely a recipe to experiment with more and try out some different combinations...i can feel the urge to make a nutella swirled one coming on...let the next symphony begin...

more rosemary goodness with a rosemary loaf cake!

so what does one do when it appears that the rosemary growing in the garden is going to completely conquer all other plant life? use it up of course! so there is this rosemary loaf cake recipe by nigella lawson that i have been eyeing for awhile in my recipe book and thought with all that fresh rosemary i really should try it...

the recipe was really simple to follow, as i find most nigella recipes to be...she doesn't beat around the bush and i like that. it stated to use 2 teaspoons of rosemary, to be honest i didn't measure. i just chopped up however much was on the sprigs i cut and popped it in. another reason i wanted to try this was because the lemon rosemary cupcakes i made were very lemon-y and although i could mildly get the aroma of the rosemary, this recipe appealed to me because apart from the 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, the rosemary was the strongest flavour to the cake and i thought this would really give me an opportunity to taste the essence of it.

so the final step of the recipe called for sugar to be sprinkled on the top of the loaf. and the result of this can be seen above...it formed this beautiful crust on top that cracked and just looked so fabulous and earthy as the cake came out of the oven. i loved it!

final step after cooling, was the taste-test. eager family members were hovering with intent around the loaf, looking for a sample so, i think once i started cutting almost half of it was gone (they're big into 'doorstep-sized' slices in this house!) the test was lovely - the rosemary was the dominant flavour and provided a lovely almost musky aroma and taste to the cake that also combined so well with the mild vanilla flavouring in the cake. i really enjoyed the moistness and texture of the cake. i think a slice would be lovely smothered with butter too or even an apple jam.

Rosemary Loaf Cake

250 g soft unsalted butter
200 g golden caster sugar
3 large eggs
210 g self raising flour
90g plain flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
needles from a 10cm stalk of rosemary chopped small, but not too fine (about 2 teaspoons)
4 tablespoons milk
1-2 tablespoons rosemary sugar or caster sugar
loaf tin

cream the butter, adding the sugar when it’s really soft, and creaming both together till pale and smooth and light.

beat in the eggs one at a time, folding in a spoonful of the flour after each addition, then add the vanilla.

fold in the rest of the flour and finally add the rosemary.

thin the batter with the milk - you’re after a soft, dropping consistency - and pour into the waiting tin.

sprinkle the top with a little sugar before putting it in the oven, and cook for 1 hour, or until a cake-tester comes out clean.
leave to cool on a wire rack in its tin, unmould and devour shamelessly!

from How To Be A Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

anyone for a cuppa cupcake?

today i got a precious little gift...it came in a delightful cylindrical box with...yup, you guessed it...cupcakes all over it!

so me thinks you might be wondering...what mysteries might this charming little box hold within...

ah ha!...a little clue on the lid might hint at the contents...

yes! a mug...but not just any old mug...oh no! that would never do for a cupcake lover such as yours truly...

but a CUPCAKE mug...look at all those darling little treats all over it! just perfect! almost too perfect to use, but i am sure deep down i shall be tempted to make myself a cuppa in it...

the little words written on the inside of the mug say 'hundreds and thousands' and 'with a cherry on top' and that's just the way i like my cupcakes!

available for all cupcake lovers from debenhams

herbal essences - lemon and rosemary cupcakes

i have been eyeing the beautiful rosemary plant growing in the garden for a few weeks now. it has grown so well and is just flourishing in this warm summery weather we've been experiencing these past few days. so what better thing to do than pop it in some cupcakes. for me, rosemary and lemon are a perfect combination and i have seen a lot of recipes calling for those two ingredients together.

so i gently clipped some rosemary...the smell was lovely, so aromatic and flavour-full...it tingled the senses all the way back to the kitchen! once there, i gave it a good washing and plucked the leaves from the sprigs. then i set about chopping them up as fine as my fingers and knife would allow...quite a challenge as the leaves are quite tough and hardy (i did have that moment of panic where i thought that if they stay that way in the cupcake it's not going to be very tasty...but then i remembered the tea experiment and relaxed!)

