nutty delights - lemon macadamia cupcakes

i'm still lovin' lemon these days and recently bought a bag of macadamia nuts from our local Sunday market and wanted to use them up. i modified an earlier recipe i used on my little lemon delights that orginally came from a blog called the cupcakery. i halved the recipe because i only wanted to make 12 and substituted 1/2 cup of the flour with ground macadamias and then also added in another 1/2 cup of roughly chopped macadamias.

i found that the ground macadamias added a nice nutty texture to the baked cupcake...more substance. i iced them with lemon cream cheese icing and experimented with decorations. i must admit that when it comes to mixing liquid food colouring, you never really know what final result you are going to get (is this just me, or do others have this problem?) i can't say i planned for the green that i finally ended up with, but anyway it did blend quite well with the yellow. i wonder whether paste food colouring is easier to blend or whether there are a lot of colour varieties on offer. they don't really sell the paste food colouring in supermarkets here, you have to go to specialist baking shops for that so i don't always get the chance to make it to town to buy them. i just have to cross fingers and hope for the best when i drip the drops in!

i was quite happy with the final result...the cupcake looks like it might not be too out of place on the table of Beatrix Potter...i don't why...maybe because of the colours. i loved Beatrix Potter as a child. all those tales of that scamp Peter Rabbit and the mischief he would get up to in Mr. McGregor's garden. he was such a lovable character. this is for him (though he probably wouldn't enjoy it half as much as his carrots!)

happy st. patrick's day at the parade in dublin!

samba man
cute as a cupcake!
purple delight
pretty in pink

technicolour dream
perfect princess

sob, sob, no, i didn't have the chance to go green in the kitchen today...i thought i would pass up the opportunity to fall into the guinness/bailey's-laden cupcake trap and instead take to the streets to see the annual st. paddy's day parade in dublin city and boy, am i glad i did...it was fantastic. full of colours, vibrancy, music and wonderful characters...just great! although it was a sunny but chilly spring day, the rain stayed away and the energy of the paraders made up for any lack of warmth! seeing things like this can often provide great inspiration in baking (believe it or not!) as the designs and tones of the costumes encourage one to think of future icing decorations and possible colour combinations. i love getting inspiration from somewhere like this. the most interesting part of all though, is that even though i am irish, this is my first time to see the st. paddy's day parade live! before i either watched it on tv or was not living here. so why this year? well, my hubby and i just moved back to ireland end of last year and this was his first st. patrick's day in ireland and i bit the bullet and decided to brave the crowds and let his first st. paddy's day be a memorable one. and who knows...after the inspiration from this year's parade i might just be back again!

thank crunchie cupcakes it's friday!

so this has been a real chocolate bar tribute week. first toblerone and now crunchie...yes, i also adore crunchie...it's that delicious honeycomb in the middle that gets me every time! so what better thing to do than chop up a few bars and see how they taste in a vanilla cupcake. i used the same recipe as the toblerone ones and just kinda higgledy-piggedly hacked up the crunchie bars with great gusto and tossed them into the batter (secreting a few crumbs along the way for myself) and then baked. when they came out of the oven it looked like the honeycomb had melted and left this lovely golden yellow tinge through the cupcakes. very pretty. i had some icing in the freezer left over from a previous batch - bailey's icing, so i added some chocolate to it and then spread it on. topped the little cups of temptation with some more chunks of crunchie bar and let the tasting begin...

opinions were definitely united by all who tasted...these are a keeper! to be made again when the crunchie craving comes around. when you bit into the cupcake you could see all the lovely bits of honeycomb throughout the cupcake and it looked so good. the taste was there of the crunchie (but being the addict i am, i feel i could have added more...i mean, c'mon, you can NEVER have too much crunchie!) the cake went great with the chocolate baileys icing and well, i could have eaten all of them...but self-restraint kicked in and i remembered that i do supposedly make these for others.

i think out of the two, i enjoyed the crunchie ones more...and i think it's because of the honeycomb...it justs blends so well into the batter and provides you with this little surprise when you get a mouthful of it. the bits of honeycomb just melt in your mouth.

so my little chocolate bar week is over and next week i shall have to start delving into thoughts for Paddy's Day and Easter cupcakes. there are also a few food blog events coming up that i'd like to enter and need to get my baking cap on for those...such is the life of a currently unemployed (but soon to be employed) cupcake fanatic. i eat, sleep and think cupcakes! anyone interesting in joining a cupcakes anonymous group???

