Morning Beautifuls!
I get jealous of cupcake shops.
There. I said it.
All those amazing looking cupcakes with all their different decorations and flavours make me feel all ‘ughy’ inside. They all look so incredible, it takes a great effort for me not to buy all the flavours and try them all out. And it annoys me that I can’t make one of each at home to try for myself.
I mean, when you make cupcakes you always have to make a mass amount, usually 12, in one batch of the same flavour.
That doesn’t give you all the different flavours to taste – just 12 cupcakes of the same flavour! Ugh!
But I had finally had enough. I had to try it. There had to be a way to make one cupcake and try 12 different cupcake flavours and styles.
Right?
Maybe, but I still haven’t found it. The next perfect thing I came to was narrowing the recipes down to making two cupcakes. In my excitement, I tried four different flavours of cupcakes, making two of each.
Anyway, I thought I would share my near perfection to you anyway, as they do taste good and if you invite a friend over you can try one of each (or keep them all to yourself for later!).
Note: All these cupcakes can be cooked at 180 degrees for 15-18mins.
1) Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Syrup Cream Cheese Frosting
I thought I would start off with a nice carrot cupcake, something simple and easy. Plus I had a slight craving for carrot cakes.
To make these cupcakes mix 1/4 cup plain flour with 1/2tsp cinnamon, 1/4tsp baking powder and 1tbsp of sugar. In a separate container (e.g., a glass cup), mix 1/3 cup carrots with 2tbsp milk and 1/4tsp vanilla extract. Once it is well combined, mix into the dry mixture.
For the icing, I used cream cheese frosting (buy it from the shops or add a bit of icing sugar into cream cheese) and then added a few drops of maple syrup. Oh. My. Gosh. I feel deprived on the fact that I have never tried maple syrup in frosting because it is delicious! Absolutely amazing! The just sprinkle some pecans on top and yum!
2) Raspberry Cupcakes with Vanilla Cream Cheese Frosting
Next were some raspberry cupcakes. We have fresh raspberries in our garden at the moment so I thought I would use some to make these.
This one was quite a simple recipe: mix 3tbspn flour with 1/4tsp baking powder and 1-2tbspn raspberries. Add in 1/2tsp vanilla extract, 2tbsp milk and 1tbsp sugar. Simple, simple simple!
Again, topping was cream cheese because at the moment it is one of my favourite icings. I omitted the maple syrup from these ones though as I didn’t think it would work well with the raspberries. I could be wrong though… maybe I’ll try it one day…
3) Vanilla Cupcakes
Vanilla cupcakes! Basics that I thought I should make. Again, quite a simple recipe: Whisk 1 egg white and 2tbsp sugar until combined. Add 1tsp vanilla with 2tbsp melted butter, mixing well. The final step is to mix in 1/4 cup flour, 1/4tsp baking powder and 1 1/2 tbsp milk.
Now, for these cupcakes, I decided to do two different topping decorations and have a bit of fun with it. The first one is just like the raspberry icing just with fresh blackberries substituting for the raspberries.
For the second one, I decided to go more down the chocolate path and make a tim tam cupcake. For this, I cut a tim tam diagonally in half, placing it on top and then crumbling a bit on the side. Of course, you get to eat the remaining tim tam. Yum! I really love this cupcake – it looks really cute and – ugh! – I think I could eat a million of these.
4) Red Velvet Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting
The final cupcakes were a bit more of an adventure. After making the tim tam cupcake, I decided to overload a bit more on chocolate. I have never made red velvet cupcakes before (mainly due to the fact that red food colouring makes me extremely ill) but I wanted to give it a try.
For these cupcakes, I melted 1tbsp butter with 2tbsp sugar, stirring until they were combined well. I then added 1/2tsp vanilla extract with 1tbsp milk and one egg white until smooth and creamy. In a separate bowl add 3tbsp and tsp of plain flour with 3/4tsp of coca and 1/2tsp of baking powder. Mix in the wet mixture until just combined.
This icing is just a very simple chocolate frosting with a sprinkle of milk and white chocolate beads. They looked really cute and, although I didn’t eat any, was told they were pretty tasty!
Hope you are all cupcake-inspired now!
Keep smiling,
Kay Anne.
Kay Anne 