Losing my marbles

The title of this blog isn't really apt, but it fits these particular cupcakes so allow me a little artistic licence, if you will.

The Marbled Cupcakes are a nice twist to both the vanilla and the chocolate cupcakes because they're both in there! What could be better!?

The method is simple, and the result looks like you've put a whole load of work into the cupcakes. Ssh, just let everyone think you have... I won't tell!

I finally got around to treating myself to a proper palette knife, which the Hummingbird recommends for icing... it's a revelation! I don't think I've ever iced a dozen cupcakes so fast!

Along with KC (the Kenwood Chef I inherited, for those of you who didn't see my earlier blogs), I think PK (Palette Knife, geddit?) may be my newest best friend! I haven't quite perfected the "Hummingbird swirl" and didn't spend too long messing around with these to try as I would have lost the marbled effect and ended up with just chocolate icing, but I'm quite sure I'll get the swirl on whichever cupcakes I do next.

A moment in thyme

Now then, I'm sure we all thought it when we first got our pink bibles. Lemon and thyme loaf... really?

Oh yes. Oh really. Oh yum!

I don't have too much to say about this one... quick and easy recipe, explained perfectly step by step by the good ol' Hummingbird, and it came out the oven looking a cracker, and only got better when I poured the glistening syrup over the top of the loaf.

I didn't add any thyme to the syrup as I'm not very good at cutting it finely (every chef has a weakness!) so I used the juice of two lemons, the sugar and a little drop of water, which worked perfectly. I also forgot to decorate with a sprig of lemon thyme, but who needs the added greenery?

Now all that's left to do is enjoy (another) slice and wait for feedback tomorrow from my work buddies/guinea pigs.

Cocktail Sunday!

Oh dear, I fear I have neglected my Hummingbird mission... it's been over a month since I last made anything from my little pink bible! Panic not though - KC hasn't been neglected. June is a busy birthday month for me, so we've had a lot of birthday cakes to make. Oh, and the small matter of jetting off to Dublin to see a certain Take That (squeal!) - me, not KC!

But we're back, and what better way to come back than with cocktails!

It was my birthday last week and, as the hubs and I went off to Dublin to see the boys, I didn't get a cake (sob!). But we're making up for it tomorrow with a BBQ with our friends, so I thought I'd try all the cocktail cupcakes out on the willing guinea pigs!

The four mini cocktail/alcohol cupcakes in the pink bible are the Strawberry Daquiri mini cupcakes, Pina Colada mini cupcakes, Brandy Chocolate mini cupcakes, and the Mojito mini cupcakes. To be honest, out of all of these I'd probably only drink the daquiri and the mojito, if any, as I'm not a big drinker. But I thought what the heck, let's give 'em a go!

I decided to just do half a batch of each recipe... I don't want to be rolling my guinea pigs out the door tomorrow! The three cocktail-based minis require a white rum and caster sugar mix, so I did enough for three all in one go. Killing three cupcakes with one stone, so to speak!

Once the delicious smelling rum and sugar mix had been concocted, I left the strawberries (for the daquiri) and the pineapple (for the pina colada) to soak in two-thirds of the concoction...

While the fruit was getting drunk, I got on with the Mojito cupcakes. I've never used mint before... well, apart from spooning a dollop of mint sauce on to the side of a lamb dinner! So this was a first for me. And, I've got to say, the mojito ingredients looked a little strange in KC's bowl...

I haven't tasted any of the minis yet (have to wait for the guinea pigs to arrive for the barbie tomorrow), but I had a quick lick of the spoon after I'd finished filling the mini (Christmas) cupcake cases, and it tasted nice and fresh!

Once the cupcakes were out of the oven, the smell was lovely. Minty but fruity, thanks to the lime in the mix. I mixed up the topping, leaving out the extra white rum as there are some mini guinea pigs (also known as children) coming tomorrow and I didn't want to have to tell them they couldn't have a taste.

Here are a few of the Mojito Mini Cupcakes:

Next were the Brandy Chocolate mini cupcakes. Not dissimilar to a chocolate cupcakes, with the addition of some orange zest and, of course, the brandy.

I'm not sure why, as this has never happened to my cupcakes, but the Brandy Chocolate minis came out with a real dip in the middle of the sponge. Whether I'd overdone one of the ingredients, not added enough baking powder... I don't know, but the sponge feels springy under my finger so I'm sure they'll taste fine.

Again, I didn't add any alcohol to the buttercream, but I did dunk each mini in some decoration!

Next were the Strawberry Daquiri minis. This is one of my favourite cocktails (downed quite a few in Dublin last weekend!) so I'm very keen to try this mini tomorrow.

What I love about this recipe is the "surprise" at the bottom of the cupcake. The rum-soaked strawberries sit nicely at the bottom of each case - I'm not going to tell my guinea pigs tomorrow, will let them discover the rummy-fruity goodness for themselves!

Last, but my no means least, were the Pina Colada minis. Last time I made a coconut-based cake, I gained 3lb that week as I couldn't leave the thing alone! So I may have to steer clear of these tomorrow!

The recipes for all three cocktail-based minis are very similar, so by the time I got to the pina coladas I was hardly consulting the pink bible at all!

Once again, I left the alcohol out of the buttercream but did decorate with some yummy desiccated coconut - oh, yum!!

So there you have it, tomorrow is officially Cocktail Sunday! I just hope my guinea pigs approve of my choices.

In case any of you were wondering what a Hummingbird fanatic's kitchen looks like while the magic is in action, here it is. Basically, a mess! But a wonderful, pink bible-induced, scrummy smelling mess that is worth every second of the cleaning afterwards.

The week of the cake - take two!

