Rich Chocolate Cupcakes

A very easy recipe to follow and nothing more to say than: Rich….Dark…and perfectly Moist! My new favourite chocolate recipe!! Enjoy ;D

 

Makes: 18 cupcakes

 

Ingredients: 

250g Plain Flour

60g Cocoa Powder

1 1/2 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda

1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

225g Caster Sugar

150g Mayonnaise ( regular)

240ml Water

1 heaped teaspoon of Instant Coffee

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract/Essence

 

Method:

1. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb of soda, baking powder and salt together.

2. In a different bowl, cream the caster sugar and mayonnaise together.

3. Dissolve the coffee in the water and add the vanilla to this.

4. Add the coffee mix to the sugar and mayonnaise and whisk until well combined.

5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined and fairly smooth.

6. Spoon the mixture into your prepared muffin trays.

7. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

8. Let cool in tray for 5 minutes and then cool completely before topping with your choice of frosting.

 

Chocolate Orange Fondant Puddings

I had to make these!! On three different cooking shows I have seen this “dreaded” pudding that can end life long culinary dreams on the spot. And I immediately went into panic mode as soon as I decided that this would be the pudding we will eat that night. BUT…..Easy…..like a Sunday Morning, is all I can say to you. Make sure you weigh your ingredients, follow the instructions and you will have an outside that is baked to perfection and a dark, smooth, molten centre inside.  Yes Mister MasterChef…I did not go home on the back of this one 😉

Makes: 6

 

Ingredients:

300g Dark Chocolate (70% cocoa solids at least)

Grated rind of 1 Orange

75g Unsalted Butter

50g light brown Sugar

5 medium Eggs

50g Plain Flour, sifted

4 tablespoons Orange Marmalade

15ml Orange Liqueur (I used Cointreau)

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200°C/400F
2. Butter 6 pudding tins or ramekins. 150ml capacity will be perfect.
3. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan with simmering water.
4. Once melted, add the orange rind and stir until the chocolate is smooth.
5. Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, orange marmalade and orange liqueur in a food processor and blend to make a smooth batter. (You can use a handheld mixer OR just a wooden spoon to mix, it might just take a little longer to get the batter smooth)
6. Add the melted chocolate and mix again until well combined.
7. Divide the mixture between the tins or ramekins.
8. Place on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes. (Mine was in for 9 minutes – Depending on your oven).
9. Unmold the puddings and serve immediately with ice cream, crème fraiche or a fruit coulis.

 

Recipe adapted from Great Baking.

Guest Post: Cake Balls

I am very pleased to introduce the lovely Helen from The Diary of a Cake Maker for this VERY FIRST Guest Post on PaperCup. I have met Helen a few months ago through mutual Baking Friends on Facebook and I am so happy to have her as part of my BFFOL  (Best Foodie Friends On Line). You will love her…and you will love her blog!!!

 

From Helen:

Barcelona is famous for its bakeries and patisseries, however being a British baker, I am bringing good old British baking to Spanish kitchens. My name is Helen Vass and I am originally from Glasgow in Scotland, but have spent the past five years in Barcelona. Over the past year or so, I have taken to the baking world in a big way and started writing my blog, The Diary of a Cake Maker. The aim of my blog is to share all my recipes and baking adventures with other fellow bakers around the world.

 

This recipe came from a cake disaster which I had last week. I was given the task to make a wedding cake for a friend and I decided to try a new chocolate cake recipe and added some glycerine to it so it could last longer. I followed all the instructions and waited anxiously for the cake to cook. As it was nearing the end of the cooking time, I was shocked to see the cake had sunk! This was one of the few times that this has ever happened to me and I was shocked! Being a Scottish person, we are known to be thrifty or even stingy and I thought there was no way I could let this cake go to waste!!! I decided to use some of it to make cake balls and this is perfect if you ever have a cake flop!

 

Ingredients

Sponge cake (any flavour, I used chocolate mud cake)

Buttercream or Philadelphia cream cheese

Chocolate (whatever type you prefer). The quantity depends on how many cake balls you make.

