Cakes for Japan Part One

One of the things I love about my work colleagues is that they're always willing to part with cash if it's for charity. If there is cake involved in exchange for money for charity, then even more so! A few colleagues had expressed their concerns about the devastating earthquake that affected Japan, so we decided to do something to raise some money for the Red Cross tsunami appeal. I mentioned the Cakes for Japan events, started off my Miss Cakehead, that had been taking place up and down the country and suggested we held our own mini Cakes for Japan bake sale.

Now not wanting to be predictable, I obviously decided to make cupcakes. As I would be baking in the evening straight after work I wouldn't have much time to make wildly different varieties of cupcakes, so I decided to stick with making chocolate cake bases, then top with with different flavoured frostings.

After a while deliberating over which flavours to make, I settled on Malteser, Oreo and Mint Choc Chip, all which match perfectly with a chocolate cake.

I needed a pretty quick to make chocolate cake recipe, as I was intending to make 36 cupcakes plus minis, so decided to try out Martha Stewart's one bowl chocolate cupcake. The cake, as the name suggests, is made all in one bowl and uses the simple method of adding wet ingredients to dry. The whole process literally lakes a few minutes and there is no need to wait for butter and sugar to be creamed. If you want cupcakes fast, then this is the recipe for you!

All in all we made a total of £150 on the day. Luckily, work is going to match fund this so £300 will be winging its way to the Red Cross this week.

I am going to be baking and volunteering at Cakes for Japan Huddersfield, which is being organised by Marie Claire Nouveau Cakes, who I met at the last Clandestine Cake Club. Come along to the demonstration Zone at Queensgate Market on Sat 23rd April and help support the cause, buy buying lovely treats from a number of generous folk. See the website for more details.

One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes (Makes 18)

Ingredients

220g plain flour
70g cocoa powder
340g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarb of soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
180ml warm water
180ml buttermilk
45ml vegetable or sunflower oil (or any oil that does not have a strong flavour)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C / 350F (Fan 160C)
Line a muffin tin(s) with liners
Sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

Make a small well in the middle of the dry ingredients and then add the eggs, buttermilk, water, oil and vanilla and mix until all just combined and smooth.

Divide the batter between the cases, filling each no more than 2/3 full.

Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes, rotating halfway if you need to. The tops should be springy - test with a cake tester to make sure they are done. Leave to cool in the pans for 5-10 mins, then turn out onto the cooling tray. (For minis, bake for 10 minutes).
Once cool they are ready to be topped with a number of different frostings.


Cookies & Cream (Oreo)

First off, just to mix this one up a bit, I actually baked half an Oreo into the bottom of this cake, so for these ones, I twisted off the tops of some Oreos and placed the half with the biscuit filling, filling side up, in the bottom of the liner before adding the cake batter and baking for the time specified above.

The frosting is essentially a cream cheese frosting, with the addition of a few of the leftover Oreo halves crushed, then foled through at the very end. It's important that you don't add the crumbs until the end, other wise you'll end up with grey frosting. Not attactive!

Ingredients
100g unsalted butter (room temp)
600g icing sugar
200g full fat cream cheese
4-5 oreo halves, crushed

Method
Beat the butter and icing sugar until mixed well - this may take a few minutes. Then add the cream cheese and beat slowly until soft and fluffy. Throw in the crushed Oreos and carefully fold in. It's then ready to be used to top the cakes. I topped the cakes off with a mini Oreo.

I did have an issue with the Oreo half sticking at the bottom of the liner, so next time will add the Oreo after adding a spoonful of batter to the liners.

Malteser Cupcakes

The recipe for the frosting can be found on a previous Malteser cupcake post.

Mint Choc Chip

Rather than messing around with chopping chocolate and peppermint extract, I just made up a batch of buttercream and then added a box of chopped up After Eight mints. The beauty of this frosting is that the longer you leave the buttercream, the more the mint flavour seems to infuse through. However, feel free to add grated chocoalte and creme de menth instead if you don't like the idea of using a whole box of After Eights.

Ingredients
150g unsalted butter
500g icing sugar
50ml milk or cream
300g box of After Eights
Green food colouring (optional)

Method
Beat the butter, icing sugar and milk until mixed well - this may take a few minute, until soft and fluffy. Add a few drops of food colouting (if desired) and mix until you get a nice mint shade. Throw in the chopped After Eights and carefully mix through throughly. It's then ready to be used to top the cakes. I decorated the cakes with some Poppets which I found in the supermarket.

