Your Tastiest Treats of 2012!

So 2012 is nearly over, and when you read this I will be ringing in the New Year at Whistler! I can't wait! That place has become like our second home this past month, and I couldn't be happier about that because truly it's one of the most beautiful places on Earth!

For now, let's take a trip down memory lane and see the posts which were your favourite this year!

10. Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Layer Cake

This was probably my favourite of 2012 (and hopefully Byron's too, since I made it for his birthday!) It's probably the most decadent layer cake I've ever made, and it definitely took the most time but it was SO worth it.  Chocolate chip studded cake, sandwiched with chocolate fudge and raw cookie dough, surrounded in cookie dough flavour frosting and finished off with more cookies - this time baked ones! If you have any cookie lovers birthday's coming up, this is worth the effort!

9. Peppermint Crisp Fridge Tart

You just can't get enough of the South African treats! and despite me having a mishap when removing the base of my springform tin and the side of the biscuit crust caving in it's still a hit! How can it not be when you combine creamy layers of caramel whipped with cream with layers of coconut biscuits and those crystal shards of minty-ness that comprise my favourite chocolate bar - Peppermint Crisps! and the good news is on the bus the other day I saw a South African shop has just opened on West 4th so now I can get my Peppermint Crisp fix in Vancouver too! 

8. S'mores Cupcakes

I made these S'mores cupcakes for our New Year's eve party last year! Graham cracker flavour cupcakes, with marshmallow frosting and cubes of chocolate on top - they were devoured pretty quick! I haven't even had to bake a special treat for this New Year's since we have enough sweet treats left over from Christmas to see us through the next 2 weeks!!

7. Malteser Bunny Cupcakes

If you only make these cupcakes to check out this 'to-die-for' frosting then it will be worth it.  This chocolate-malt frosting turned out to be my most favourite frosting of 2012, I could eat it by the spoonful...and I did! The malt flavour cupcakes are pretty special too, and to top it all off you just have to complete it with mini Malteser Bunnies (if you live in the UK...I'm pretty sure you won't find them elsewhere which is not good news for me...how will I get my fix come Easter!)

6. Chocolate & Peanut Butter Oreo Cupcakes

This was the first time I ever thought about combining peanut butter frosting with crushed up Oreo crumbs - it was a GOOD decision! Combined with my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, these two made a fantastic pairing!

5. Cadbury's Creme Egg Cupcakes

I made these for an Easter market stall I did.  I made several other flavours alongside these ones but I think these got the most 'oohs and aahs' from people passing by.  Not only does the frosting look like creme egg filling but it tastes exactly like it too!

4. Strawberry Cupcakes with Strawberry-Lime Frosting

These were a happy little accident that came about because I had loads of fresh pureed strawberry in the fridge just waiting to be used up! We took these to a summer BBQ at a friends house, it was pure blue skies with not a cloud in sight that day (a rarity in Wales!) and these tropical beauties fit right in! The addition of lime in the frosting gave these a totally tropical twist! 

3. Granadilla Fridge Tart

This was a recipe my South African Mom whipped up one weekend, apparently it had been a staple dessert for her growing up.  Why she had been holding out on us for so long I don't know! because this was so creamy and fruity and it's definitely going to be a staple for the Braithwaite's too!

2. Cookies and Cream Oreo Cupcakes

You just can't beat a good Oreo cupcake! Up until I made this, my favourite Oreo cupcake had been a chocolate version with chopped up bits of Oreo in the batter.  However after making this vanilla based Oreo cupcake I realised my chocolate version had been overpowering the Oreo bits...whereas this cupcake lets the Oreo flavour shine through! A new favourite! 

1. S'mores Cheesecake

It pains me that the number 1 most visited recipe on my site this year was the post with the worst pictures!! It was one of those nights where I was rushing, as our dinner guests were waiting for dessert, and I didn't want them to think I was too weird by taking a million pictures of it and making them wait to eat it!! Then I discovered the batteries on the flashgun had run out...and so I had to make do with dark and not so attractive pictures! but I'm glad that didn't put you off because this is one of the most delicious desserts I have ever made.  We all know I love anything s'mores, but this creamy chocolate filling was out of this world and paired with a graham cracker base and a toasted marshmallow topping it is totally dreamy! Of course I'm pretty sure the popularity of this post also had to do with the fact I was doing a cheesecake giveaway too! but if there's one thing you need to make this year it is this cheesecake! and don't forget the chocolate-malt frosting too! They're both going to make you very popular indeed! 

 Thanks to everyone for following along this year, I LOVE when a little email or comment pops up from one of you - it makes my day! and thanks to all you other bloggers for keeping my google reader overflowing with delicious recipes and inspiration! 

Wishing all of you an awesome New Year's and a totally tasty 2013!

An Easter Market Cupcake Stall at Bangor Uni & Mini Egg Rocky Roads

So 14 hours of baking, 150 cupcakes later and this is what I had to show for it! This was my cupcake stall at the Easter market my Uni put on.  

The things that couldn't fly off the table quick enough were these assorted boxes of mini's! I'd been saving egg boxes for weeks, along with some very thoughtful friends and sisters who did the same for me! My mom sent me that lovely flowery paper and so I decided to cover each box with it to make it prettier, and in case some people wanted to give the egg boxes as gifts.  That was a time consuming task - who knew that some egg labels are stuck on with such nasty adhesive that takes forever to get off! but I think it was worth it in the end!

People couldn't resist their cuteness and the opportunity to taste every cupcake I was selling without looking like a piggy! I made four varieties of cupcakes, including Cookies and Cream Oreo Cupcakes (I forgot to take a picture of them on the stall but you can see the mini one above)...

