Iron Cupcake...Not a celebration for me!

 

The sole pic I managed to take

 before my cupcakes were devoured!

Yesterday morning I awoke with excitement, as I always do when Iron Cupcake is upon us! I had stayed up til 2.30am the night before finishing off my cupcakes and was ready to go 'celebrate' and stuff myself with cupcakes! Then disaster struck...halfway through the day at work I got sent home as I was sick!! This was my worst nightmare...I sent out pleas on facebook to anyone who might be going from Reading direction who would want to take my cupcakes along! I had just spent too much planning, money and effort for them to go to waste! but no-one responded.  I went to bed and set my alarm for 3pm hoping I'd be feeling better by then, as this was when I needed to start catching my train to make it on time!


My alarm went off, and I still felt terrible.  There was just no way I could face London rush hour on the underground when I couldn't even walk to the bathroom! I was so upset, and was still secretly hoping I'd be able to just struggle on and make it but I had to admit to myself I was too ill and would have to just give it a miss.  I let my sister know I wouldn't be able to come, took one sad look at my cupcakes waiting in my cupcake courier and thought about how I would have to be 'binning' them later!!


Then at about 5.30 a cupcake miracle happened!! my prayers had been answered! It is clear to me that God knows the desires of my heart!!  I felt a whole lot better and after quickly checking the train times on the internet I realised I might just make it for the end of cupcake tasting time! So off to London I rushed.  When I got there I was still too unwell to taste any of them :( but I enjoyed looking at the photos of what everyone had made...since when I arrived at 7.30 the platters had well and truly been cleared and there wasn't a cupcake in sight which may explain how my cupcakes disappeared before I'd even laid them out! 


So I apologise for the lack of photos, there was simply not much left to photograph by the time I arrived! except for the few that were still being eaten by my sisters table, and I borrowed some of the table next to us too because they were too cute not to take a picture of! Andrea's beautifully decorated cupcake won the prize for the best decoration, I think it's easy to see why:

She also won the 1st prize for the amateur competition with a pink champagne and strawberry cupcake.  Pictured below are a fun looking mint cupcake and a cute popcorn cupcake!

And this baker used cute little umbrella's as their decoration! I think some of the eaters on my table told me it was an alcoholic cupcake but they thought it was pretty tasty.

There was also a cute looking American cupcake, which appeals to me due to my love of all things American! It had star sprinkles on and an American flag sticking out of the top but unfortunately they were all gone so I couldn't take a picture.  

Watch out later in the week when I will be making my own American themed cupcakes for a Miss America beauty pageant murder mystery party I am attending!

As always check The Caked Crusader's blog within the next few days for a full write up and all the pictures of the entries.

'Pop goes the Brownie' cupcakes

I had been planning my cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake competition ever since I found out the theme was 'celebration'.  I initially thought I wanted to incorporate something that would go pop! my friend suggested putting a party popper on the top of each cupcake that people could pull before they ate it! an awesome idea...but not edible, so it got me thinking along the lines of popping candy.  I know you can't really bake popping candy into cakes, I've read up alot about it and something about the chemistry of it makes it stop popping! but I do know it works in chocolate.  

So alot of thinking later and I decided on doing some kind of chocolate lollipop to go on top that would have popping candy inside.  I had also been thinking along the lines of balloons, one of my original ideas  that was laughed at by my sisters was getting real balloons and blowing them up with just a tiny amount of helium and standing them up on top of the cupcakes...maybe a little far fetched but I thought it would be fun! so I moved onto edible lollipops! I found some fantastic moulds on american ebay, ordered some popping candy in four flavours/varieties, ordered brightly coloured greaseproof cases that wouldn't lose their colour when baked, and got to work!

I was so pleased that the popping candy comes in the four colours that matched the cupcakes cases I had ordered.  I am all about the colour co-ordination! All last week I made up batches of chocolate lollipops just by melting down Dairy Milk with a touch of oil to make it 'pourable' and then I mixed the popping candy in.  It was fun to hear it pop as I was mixing!

Then I poured it into the balloon moulds.  I had two varieties, one which made four smaller bunch of balloon lollipops and one mould which made two larger bunch of balloon lollipops with a 'Happy Birthday' banner across the front, which seemed very appropriate since it was Iron Cupcake's 1st birthday.

This is what they looked like once they had set in the fridge.

After that I set to work on the cupcakes.  I made my ultimate favourite brownie cupcakes from my Martha book.  They are so easy to make, no kitchenaid involved here! and they just turn out beautifully every time I make them.  Here is the recipe for all those who want to try it out:

Brownie Cupcakes a la Martha Stewart

(Makes 12)

225g milk chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)

1 cup caster sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 large eggs

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Stir occasionally until just melted, about 4-5 mins.

2. Remove bowl from heat.  Whisk in sugar and salt until mixture is smooth, whisk in eggs to combine.  Gently whisk in flour and cocoa just until smooth (do not overmix).