I won't be making these flavours for Huddersfield Cakes for Japan - keep your eyes peeled to see what I make next, or come along on the 23rd, support us and see for yourself!

Chocs Away...

One of my friends, Paul, turned 30 this week and there was a bit of a shindig this weekend. I wasn't intending to make anything, as I was all cake baked out from last weekend's action, but seeing as it was a special birthday I decided to stop being lazy and bake!

I decided to make some Malteser cupcakes for a number of reasons:

1. They are really easy and simple to make.
2. I love Maltesers (I know they weren't for me, but hey, I can be selfish sometimes!)
3. I had been pondering over what to make as part of Maison Cupcake's Forever Nigella #2.

I've never taken part in a blogging challenge before and as a newbie to this kind of thing, am quite excited by it!

So the recipe for the Malteser Cupcakes derives from Nigella's Feast where in its original form is a 20cm layer cake, topped with a crown of malty chocolate balls. I decided to turn this cake into cupcakes - a mixture of minis and standard sized, as I think they're easier to eat at a party, especially the minis.

I made a couple of tweaks to the original recipe, in that I added some crushed Maltesers to the cake batter for some texture contrast and I changed up the buttercream recipe, as I felt that the buttercream in the recipe was quite butter heavy with not enough icing sugar.

An interesting thing to note about the recipe is that it only uses 15g of butter in the sponge. I originally thought this was a typo, but it isn't! The sponge turned out quite dense, but in a gingerbread kind of way - the kind that gets squidgy and stickier the next day. The cakes will keep for about 2 days in an airtight container.

Chocolate and malty goodness!

The quantities below made up 12 minis and 12 standard sized cakes.

Chocolate Malteser Cake

Adapted from “Feast”, Nigella Lawson (2004)


For the cake
150g light muscovado sugar
100g caster sugar
3 large eggs
175ml milk
15g unsalted butter
2 tablespoons Horlicks
175g plain flour
25g cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
50g Maltesers, crushed

For the buttercream icing
500g icing sugar
1 tbsp cocoa
3 tbsp Horlicks
150g soft unsalted butter
2 tablespoons milk
Maltesers, to decorate

The Cakes
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4 / 160C (fan) / 180C. Line a 12-hole muffin tray and a 12-hole mini muffin tray with the appropriate sized cupcake cases.

Beat the sugars and eggs until the sugar has dissolved and is light and frothy. This will take around 5 minutes with an electric mixer, probably about 10 by hand. 



Beating the eggs and sugars



In a separate bowl, sift the flour, cocoa, bicarb and baking powder.

Heat the milk, butter and Horlicks powder in a small saucepan until the butter has melted and the mixture is hot but not boiling. Whisk through whilst this is on the heat to get rid of any lumps.

Add the warm Horlicks mixture into the eggs a little at a time, beating as you do this. Fold in the dry ingredients thoroughly, then fold through the crushed Maltesers. The cake mixture itself will be quite thin and runny - don't worry as this is the correct consistency.

Divide the cake batter evenly between the cupcake case. because the batter is so runny, I found it easier to pour it into the cases with a measuring jug. Fill the cases no more than 2/3 full.

Bake in the oven for 15 minutes for the minis and 20 minutes for the larger cupcake, turning the trays after 10 minutes. -The cakes should have risen and by quite springy. Test with a cocktail stick - if it comes out clean, they are done.

Let them cool in their tins on a rack for about 5 minutes and then turn them out onto a cooling rack. Leave to cool completely before you ice them.

The Icing
Beat the butter, milk, Horlicks and cocoa along with half the icing sugar until smooth. This can take up to 10 minutes using an electric mixer. Gradually add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until the icing is smooth and creamy.

Pipe or spoon the icing onto the cupcakes, topping each one with a Malteser.

The cakes, especially the icing, really tasted like Maltesers - not too sweet or rich and quite light. They went down a storm at the party - all the minis went in the space of about 5 minutes, with my friends Paul and his wife Claire hiding away the larger cupcakes to enjoy alone over the weekend.