i made the lemon cupcakes...with the juice and rind of the lemon in there to really bring out the 'zing' of the lemons and just added the chopped rosemary to the batter. the smell of them baking was just fabulous...again that lovely aroma that i had smelled whilst picking the rosemary in the garden. it just filled the whole kitchen!

i couldn't bring myself to ice them with a buttercream or fancy icing...not sure why, maybe because they seemed to earthy and good with the fresh herbs in there. i figured a lemon glaze would do nicely and again emphasise the 'zing' of the lemon flavour. drizzled the glaze on top and then came the taste-test.

the rosemary had softened beautifully and consistency-wise was unnoticeable when actually eating the cupcake, but the flavour was definitely there and allowed for little pocketfuls of rosemary goodness throughout. the cupcake was incredibly moist and the lemon was refreshing and light. the glaze added that lovely sharpness to the overall eating experience and i think this is why i wanted to go with the glaze...sometimes having that lovely sweet and tangy drizzle is preferable to just the sweetness of buttercream icing.

it feels really great to have used some home-grown herbs in my cupcakes...nothing like being able to go outside to your culinary garden for an ingredient. these were delightful and i think would make a lovely gift...maybe you could give them to someone as a housewarming with a rosemary plant. there is so much that can be done with herbs on so many levels that really we ought to explore using them more and growing our own too.

Cupcake
1 3/4 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
2 t. finely chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 t. salt
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. lemon extract
1/2 t. vanilla
2/3 c. milk
2 t. lemon peel
3 T. lemon juice

Combine flour, baking powder, rosemary and salt in a small bowl.
In a large bowl, beat butter, then add sugar. beat until fluffy. add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. add lemon extract and vanilla and beat until well combined.
Alternately add flour mixture and milk in three additions.
Stir in lemon peel and juice and then scoop into cupcake cases.
bake for 20-25 mins until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

Lemon Glaze
1 c. icing sugar
5 t. lemon juice
2 t. lemon peel

combine icing sugar, lemon juice and lemon peel. stir until runny consistency and drizzle over cooled cupcakes.

blog of the day on a beautiful day!

what a nice surprise this morning...opened my email and i had received a message from the lovely people at Fuel My Blog who informed me that my blog was being featured as the Blog of the Day for today! And sure enough when i clicked through...there it was...at the top of the page...my humble space! and they even sent me the little piccie above to put on my blog. what a great way to kickstart a fabulous sunny summery day, blue skies up above, not a cloud in sight...i'm off out to soak up the rays.

coconut cream pie cupcakes...a culinary memory recaptured from the past

i had the wondrous good fortune of living in Bali for a year and a half from July 1998 - November 1999. and while i was there i fell in love with this fabulous restaurant called the 'Dirty Duck' or 'Bebek Benggil' in Indonesian. it was located in Ubud, where i was living and although this was certainly a good thing, it didn't do well for my waistline as my favourite food to eat there was their coconut cream pie. it was simply divine. pie crust, coconut custard filling and meringue topping. the absolute perfect dessert and i went back there time and time again to have a piece even on holiday trips i always made sure i stopped in for a piece of coconut cream pie...if you're ever there then make sure you do too...there is really nothing better than sitting in that amazing restaurant eating delicious pie and gazing out over the rice fields of Bali.

so i have been thinking of how i could re-create it in a cupcake form (of course) and have searched around for recipes but couldn't find anything that really fit the way i wanted it to go. until the other day when i found a recipe for coconut custard that sounded perfect for the filling. for the rest i settled on a vanilla cupcake and for the topping a meringue sprinkled with dried coconut. and the result...

just perfectly coconut cream pie-ish. i couldn't have asked for a better re-creation. the first mouthful brought back such memories of that coconut ceam pie i devoured so shamelessly on so many occasions in Bali! it was light, flavourful and oh-so-floaty! the whole combination just went together so perfectly...ok enough descriptions...now down to the nitty-gritty of making these...

the most time-consuming part is of course the coconut custard...but then you have to figure that in for any custard you make. but it definitely tastes better when you do it yourself. this custard turned out light and creamy.

