a return to the traditional - easter simnel cupcakes

so, i wanted to bake something traditional for easter and saw a segment on one of the morning tv shows on how to make simnel cake. when i delved a little bit further i found this about simnel cake on wikipedia...

Simnel cake is a light fruit cake, similar to a Christmas cake, covered in marzipan, and eaten at Easter in England and Ireland. A layer of marzipan or almond paste is also baked into the middle of the cake. On the top of the cake, around the edge, are eleven marzipan balls to represent the true apostles of Jesus; Judas is omitted. In some variations Christ is also represented, by a ball placed at the centre.

The cake is made from these ingredients: white flour, sugar, butter, eggs, fragrant spices, dried fruits, zest and candied peel.

Simnel cakes have been known since mediaeval times, and were originally a Mothering Sunday tradition, when young girls in service would make one to be taken home to their mothers on their day off. The word simnel probably derived from the Latin word simila, meaning fine, wheaten flour with which the cakes were made. A legend, however, attributes the cake's creation to the English pretender Lambert Simnel, who supposedly devised it during the time in which he was forced to work in Henry VII's kitchens.

this sounded perfect and i liked the idea that it was used traditionally for easter. my mum is a big fruitcake fan and she especially wanted some. i found a recipe from Odlums that looked good and set to work. the recipe was easy to follow and easy to make. once i'd made the batter i rolled out the marzipan and cut out shapes to put into the middle of the cupcake. divided up the batter, spooned in a tablespoon of batter, placed the rolled out marzipan and then another tablespoon on top. the cupcake case was pretty much full to the top at this point because these do not rise very much so make sure you fill them to where you want them to end up! this is what they looked like when thy came out of the oven....

they smelled so good, really rich and spicy and filled the whole house with their aroma. wonderful! i must admit that i was a bit worried about the baking time because it is hard to judge when these are done. i just went by their golden brown-ness on top because the toothpick test doesn't really apply here as the cake is so full of fruit. while they were cooling i rolled out the second batch of marzipan and placed these on top. then popped them back in the oven to bake the marzipan for about 5 minutes. it said in the recipe that you should bake them until the tops are brown but i didn't want the marzipan to be brown-looking. that didn't seem to appeal to me and i thought it wouldn't look so pretty. so i took them out just after 5 minutes to make sure.

once out of the oven i decorated them my style. again the original recipe said that you can make 11 marzipan balls to decorate the top, to represent the disciples and leave one empty for Judas, but i didn't wanna overkill on the marzipan, so i used chocolate eggs instead and added some little sugar decorations around the edge. it definitely made them more easter-like too.

we were supposed to save these for after easter lunch today but i went out for a walk and came back and was feeling a tad peckish, so in cahoots with my mum, we cut one up and tried it...oh, it was just delicious. oh, so, fruity and moist and just enough marzipan to enhance the whole flavour of the fruitcake. i loved it, but then i DO like fruitcake and yet i know that a lot of people are not big fans. but this, rather than tasting like rich christmas cake, reminded me more of christmas stollen - especially with that layer of marzipan in the middle. it was light fruitcake, not heavy and alcohol-laden. so good with a nice mug of tea and just delightfully fruuuuuuuuuity! Happy Easter!

Easter Simnel Cupcakes

Ingredients
150g/5oz Odlums Cream Plain Flour
125g/4oz Butter (room temperature)
125g/4oz Light Brown Sugar
3 Eggs (beaten)
1/2 teaspoon Mixed Spice
Grated Rind of a Lemon
1 tablespoon Brandy or Rum (optional)
500g packet Shamrock Luxury Fruit Mix (consisting of currants, raisins, candied peel, cherries)
2 tablespoons Apricot Jam to glaze cupcakes (i used marmalade and it was fine!)
2 x 250g packets of Almond Marzipan

Method
Preheat oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5. Line muffin tins with paper cases.
Cream butter and sugar together until smooth. Gradually beat in the eggs.
Add flour, lemon rind and mixed spice. Gently stir until well combined.
Finally mix in the fruit and brandy or rum.
Divide half the mixture into the paper cases. Take half the marzipan, roll out and cut into circles, place onto the fruit.
Top marzipan circles with remaining mixture. Bake for about 25 minutes until risen and golden brown.
Meanwhile, roll out other half of marzipan and cut out 12 circles and shape out 11 balls.

easter nest cupcakes - a celebration of all things spring!

so there are a number of easter baking challenges this month in the world of food blogs and i wanted to submit an entry....ta da! here it is...my easter nest cupcake. i had so much fun making this and hey, that's what it should all be about. plus it was so fun finding all those beautiful spring flowers to photograph it with too!

i'm entering this for Master Baker March Challenge, Easter Cake Bake and the Spring Funny Cuppy. Seems a lot but, what the heck, might as well max the little delight out seeing as it was so much fun to make.

now for the recipe...

