Cupcakes are very fashionable these days, and make a great gift. So when I heard Rob’s parents were coming up to visit us at Uni, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to bake them some (though I actually totally forgot to bring them in the end, oopsy). It was great fun making them with my lovely friend Hayley who agreed to come over and lend a hand. Baking is always more fun when there’s people to natter to, or you end up looking like a crazy person talking to yourself, like I usually do.

If you want to really impress (which is usually my aim) you can divide a simple recipe three ways and create a variety of different flavors, which is really simple and looks more professional to have a variety.

Basic Cupcake Sponge Recipe:

This recipe makes around 10 cupcakes (depending on the size of muffin cases you choose)

125g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
125g soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
Approx 2 tablespoons milk or single cream

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5

2. Line the tin with the muffin cases. (you will need a muffin tray if you don’t have silicone muffin cases)

3. Measure out sugar and butter, and mix together until creamy.

4. Sift flour into mixture a tablespoon at a time and mix in well. (repeat until all added)

5. Whisk eggs separately and then stir into mixture.

For the mixing you can either use a hand blender or some elbow grease

(So basically, wack it all in a big mixing bowl and mix it all together, it’s not rocket science)

Flavoring the Cupcake Sponge:

1. Divide the mixture into 3 separate bowls by eye.

Chocolate cupcakes: add in 2 heaped tbsp of cocoa powder & a splash of milk of cream as it will need it.

Lemon cupcakes: add 1/2 tsp of lemon extract or real lemon juice. (If you fancy it a bit more lemony, just add more and just try it to suite your taste, but do it little by little as you can always add & its harder to take away)

Classic cupcakes: add 1/2 of vanilla extract

3. Mix the flavoring into the cake mixture.

4. Decant the mixture equally between all of the muffin cases by eye

5. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cup cakes are cooked and golden on top.

6. Take the cup cakes in their cases out of the tin and let cool, right way up, on a wire rack.

Buttercream Icing Recipe:

It’s the icing that makes them special, so get creative with a piping bag and nozzle! It can be difficult so I decide to just do it with a knife, looks just as good.

110g (4 oz) butter soften
110g (4oz) icing sugar

Food colouring, flavoring and your cake decorations of choice e.g. wafer roses, sugar flowers, dolly mixtures, and sprinkles, go nuts!

Plain buttercream: beat 110g butter until soft, then beat in 110g (4oz) icing sugar, a tablespoon at a time.

Vanilla buttercream: add half teaspoon vanilla extract and beat to combine.

Lemon buttercream: add 1/2 tsp lemon extract or beat in 1 tbsp lemon juice – add 1 tsp at a time and taste after each addition. The add in yellow colouring if desired

Chocolate buttercream: add 1/4 tsp vanilla, 60g melted and cooled milk chocolate and 2 tbsp cocoa powder.

Raspberry buttercream: add a few drops of raspberry extract and maybe some pink food colouring.

Get creative with your decorating!

Goodluck and enjoy!

Miss Beeton

OK, let me begin by saying making this cake was a tale of woe. It was mine and my lovely boyfriend’s one year anniversary yesterday, and to celebrate… of course I baked a cake. However, it didn’t all end up going to plan. Due to my severe lack of patience and a hot lamp, my first ever attempt at roses in buttercream were ruined by heat. However, the silver-lining is that this recipe made probably the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. As not a major lover of dark chocolate, I was worried this cake would be too rich, but I was unbelievably surprised and the moist, sweet, fudgey (almost brownie like) cake that I got. Also, the slight hint of Guinness adds a lovely depth to the chocolaty-ness, which I loved, even though I don’t really enjoy beer.

Though I decided to make a simple cream-cheese buttercream for this cake, I would say if I were going to make it again, it really didn’t need any icing at all, just a light dusting of icing sugar would be best.

This cake is ideal if you want to impress, I choose it for the unique ingredient of Guinness which I thought my boyfriend would like as he is a drinker of the ales.

Cake Recipe:

250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
80g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
2 eggs
140 ml buttermilk
(or 140ml of milk with 1/2 a tbsp of white-wine vinegar)
280g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder

This recipe serves: 12-14 (one heart-shaped spring-form tin)

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

2. Butter one 25cm round cake tin very well.

3. Pour the Guinness into a saucepan, add the butter and gently head until it has melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir the cocoa powder and sugar into the warm liquid. Mix together the eggs, vanilla essence and buttermilk by hand in a jug or bowl, and then add this to the mixture in the plan.