Filling

4 large egg yolks

3 cups coconut milk

2/3 cups sugar

5 T. cornstarch

1/4 t. salt

prepare an ice bath and set aside.

in a bowl, whisk egg yolks and set aside.

in a saucepan whisk together coconut milk, sugar, cornstarch and salt. bring to a simmer and cook for about 3 mins, whisking constantly.

whisk a quarter of the hot milk mix ito egg yolks and then whisk in remaining mixture.

strain into a clean saucepan and cook over medium heat for about 4 mins, whisking constantly until custard is thick.

transfer to a medium bowl and cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto surface.

set in ice bath until completely chilled - about 45 mins.

for the cupcake i thought a plain ol' vanilla would suffice, after all we don't want anything overpowering that fabulous coconut flavour now do we....?

Cupcake

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1/2 t vanilla

1/2 cup milk

in a small bowl sift flour, baking powder and salt.

in a large bowl, whisk together sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla until smooth. alternately whisk in flour mixture and milk. beat until smooth.

scoop batter into prepared pan and bake in a preheated oven for 20-25 mins until golden brown. cool on a wire rack.

and finally the topping...a perfect white meringue. i just love the look of it all shiny and white when it comes out of the mixer...

Meringue

1/4 t. cream of tartar

reserved 4 egg whites

1/3 cup sugar

add cream of tartar to egg whites and beat with electric mixr on high speed until frothy (about 45 seconds).

add one tablespoon of sugar and continue beating on high speed adding one tablespoon at a time until the whites for stiff peaks. pipe on to the cupcakes and return to the oven for 5-6 mins.

what a perfect cupcake and even more so because of the fond memories it brings back to the tastebuds...i love when you manage to re-create a favourite dish...

calming camomile cupcakes...perfect for a tea party!

so i recently saw a food blog event that seemed to tie in perfectly with my camomile tea project that i've been thinking about for a few days now. it's hosted by Skinny Gourmet and is all about tea. so if you're a big fan of the stuff then get over there and check out the event before it closes!

some time ago i discovered the most wonderful blend of tea by Twinings...camomile, honey and vanilla tea. this stuff is pure calmness in a cup and the smell of those three flavours together is enough to send you into a meditative state simply by inhaling the aroma.

then recently i managed to pick up some camomile chocolate...and i figured i'd like to incorporate it into the cupcake...a perfect garnish! so let's talk about the benefits of camomile...

Health benefits are:

1. Help induce sleep.
2. Calm nervous stomach and improve digestion.
3. Soothe skin irritations, including sunburn, heat rash and haemorrhoids.
4. Relieve toothache.
5. Improve bronchitis.
6. Help with bladder troubles.
7. Treat eye inflammation and infection
8. Heal mouth sores and prevent gum disease
9. Treat irritable bowel problems and various gastrointestinal complaints
10. Help regulate menstrual periods.
11. Reduce menstrual cramps.
12. Good for the kidneys and spleen health.
13. Help alleviate symptoms of the common cold.
14. Promote relaxation and alleviate stress.
15. Help to expel worms and other parasites.
16. Improve liver function and relieve jaundice.
17. Help prevent gangrene.
18. Relieve back pain.
19. Improve rheumatism.

