The Great British Bake Off episode 2
Posted: August 24, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Just for fun | Tags: bake, baking, Baking and Confections, blog, bread, cake, chocolate chip cookies, cooking, cupcake, cupcakes, entertainment, food, frosting, Great British Bake Off, home, Mel Giedroyc, Paul Hollywood, Recipe, Sue Perkins, TV 4 Comments »
Image by Tour Scotland Photographs via Flickr
What did you think of The Great British Bake Off last night? I really enjoyed it but it wasn’t my favourite as I’m not really pastry’s number one fan (thats not to say I wouldn’t eat a slice of homemade tarte au citron if it were offered but its just not my favourite thing). I was quite surprised that ‘the handsome one’ stayed in despite his pastry disaster, but at the same time I’m sure cooking under those conditions is incredibly stressful and even the best of us would probably mess up our most tried and tested recipe!
I am very excited about next weeks episode though – I love bread! Especially foccacia bread – in fact I’ve been meaning to make some for a while, so I think I’ll make some using the same recipe the contestants use and see how it turns out.
Fun bake off fact – Mary Berry is 76 years old – I hope I look that good in 50 years time!
Some Bake-off links for you!
The recipes from the series so far! They also have some great videos on how to ice cupcakes too!
The Great British Bake-off recipe book (which I’m hearing great things about) – is just £10 on amazon.
Maison cupcake did a great post on the contestants for this year so now you can follow them on twitter and read their blogs!
Holly’s blog Recipes from a normal mum
Edd’s (last years winner) blog The Boy who Bakes. He also has a cookbook coming out in a couple of weeks
Ruth’s (last years runner up) blog The Pink Whisk - I’ve been reading this for a while – its a great blog
Related articles
- The mast: TV turn-ons and turn-offs (guardian.co.uk)
- Baked by Lace, Cupcakes With Love! (calvintimo.com)
- Recipe – Canapés for Beginners: Tiny Sundried Tomato, Rosemary & Feta Squares (thedailyhome.wordpress.com)
The London Cupcake Crawl 2011
Posted: August 5, 2011 Filed under: OMG! | Tags: bake, bakery, bea's of bloomsbury, cake, cupcake, cupcakes, ellas bakehouse, frosting, Hummingbird Bakery, London, ottolenghi, swirl, trip 15 Comments »If you’re reading my blog and you’re not English (oooh international readers, how exciting!!) a pub crawl is an English…. tradition whereby revellers go to pub (thats a bar to non-English people!) after pub and enjoy drink after drink, generally carrying on for as long as they can stand.
That doesn’t really sound like my kind of thing though.
But as you know, cupcakes are my kind of thing!….
Yay cupcakes!
Well now my friend Emma has invented a Cupcake Crawl! FYI that term is totally trademarked. Here’s the official logo – !
And here’s our plan of the cupcake bakeries to visit ! While putting together the list of cupcakeries to visit, I used this article by Kelly of An American Cupcake in London who did a guest post on Cupcakes take the Cake! We also took into consideration where the bakeries are and tried to plan to hit up ones that are close to each other – these are all in or around the Covent Garden area (ish) -
- Hummingbird Bakery – I’ve never had a hummingbird cupcake (although I have both their cookbooks) and we just have to go here. Hopefully I’ll try a few of their different cupcakes! Top of my list are the classic vanilla and tiramisu cupcakes.
- Ella’s Bakehouse - This bakery is owned by Lorraine Pascal, the model turned chef who I’d never heard of until her recent TV show (which I wasn’t that much of a fan of). The reviews for this place and their cakes are amazing though so I’m very excited to go!
- Ottolenghi – Not strictly just a cupcake bakery, Ottolenghi do pastries and savoury food too, but I’ve heard so much good stuff about this place that we have to try it!
- Bea’s of Bloomsbury – Not one I’d heard of before we started planning this trip but again the reviews are great!
Get in my belly!
Hopefully we will get to go to more cupcakeries but those are the main priorities. After the trip next saturday I’ll be posting pictures and reviews of each bakery for you guys.
