Salted Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes

Recipe base: LINK

I have a problem. If I see an interesting ingredient AND it's on some kind of promotion, I get filled with an increasing need to purchase said ingredient.

This happened with a jar of Dulce de Leche on offer in my local supermarket. Keeping in mind that I live in Sweden, whose grocery prices are pretty lofty, and whose price saving promotions are few and far between in my humble opinion. Even when there are offers, the price saving is not usually that great. However! You mustn't look a gift horse in the mouth regardless of the size of the gift, so covet it I did. Well I coveted two. Crafty producers offered two variations: Baking, and Classic. How could I choose?! I decided that as I wanted to use it with cake, I would opt for the baking option.

I went home, found a recipe, made it, was suitably disappointed, yada yada, more about that later.

You would think that the purchase would satisfy my needs, if not dampen them. Well, no, it did not. I am all about possession, and as with Pokémon, I gotta catch them all! The price promotion was still on at least three weeks later! They were really tempting me. I managed to talk myself down from the ledge of hopelessness, and put the jar down. I didn't really need it. Turns out, I had already bought the Classic jar in some sort of Supermarket Sweep blackout. I really didn't know, and happened upon the sneaky pot nestled behind a box of cocoa. Kerazy.

Anyhoo, so I was desperate to justify my initial purchase of the Baking Dulce de Leche so I scoured my usual suspects that I could search by ingredient with, and stumbled across a recipe for iced cupcakes. Huzzahs all around, everybody.

It seemed fairly straightforward except for the coring, filling, de-coring (is that a word?) of the cupcakes. Fiddly, monotonous stuff that I really had no time for, but beggars cannot be choosers: I had selected this recipe based on the limited ingredients at home, so I plowed on.

From memory, the cupcake mixture seemed nice and smooth, however proved to be heavy and close textured after baking. Big disappointment. Still edible nonetheless.

The Army

Reflection: add equivalent of bicarbonate of soda to baking powder for extra lift.

At the coring stage, I had a twinkling of a doubt that seeing as I was not baking the Dulce de Leche, I should have bought the other one, but I figured it wouldn't be much different. Kämpa kämpa. It turns out, I'm a mean corer; I could definitely have left more space for the gooey filling, but I retrospectively justified my actions by figuring that these were not results I could waste expensive ingredients on.

The icing was a bit grainy, maybe because I used the wrong sugar, but I don't quite remember. They were impressively uniform looking once they were frosted, so I surprised myself with my passable icing skills. Alas I did not think this through, so my transportation methods resulted in a few sad squashed fellows. Boo.

Cupcake

I have since invested in a 24-cupcake carrier. It is certainly a beast, however somehow more comfortable to carry than my old case.

Better luck next time... watch out for attempt 2!

Mini Zingi Loaves

Recipe based on 'How to be a Domestic Goddess' by Nigella Lawson.

So after having my recipe book for so long, I have finally decided to invest in mini-loaf tins. Along with a couple of 6-well donut tins, and a cupcake carrier case. No one cares about that, but I had to say it.

When selecting which mini-loaf tins to invest in, I was wavering between getting individual mini loaf tins (approximately 1/2 of a regular loaf), 6-well tins (approximately 1/3 of a regular loaf), and a 8-well tin (around 1/4 of a regular loaf). I was overwhelmed by the choice alone, so had to let Nige decide for me. In this book, she uses the 8-well tins, so they were what I opted for.

Now as I mentioned, I had invested in donut tins, and I have been having a lot of fun with them (I will update my blog as soon as possible), and realised that my other new purchase was not getting used, so I changed my plan of making more donuts, and debut homemade mini loaves... to myself.

Lovely whipped batter

As Ms. Lawson was my deciding factor for the tin, it only seemed fitting that the recipe I used first, was the one that swung the vote: Mini Lime-Syrup Sponges.

Syrup... somehow eclipsed by those
gorgeous loaves in the background!

I didn't have lime at home, but I did have an organic (non-waxed) orange, and a lemon, so I used the zest and juice from the orange, together with some of the juice from the lemon. It turned out that I did not need the lemon juice, but it did add a certain lightness to the flavouring.

I decided to make a double batch as 8 mini-loaves to take to work just wouldn't do, and thank goodness I did! I'm unsure whether I neglected to read it, or it simply wasn't there, but how full should the wells be?! Yes, yes, I understand the concept of dividing the batter equally across 16 wells, however with my non-fan, and quite frankly, dodgy, oven, I am limited to baking one tray at a time, so I fill them accordingly.

Syrupped!

I decided to fill the wells approximately 3/4 full, and as you can see from the pictures, they rose magnificently. Too magnificently.

And on the inside...

Taste and texture were perfection... and they may have been even stickier if the loaf size was more appropriate.

Definitely one to be tried again.

