Cookie Dough Cupcakes Take 2...and King Conch!

If it's nice bake it twice! That's my rule, actually it's not - I just wanted to make up a rhyme!

but seriously these cookie dough cupcakes are so amazing that even though they have 4 different steps to make them I still made them twice!

We were going for a farewell meal with some friends of ours, we leave the Island a week today! and when I made these cupcakes originally a few weeks back we had shared them with our friends - they had raved about them so I knew there was no other option for dessert but these!

They were just as good 2nd time round, I still don't know how the flour in the frosting works but it just does! It is a whole lot of cookie goodness in a cupcake! and if you haven't made these yet you need to do so right now! 

It's up to you what order you make them in, I made the cupcakes and the cookie dough the night before and then made the frosting and the cookies for the decoration the next day.  If you can make all four parts in one day go for it, but since I work I didn't have the time.

Here's the recipe, which comes from the blog Annie's Eats

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Makes 24 Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies (I made mine using the leftover cookie dough)
Chocolate chips

Directions:
For the cupcakes: preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total).  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Stir together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners (filling about 3/4 full).   Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cookie dough filling: combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour. I refrigerated mine over night and just took it out of the fridge for 30 minutes before I filled my cupcakes.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

For the frosting: beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the icing sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

For the cookies: Make 2p coin size balls of dough, (or quarters size if you're American) and flatten them with the palm of your hand.  Place them on a baking sheet and bake in a 350° F oven for about 8-12 minutes, keep checking them as they bake fast 'cause they're so tiny!

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips (or regular ones if you don't have mini's - you can even chop regular ones into quarters) and top with the mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

Triple Chocolate Fudge Brownies

So I know I only just posted the other day but with 3 boys in the house right now my baked goods don't last for long! 

If there's one thing I love it's baking, but the thing I love most is baking for others! so I took a vote and everyone wanted brownies.  

I knew I needed to whip up a batch of these brownies that I made for Valentine's, but I forgot what problems I had with them last time! The baking time in the original recipe states 30 minutes, I kept mine going for at least an hour because I kept checking on them and they still weren't cooking in the middle! Eventually the boys were far too hungry to wait any longer and I just pulled them out and served them all warm and gooey with vanilla and fudge ice cream.  Once they had a chance to firm up they turned out pretty good in the end...

and what made them extra special was the chunks of Dairy Milk I threw in, thanks to all the bars I got brought over from England! and of course a drizzle of my favourite Madagascan vanilla Swiss white chocolate really pushed them over the decadence edge! My father in law said they were the best brownies he had ever tasted...result!

Oh-Oh-Oh...Oatmeal & Chocolate Chip Cookies

We found that amazing conch on the beach!!

Byron has been requesting these for sometime now, and whatever Byron wants he gets! Although he did have to wait a while for these! 

Oatmeal has never featured in my daily diet, it is far too healthy! So I can't say I've ever been an oatmeal cookie fan, why would I choose to eat a semi healthy cookie when I could go for a double choc cookie or something equally delicious?! 

That all changed when By and I took part time jobs at Subway when we were students.  We used to bake the cookies in store, and oh man when those Oatmeal & Raisin cookies were baking up the smell was to die for! Even though I'm not a raisin lover, those cookies were tasty enough to change my mind!!

However Byron is an avid raisin hater, amazing smell or not there was nothing that could tempt him to try those cookies! 

At the time he said he wished he could have eaten the oatmeal cookies, perhaps if one day I made them with chocolate chips he could indulge in some too...well that day was yesterday (5 years later! yes By gets what he wants, sometimes he just has to wait a little while!)

I found this little beaut of a recipe, and it definitely produced some yummy cookies...I would take these over oatmeal & raisin any day, as would Byron! 

Banoffee Pie...quintessentially English!