 

Method

1. In a bowl break up your cake, and rub together to create crumbs.

 

2. Once you have the cake in crumbs, you can add buttercream or Philadelphia cheese. (In the case of my cake balls, I used a chocolate mud cake which held its shape really well when shaped into a ball. If you are using a cake which is not as moist, use enough buttercream or Philadelphia to hold it together. You will see that it if it doesn’t stick, add a little more. Personally I prefer the Philadelphia as it is not so sweet with the cake, but it’s a case of whatever floats your boat!)

3. Place the cake balls on a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

4. Stick the cake balls in the fridge for half an hour until it holds its shape and is set.

5. In a Pyrex bowl, break up the chocolate into squares: (I used milk chocolate.)

6. Then in the microwave, melt the chocolate in 30 second blasts, stirring in between each interval.

7. Once it has melted, bathe each cake ball and place it on a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

 

8. Once you have covered all the cake balls with all the chocolate, you can decorate them with chocolate sprinkles, hundreds and thousands or whatever you fancy. I kept mine plain so I could swirl on some white chocolate.

 

9. Place the cake balls in the fridge until set.

10. If you decide to swirl on some white chocolate like I did, melt it in the microwave as done previously. You will not need much white chocolate as it’s just to do a fine drizzle. Once melted, I put mine in a little plastic food bag as I had run out of food bags. Snip the end of and drizzle on the cake balls any way you like. Leave in the fridge to set.

11. Once set, enjoy with a nice cappuccino and you will be in heaven!

Mozzarella and Sun Dried Tomato Muffins

I had some Mozzarella cheese and sun-dried tomatoes left over in the fridge and had to use it up rather quickly. The basic muffin recipe popped up into my head and I decided that these flavours will work great together – well they do on a pizza hey? – and I spiced it up with a little smoked paprika. Nicky had two, which is a great sign, and Chris gave his approval too 😉

 

Makes: 10 Big Muffins

Pre-heat oven: 180°C/350^{o F} 

 

Ingredients:

2 cups (500ml) Self Raising Flour

1 teaspoon (5ml) Baking Powder

1/2 (2.5ml) teaspoon Salt

1/2 (2.5ml) teaspoon mixed dried Herbs

1/2  (2.5ml) teaspoon Smoked Paprika

1 (5ml) teaspoon Sugar

1 cup (250ml) Milk, room temperature

2 large Eggs, room temperature

1/4 cup (60ml) Canola Oil

100g Mozzarella Cheese, finely grated

40g Sun Dried Tomatoes, finely chopped

 

Method:

1. Line  or grease a muffin tin.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients together. (Self raising flour, baking powder, salt, herbs, paprika and salt)

3. Mix all the wet ingredients together in another bowl, until very well combined. (Milk, eggs, oil, cheese and tomatoes)

4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredient and mix until just combined.

5. Spoon the muffin mixture into your prepared muffin tin.

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester (toothpick) inserted comes out clean.

7. Let the muffins cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then take out to cool completely on a wire rack.

8. Enjoy as is or with a little butter spread on them.

 

Tip: I use a big ice-cream scoop to spoon the mixture into the muffin holes – this is a 100ml spoon.

 

 

 

Battenburg Cake

This cake is much easier to make than it looks and is well worth the (little) effort. It looks so pretty, tastes gorgeous and is perfect to serve with your afternoon tea.

I am not a huge fan of marzipan so for this cake I used sugarpaste instead of the marzipan. I also made it a little easier on myself and instead of dividing a  20cm/8inch shallow cake tin in two with non-stick baking paper/parchment paper, I used two greased loaf tins.

 

Serves: 6-8

Pre-heat Oven to 180°C/350F

 

Ingredients for the Cake:

175g/6oz Butter, softened

175g/6oz Caster Sugar

3 medium Eggs

175g/6oz Self-raising flour

pinch of Salt

2 tablespoons Milk

Food colouring of your choice

 

Ingredients for the Buttercream:

200g/7oz Icing Sugar

80g/2.8oz Butter, softened

3 teaspoons Milk

1 teaspoon Raspberry Extract

225g/8oz Marzipan or Sugar-paste

 

Method for the Buttercream:

1. Sift the icing sugar.

2. Add the butter, milk and raspberry extract to the sugar and mix well until the sugar has dissolved and the mix is fluffy. (Using an electric hand mixer works best)