I also made Creme Egg Cupcakes...

and Coconut Birdie Nest Cupcakes...

and these Malteser Bunny Cupcakes were definitely the hit of the day and I sold out of these first.

Here's another shot of the mini's all lined up and ready to be bought! 

My mom got me this awesome cake stand from a charity shop! On the second row down you will see some Mini Egg Rocky Roads that I decided to make at midnight the night before the stall! I had finished all the cupcake baking and still had a whole bag of Mini Eggs left and decided I should really whip something up for people who don't like cupcakes (yes, these people really exist - who knows how or why!)

So I'll leave you with the recipe, it's pretty simple and easy to whip together.  They would be fun to make with kids, but make sure they don't get involved with the chopping of the Mini Eggs! I nearly lost two of my thumbs to this process! and that's not even an exaggeration.  I was using a super sharp knife and because they roll around when you try and chop them in half it was a dangerous task! My one thumb still hasn't properly healed and it was 3 weeks ago now that it happened!

Warnings aside, these were absolutely delish and would make the perfect addition to any Easter gathering this weekend!

Mini Egg Rocky Roads:

Makes 12 cupcake sized

From Cupcake Crazy Gem

300g milk chocolate

150g dark chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

1 cup Rice Krispies

1 cup Mini Eggs, chopped in halves or quarters

150g mini marshmallows

36 Whole Mini Eggs

Melt both chocolates in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Add the vegetable oil and mix together.

Chop up Mini Eggs, with caution!

Add Mini Eggs, marshmallows and Rice Krispies to the cooled chocolate mixture.  Mix together until combined.

Pour into cupcake cases.  Decorate each one with 3 whole Mini Eggs.  Press them slightly into the chocolate.

Refrigerate overnight or for at least one hour if you need to try them right away!

Cadbury's Creme Egg Cupcakes for Easter

You can probably tell that these were the last cupcakes I made of the night in preparation for the stall because by this time I was just ready to get into bed and so I only managed to snap one quick photo! 

It seems I've been confusing a few of you with my various postings about the stall! It's not something I do weekly - I probably couldn't keep up with 14 hours straight of baking each week! It was a one off Easter market that my Uni was running a few weeks back.  So I baked for 14 hours the day before and then sold my cupcakes at the stall the next day.  I've just been posting the different cupcakes I made with their accompanying recipes in the lead up to Easter and since these are the last cupcakes my next blog post will be about the event itself.  

I have a confession to make...I'm not the biggest fan of creme eggs.  I would probably rather eat any other  flavour of easter egg than this one but I know it's pretty popular among everyone else so I felt I couldn't run an Easter cupcake stall without some creme egg cupcakes featuring, and they were very popular on the day!

I took my inspiration for the cracked eggs from Sticky Pinny, whose creme egg cupcakes helped her to win the chocolate bar challenge at Iron Cupcake Leeds.

I used her recipe for the yellow creme egg filling type frosting and it tasted just like the real deal! so much so that people even asked me if I had melted real creme egg filling and mixed it in to make it taste so life like! I used a basic vanilla frosting for the other half and piped it on two tone to try and create the effect that it was oozing from the mini cracked egg on top! 

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Makes 12 regular and 12 mini

From Cupcakes From the Primrose Bakery

115g good quality chocolate, I used 70% Valrhona 

85g unsalted butter, at room temperature

175g soft light brown sugar

2 large eggs, separated

185g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

250ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 170 degrees C.

Line cupcake tin with cupcake cases.

Melt the chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave, or in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water.  Leave to cool slightly.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a free standing mixer until pale and smooth.  In a separate bowl and with clean beaters, beat the egg yolks for several minutes.  Slowly add the egg yolks to the creamed butter and sugar and beat well.  Next, add the chocolate to this mixture and beat well.

Combine the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a separate bowl.  Combine the milk and vanilla together in a measuring jug.  Add the flour mixture to the free standing mixer, alternating with the milk and vanilla.  Beat well after each addition.

In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.  Carefully fold the egg whites into the main batter using a metal spoon.  Do not beat or you will take the air out of the cake.

Fill the cupcake cases 2/3 full.  Bake for 20-25 minutes for the regular cupcakes and 13-15 minutes for the mini's.  Let the cupcakes cool in pans for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.  

Creme Egg Frosting:

Makes enough to frost the above

From Sticky Pinny

170g golden syrup

60g unsalted butter, at room temperature

375g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

Yellow food colouring (next time I'd make mine more orange, as the yellow didn't match up with the colour from inside the creme egg so well)

Mix the butter, syrup and vanilla in the bowl of a free standing mixer.  

Gradually add the icing sugar, then the food colouring and carry on beating until smooth.  

*It is very sweet frosting by itself, originally it was paired with cream cheese frosting which would cut some of the sweetness.  I was leaving mine frosted overnight and didn't want to put them in the fridge so I used regular vanilla frosting instead but if I was making them on the day I would use cream cheese too.

Vanilla Frosting:

Makes enough to frost the above

From Cupcakes From the Primrose Bakery

110g unsalted butter, at room temperature

60ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract

500g icing sugar, sifted

In a freestanding mixer, beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth.

Gradually add the remainder of the icing sugar and beat until the buttercream is smooth and creamy.

In a piping bag, put yellow creme egg frosting down one side and the vanilla frosting down the other side.  Pipe a small amount onto a plate until the colours start to come out in equal amounts.

Pipe on to your cupcake.

To decorate:

3 packs of mini Creme Eggs

Cut one mini egg in half per regular sized cupcake.  Arrange them in your frosting so it looks like the Creme Egg filling is spilling out and becoming the frosting.  Use one half on top of each mini cupcake.