We had some American friends of ours over for dinner this week.  We wanted to make them a 'traditional' English meal so By cooked up a homemade curry! and I whipped up a Banoffee pie.  It was our friends first time trying both! For any Americans following my blog who are rather confused about our national dish...yes, it was fish and chips once upon a time but in more recent years it has been usurped by curry, Chicken Tikka Masala to be exact! It will come as no surprise to hear that Indian restaurants account for over two thirds of all eating out in England, we just love our curries - and I for one cannot wait to get back to the U.K in less than a month as I miss not having Indian restaurants on the Island! 

But I digress...back to the Banoffee, Banoffee pie is an English pastry based dessert made from banana, toffee and cream.  It always struck me as funny that this is an English dish considering when I think pie I think of America but apparently The Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex who first developed it in 1972, were in-fact inspired by an American dish.

Their Banoffee pie was made on a pastry base, but they can also be made with crumbled biscuits and butter (like the one I made).  The inventor, Ian Dowding, has since made the original recipe available online because one of his pet hates are biscuit crumb bases...oops sorry Ian! 

I happen to like the biscuit crumb base, and it is also a time saver rather than making pastry from scratch! Traditionally in the UK a biscuit like hobnobs would be used.  They sell these in the English aisle of the supermarket here but on the day I tried to get them they only had the hobnobs sandwiched together with vanilla cream, rather than the originals.  I had to make do with those, and as a result my crust was slightly moister than usual but still tasty! Once the crust is cooled you add a layer of dulche de leche and chill for an hour.

Here you can see the dulche de leche peeking through underneath the chopped up bananas.

You then add a generous amount of whipped cream...

and I finished mine off with a drizzle of chocolate ganache.

Whilst enjoying the dessert with our friends the power went out, which is an all too common occurrence here on the Island.  We scrambled to find candles and get a light source going, all the while our American friend was still indulging in his slice of Banoffee Pie...in the dark! I'm taking the fact it was too good to stop eating it for just a few seconds as a sign of approval! 

The recipe I used can be found here

Banoffee Pie

300g Hobnobs/biscuits

60g unsalted butter, melted

397g tin Nestle Carnation Caramel

3 large bananas, sliced

350ml double cream

1 tbsp icing sugar

100g dark chocolate

Heat the oven to 150 degrees C. Melt the butter in a bowl set over a saucepan, or gently in the microwave.  Crush your biscuits using a food processor, or if you don't have one a rolling pin.  Mix the butter in with the biscuits and press your mixture into your tart tin, ideally one with a removable base.

Bake your biscuit base for 12-15 minutes.

Leave to cool and then gently release your base from the tin, and transfer it to a serving plate.  Spread the caramel over the biscuit base and refrigerate for around an hour.  

Whilst it is setting, whip the cream and sugar together in a stand mixer or with a hand beater.  Take the dish out of the fridge.  Slice up your bananas and arrange them in a layer on top of the caramel.  Top with cream and finish off with a drizzle of chocolate ganache.  I had some cream left over that I hadn't whipped so I added a dash of this to my melting dark chocolate to thicken it up a little and then drizzled it all over the cream.  

Crumbs! now those are some tasty cupcakes!

My best friend Jade is on Island visiting from England.  We are having a blast! She came to Provo via NYC and because she knows me too well she brought me the best present anyone could bring a girl in desperate need of some decent cupcakes.....

Yes that's right not only did she bring me fresh cupcakes from a cupcakery, but they came from NEW YORK! I'm pretty sure it would have to be the cupcake capital of the world right now! and the worst part is most of the cupcake boom took place since my last visit so I have to resort to having dreams about cupcake hunts in NYC!! because that's the closest I can get to them right now! 

So not only did they come from NYC...but they came from Crumbs Bake Shop and man, these were the best cupcakes I have ever eaten in my life!!!! If all New York cupcakes are this good then they put London's efforts to shame that's for sure! 

This amazing box of a dozen mini's had me beyond excited! I was ooh-ing and aah-ing over all the delish looking cakes before one had even reached my mouth! The box consisted of (L-R) Raspberry Swirl, Vanilla/Chocolate Sprinkle, Vanilla/Vanilla Sprinkle, Squiggle, Devil's Food, Cookie Dough, Cookies and Cream, Grasshopper, Vanilla Coconut, Candy, Red Velvet and Blackout.