3. Set aside until needed.

Method for the Cake:

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

2. Add the eggs, flour, salt and milk and mix until well combined.

3. Divide the mixture in two equal parts and colour with the food colouring.

4. Pour the mixture into two loaf tins and bake for 25-35 minutes or until a cake tester inserted comes out clean.

5. Let cool in the tins for 10 minutes before turning the cakes out to cool completely.

6. Trim the dark edges off the two cakes with a sharp knife and then cut each lengthways into two equal strips. (4 in total)

7. Using the buttercream, stick two of the four strips together to form the base of your cake.

8. Spread more of the buttercream on top of the strips.

9. Stick the remaining two strips of cake on top of the first ones and spread with more buttercream.

10.Cover the whole assembled cake with buttercream.

11. Roll out the marzipan/sugarpaste, big enough to cover the whole cake.

12. After covering the cake smooth the marzipan/sugarpaste.

13. Cut a slither of cake off  both ends, just to neaten it up.

 

The Addictive Blog Award – July 2012

Any award received is always extremely special. It means that you get noticed and acknowledged by fellow bloggers and by bloggers that you in turn admire and respect. I feel so honoured to receive this from Krista, know to the Blogger world as Everyday Mom’s Meals. I have been following Krista since last year April and she is not only one of the sweetest people out there, but her food and recipes are truly amazing. Thank you so much for this Krista!!!!!

And this award is all about the addiction of Blogging. And lets face it…..Blogging is addictive and as soon as you take that plunge…that’s it…It’s your baby and you have to take care of it everyday, you have to feed it with posts and ideas and you have to make sure you give it the attention and love it deserves. And that can be soooooo hard to do. We all have a “private” life, filled with kiddies, family, friends, shopping, 9-5 jobs, school runs, lawn mowing, baskets filled to the brim with washing, baking, cooking and everything else that life troughs your way…it can be hard to find the time to nurture your Blogger Baby. I sometimes wish that I did have more time to be on here and post more often BUT I have a day filled with everything and anything and at the end I know that my blog and my fellow bloggers will be waiting for the next post, patiently, because they are going through the same roundabout as I am . We all know how much hard work this is…how time consuming it can be and we all LOVE the reward. Giving the world a little of ourselves, letting our Foodie voices be heard by fellow food lovers and the best thing…making the world so small it fits into our computers…and all my friends are there with me. Sharing their days, a little of their life and their love of food.

I started this blog last year April…for the simple reasons: I wanted to share my love of baking and cooking with whomever want to listen and I wanted to meet fellow food bloggers. Mission accomplished and I am happier than ever….and with that….

Today I am standing proud and tall…stating that I am: Nelmarie Rennison and I am addicted to Blogging 😀

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link them back.

2. Share a little bit about why you started blogging.

3. Copy and Paste the award onto your own blog.

4. Nominate up to 10 other bloggers you think are addictive

enough to deserve the award.

The 10 Gorgeous Blogs I award:

1. Tara from Della Rose Living

2. Jane from What are (we) having?

3. Tonya from 4 little Fergusons

4. Ally from What’s for dinner? Ally’s Kitchen

5. Kc from Chat ‘n Dish

6. Dor from La Difference Catering

7. Marlys from This and That – my love of cooking and photography

8. Robin from Knead to Cook

9. Brianne from Cupcakes & Kale Chips

10. Hilda from Hilda’s Touch of Spice

Sisterhood of the Bloggers Award

Of all the awards that I have received so far…this must be the one I am most proud of. Why? Because this was given to me by a lady I have never met and  she is not even a Foodie Blogger. Dani is the creator of Dani Duck – Artist Obscure and her  ultimate goals is to become a Children’s Illustrator. She has a wonderful blog and her sketches are out of this world. Such a very, very talented lady.

In order to be worthy of this award I have to tell you seven things about myself, so here goes.