After baking the Coconut Layer Cake, I was left with seven spare egg whites. Being pretty useless at meringues, I had a quick flick through the pink bible to see if there was anything that I could chuck them into... and I didn't get very far through before I found the Angel Food Cake!

Ten egg whites? No butter? No caster sugar? Certainly not your typical sponge recipe, and I did ponder for a few seconds whether anything had been left off the ingredients list - but I carried on regardless!

This is definitely one that you need a hand whisk for, and preferably an electric one. Some of the Hummingbird recipes you can get away with doing by hand, but not this one! These angels require a bit of electric spark!

Egg whites all whipped up and looking angelic, I (carefully) threw the rest of the ingredients in and... that was it! So simple. The sponge bakes for 50 minutes, so longer than I'd bake a "normal" Victoria sponge, and comes out a delightful golden colour...

I took this one to my mum's house to have after Sunday lunch and, as you can see from the following picture, it went down very well. Angelically white inside and perfect with a cuppa tea in the evening, too.

Note - do not breathe out while taking a bite as you end up with "fairy dust" (ie icing sugar) all over the place!

The week of the cake - take one!

Last week saw me a little bit snowed under with a birthday cake order and desperately trying to think of something to do for our fourth wedding anniversary.

Over the past few years we have always stuck to the "traditional" anniversary gifts - first year was paper, second year was cotton, and so on... well, four years is celebrated with flowers. Easy! If you're a guy buying for a gal...

I wracked mine and my Twitter pals' brains, but aside from something for the garden (which would have been disastrous considering I don't "do" gardens) all I could think of was flowers... flour... so I went with it!

The boy is often subjected to hours of "wow, look at this one!" and "mmmmm, can't wait to make these" as I flick through my pink bible, but the one we have both expressed big Mmms at is the Coconut Layer Cake. I promised him I would do this for his birthday in November, but that seems an age away, so I got cracking on it for our anniversary using my flowers = flour logic.

Sourcing the ingredients for this one was as much a challenge as the baking and creating! I "finally" tracked down a couple of tins of coconut milk in the 'Indian' section of my local (orange-coloured) supermarket.

The only thing I couldn't find anywhere, much to my disappointment, was a fresh coconut to grate and roast for decoration. But this wasn't a strictly necessary part of the cake, and I improvised at the end with dessicated coconut - yum!

This cake was involved, but fairly straightforward to make. The Hummingbird, as ever, described and instructed each step of the method brilliantly. I even managed to make my coconut custard for the filling and decoration lump-free!

One thing I will say is to make sure you have set aside plenty of time... this isn't one you can do in a rush... unless you're Nigella, goddess of the kitchen, but even then I think she'd be too distracted with licking her fingers provocatively and pouting at the camera!

The finished cake went down very well indeed and the boy was more than impressed with his anniversary present! He even shared a few pieces with our nieces and nephews and I got the thumbs up from all of them, too!

Only problem with this cake is... it's too moreish! Well worth the extra time and effort... and another word of advice - don't throw out the egg whites left over from the seven egg yolks you need... they go seven-tenths of the way there for the ten egg whites you need for the Angel Food Cake! Cue 'The week of the cake - part two'!

Nutcase!

Just a quickie from me last night (oo-er, missus!) - I had several bags of mixed nuts that I'd picked up cheap at the weekend, and a spare few minutes in the kitchen, so after a quick flick through my little pink bible I landed on the Mixed Nut Bars. And boy, am I glad that I did!

So quick and so easy... and, oh, so yummy! Very moreish though... dangerously so!

I'd never made anything like the mixed nut bars before and was a little apprehensive, but the method looked simple enough (and was so simply explained, as is the Hummingbird's typical style). I got stuck in and in no time at all my kitchen smelt sweet and homely... see, make a proper housewife out of me yet!

I've brought the finished article into the office today as a Tuesday treat and, so far, all the comments have been good! I've had a little taste and am more than pleased with how these bars came out... can't wait to try my hand at the next nutty recipe now!

Keep an eye on the blog... it's my wedding anniversary on Thursday and I'm planning on making the Hummingbird's coconut cake for the boy (he hasn't dropped "too" many hints about it!). Fourth wedding anniversary - traditional gift is flower, but I figure I can change that to "flour", right?

It's for charidee

Today's the day of our charity cake sale at work, in aid of Great Ormond Street. One of our colleague's sons has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and so we wanted to do something to help, and thought what better way than to sell some cakey goodies?!

I decided to make some cupcakes, as these are easy to dress up and make pretty. I had some leftover buttercream that - for the first time ever - I had frozen, so I defrosted this and it seems to have turned out ok. I made the Hot Chocolate Cupcake sponge as the base... nice, easy recipe and a lovely moist and light sponge.

I then slathered the cupcakes in the pink frosting and decorated with pretty sweeties.

I am continually getting bugged by the token irish guy at work to make a coffee and walnut cake. I don't even like coffee! So, having read that the coffee and chocolate loaf from the Hummingbird isn't "too" coffee-y, I thought I'd give this a go.

My only bit of advice - that I'd do well to listen to myself! - is to read the recipe before you start. I got stuck in, creaming and beating... then got to the coffee bit. "Brewed and cooled coffee". Oops. Cue sitting around for ages waiting for a cup of coffee to cool! I also wasn't sure about the strength of the coffee. Not being a coffee drinker, I don't know what constitutes "strong", so I just heaped a load of granules in and hoped for the best.

This is what I ended up with!

I also did a recipe that I've done before, the Snickerdoodle cookie recipe, but instead of the cinnamon, I added chocolate chips and only rolled the cookie dough balls in sugar. They look and taste fab! I haven't got a picture, unfortunately, but think fat golden choc-chip cookies, and you've got it!

Cake sale starts at half ten... fingers crossed we make a tidy little sum for the Hospital!