3. Fill cupcake cases until 3/4 full.  Bake, rotating tin halfway through, until a cake tester inserted halfway in centres, comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, about 25-30 minutes.

Of course after my recent success of my Vanilla Bean Frosting there was no other option but to use it to frost these.  

I divided the frosting into four bowls and coloured each one and piped it on to contrast with the colour of the cupcake case. I then finished each cupcake off with a balloon lollipop (containing the hidden popping candy) and each popping candy colour matched the cupcake case too.  So depending on which cupcake you picked up you could have experienced blackcurrant, raspberry, strawberry or apple flavoured popping chocolate!  and a little sprinkle of popping candy over the icing finished them off.

Unfortunately they flew off the platter so fast I didn't have time to take a picture of them altogether, which is a shame because I think they would have looked fun! so here is an individual shot I managed to take before it got eaten up:

Now I want you to bear all of this planning and preparation in mind and see what happened next...in my Iron Cupcake post! and how they nearly never made it to the contest!

Iron Cupcake...Fruitalicious

Last night was another fun filled cupcake fest at Iron Cupcake! I think our cupcake sampler tonight was the biggest it's ever been (to be fair we did have more eaters than usual) but still look at all those bad boys!

I was pretty surprised not to see a banana offering in sight! and I wish I could have sampled this banana and mango beauty that won 1st prize at Iron Cupcake Leeds this week too! How delicious does this look...yum! The baker of this is from The Sunshine Bakery and I have heard very good reports from my sister about how delicious their cupcakes are so if you ever find yourself up North you should definitely check them out! I know I plan to.

My favourite cupcake of the night had to be the Tayberry one. It must have been a hit with the other eaters and bakers too because it won 1st prize in the professional category. I also found out that my two favourites from last months competition were made by the same baker so I'm definitely a fan! The Tayberry one's are on the right in this picture, and the strawberry and cream ones in the middle had the most frosting on them than any cupcake I've ever seen!

Since I was expecting a few more eaters to join me I made sure I arrived early enough to get a big table, as I had learnt from previous challenges how busy it gets!! I arrived so early though that I actually managed to be A1! How keen am I, if you want to have a go at making these for yourself check out the recipe here

Here I am with Pip, who baked for the first time, and made some delicious peach and marscapone cupcakes. They were a yummy break from all the super sweet frostings we were tasting.

Some of my other favourites were the blackberry and apple ones (pictured below with the vibrant purple icing) and Andrea's peach and cinnamon ones that won 2nd prize.

You can check out the full write up on The Caked Crusader's blog in the next few days. Next month's theme is Celebration since it will be Iron Cupcake's 1st birthday so I've got some thinking to do to come up with something fun! It will be on Monday 7th June so if anyone new wants to come we'll be glad to have you join us!

Cocoa-nutty hi-hats

These awesome cupcake cases were a prezzie from my sister, they came from a cool little shop in Brighton. She has started going to Iron Cupcake Leeds the past two months, you can check her blog to see what it's like!

Every time an Iron Cupcake comes around I think up an idea, do a test run, and then a few days before change the idea completely and make something different. So this time my peachy test runs evolved over a few days into then becoming peach and coconut, then I thought about doing my Martha Stewart pineapple and coconut...which eventually led on to the idea of chocolate and coconut!

I used Martha's recipe for coconut cupcakes which incorporates both dessicated coconut and coconut milk. Once they were baked, I cut out a circle from the top and piped in some chocolate and coconut filling. I am currently coveting this snazzy little kit from the states which would make this step alot easier!

They were then frosted with a white chocolate and coconut buttercream. After being refrigerated for 30 minutes to harden the frosting they were dipped in a bowl of melted chocolate. It was my first time attempting hi-hats and I think they were fairly successful, and not too tricky to dip! I had planned to cover them in shredded coconut but it is impossible to find here in the uk and the website I eventually found it from did not deliver in time so I had to roll them in desiccated coconut instead:

Here, by popular demand, is the recipe:

Martha Stewart's Coconut Cupcakes:

(Makes about 20)

1 3/4 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup packed sweetened shredded coconut (I used desiccated)

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temp

1 1/3 cups caster sugar

2 large whole eggs, plus 2 egg whites at room temp

1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

• 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.
• 2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Pulse shredded coconut in a food processor until finely ground, and whisk into flour mixture.
• 2. With an electric mixer on medium high speed, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Gradually beat in whole eggs, whites and vanilla, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with two additions of coconut milk, and beating until combined after each.
• 3. Divide batter evenly among cases, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, for about 20 minutes.

Chocolate & Coconut Filling:

4 oz. dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa solids and it turned out a little too dark for my liking so I then added in about 1 ounce white chocolate)

1/4 cup coconut milk

4 oz. cream cheese, at room temp

• Put chocolate and milk in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water. Bring to a simmer and cook until chocolate is melted. Stir to combine. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
• In a bowl, combine cream cheese and chocolate, and beat until smooth
• Put into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe a squirt of filling into each cupcake hole

Coconut & White Chocolate Frosting:

1 cup/6 oz. white chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 brick/8 oz. cream cheese, at room temp

1/2 tsp coconut extract (now this is where I went wrong! I didn't have any coconut extract so I used about 3 tbsp coconut milk to give it a nice coconutty flavour. However it was then not stiff enough to pipe due to the excess liquid so I had to save it by adding lots more icing sugar and butter!)