1. I grew up in a very small timber town in South Africa and I am an only child.

2. I only got my drivers licence in 2001…yes…I was driving illegally for many years.

3. Did a little modelling when I was younger, but realised very soon that I am too much of a tomboy for pageants.

I still find it hard to remember to put moisturizer on my face 😀

4. People say that you will meet your soul mate when you look you worst. That was the case with me and Chris. I helped

my uncle clean out the Koi ponds the day I met Chris. No make-up, no fancy clothes, finger nails dirty and I am sure a smelled of fish…

been 13 years now and we are still together ;0)))))

5. I played Rugby for 4 years and held the Outside Centre position.

6. I sang on the School Choir for two weeks and then got chased out. Apparently there were no room for clowns, hahahahaha.

7. I wish I had enough money to open up a “soup kitchen” for underprivileged people. I think that one of the worst things

to live with…is Hunger …and it’s such a “simple disease” to cure ;0(.

I find it very hard now, to pick only 7 names to pass this award on to. My life is filled with so many gorgeous people and

I am truly a lucky girl. I pass this on to bloggers and non-bloggers. (Non-bloggers can just pass this on via Facebook)

1. Darryl from Fatherhood Isn’t for Wimps

2. Wine Before Five

3. Helen from The Diary of a Cake Maker

4. Thrifted Sister

5. Melissa at Tea Paparazzo

6. Sam from Sams Kitchen

7. Lisa from Lisa’s Dinnertime Dish

I love the above mentioned Blogs/Pages. Please pop over to all of them and have a look around…I am sure you will enjoy their blogs/pages just as much as I do 😀

My Cake Decorating Adventure

I think that I became a little too serious about my cupcakes and the cakes I bake and I am so focused on getting everything in place to start a little business, that I kind of forgot to enjoy the whole baking and decorating thingy. And lets face it, that’s exactly why I started baking….’cause I LOVE it. So on the 9th of July I attended a Novelty Cupcake Course from Need-A-Cake. Just what I needed…it was sooooooo much fun and it really got me back into enjoying the whole process and inspired me again to get creative in the baking kitchen. Thanks Kim (tutor)…this was a good one and now next will have to be the Flower Course xx

 

Who Cut The Cheese?

Let’s Have A BBQ

Busy Little Bee

Darcey Dragonfly

This Little Piggy Went To A Party

It’s All Business

Herby Baked Potatoes

A very easy dish to prepare and goes well, as a side, with almost anything. We had this last night with chicken and mushroom pie and onion gravy. Delish!!

 

Serves: 4 (as a side)

 

Ingredients:

4 large Potatoes, cubed

1 large Onion, diced

2 cloves of Garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon Olive Oil

1 teaspoon Sunflower Oil

1 teaspoon melted Butter

½ teaspoon dried Parsley

½ teaspoon dried Rosemary

½ teaspoon dried Marjoram

½ teaspoon dried Oregano

½ teaspoon dried Thyme

½ teaspoon Smoked Paprika

Salt and freshly ground Black Pepper to taste

 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
2. Add the olive oil, sunflower oil and butter to a roasting pan.
3. Add the cubed potatoes, onion and crushed garlic to the pan and sprinkle all the dried herbs and paprika over this.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste and toss everything together until well combined.
5. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes are just turning soft.
6. Serve with freshly baked pie or your favourite joint of meat.

 

 

 

Nothing in the House Dessert

Mmmmm, so I have not yet done my shopping for the month and I do not have anything in the cupboard that I can make an awesome dessert with….BUT I did have Bourbon  Creams, fresh cream, a vanilla pod and some strawberries. And now, according to Nicholas, “this is a very special pudding,  Mom”.

 

Serves: 6

 

Ingredients:

12 Bourbon Creams (Cookies)

250ml Fresh Cream

Seeds of half a Vanilla Pod

Strawberries or berries of your choice

Method:

1. Break to Bourbon Creams in pieces and divide evenly between six glasses.

2. Add the seeds from  half a vanilla pod to the cream, in a saucepan, and bring to the boil.

3. As soon as the cream start bubbling, take off the heat and let stand for 30 minutes or until completely cool.

4. Spoon the vanilla infused cream over the broken Bourbon Creams.

5. Decorate with the strawberries and serve.

 

Tips: For a little bit more of a grown-up pudding, add a tablespoon of  “real” Bourbon to the cream just before pouring it over the cookies.