4. Sift together the remaining sponge ingredients into a large bowl and either using a bit man power or an hand-held electric whisk, set on a low speed, pour in the contents of the pan. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are incorporated.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Set aside to cool and then cool until cold on a wire rack.

Though I don’t think this cake needs the frosting i’ll give you the recipe anyway:

Frosting Recipe:

50g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
125g cream cheese

(double and use food colouring if you want to create the roses like I did)

Note: the buttercream has to be reasonably stiff in order to create roses, so they hold their form.

Decoration:

As you can see this cake is a bit of a showstopper because of the icing, it is very easy, though mine isn’t perfect this was my 1st ever try at roses (something I will be trying again). To do this you will need a nylon icing bag, and large star shaped icing tip.

All you need to do is basically start in the middle and swirl. Fill in the gaps between roses with dashes.

Good luck and enjoy!

Miss Beeton

Because this is my very first post, I thought I would start by designing and creating a sort of cake self portrait…

Roses are my favorite flower, and with Rose being my middle name, it inspired me to create a classic cake with a very subtle Rose flavored buttercream. This recipe combines a light, sweet and most Victoria Sponge {the best you’ve ever eaten, I promise} with a aromatic subtle icing with the surprising twist of rosewater. This cake is sweet and simple, and perfect with a cup of tea.

This recipe serves: 8, but if you are me and my friends it could serve a lot less…

This recipe takes: 40 minutes cooking time.

Sponge Recipe:

330g unsalted soften butter
330g caster sugar.
330g self-raising sifted flour
6 large free range eggs
splash of milk (if think necessary)
1 pot of lovely strawberry jam.

1. Pre-heat the over to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

2. Butter two 25cm round cake tins very well.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the soft butter and the sugar until light a fluffy. I use a bit of elbow grease, but if you have a electric whisk, it will make things a little easier.

4. Add the vanilla extra and eggs one by one, alternating with 1 tablespoon of flour (which should be shifted) and beating well after each egg addition. Once all eggs have been added, and the remaining flour, mix well.

5. Divide the cake mixture evenly between the two tins and bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. (I wouldn’t recommend opening the door too early as it may cause the cake to sink)

6. Once baked, leave in tins for 10 minutes to cool and then use a knife around the edges to loosen the cake and then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

7. Whilst it’s cooling I usually move on to the icing…

Rose Buttercream Recipe:

114g unsalted soften butter
250g icing sugar
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1/8 of a teaspoon of rose water (roughly 2 little drops)

few drops of red or pink food colouring (optional)

8. Cut the soften butter into small chunks as it makes it easier to manage and then a tablespoon at a time add the icing sugar. It make not look like it’s combining at first, but have patience and suddenly it will start to look like buttercream.

9. Add in Vanilla Extract and mix well.

10. Add the drops of rosewater, but be vary careful as it is vital that you do not ‘over-do-it’ with the rosewater as a small amount gives a lovely subtle taste.

11. Then, add a drop or two of food colouring, I use 2 drops of pink just to get a very subtle pink but if you fancy something a bit brighter, go for it.

Cake Assembly:

12. Finally, putting it all together, once the cake is fully cooled, place a nice think layer of the jam on the bottom slice and then place them together.

13. I have done a very rough texture to the cake covering it completely, but I won’t dictate how to decorate, let your imagination run wild. I’ve used a fresh rose, but you could get crafty with sugar paste and make your own edible roses.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy!

Miss Beeton.

Note: You maybe wondering where you can get rosewater, Lakeland or any such cake specialist shop should sell it.

My name is Cara Rose Beeton and I am a 21 year old undergrad studying Politics at the University of Sheffield.

Three years ago I began a love affair with baking and haven’t slowed down since. I’ve always been one of those ‘live to eat’ sort of people and luckily I have an amazing group of friends who share my passion and have inspired me to share my creations through this blog. Baking is a massive part of my life, if I’m not studying you will find me in the kitchen, experimenting with new recipes. I am not a precise baker and I absolutely love to put my own twist on recipes which suite my tastes or adapting recipes to whatever I have in my kitchen cupboard, which being a student can often be not a lot. Here you will find what I like to call my ‘idiot proof’ recipes, varying from those show stopper cakes, to the everyday. Also, this blog will help me continue on my quest to find the perfect gluten-free recipes for my mother, who up until now has had severe lack of cake in her life which saddens me. I want this blog to inspire people to get baking, not to scare them off with flashy recipes that most people don’t have the time or skill for.

So I hope that you like what you see and if you have any comments or questions, I’d love to hear from other baking enthusiasts.