Seeing as this is my second time this week to use this recipe, i'm gonna post it below....

Vanilla Cupcakes

Makes 12 regular cupcakes

½ c. butter, at room temperature

2/3 c. sugar

3 large eggs

1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract

1 ½ c. all-purpose flour

1 ½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

½ c. milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.

Add the vanilla along with the last egg.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Add half the flour mixture to the butter and mix on medium speed.

Add the remaining flour and the milk, beat at medium speed, then increase to medium-high and beat until incorporated.

Add in your favourite chopped up chocolate bar - toblerone, crunchie...whatever takes your fancy!

Pour the batter into the muffin cups and bake for 18-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.

Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove the cakes and cool completely on a wire rack.

everyone's going fruit and nuts...even these toblerone cupcakes!

i am definitely going fruit and nutty because last week i discovered that the most wondrous of chocolate bars...toblerone...now comes in a fruit and nut variety! how scrumptious! and by the way, how long has this been going on for without me knowing. i mean i am thinking of all those amazing fruit and nut toblerones that could have been shamelessly devoured by me and have missed out! anyway, when i tasted it, immediately i thought 'this would taste great in a cupcake'. and so today i set to work. i used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe for this one, because let's face it, toblerone speaks volumes on its very own. it does not need to be flavoured-out by a very strong tasting cupcake batter. so i made the cupcake batter as normal and then just chopped up a toblerone bar...nice and chunky and mixed it in. scooped into the cupcake cases and straight in the oven. nothing easier!

when they came out...e-yumm-ee! they smelled so good that i really had to struggle very hard not to just dig in immediately (however fortunately, some rogue cupcakes had risen too much (shame on them!) and needed a little de-cap-a-caking and so i got to whet my palate for the sinfulness to come later!)

i let them cool...then iced them with some vanilla buttercream and more chopped up toblerone...i mean i really had to make sure that i maxed out on the toblerone taste otherwise these little fellows were never going to live up to their famous name!

final result...tobler-iciously good! the lovely little nougat (are they nougat?) bits and the chocolate from the toblerone was just lovely! the toblerone had melted and the middle of the vanilla cupcake was all dark and moist with it. these are NOT just for the die-hard toblerone fan but anyone who wants to introduce themselves to the wonders of toblerone in the nicest of ways!

and the Blogger's Choice Award nomination goes to....

ME! yes, that's right, i've been nominated on the Blogger's Choice Awards by Not Quite Nigella one of my absolute favourite food bloggers! what an honour to be nominated! thank you, not quite nigella!

of course, i'd like to take this opportunity to thank my spatula, my measuring cups and my favourite essences for helping me get this far. i couldn't have done it without them!

now, what can you do to help??? well, get those fingers clicking and vote for me. i shall be eternally grateful and so shall my spatula, measuring cups and essences!

my very first order...baby cakes, baby!

we were at my friends place for dinner on wednesday and brought the lemon cupcakes pictured below. anyway, during the evening she mentioned that she was going to a christening over the weekend and would have loved to bring the little lemon cupcakes with her! well, never one to beat around the bush, i said that i would gladly take orders and, surprise, surprise, she jumped at the chance. i was so thrilled...my very first order! she chose 'caramel' as the flavour and for decorations just stipulated that they be something pink, because the baby is a girl! so this evening i set to work and had so much fun decorating these little baby cakes. they are almost too adorable to eat with everything matching in pink and white. hope she likes them when i pass them to her tomorrow and hope that this might be the start of more orders. a big thanks to her for having the faith in my baking!