Available at Samara's Baked Goods

Coffee Cake... 2nd attempt

Recipe base from Hummingbird Bakery Book.

So I have returned to the scene of the crime.

I really have no rational reason as to why I decided to try doing this cake again... after a hiatus of many months, I have been trying to motivate myself into baking and thought it would be a cop-out to make an old reliable like Spiced Pound Cake, and instead do something that I am yet to perfect.

Please let it be noted that I dislike coffee flavoured foods.

Amendments/Mistakes made to the recipe:

• Replaced approximately 200g of unsalted butter with Milda (which I believe is like Stork). Reason? To use it up.
• Doubled the number of teaspoons of instant coffee granules* for the essence as last time the coffee taste was barely noticeable.
• Forgot to reserve a tablespoon of aforementioned coffee essence for the icing.
• In a bid to soften the butter for the icing more hastily, I ended up melting it
• Thinking the icing was too stiff, I added spray cream to it. Only to remember later that it needed milk. Which I then also added.
• Still not making chocolate shavings, so used chocolate drops.

The Making

I softened the butter for about 15 seconds on the low heating setting in the microwave.

The fact is that I need to buy a larger mixing bowl. Using my largest bowl to mix such a voluminous mixture is an exercise in futility, which I discovered when spooning out the mixture into the tin, and finding a 'section' of inadequately unmixed batter.

I only have one shelf in my oven, so ended up leaving the cupcakes for over an hour before they went in the oven. Next time, I will consider using one of the roasting tin shelves as well, although I am wary of using a 'solid' shelf, and not entirely sure if it has a (negative) effect on the bake.

The big ring cake itself took - what I deem to be - an unreasonably long time to bake when compared to the instructions. The colour came on well, however there was far too much wobble, so I had to use my beloved foil hat to protect it from burning, and bake for at least a further 30 minutes, if not more. I cannot blame the size of the cake for this either; the cupcakes took around 30 minutes to bake as opposed to the usual 20.

When cooling, I left the cake for around 10-15 minutes in its tin, the right way up, then for a further 20 minutes or so upside down in its tin, before eventually turning out.

The Verdict

The texture was actually quite good, and I was suitably impressed by the fact that the cake was still fairly moist, despite having to bake it for at least 30 minutes longer than recommended. 

The Happily Ever After?

I could probably add some cream to the batter to keep the cake less crumbly, especially with the longer bake.

Result of Procrastination

.

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins

Recipe base from Hummingbird Bakery book.

Using Pyrex cupcake tin (only good kind I could find in Stockholm so far), the recipe yielded 24 cupcakes. The recipe was meant to make 12 muffins, however this is with a larger size cup, so I was expecting 18, and was pleased to get to 24 cakes that filled their cases.

I did not mash the bananas too thoroughly, so cakes took around 26-29 minutes to cook thoroughly. I ran out of filmjölk (Swedish substitute for butter milk), so topped up with whole milk (approximately 2:1). First batter, I accidentally put the vanilla extract in with the dry ingredients, rather than the buttermilk-egg mixture, however I do not feel that it had an adverse effect on the results.

I mixed the caster sugar and ground cinnamon together (approximately 4:1) in a little bowl for an even topping. I preferred the cakes that had the topping put on just before baking as opposed to the ones that were topped and had to wait before their bake.

Ran out of cupcake cases, so made two mini loaf-lets, using 'free standing' cardboard cases. The cases were over full (perhaps 1 cm left after the batter went in), and consequently the cakes spread into a more comical rotund shape. Next time I use such cases, I will place them in a baking tin to prevent the spreading effect.

Loaf check @ 35 minutes - still far too moist, however the colour is good, so placed foil caps over them to prevent burning

Loaf check @ 45 minutes - still too moist. Returned to oven inside cake tins (along with foil caps), to give a bit more support

Loaf check @ 55 minutes - too moist

Loaf check @ 65 minutes - one loaf seems ready, the other is still not completely set. Returned both to the oven with tins and caps for 7 minutes

Loaf check @ 72 minutes - oops! Forgot to put the timer on. The skewer is not coming out completely clean, however I think that is down to the banana, plus I am tired, so I am taking it out. It will have to do. Will cool over night, and wrap in foil to take to work for fika tomorrow. It will be eaten either way!

The loaves were a disaster. There is far too much banana in there to bake properly in this format.

Muffin rating #1: 9/10
Loaf rating #1: 0/10

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Icing

Based on Hummingbird Bakery book recipe.

Cakes came out rather moist, a bit too moist for my liking, although they were fully cooked.

I used vaniljpulver rather than the recommended vanilla extract due to availability, however I now have my bottle from the UK, so will use next time!

I only made 12, will definitely make more next time

Note to self:

TWO bottles of Dr Oetker's Red Food Colouring

Vanilla Paste from UK

Rating #1: 9/10