She also brought these two regular sized ones: Blackout and Peanut Butter Cup.

These cupcakes lasted us for days...despite me wanting to scoff the whole lot the day she arrived I restrained and we ate a couple each day.  Even 5 days later and an airplane ride in between they were still fresh and moist and delicious!

Even Sunny wanted to get involved! So we bought him this little cupcake chew toy instead so he could be part of the cupcake club too! 

Say it with Coconut cupcakes

A few weeks ago our neighbours dog of 17 years had to be put down.  In the past this wouldn't really have inspired me to do anything, I have never been a dog lover, but since falling crazy in love with our little potcake puppy Sunny over these past few months I sudddenly felt my neighbour's pain! and knew that I had to bake some cupcakes to take over to ease the sadness.

So I threw together some coconut cupcakes with the ingredients I could find in my kitchen and topped them off with some chocolate frosting from the Primrose Bakery cookbook.  

I think they were pretty well received, the whole plate of them were eaten within a matter of minutes.

I also whipped up some coconut and pineapple cupcakes for some other neighbours of ours who had family visiting in from the States and wanted a sweet after dinner treat.

I used the same coconut cupcake recipe and just threw some chopped up pineapple in the bottom of each cupcake liner and topped them with coconut frosting with a little pineapple piece garnish.

Cupcakes and the concrete jungle where dreams are made of!

First things first, apologies for the lack of posting recently.  Rest assured, this was not due to a lack in baking...oh no the baking has continued, but there was a lack of internet which was more than a little frustrating! How did we ever live without it, hey?! but I'm back online and have lots of goodies to post for you.

Starting with these...they may look like Valentine's cupcakes but actually it's just a co-incidence with the timing.  I got an email this week from one of my best friends back home in England.  A few months ago her boyfriend proposed to her in the middle of Central Park on a carriage ride in New York City!! Pretty awesome, right? So now they are planning a fun and fantastic wedding for September and what would she like me to contribute? cupcakes of course! There is no greater joy than baking for me...but baking for such a special event - well that makes me super excited! 

So she told me her colour scheme is white and red, and that I absolutely had to make my Martha Stewart Brownie Cupcakes because she has never eaten a tastier cupcake! My baking supplies over here in TCI are limited.  Whilst they have a good range of baking ingredients here on Island (because most of them are American) they are severely lacking in the decorating part.  

So I made do with the decorations I brought over in my suitcase, yes I sat and picked my way through a jar of patriotic sprinkles sorting all the red and white ones but you do what you have to do! 

and this is what I threw together this afternoon, just for fun and as a little sampler for my friend to see and decide if I am on the right track for what she was hoping for! 

In the meantime, for those of you not planning September red and white themed weddings, they are perfect for a little Valentine's inspiration! 

Cookie Dough Cupcakes...to be exact

Yesterday I was musing on the differences between baking in England and baking here in Turks and Caicos.  U.K eggs are brown, here they are white...U.K butter is yellow, here it is white but one of the biggest differences is our measuring systems.  Here, like in America they use cups.  Whilst back in England I used measuring scales and everything was weighed out in grams.  What got me thinking was a rather interesting science project Crazy about Cake's daughter did on measuring variations in flour when making bread.  She made three different batches of bread, one had 6% too little flour, one had 6% too much and one had the exact amount the recipe called for.  The results showed that whilst all 3 batches tasted good every taster picked out the batch of bread with the correct percentage of flour as their favourite! Can you believe that such a small error in measuring could produce those results!

It got me thinking about my baking, using cups is not really an exact science.  When that flour comes charging out of the bag as I'm filling up my cup do I scrape off the excess dome that has gathered on top? No, I just throw it all in! When that recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of salt, I think salt? really? in my baking...I'd rather not, and I leave it out.  The baking I produce usually tastes good but does it taste the best? because that's what I'd like to aim for! So I decided that in the spirit of Erin's experiment I'd like to start baking with exactness and sticking to recipes down to a tee, to make the BEST cupcakes I can make! Unfortunately whilst I brought half a suitcase full of baking goodies out here with me, I left my electronic scales behind - school boy error! So, I will have to begin baking with exactness still using cups and just making sure I get better at levelling out and compressing my cup full down when I'm measuring things like packed sugar! 