also i want to say a big hooter-tooter, whopper-doo-dah of a 'thank you' to everyone who visits my blog and supports me with comments on how i'm doing. i have just received 1,000 visitors since starting to put my blog out there in february of this year and it feels so good to have made it to 4 figures! you guys ROCK!

little lemon delights!

so recently i have seen a number of posts on some of my favourite cuppycake blogs for lemon cupcakes and i don't know what it is about lemon, but i just love it. it's so refreshing but delicate and a real tongue-tantaliser...zingy! so later tonight, i'm going for dinner at a friends place. we met them through the singaporeans in ireland meet-up group and they have invited us over to what i can only imagine will be a true malay food fiesta. on the menu is nasi lemak (a traditional malay dish which consists of coconut rice, chilli paste, peanuts, fried anchovies, cucumber and fried egg), ayam goreng (fried chicken) and sambal udang (chilli prawns) and gosh, even writing about it is making me salivate. i miss singapore food so much and especially malay cooking so both hubby and i are REALLY looking forward to making absolute beasts of ourselves! but let's hope not to the extent where we are not invited back though!

so, with all that serious food, i figured that light, delicate lemon cupcakes would be more than ample for a dessert and i made mini ones because, i'm thinking that people might not have much room left for anything else after the main course! i found these lovely yellow and white sugar swirls at Tesco and thought they would look super dainty on these little cuppies and they really did, so i went with yellow and white icing and i must admit they look so delicate in the box waiting to go later to be shamelessly devoured by all in attendance...but then again, isn't that what every little cupcake strives for in life...to be shamelessly devoured?

so these are mini lemon cupcakes with lemon cream cheese icing and there were a few left over that couldn't fit into the box (much to the joy of my brother!) and they tasted so good...the cake light and moist and the cream cheese icing was just perfect...not too lemony but enough to enhance the flavour and leave you wanting more! perfect!

recipes for the cupcake you can find here and for the lemon cream cheese frosting combine 4 oz cream cheese, 1 T butter, 2 c sifted icing sugar, 1/2 t lemon extract and 4 drops of lemon food colouring. voila!

happy 'hatch' day to me - the airy fairy spreads her wings and gets out of the kitchen!

i have had just a fabulous day...what a wonderful birthday. some birthdays are just regular run-of-your-mill kinda days and then others just kinda take you by surprise because without having planned too much, the day just gets better and better. just adore when that happens.

so first of all, let's examine the presents...what does one give an airy fairy? well something cupcake-y for starters and hey, presto!...present #1 - a cupcake stand, two-tiered and decorated with cupcakes. i have wanted one of these for ages and was so excited to get one with cupcakes round the edges. my cupcakes are gonna look so darn cute on this!

then of course, i'm also a serious drama queen, hence present #2 - a drama queen mug! nobody but nobody is gonna be using this except for MOI! the one and only drama queen! love these mugs by jamie oliver, they're called 'cheeky mugs' and they are definitely cheeky!
then, something incredibly airy fairy, a 'bubble' necklace from the Museum of Modern Art...it's the most delicate and lovely thing that i have ever laid my eyes on and i have been longing for it for ages since my friend bought one...
and a fabulous silk scarf from BIN in Singapore, my fav batik shop. their designs are rich in colour and intricate in pattern and the silk...ahhhhh, so very smooth!ok so that's it for the pressies. now for how i actually spent the day. well the spatulas were down today for me...no baking but instead a trip to Co. Wicklow to the Powerscout Estate (one of my favourite places here) for lunch with a view.

lunch was in the Avoca Cafe there, an amazing restaurant with great home-cooked food, they have an amazing array of salads and you choose a main dish like lasagne, baked potato, etc and you get to choose three of the delicious salads to go along. i chose a mozarella tart and cous-cous, chickpea and feta salad. they were all so good, subtly flavoured with dressing and the vegetables were crisp and fresh. the portions are very generous as you can see...