Caramel Cupcakes

cupcake :
100g white chocolate
125g butter
2/3 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. golden syrup
2/3 c. milk
1 c. plain flour
1/3 c. self-raising flour
1 egg

preheat your oven to whatever usually works best for you. line your cupcake pan.
combine chocolate, butter, sugar, syrup and milk in a double boiler. stir untel melted and combined.
allow to cool.
sift flour and mix into caramel mixture.
stir in egg.
divide the mixture and bake for 30 mins.
makes 12 cupcakes.

icing :
4oz butter
1 t. vanilla extract
2 - 2 1/2 c. icing sugar, sifted
1/4 c. milk

in an electric mixer beat butter until soft. add vanilla essence. add in icing sugar gradually making sure it is properly combined, alternating with milk. add enough to reach a good spreading consistency.

decorations :
chocolate mini eggs
cadbury's flake
fondant roses and leaves

assembly :
spread a layer of icing on the cupcake. break up the flake and pile around the outside. use some icing to attach roses and leaves to edges of nest. put in the mini eggs and sprinkle remaining flake to cover any empty spots.

dare to devour! it's hard because it looks too pretty!

p.s. read what Baking Delights had to say about these cupcakes here! thanks for the special mention :)

that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet - easter cupcakes to go!

lo and behold, my little pink roses finally grace cupcakes. these were ordered by a friend for her easter sunday lunch tomorrow. i'm so happy with the way they turned out. i used a caramel cupcake recipe, vanilla buttercream icing and sugar fondant and chocolate eggs for the decorations.

i shall be meeting her later to pass them to her and hope she likes them! i'm still really enjoying the look of those pink roses...not bad for a first time using fondant, me thinks!

everything is coming up roses...

oh yes, i have been a busy little airy fairy in the kitchen today. i have an order for easter cupcakes to complete for tomorrow and i'm just so inspired for easter designs that i decided to get busy this afternoon and start making lovely fondant pink roses for the tops of my easter cupcakes. surprisingly they were quite easy to make. my mum helped out rolling the fondant into little balls and then flattening into petals. i found the whole process rather therapeutic to be honest. a most enjoyable process. anyway, once they were all done and on the plate, i COULD NOT miss the opportunity for some photos because i thought they looked so adorable waiting there...politely as roses do. so stay tuned to see where these charming little roses end up...shall be posting tomorrow about my order and also about my completed entry for easter bake-out competitions!

have a Happy Valentine's with coconut milk cupcakes!

well, here's wishing everyone a happy V-day! for the occasion i tried a recipe that i have been wanting to taste for awhile - coconut milk cupcakes. the cupcake had both coconut milk and dessicated coconut in it. the final result was nice. the taste was subtle and light...very summery and tropical! the icing was a cream cheese coconut icing and i must admit that i was a little disappointed with it. first of all, it was impossible to ice nice designs with because it was a bit on the gooey side and also with the pieces of dessicated coconut in it, made it difficult to squeeze out evenly from the icing bag. also it looked lumpy and like the ingredients were not mixed in properly when really it was the bits of coconut...hmph! so i ended up just smearing it on the cupcakes and decorating with a foil-wrapped heart. not bad, but i would have preferred something a tad more spohisticated. also the pictures don't really do it justice - the icing was more pink but in the photos came out as looking salmon - hmph, again! overall not a bad result, but next time if i were to make these, i would make a buttercream icing, colour it so that it would be more delicately pink and use the icing bag to swirl it on with more finesse - leaving out the dessicated coconut from the actual icing and maybe sprinkling it on after. also a different flavour for the icing might have provided a better contrast to the end result...let's see what flavours might go nice with coconut - lime? chocolate? or just plain vanilla?

Gong Xi Fa Cai! - chinese new year cupcakes

so, very excited today because it is our first meet-up with the Singaporeans in Ireland group! we're going for a Chinese New Year party and of course, no guesses as to what i am bringing! yes, yes, chinese new year cupcakes of course and don't they look cute as a button? i completely lucked out after a long hunt for golden coins to actually find chinese gold coins in the oriental emporium here. they are just too perfect and without them...well they just wouldn't have looked so festive. i used a previous recipe for caramel cupcakes for these as i didn't want to experiment with anything new and the caramel cupcakes are pretty neutral in that most people like caramel (on other occasions when i have baked cupcakes with particular flavours people have not liked them i.e. gingerbread, black forest) so i wanted to have a flavour that most people like (have you ever heard anyone say they don't like caramel?) so hoping that these go down a treat today and for those celebrating, wishing you all Gong Xi Fa Cai!