I have had this recipe bookmarked for about 8 months! along with the hundreds of other recipes that are bookmarked neatly in their little subfolders: truffles/pops, brownies, pies, cookies, layer cakes, cupcakes etc...and the list goes on! Maybe one day when I stop working or something I'll get around to making all of them! 

It has been circulating the blogging world for a long while now, and luckily for me Tracey decided to bake them up this week and when they popped up on my blog reader I decided enough was enough and it was really time I gave them a go! 

Considering there are four different components, they really didn't take as long as I expected and they turned out amazing! When it's a chocolate chip cupcake, filled with raw cookie dough, topped with brown sugar frosting and finished with a mini homemade cookie - how could they not be amazing?!

The chocolate chip cupcakes baked up like a dream and are such a lovely texture and still fresh as can be one day later.

The cookie dough was super quick to throw together, it was my first time using sweetened condensed milk in a cookie dough.  My guess is it's instead of the eggs so that it's okay to eat the cookie dough raw.

I baked up little mini cookies to adorn my cupcakes with and filled all the cupcakes with it raw and I still have loads left over in the fridge! Perhaps I didn't fill them as generously as I should have, either way there's going to be lots of cookie Sundaes made this week in our house!

The frosting was a brown sugar one, and it called for flour!!! Flour? I hear you say! Yes, I had never put it in frosting before either....but with my new goal in mind of baking with exactness I decided to put my trust in Tracey and follow the recipe and it turned out great! 

Tracey finished her cupcakes off with mini chocolate chips.  Here in Turks & Caicos, bags of chocolate chips cost over $6 so there was no way I was buying one bag of regular size chips and a bag of mini so I went for the pikey option and just chopped up the bigger chips into quarters to make small chips to sprinkle on top! and finished off with that cute little cookie!

I decided ruffled frosting might be becoming my new favourite way to decorate!  If you are looking for a truly indulgent cupcake in every sense of the word then you won't be disappointed with these! Happy baking!

Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Makes 24 Cupcakes

From Annie's Eats via Tracey's Culinary Adventures

For the cupcakes:

3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cups light brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup milk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips (semisweet or bittersweet)

For the filling:
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tbsp. light brown sugar, packed
1 cup plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips

For the frosting:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup light brown sugar, packed
3½ cups confectioners’ sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
¾ tsp. salt
3 tbsp. milk
2½ tsp. vanilla extract

For decoration:
Tiny chocolate chip cookies (I made mine using the leftover cookie dough)
Chocolate chips

Directions:
For the cupcakes: preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line two cupcake pans with paper liners (24 total).  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter and brown sugar.  Beat together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Mix in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.  Stir together to blend.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer bowl on low speed, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients, mixing each addition just until incorporated.  Blend in the vanilla.  Fold in the chocolate chips with a spatula.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners (filling about 3/4 full).   Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the cookie dough filling: combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth.  Stir in the chocolate chips.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up a bit, about an hour. I refrigerated mine over night and just took it out of the fridge for 30 minutes before I filled my cupcakes.

To fill the cupcakes, cut a cone-shaped portion out of the center of each cupcake.  Fill each hole with a chunk of the chilled cookie dough mixture.

For the frosting: beat together the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until creamy.  Mix in the icing sugar until smooth.  Beat in the flour and salt.  Mix in the milk and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.

For the cookies: Make 2p coin size balls of dough, (or quarters size if you're American) and flatten them with the palm of your hand.  Place them on a baking sheet and bake in a 350° F oven for about 8-12 minutes, keep checking them as they bake fast 'cause they're so tiny!

Frost the filled cupcakes as desired, sprinkling with mini chocolate chips (or regular ones if you don't have mini's - you can even chop regular ones into quarters) and top with the mini chocolate chip cookies for decoration.