so after all that, of course there was dessert and who needs to bake when you have a spread like this to choose from...i was spoilt for choice. it was a serious decision but someone's gotta do it.
so we went with two desserts - the meringue roulade, which was a little like eating fairylightness and fluff...the meringue just melted in your mouth, the strawberries and raspberries provided a lovely fruitiness and the cream just caressed it all. simply divine!
and the other was the ultimate chocolate cake, it was rich, moist and oh-so-chocolatey! do i really need to say more?

lunch was followed by a trip around the food shop there, a lovely shop full of tantalising gourmet food, baking equipment, kitchenware and lots of other surprises...just a taste to excite your senses!

and if that is really not enough to motivate you to visit this place...did i mention the view??? yes, it was definitely lunch with a view...just kinda takes your breath away.

all in all, a day well spent out of the kitchen! but of course, i am looking forward to baking the next batch of airy fairy cupcakes and placing them on that precious cake stand :)

berry chocolate cupcakes for birthday bunnies!

so, tomorrow is my birthday and i'm off out for the day to Co. Wicklow to visit the Powerscourt Estate - one of my favourite places to go - there are fabulous gardens, a great foody shop and of course a lovely restaurant to eat at so there'll be no baking for me on my birthday.
just recently i met someone - becs who shares my birthday with me 3rd March...my first time to meet someone born on the same day as me...i like that and the great thing was that the first time we met we had this instant connection (and didn't know at the time that we shared a birthday!) so can you imagine after finally meeting someone who shares the same birthday as me, i leave the place where they are living and traverse half the planet to set up home somewhere else...typical. anyway, i wanted to make something for becs, to let her know that i'll be thinking about her on our b-day. so honey...these are for you!

i have tried making black forest before a long time ago and wanted to experiment with a different recipe this time. this was also a chocolate based recipe (with a small addition of almond meal - which i didn't taste at all in the final result) and this time i added frozen mixed berried (as opposed to last time just plain black cherries) which consisted of black cherries, blackberries and black currants. nice and tangy...they hadn't been preserved in syrup and so weren't sweet. it created a nice balance with the sweetness of the chocolate. the recipe was pretty easy to follow however, when i added the frozen berried, the batter started getting really cold and clumpy...yikes...had to get them in the oven pronto!

smell in the oven was yummy-licious and they came out nicely shaped and looking good. i iced them with a cream cheese icing and smoothed over the top, decorating with sprinkles and a cherry for the true black forest 'look'.

the taste was very good. you enjoyed a mouthful of sweet, moist chocolate as well as soft, tangy berries, then rounded off with the creaminess of the cream cheese icing...what a taste explosion in the mouth...very good! my husband has been asking me to make these for ages so he tucked into a couple too. Happy Birthday to me and becs!

airy fairy cupcakes gets a makeover!

so, i finally decided to give my blog a fabulous makeover...well we all deserve one, don't we? and seeing as my blog has become such a part of my life i figured it was time to give it the treatment it deserves.

a huge thanks to jess at cuppycake designs for putting up with me and creating such a fabulous logo. i just adore that little cupcake dressed up as an airy fairy! if any of you are thinking of giving your precious spaces a do-over then definitely get in touch with her.

so now, tell me, what do y'all think???

Go Spectacularly Bananas with banoffee cupcakes!

ok, so i'm sure you have all heard of 'banoffee pie' and if you haven't, well, then my friends you have not tasted one of life's most simply divine desserts and i emphasise on 'simply' because it is probably the simplest dessert you could ever have the joy of making.

here's a description according to Wikipedia...