so armed with two fabulous inspirations - tea and chocolate, i set to making my camomile cupcakes. i followed the recipe for the earl grey cupcakes that i made previously that began with a vanilla cupcake recipe and used camomile infused milk to incorporate the flavour of the tea. the only difference for this one is that i happened to have a burst camomile tea bag and i wanted to use those tea leaves for something. i had read in recipes before how you can just rip open the bags and use the tea leaves in the batter. well for ages, i thought this might be really weird, i figured the tea would stay all grainy and gritty in the cupcake and make for a nasty texture. oh, how wrong i was. the tea just kind of blended in to the cupcake and there was hardly any trace of it at all, instead just dark flecks of yellow were all that hinted that it was there. perfect! so this cupcake is almost a double camomile cupcake because it has camomile infused milk in it and camomile tea leaves. it made for a lovely rich strong flavour of the tea - which is exactly what i wanted.

i iced the cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream flavoured with a tablespoon of honey, and again the combination was perfect and just brought out those flavours in the cupcake. the whole cupcake was then garnished with a triangle of camomile chocolate. could you possible think of anything more relaxing than that?

my great taste-tester, my brother, immediately gobbled down three. he is a big fan of the tea and said the whole experience was like eating the tea in a cupcake. i did my usual one cupcake taste test and yes...it was sublime. mouthful after mouthful of absolute calm and serenity. i just loved it.

nana's rice pudding...a secret recipe...shhhhh!

as a child i grew up overseas and usually spent my summers in Ireland visiting my grandma (affectionately called nana). those summers remain very fond memories for me and something that i always associate with those summers is rice pudding. and not just any old rice pudding, this is the secret recipe rice pudding that my nana would make for us and it would be instantly gobbled up as fast as it came out of the oven. yes, that's right...you read correctly...the oven. my nana's rice pudding was baked. and it's funny because for years when i would be in the supermarket and i'd see tins of rice pudding for sale, i would wonder how it was possible that baked rice pudding could come from a tin (my nana forbid us to buy it, muttering a string of opinonated comments on the sheer disgrace of buying rice pudding in a tin!). it was only years later that i realised that the rice pudding in the tin was usually made in a saucepan and a different process altogether! i grew up believing baked rice pudding was THE only kind of rice pudding out there and in my honest opinion it still is. i could wake up in the middle of the night to eat this rice pudding! and the best part...it is so easy to make. a recipe that has never been written down (probably until now) and so i have no idea about exact quantities but just go by what i remember my nana doing when i would watch her preparing it for us and be badgering her with my unceasing questions of 'when will it be ready?' and it goes on! yesterday, as i was making it, my brother began those very same questions as he waited also not-so-patiently for it to come out of the oven. it's the simple things in life that truly bring the best pleasure!

the rice pudding as it looks when it comes out of the oven...lovingly sprinkled with nutmeg, and if you don't like nutmeg, well, for this you have to just go with it, because it makes the whole experience taste so much better!

the inside of the rice pudding - i have tried this with all different kinds of grains of rice. here in Ireland you can buy such a thing as 'pudding rice' which obviously is perfect because it is very short grain and white in colour, but any short grain rice will suffice. i used basmati rice for this version and it worked fine.

all served up in the bowl and almost ready to be eaten...photographing the pudding was quite a challenge as inbetween photos my brother was digging into the pudding and devouring it at a speed that one might consider to be well above the average rate of eating.

and finally, in my family, baked rice pudding has always been eaten with milk poured over it. does that seem strange? well, it's just how we've always done it. it's a perfect contrast - the hot rice pudding just out of the oven and the cold, fresh milk. yummy!

and now for the recipe...

choose a pie dish and cover the bottom with uncooked rice. wash the rice until the water runs clear. cover the rice with milk and put in the oven for about 20 minutes until the top of the rice is lightly browned and the skin has burst (my grandma called this stage the bursting the rice stage!) remove from the oven and scrape the rice from side of the dish and break it up. put about 3 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons of sugar and half a cup of raisins into the rice. mix it up. pour in enough milk to cover the rice and sprinkle a generous amount of nutmeg on the top. bake in the oven for about 35 minutes or until the milk has all been absorbed and pudding is firm. remove...don't bother cooling, eat immediately with cold milk straight from the fridge.

