Pudsey Bear

Good old Pudsey. I am so looking forward to the CIN show tonight, it's so cute... and sad too, but everyone is super charitable and it gives me faith in humanity again. 

Last night I thought it would be a super idea to stay up until 1am making 36 cupcakes for my mum's school fair. So here it is:

For 12 cupcakes

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

40g unsalted butter

1.5 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 egg

120ml milk

0.5 teaspoon vanilla extract

170° oven or 150° fan

Mix flour, sugar, butter in a bowl until crumb like. Slowly add everything else until you have a smooth mixture, be careful not to over do it.

Split equally into 4 bowls and add a little gel food colouring into each - I used red, yellow, green, blue.

Fill each case until roughly 2/3rd's full. Cook for around 20 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

Remove and leave to cool in the tin.

Buttercream

250g icing sugar

40g unsalted butter

Few drops of milk

Yellow food colouring

Mix it all like crazy and amend the amount of butter/milk depending on thickness and taste preferences.

Now, how you decorate it is entirely up to you. I used up some roll out icing to make Pudsey faces, but you could also make white buttercream and then add some coloured dots. Or you could ice paw prints. Do whatever you like, the world is your oyster!

Seen as I was already up at 1am I thought i'd paint my mum's nails for her. (She was already up, she helped me with the cakes. I didn't just wake her up for funsies)

Taking Pudseys face for inspiration I ended up with this:

Are you guys going to do anything for CIN tonight? I hope you all donate.

Have a great weekend.

Megan xo

P.S. I'm sorry about the lighting in the images. There's not a whole lotta natural light at midnight.

Choc caramel

Hey guys, quick recipe post for you today. Since the GBBO has been back on, all I want to do is bake. So I did, and here it is. Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate and caramel drizzle!

Stir 125g of sugar and 2tbsp of water together in a heavy based pan, put on a medium heat until the sugar dissolves and then turn up the heat and wait until it starts to look like the below image (do not stir during this process!)

When it starts looking like caramel. Take off the heat and stir in 25g of butter and 70ml of double cream, leave to cool.

Sift 100g of plain flour, 140g of caster sugar, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, pinch of salt and 20g cocoa powder. Add 40g of butter and mix. Gradually add an egg, 1/4 tsp vanilla essence and 120ml milk, don't over mix. Divide between 12 cases or double up for 24 ;). Cook at 170 degrees, or 150 degrees in a fan oven for 20 minutes ish, or until skewer comes out clean.

Sift 375g of icing sugar and mix with 120g of butter and 35ml milk. Use a big star nozzle to create this look with the buttercream (or do whatever you want,) drizzle your caramel over the top, and if that isn't enough, melt some chocolate and put that on top too.

Don't worry, you can thank me later!

Megan xo

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O.M.G

I can already tell this will be my favourite post of the year, and it's only my first one!

Yesterday I went on my first cake class, I loved every second of it, crazy how much you can learn in one day. Even better, it was a whole class based around decorating with chocolate, very apt for me. I'm already thinking about which class to do next.

You can find out all the information here.

I'm looking forward to practicing everything I have learnt, and all the techniques will come in handy when I have to make my grandmas 90th birthday cake next month!

 

Megan xo

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Lollipops and cakes = cake pops!

Hey guys!

Pre warning, give yourselves plenty of time to do this, don't start them at 11pm like me, I was up until about 3am!

For 20 medium cake pops you will need:

20 popsticks

A block with holes in

Cellophane bags and ribbon (optional)

Vanilla cake

120g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

180g sifted self-raising flour

4 tbsp milk

Vanilla cream cheese frosting

80g unsalted butter

40g cream cheese

200g sifted icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and lightly grease a 20cm circle or square cake tin. Cream butter and sugar until smooth, add eggs and vanilla. Slowly mix the flour and milk into the mixture before pouring into the cake tin and baking for roughly 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

When cool, crumble the cake finely into a large bowl.

Cream the butter and cream cheese, gradually combine the icing sugar and vanilla. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using.

And the icing to the crumbs bit by bit until you have a fudge like texture, you probably won't need all of the icing.

Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge for an hour. Split into 20 equal (ish) balls (or exact equal weights if you're a bit of a perfectionist like me.)

Melt a little bit of chocolate, dip the pop stick 2cm into the chocolate and then put it roughly half way into the cake ball. Put in the fridge for another 20 minutes.

Melt 450g of chocolate in 30 second intervals in the microwave, stirring each time. Use whatever method you like to cover the cake ball in chocolate. Make sure the chocolate goes right down to the popstick.