Banoffee pie is an English dessert made from bananas, cream and boiled condensed milk (or dulce de leche), either on a pastry base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Its name is a portmanteau constructed from the words "banana" and "toffee".

so there you have it...banana, toffee and don't forget some cream on top too! what a perfect combination and i think a wonderful cupcake creation to enter into the Cupcakes Spectacular 2008 event hosted by HomeMadeS

i have made banoffee pie before many times, but now i wanted to capture the essence of it all in a cupcake, so i settled on a banana cupcake recipe, a toffee filling and a whipped cream topping with chocolate flakes sprinkled on top. i set to work and baked the banana cupcakes first...they turned out lovely with a nice strong banana taste. i let them cool and then using the cone method, cut out the centre of each cupcake and filled them with the toffee. finally topped them off with whipped double cream and sprinkled with a broken up cadbury's chocolate flake. the result...OH MY GOSH! if you don't make these, you are missing out on one of the finest creations i have ever had the joy to make. REALLY! these cupcakes rock. when you take a bite there is this gorgeus combination of spongy banana, smooth toffee, light cream and crumbly chocolate...if that doesn't make you fall to your knees then i don't know what will. recipe below as this is my very own creation. i also lucked out to find a jar of heavenly butterscotch spread that i used for the filling, but never mind if you can't find one, you can do-it-yourself too with condensed milk!

Cupcakes :
1 ½ c. plain flour
¾ c. sugar
1 t. baking powder
½ t. baking soda
¼ t. salt
½ c. melted butter
1 ½ c. mashed banana
2 large eggs
½ t. vanilla extract
¼ c. milk

Toffee:
1 can of condensed milk

Icing :
1 carton of whipping cream
1 chocolate Cadbury’s flake

For Cupcakes :
preheat oven to whatever you normally bake at. line your cupcake pan with cases.
sift flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl.
Mix together eggs, vanilla, melted butter and milk and pour into dry ingredients.
add in mashed banana. spoon batter into cupcake cases.
bake for 25 mins or until that toothpick comes out clean. let cool completely.

For Toffee :
place unopened tins of condensed milk in a heavy pot and cover the tins with water. boil for 3-4 hours. make sure the tins are covered at ALL times or you just might be licking the toffee off your ceiling! remove from water and let cool.

For Assembly :
using the cone method, cut the tops off the cupcakes and scoop out some extra cake. fill with the toffee. even off the tops and replace.
ice with whipped cream and decorate with crumbled chocolate flake.
devour!

apple crumble cupcakes

these cupcakes were featured on All Things Cupcake in their weekly cupcake collection

i have decided to get involved in the Master Baker challenge for this month, which specifies that you must bake something with cinnamon. well, i don't know about you...but i love apple crumble...always have, always will. there's just something so comforting and warm about apples and cinnamons. so after searching for a recipe...to my shock and horror, there were none! how can the wonders of apple crumble not yet been captured in the shape of a cupcake? oh, well, never one to be phased by these things, i set about doing it myself. so what does apple crumble need? something apple-y, something crumbly and something vanilla to top it all off! and by that we have our ingredients already! so i went with an apple cupcake, a crumble topping and some vanilla buttercream icing. what a perfect combination, if i do say so myself! i'm gonna post the recipe for this one (as i am yet to find one already out there) and as you have probably noticed for most of my other cupcakes i don't. well basically that is because i am already using recipes that are out there and don't see the purpose of re-publishing them on my blog so people think they are my own. if they are, i'll publish them, ok? so here is what i came up with....

Cupcakes :

1 1/2 c. plain flour
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/4 t. ground cloves
1/8 t. ground nutmeg
1/4 t. salt
1 c. sugar
2 t. baking powder
1/2 c. butter
3 eggs
3/4 c. milk
1 c. grated apple

Crumble :

2 t. cold butter
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. plain flour
1/2 c. oatmeal
1/4 c. chopped walnuts

Icing :

4 oz. butter
3 1/2 c. icing sugar
1 t. vanilla essence

For Cupcakes :

preheat oven to whatever works best for you usually. line cupcake pan with cases.
in your electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
sift together dry ingredients - flour, spices, salt, baking powder in a small bowl.
add dry ingredients alternating with milk. beat until smooth.
add in grated apple.
scoop batter into cupcake pan and top with crumble then bake for 20-25 mins.

For Crumble :

combine butter, flour, sugar and oatmeal in a bowl. toss gently until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. add walnuts and sprinkle on cupcakes.