there really is nothing better than recipes your grandma taught you...not written down but passed down through the generations by word of mouth. hence the amounts in the above recipe are guestimates.

enjoy a little bit of old-fashioned tummy-warming love courtesy of the loveliest nana in the world!

an award from a fellow faery!

a very special thank you to faery over at Faery's Kitchen for her gracious and much appreciated award she bestowed on me and my blog. it is naturally a great pleasure to be recognised by a fellow faery and i shall do my best to continue to live up to the standard that it suggests!
now who shall i pass it on to...well for starters it must go to Not Quite Nigella who i think must be currently buried under mounds of bananas as she bakes as much banana bread as she can possible stand to select her winner for the Banana Bread Bake-off! what a task...but can't wait to see the results!
and the other blog i'd like to give it to is Fifi la Cupcakes, who is a relatively new food blogger and i really wanna send her some cupcake-y love and support in her baking ventures. i'm enjoying reading her adventures.
that's it for now...

bring back banoffi! bring back banoffi!

so these are the words i have been hearing for the longest time from family...bring back banoffi! they have unanimously decided that this is their absolute favourite cupcake of all...the diva of all cupcakes simply because it is so luscious and rich and just oozing attitude! my hubby has been telling me that friends at work were wondering whether i am on strike as they haven't tasted any cupcakes in a while and i guess i kinda have been. it felt like my baking mojo had left me there for awhile...but it seems to be back in all its splendour and that can only be a good thing as far as all my fans are concerned!
so it seems the friends at work also wanted to taste the magnificent, diva-licious banoffi cupcakes and so i set to work yesterday making them using the same recipe as before which you can find here. these really are easy to make...the cupcake recipe doesn't involve any of that creaming butter shenanigans and the most time consuming part is actually cutting the cone and filling with toffee sauce. there's no icing as i prefer to use cream to make it more like a real banoffi pie so you just have to whip up the cream in the mixer and pipe it on. and yes, this time i did pipe it on (as opposed to last time when i just kind elegantly dumped it on!) and it did look so much nicer...like a 99 ice-cream that i used to buy here when i was on holidays in the summer months (maybe i need to make a tribute to one of those!)
well, hubby has just sent a message and said that his colleagues all had to take one out and share so they could do a taste test..they couldn't wait for break time and they absolutely loved it. just the kind of feedback i like to hear!

i'm still waiting for my amano chocolate to arrive so hopefully it hasn't melted en route...and hopefully will have something nice and chocolate-y to brew up with that. plus i recently managed to pick up some chamomile infused chocolate and am mulling ideas for a chamomile inspired cupcake.

a change of domain...and chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

i've been away for awhile hence the lack of cupcakes and now i'm in the process of switching domains so within the next few days, y'all can update the address for my blog and follow me to www.airyfairycupcakes.com
blogger will apparently post a message to let all those know to follow me there, so don't get left behind now!

on another note, i just found out that i won another treat courtesy of BlakeMakes and Amano Chocolate yup, yup, i won chocolate! my favourite creation...the very substance that i could quite happily walk around with being fed into me by an iv drip! might get some looks, mind you, but if it meant that i would forever be high on chocolate for the rest of my life, well what better thing than that! i won 3 bars of Amano chocolate and it should be on its way pretty soon so again i shall be checking the post box regularly to make sure that the current heat wave we are experiencing here doesn't melt it away before i get to it! and of course, shall be scratching my head and thinking about what to make and trying not to think about eating it all instead!
stay tuned!
and while we are on the subject of chocolate, the reason i'm away from the kitchen for so long is because i am in the midst of helping out with a production of none other than...Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. i do some part-time work with a drama school here and they are performing their end-of-year production at the Civic in Tallaght. so anyone in the area...get on down and check it out. last night was opening night, and though i spent it all back stage, controlling packs of oompa-loompas. i believe it went really well! the perfect play to get me in the mood for my soon to be arriving chocolate, no?