2 1/2 cups icing sugar

1 cup desiccated coconut

• Melt white chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water
• Beat butter, cream cheese and coconut extract in large bowl with electric mixer until creamed and blended
• Beat in white chocolate until blended
• On low speed, gradually beat in icing sugar and then add desiccated coconut

Chocolate coating:

2 cups/12 oz. Milk chocolate

3 tbsp vegetable oil

125g desiccated coconut

• Melt chocolate and oil in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water
• Stir until melted and smooth
• Take off heat to cool for 15 minutes
• Holding each cupcake by its bottom, dip cupcake in the chocolate to coat the frosting, allowing excess to drip off
• Transfer to a wire rack and spoon more chocolate coating around the edge of the cupcake and any exposed frosting; none of the frosting should show
• Roll coating in a dish of desiccated coconut
• Let cupcakes stand for 30 minutes so the chocolate hardens (I left mine overnight to harden in my cupcake courier, so am not sure how long it takes exactly until they are set)

Here's my little helper licking the bowl I melted the chocolate in!

Iron Cupcake..a perfect pair

Another great night at Iron Cupcake, I'm so glad the caked crusader brought it to London! and I love seeing people's faces when I tell them I'm going to a cupcake competition!

I definitely thought the taste standard was higher than last time, I didn't find any inedible ones this time at least! and there were one or two I really liked. This rather yummy Toffee Apple cupcake was baked by a professional I think, and it had real apple in the middle which was a yummy surprise (check out the little caterpillar on top of it too below)! I also enjoyed a cookies n cream one filled with melted chocolate, and I have to say I really enjoyed my mint oreo one too! the truffles were delicious and I will definitely be making more of those in the future!

In the end though none of those won though! A chai tea and biscuit (pictured below on the left) entry won first prize, which we obviously didn't try and a strawberry and vanilla cupcake that hadn't stood out to us won second prize.

Here we are with our cupcake sampler for the night, let the tasting begin:

Next month's competition has a fruit theme so I could perhaps make the banoffee I was planning on for this month..although I have a feeling banoffee's could feature alot! so I'll have to get thinking.

I have also been checking out the Iron Cupcake's that happen around the world and none seem as well documented as ours, if you want to see the official write up check out the caked crusader's blog within the next few days.

Iron Cupcake!

Some of the entries from the pro category

Our cupcake sampler for the night!

Enjoying the tasting!!

So at long last we made it to Iron Cupcake! I have been following the challenge avidly via their website since it started last summer and hoping for the day when I might be able to join in! but since I live in Reading and bakers have to be in London by 6pm it's never been an easy option! but I managed to switch my working afternoons around and with alot of rushing around I made it!

My gingerbread couple cupcakes!

I had planned a while ago to make gingerbread cupcakes, I figured there would be alot of red velvet (actually there weren't as it happened!) and chocolate heart themed cakes since the challenge for the month was love so I thought gingerbread would be original! I used cream cheese frosting and then baked little gingerbread people and just before I popped them in the oven I joined their hands together so they were gingerbread couples! I put some pink heart buttons on the girls and blue on the boys using edible glue and voila I stacked them up in my cupcake courier ready to go! Mara was always going to come with me and she made some delicious chocolate oreo cupcakes with cheesecake frosting topped with little chocolate hearts she made and covered in gold lustre dust! and then oreo crumb to finish off! they really were a work of art! Sinead and Pip came too and Sinead baked some hummingbird cupcakes with a yummy marshmallow topping. When we arrived I was impressed at the array of cupcakes on offer and at the presentation..it really was a sight to behold! I was feeling ours were pretty inferior to alot on show..however we moved onto the tasting and actually there were only 1 or 2 cupcakes I had which really tasted nice! so many of the ones that looked the best really didn't taste great at all so I was even more impressed with Mara's cupcakes at this point because they tasted scrummy so I wasn't at all surprised when she was announced the winner of the amateur category!! It was awesome, she won a giant cupcake cookie jar and a bag of cupcake goodies and even a rosette and everything! Here she is with her prize and certificate:

It was an awesome cupcake filled night and I will definitely be wanting to join in again!

Next month's theme is 'a perfect pair' so we'll have to get thinking up some original ideas and see if I can beg Byron to let me enter again!

Here are our entries below...excuse the terrible camera quality..my camera wasn't loving the light (or lack thereof) down at the cuban!

Sinead's marshmallow cupcakes

Gem's 'gingerly in love' cupcakes

Mara's winning oreo cheesecake cupcakes!

You can read the official write up of Iron cupcake here written by the person who runs the event. There are lots of better photos and if you scroll to the bottom of their post you will see what they have written about my gingerbread cupcakes!