For Icing :

beat butter in electric mixer until fluffy. add vanilla essence. then slowly add icing sugar one cup at a time or until reach desired consistency. pipe it on! devour!

ok, so final result...i really liked it. the crumbly topping tasted so good with the oatmeal in it and had a slight crispy-ness to it (but perhaps could have been more crispy), the cupcake was fine, it didn't rise as much as i expected (could this have been the crumble topping?) and the vanilla buttercream...well, that speaks for itself! it definitely captured the essence of 'apple crumble' so in that respect...mission a-cupcake-d!

a cupcake-tastic special mention!

what a sweet cupcake-tastic start to the weekend i'm having! i received a message from CB over at All Things Cupcake to tell me that i'd been included in the weekly cupcake collection and when i followed the link, it brought me to the post where, sure enough, there was a piccie of my vegan chai cupcakes. what an honour to be mentioned on that site, which in case you haven't checked it out, is the absolute homage to all things cupcake! i love it! it's a cupcake addicts dream come true!

tag! you're it!

ok, so i got tagged by nikki at Nik Snacks and had NO idea what that meant until i popped by her blog to check it out and check out her blog too! it's a way to bring favourite blogs to other people's attention as well as share a little about yourself in the process. i must admit that although i've been cupcake blogging since last year, i've only really started putting my blog out there in the past few weeks, so this is all new to me...tagging (apart from the tagging i did in the playground!)
so there are a few rules to follow(not that i'm very good at rules, but i'll try):

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names, linking to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

five things about lil' ol' ME! yikes! well, here goes...

1. i'm a TCK...that's a Third Culture Kid for all those not in the know, and it means a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents' culture. make that 16 years of my childhood in my case!

2. i'm a serious book-worm, when i go into bookshops i feel so overwhelmed sometimes when i think of all the books there are out there in the world and how little time there is to read them all!

3. i don't like capital letters...hence why my blog is in lower case letter. LONG LIVE lower case letters - i think i might start a campaign!

4. i love the ocean...i should have been a fish...but then, no, wait a minute, i'd never have been able to bake cupcakes! Hmmmm...

5. I love to story-tell - in public, private, to children, adults, truthful ones, fantastical ones...

ok, that's that! now 5 blogs that i like to visit(of course they are all cupcake blogs :)

not quite nigella

couture cupcakes

kuidaore

52 cupcakes

cupcake project

ok that's it, over and out x

white chocolate, cranberry & macadamia muffins...what a mouthful!

i have loved macadamia nuts ever since i first tried white chocolate-macadamia nut cookies from Subway. a sinfully long and often waist-expanding relationship ensued! i love the taste of them...this probably sounds weird (and don't let it put you off them), but the texture reminds me of candle wax and interestingly enough, my hubby recently cooked chicken kapitan and the recipe called for 'candle nuts' and i remember thinking that they reminded me of macadamias.

macadamia nut
noun
1. small Australian tree with racemes of pink flowers; widely cultivated (especially in Hawaii) for its sweet edible nuts
2. nutlike seed with sweet and crisp white meat

so i thought i'd like to try them in some muffins. then began my search to buy the delightful nuts. i searched health shops high and low, supermarkets near and far to no avail. why, oh why, do they NOT sell macadamia nuts in Dublin! are we nutty enough? then i discovered a wee modicum of hope...a bag of macadamia nut and cranberry mix. when one can no longer be picky, one must snap up what they can! never one to reject the humble cranberry, i decided that they could go in to the muffin...after all, who am i to say that the cranberry is not deserving of a presence? once i had prepared the batter, i was surprised because it was very thick. i know that muffin batters are usually more dense than cupcake batters, but this stuff wouldn't even drop off the spoon (was i heading for rock cakes???) anyway, i finally got the batter into the cases and baked the muffins. result...very very scrumptious. it has certainly satisfied my craving for the macadamias, the cranberries added a nice tangy element to the muffin and the white chocolate just continued to ensure i do my utmost in the waist-expanding department!