Brownie cookies...when even a sunset stroll on the beach can't cure your blues!

So today was a bad day...a very bad day, let's not repeat it again anytime soon.  There is really only one cure for bad days and that's baking up something delicious to console yourself with! So when I found the recipe that was going to cure my blues, from my hundreds of bookmarked recipes, I stared in horror at the 3 eggs looking back at me from my egg carton because wouldn't you just know it my recipe called for 4! 

I was about to go into major panic mode when I realised rather rationally I could just split the recipe in half...problem solved! I then had another minor panic when I discovered the only baking chocolate left in my fridge was unsweetened chocolate.  In my British naivety I had bought it once upon a time mistaking it for dark chocolate, baked up some cupcakes with it and soon discovered it did not make them taste very nice at all! Unsweetened chocolate for all my UK counterparts is not the same as bittersweet chocolate (my mistake) because it is in fact 100% cocoa solids so it has no sugar or vanilla in it at all to sweeten it up a little.  After a quick bit of googling I found if i just increased the sugar proportions in the recipe all would be well...however I was a little skeptical before they went in the oven at their almost black colour and very dark taste (I hate dark chocolate as a side note!) so I really wasn't expecting great things.  In a last ditch attempt to save them I threw in some chopped up white chunks of chocolate and crossed my fingers and put them in the oven.

I found the brownie cookie recipe here from the My Baking Addiction blog which you need to check out if you've never come across it before, it is awesome! While your at it check out the Snickers Brownies she baked up just the other day too...they have been bookmarked for sure!

Unfortunately my suspicions were confirmed! The cookies tasted far too rich and 'dark' for my liking when they came out the oven! It seemed the extra sugar hadn't really done the trick! By still thoroughly enjoyed them and I was able to eat some mixed together with some vanilla ice cream but I wouldn't really recommend baking my version with unsweetened chocolate unless you are someone who loves DARK chocolate, otherwise stick to the original recipe and make sure you have the correct chocolate to bake them with!

Peppermint Crisp Fridge Tart...baie lekker!

So you all know by now my love for English chocolate! and the huge supply my sister brought over for us before Christmas is nearly all gone...sad times! but one of my favourite chocolate bars of all time is actually South African.  When I visited family in South Africa last year, a whole bag full of Peppermint Crisps greeted me on my arrival! and I even got to try a Peppermint Crisp cupcake while I was there at one of their amazing cupcakeries! 

Well my South African mom knows of my love for peppermint crisps and so along with all the English chocolate that was sent over for us she also included 2 beloved Peppermint Crisps that she got from a South African shop in Shropshire where she lives.  If I'd had my way they would have been devoured the minute they came out of my sisters suitcase, but my South African husband requested that I use them to bake up a delicious Peppermint Crisp Fridge Tart! 

I've used Peppermint Crisps a few times in my previous baking.  Back in my early days of blogging I used them along with another South African food, Romany Creams, to make Romany Minty Choc Dessert and for my minty birthday dessert bar I used them to garnish the top of my mini mint cupcakes but why did I wait so long to make this amazing dessert! It was full of caramel, minty and coconutty goodness - how can you go wrong! 

First step is to crush up some 'Tennis biscuits' to form your bottom layer.  Tennis biscuits are another South African delicacy and whilst it would have been quite easy to pick up a pack of them at a South African shop had I been making this recipe back in the U.K, there are definitely no S.A stockists like that on this island! so I went to the supermarket hoping to find a suitable replacement.  The only biscuits I could find that had coconut in were chips ahoy chocolate chip cookies - the coconut variety! They're not ideal but they worked well all the same! 

Then you whip up your 'Orley Whip' another South African product.  You can substitute it with Cool Whip if you live in the States or double cream if you're a Brit.  You beat in your dulche de leche and get this amazing looking tastiness in your bowl! 

Then you add my favourite part: those little green crystal like gems of Peppermint Crisp and mix them in.

After that you're ready to begin the layering process.  Add a layer of caramel mixture on top of your biscuits, and then repeat with another biscuit layer and finish with a caramel layer.  