First, I have a favour to ask – pretty please tell me if there are any other amazing London cupcakeries that I just *have* to visit!! Let me know in the comments!
Step by Step : Frosting cupcakes – the perfect swirl!
Posted: July 31, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Step by Step | Tags: cake, cupcake, cupcake swirl, food, frosting, how to, nozzle, swirl 30 Comments »It seems a little silly, but even though I’ve been baking cupcakes for years, (even as far back as they were called fairy cakes!), I’ve only just started using piping bags and proper nozzles in order to achieve that perfect cupcake swirl. In fact, for a long time, the perfect cupcake swirl was a mystery to me, even though I could’ve found the answer with three seconds of googling.
The perfect swirl!
When I first started out, I was a little unsure what nozzle was the best to achieve the perfect swirl and also what effects the various other nozzles on the market produced.
So I got a pack of 7 nozzles from Lakeland and set about experimenting. I also recently bought the Wilton 1M tip that I’ve heard so much about (its supposed to be THE classic nozzle to achieve the perfect swirl) in a set along with the Wilton 2D tip.
All my nozzles - Wilton 1M and 2D bottom left and right
The Wilton 2D tip is the one that gives the rose swirl effect cupcake, like this – I think these look amazing and I’m excited to try it on a real cupcake!
The first nozzle I tested was the Wilton 1M
As you can see it has a wide star tip – the tip you buy doesn’t necessarily have to be a Wilton tip – one of my Lakeland ones gives a similar, if not even better swirl, but it needs to look similar.
Here’s the first swirl with the Wilton 1M nozzle (on top of a jar of pasta sauce!) – as you can see its *pretty* much the perfect cupcake swirl. Any lack of perfection is down to my technique and not the nozzle. If you don’t already have any nozzles and you’re interested in making cupcakes, this is definitely a great nozzle to get. I got mine on ebay in a set with the 2d for £8 for both, including postage. You can get it here.
You can also see a great tutorial on how to pipe the perfect swirl with the Wilton 1M here on the Wilton website.
Onto the Wilton 2D!
Ever since I’ve (only fairly recently, in the past couple of months) been seeing amazing pictures (and getting amazing birthday cupcakes from Star Bakery!) of lovely rose swirl cupcakes, I’ve been dying to know how you get this amazing effect. I was very surprised to learn that its (apparently) as simple as a certain kind of nozzle! Of course the technique counts as well – check out my effort below
Mine is fairly awful compared to a really good rose swirl, but this is my first attempt! You can see a really great tutorial on how to do a better rose swirl here at Bella Cupcakes site!
Next up is the first nozzle from my Lakeland set which looks like a spoke at the top. To my surprise, this shape gave a really really great swirl! Maybe even better than the Wilton 1M swirl? What do you think?
Its so swirly whirly, I’m mesmerised!
Next up is the second nozzle from Lakeland which is just a wide hole. I was quite dismayed to see my nemesis (after fondant) – the poo cupcake
Just wrong
I’ve always been mystified in the past when I’ve been into or seen pictures on blogs / of fancy cupcake bakeries where they’ve decorated their cupcakes with this nozzle. There’s only one possible outcome – no matter what fantastic colour your frosting is, it will always look like poo.
Seriously – does anyone know what you would use this nozzle for – other than an occasion when you’d WANT cupcakes that look like poo, of course!
Anyone?
Phew! Lets get back on track with Lakeland nozzle#3 which looks like a central star tip.
At this point both my hands, clothes, hair and camera are coated in a layer of frosting, as you can see.
Just for you.
You’re welcome!
And here’s the swirl!
Its okay, but I think you’ll agree that the Wilton 1M and the Lakeland#1 tips both give much better swirls.
Next up is Lakeland nozzle#4 which looks quite similar to the Wilton 1M – It also gives a good cupcake swirl!
Good swirl definition
Okay, next is Lakeland nozzle#5 which looks pretty much like Lakeland nozzle#1 except that the spoke is thicker.
