Rich Chocolate Cupcakes with White Chocolate and Strawberry

Chocolate Cupcakes
makes 12 large cupcakes

1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup dutch-process cocoa
45g butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F). Line muffin tins with cases.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk and beat well.
5. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in tins for at least 10 minutes, decorate when completely cool.

White Chocolate and Strawberry 'Frosting'

Ok so it's not really frosting. My vocabulary has deserted me so I can't think of what else to call it :)

180g good quality white chocolate
6 large strawberries


1. Boil a small saucepan of water. Remove from heat and place a bowl full of the chopped white chocolate over the saucepan, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir chocolate until smooth. Allow to cool for 5 minutes or so.
2. Cut each of the strawberries in half. Then, make 4-5 vertical slices in each half, being careful not to slice all the way through.
3. With a dessert spoon, spoon some of the melted chocolate onto each cupcake, using the back of the spoon to ensure even coverage. Leave at room temperature for about 5 minutes so chocolate is firmer but not set.
4. Place a sliced strawberry onto each cupcake, pushing down into the white chocolate a little. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cupcakes, not Yellowcake!

Hiroshima Day - the anniversary of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki - was back in August. It's taken me 3 months to write this post. Oops! There's not that much to tell, we had a protest rally and I made nuclear cupcakes as a fundraiser. I thought they were pretty cute, and it's proof that baking can serve the revolution :)

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache

We finally had a housewarming for Katherine and Trenna (who moved in in March and July respectively), and a going away party for Trenna who flies back to Canada in November. It was a funky little shindig, and to help feed the masses i baked these cute little chocolate bites. In the end i made about 50-60 and there were only about 12 left the next morning, so i guess they were ok!

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes
makes about 50 mini cupcakes


1 1/3 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup dutch-process cocoa
45g butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk


1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F). Line muffin tins with cases.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Stir in the vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk and beat well.
5. Fill the muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in tins for at least 10 minutes, then pour over Chocolate Ganache when cupcakes are completely cool.

Chocolate Ganache

125ml cream
200g dark chocolate

1. Bring cream to boil in a medium saucepan.
2. Pour over chopped chocolate, stir until smooth and glossy
3. Leave at room temperature until of a good pouring consistency.

My 2nd finished knitting project ever

I need a excuse to post this beautiful photo Katherine took of my scarf-in-progress recently. It's quite long and stripy (if you couldn't tell from the stripy scarf pictured). The yarn is 35% mohair, 40% wool and 25% acrylic blend. so it ain't exactly fancy pants but that isn't the point :). It's the second knitted item I have finished since learning to knit back in March. The first thing I completed was another scarf I made for Leigh a few months ago, and I feel kinda guilty because this latest which I made for myself is nicer than the one i made Leigh. Maybe I should knit him a life-size statue of George Lucas...

Also, if you look in the background of the photo, you'll see the skull-and-crossbones tea cosy I raved about in The Tea Cosy of Death. How much does it rock?!

Trenna's Space Cakes

When Leigh and I got home last night, we found a note left by our housemate Trenna wishing us a good weekend and mentioning that she had made some cupcakes. She claimed that they were yuck, having been made from a packet mix. I believe she described them as 'blek'. However when we investigated, we found that the so-called 'blek' cupcakes were in fact tasty little vanilla joy parcels frosted with white icing and hundreds & thousands. Even though they were from a packet mix, they were great. So this post is basically a tribute to Trenna's Space Cakes :)

p.s.....

A very Happy Birthday to all the horses out there. :)

Maple, Pecan and Apple Cupcakes with Maple Frosting

I made these yesterday afternoon. Even though they turned out kinda deformed, they are still delicious and once I covered them with frosting they looked fine. They were good fuel for our household Monopoly marathon.

Maple, Pecan and Apple Cupcakes
makes about 30 mini cupcakes

60g butter, softened
1 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 cup maple-flavoured syrup
2 eggs
2/3 cup coarsely chopped pecans
1/2 cup coarsely grated apple

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (360 F).
2. Beat butter, flour, cinnamon, sugar, syrup and eggs with electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined. Increase speed to medium, beat until mixture changes to a paler colour.
3. Stir in pecans and apple. Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full with batter.
4. Bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on wire racks, then spread with maple frosting.

Maple Frosting

90g butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
2-3 teaspoons maple-flavoured syrup

1. Beat butter, sifted icing sugar and maple syrup until light and fluffy.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Rosewater Icing

For weeks I have been searching for vanilla bean paste. While it's fine to use vanilla essence or extract, I like to use real vanilla for special occasions, and scraping vanilla pods is a pain. I finally found some yesterday - huzzah! Bloody expensive stuff - $14.99 for a little jar. Still, I think the difference it makes to the finished cupcake makes it worth the expense. Fingers crossed it will last me a long time too!

I made these cupcakes for Leigh's mum's birthday. She loved them and I have to say they were quite yummy :) Next time I think I will add more food colouring to the icing, to make the rose pink colour show through more.

Vanilla Cupcakes
makes about 24 regular size cupcakes

125g (4 1/2 oz) butter, softened
3/4 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or one vanilla bean, split & scraped)
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup (4 fl oz) milk

1. Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C (320 F). Line cupcake tin with paper cases.
2. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat well.
4. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined.
5. Fold through the milk and spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. Fill the cases 3/4 full.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Cool on wire racks, then frost with rosewater icing.

Rosewater Icing

1 cup caster sugar
1/4 cup (2 fl oz) water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon rosewater
3 eggwhites
red or rose pink food colouring

1. Place the sugar, water, cream of tartar and rosewater into a saucepan over high heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes.
2. Beat the eggwhites in the bowl of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. With the beaters still on, gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy.
3. With a flat-bladed knife, stir in the food colouring a drop at a time until you reach the colour desired.