Not forgetting that all important sprinkling of Peppermint Crisp on the top just to finish it all off! The hard part is leaving it in the fridge for 4 hours afterwards to set, we did some serious clock watching in those four hours let me tell you! 

If you are wanting to make this dessert, and believe me you should! and you are in the UK but not fortunate enough to live close to a South African shop (where are you living?! those shops are everywhere!) then you can buy them online cheaply here and you can even get the Tennis biscuits on that site too if you want to make it the true South African way! 

This is the blog that helped me make the wishes of my husband come true! It's a great blog with lots of South African recipes on there, you should definitely check it out. 

Peppermint Crisp Fridge Tart:
Serves 8
From Cook Sister

250ml Orley Whip, whipped

2 packets of Tennis biscuits (although you will probably use less)

375g caramelised condensed milk

20ml caster sugar

3 Peppermint Crisp bars, crushed

3-4 drops of peppermint extract (more, if you like)

Whip the Orley Whip and then add the caramelised condensed milk caster sugar and peppermint essence.  Beat until well mixed and then stir in 2/3 of the crushed Peppermint Crisp.

Place a layer of whole tennis biscuits in a buttered 29x19x5cm dish.  Spoon 1/3 of the caramel mix over the biscuits and spread evenly.  Continue in layers, finishing with a layer of filling on top.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Decorate by sprinkling the remainder of crushed peppermint crisp on top.  Cut into squares and serve.

Happy Christmas!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and it was filled with as many cupcake related prezzies as mine was! and filled with tasty treats! We had a rather unusual Christmas day and spent it at the beach...which was definitely a first! (note the sandballs instead of snowballs that we would have been playing with had we been back in the U.K)

As promised, here's a little snippet of some of our festive baking we've been upto!

These are a few of the 100 cupcakes we made for a church carol service on the Island.  

I know I know...candy canes and gingerbread you've seen it all before! but they really are such yummy festive flavours that they can't be beaten! 

Chocolate brownie cupcakes topped with peppermint buttercream and crushed candy canes.

Gingerbread cupcakes topped with cream cheese frosting, a little gingerbread cookie star, and my favourite part was the gingerbread crumb! thanks to my sister for that idea...I will sure miss my baking partner when she goes back to England on Tuesday! boooo

We rolled these larger gingerbread cupcakes in gingerbread crumb and topped with 3 stars.

These cuppies got flat frosted with some fun cookies as toppers.

These were chocolate brownie cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting, a mini marshmallow and a dusting of icing sugar - a basic version of hot chocolate cupcakes.  

On Christmas eve, we made these delicious cookies courtesy of our Martha Stewart holiday cookies magazine.

They were chocolate and peppermint cookies, dipped in melted white chocolate and then sprinkled with crushed candy cane.  We wrapped them in cellophane and gave them to our friends here as gifts.

We even made a few star shaped ones and Christmas tree ones too...just for fun! and oh my I just remembered we still have cake balls in the freezer too that haven't even made it to the photographing stage yet...which is probably for the best, I'm not the most attentive cake ball maker! which leads to some pretty messy looking cake balls! 

Finally for the 'Pièce de résistance' we made a Buche de Noel for our Christmas Day feast.  Man that thing was hard work! We slaved away at it for hours! We used a total of 17 eggs altogether to make that...17 eggs! it was crazy! There were two types of buttercream, a rich chocolate buttercream and a malted chocolate buttercream.  We got the recipe out of a snazzy baking magazine that Mara brought with her, the method is 2 pages long so I'm not even going to bother typing all that out! Whilst we were pleased with the end result appearance wise, it actually looks pretty identical to the picture straight out of the magazine! the overall taste left something to be desired, all the chocolate used in the recipe called for 70% cocoa solids and I'm not the biggest dark chocolate fan, so in the end it was a little too rich for our taste buds but it made a nice centre piece! Check out my gorgeous new cake stand that Byron got me! Happy blogging days...no more using the ugly plates from our rented apartment here!