Cover them with whatever sprinkles you like and put in the fridge for 10 minutes to set. It's handy to have a polystyrene block or a make shift block with holes in to place the pop cakes in to. Avoids having flattened/ruined sides.

Leave them bare or wrap them individually, it's up to you!

Enjoy!

 

Megan xo

 

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Halloween part 2 (part 2 of 2)

Hey guys!

So this is my final halloween post, I hope you have enjoyed them! This final part is my favourite because it's a recipe post, WOO. Here goes:

Spider web cake and spider cupcakes

For the cake you will need:

225g unsalted butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs

225g self-raising flour

2 tsp baking powder

Couple of drops of sugar flair tangerine gel food colouring

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 4


Put all the ingredients in a bowl and beat until smooth, separate into the two tins and bake for about 25 minutes, until the top is golden and springs back when touched. Put on a rack and leave to cool whilst you make your cupcakes!

Whilst waiting for the cakes to cool, mix up your buttercream. 250g sifted icing sugar, 80g unsalted butter, 25ml milk and a drop of orange food colouring. Cover the cake and leave to set in the fridge for about 10 minutes.

Pipe the chocolate fudge icing in a web shape and leave to set.




For the cupcakes you will need:

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

40g unsalted butter

120ml milk

1 egg

Pinch of salt

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Couple of drops of sugar flair tangerine gel food colouring

Pre-heat oven to 170 degrees Celsius/325 degrees fahrenheit/gas mark 3

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter and half the milk until just incorporated. Then beat in the egg, vanilla extract and the rest of the milk.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases (I filled 10 2/3rd's full) and bake in the oven for roughly 25 minutes. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Use the last of the buttercream to thinly cover the cupcakes.

Pipe on the spider legs and then pipe a large ball for the spiders body. Add whatever you like for the eyes.

Arrange your spiders around the web, and there you have it, halloween yummyness!

 

Megan xo

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IT'S MY BIRTHDAY...well it was on Wednesday

Hey guys.

So, in case you didn't guess from the title. It was my birthday the other day! I thought I'd share my day with you because I was spoilt!

I was awoken at about 8 with cards and presents, and as you can see from the pictures, they were very good presents! My mum and dad got me an iPad (which I am currently writing this post on). Speaking of which. Do any if you guys blog on your iPads?
Lauren got me a new make-up bag.
Jake (the boyfriend) got me a purse, scarf/snood, necklace, giant Millie's cookie and has ordered me a case for my gorgeous iPad. I also got money and such from various family members and the boyfriends parents.
So all in all I was spoilt with pressies!
Because I'm extremely lazy, I spent the day lounging around with Jake and Lauren drinking tea and eating cookie.
In the evening we headed to the beefeater for dinner because I was in the mood for some massively unhealthy stuffed potato skins etc.
Now here's for the bit I like most. Pictures!

My malteser birthday cake that mummy Pearson made!

Have any of you guys just had birthdays?

Megan xo

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Pictures #3

Hey guys! 
So technically this picture post is 2 weeks worth, the time has gone to quickly!
Not much to say about this week really, all the interesting stuff for this month is still to come :)

1. My first ever visit to Wahaca, and the only thing I had was Churros. I don't regret a thing. 2. Picnic at Shorne country park with a friend from work! 3. Are you starting to see a pattern of food? 4. I NEED THIS PICTURE.

1. Continuing the food trend, BUT there is some fruit, so it's healthy right? 2. I am so much better at scramble than Jake, and this was a bad score for me! 3. Monopoly winner, need I say more? 4. Out with work, guess what, we went to a rollerdisco. So much fun.

1. Dave must have been so tired that he couldn't even lift his right ear, cute or what! 2. My little brother got Jim with a water pistol :(. 3. Chocolate fudge popping candy cupcakes. B-E-A-utiful. 4. Pirate cove minigolf.

1. My friend Liz finally turned 18. So...Before Maidstone. 2. The cake I made :). 3. After Maidstone...(Fortunately this picture isn't as bad as it could have been. I sobered up a bit before this photo as I had to look after a sicky friend. GROSS I know) And finally 4. We're back to food. Dominoes for lunch with Lauren.

1. First ever attempt at cheesecake. Note to self, use the right size tin. 2. Smartie nails that didn't last too long. Why do I insist on peeling off my nail varnish when I'm bored :(. 3. Just 2 short weeks after Liz turned 18, Danie turned 19. 4. I think Buttons likes my new bed sheets.

What have you guys been up to? I feel like I should start taking less pictures of food?

Megan xo