If you understand me.
My hands are now completely covered in frosting.
Next up is Lakeland nozzle #6
Its another circle one 
You know what that means!
Moving on…
Finally, we have Lakeland nozzle#7!
I still have no idea what shape this was supposed to make even AFTER I tried it.
I mean it was a hot day and the buttercream was definitely getting melty but really…
Anyone?
So there you have it – IN CONCLUSION, the best nozzles for the perfectest, most professional looking cupcake swirl is the Wilton 1M. You can also achieve a similar (or even better?) effect with any nozzle which looks like it has a spoke shape at the end like Lakeland nozzle#1.
Once you have your nozzles, watch and read tutorials, practice practice practice and before you know it, you will be creating cupcakes with the perfect swirl!
Like this:
Amazing Mr Whippy Cupcakes & whats coming this weekend
Posted: July 29, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Step by Step | Tags: baking, cake, creative, cupcake decorating, cupcakes, food, frosting, fun, homemade, tutorial 5 Comments »
Does anyone fancy going to Manchester and getting me one of these Mr Whippy cupcakes from And the dish ran away with the spoon?
Please?
Pretty please?
I’ll love you forever?
They look so amazing and they’re definitely inspiring me to try my hand at making some Mr Whippy cupcakes in the future!
In other cupcake news, stay tuned for a new post coming on Sunday when I’ll be showing you what different frosting effects all my lovely nozzles give – including my new Wilton 1M and 2D nozzles!
I have a feeling mine WON'T look like this! Photo from Becky Ann's blog (click here)
Amazing cupcakes!
Posted: July 9, 2011 Filed under: Baking, Homemade, OMG! | Tags: baking, cake, cupcake, cupcakes, food, frosting, Hummingbird Bakery, yum 7 Comments »
I tried out my new cupcake icing nozzles for the first time and was very impressed with the results!
I used the cupcake recipe from the hummingbird bakery cookbook that I also used when I made the tiramisu cupcakes.
This time, I followed the recipe properly. The hummingbird method for making cupcakes is a little bit strange. Rather than cream the butter and sugar, you combine all the dry ingredients with the butter and whisk into a breadcrumb like mix with the electric whisk. Then you add the wet (whole milk and vanilla). Both times I’ve made cupcakes using this recipe, the cupcakes have been very moist. Obviously this is a good thing, but they’ve been kind of TOO MOIST! Kind of pudding-y and sticky and not really the cupcake I’m looking for. I think next time I’ll try a new recipe.
The breadcrumb mix
The resulting wet cupcake batter
I used a half cup measure to ensure I got even cupcakes
Cupcakes ready to go in the oven!
While the cupcakes were baking I got to work on making the frosting! Again the hummingbird bakery frosting recipe was little different than what I’m used to, using 500g of icing sugar with 80g of butter and 180ml of milk.
Frosting! I used a teatowel to cover the top of the bowl while I whisked the butter and icing sugar together (again to form breadcrumbs) before adding the milk and vanilla
The frosting was delicious – it was also a little too runny so I considered adding more icing sugar but it was already SO SWEET.
Next I got to work adding some colour to my frosting.
I used my new sugarflair paste colours to make frosting in bright yellow, bright pink and purple. The purple wasn’t as bright as I’d hoped – any ideas? Should I try adding in another colour?
The star nozzle I used to ice the cupcakes and my bright frosting! I was literally so excited that after years of faffing around with water based colours and getting baby blue, primrose yellow and salmon pink, I had BRIGHT BRIGHT frosting!
Finished cupcakes! The disposable icing bags from Lakeland were really handy as I only had to rinse out the nozzles when I was done. To ice the cupcakes, I just placed the nozzle in the middle of the cupcakes and swirled outwards and then upwards. The swirl effect wasn’t as pronounced as I would have liked though which is because the mix was a little runny.
Can anyone recommend a good alternative cupcake / frosting recipe? Whats your one foolproof recipe that you use every time?
