Chocolate Cupcakes (Eggless) with Gingerbread Frosting - RECIPE

These cupcakes have a deep, dark, delicious flavour and a real wintery / Christmas feel.

They are very simple to make and require minimal time and effort. My gingerbread frosting is silky smooth - not overly sweet and lightly spiced with a strong biscuity flavour.

The chocolate cupcake part of this recipe is suitable for vegans or those with egg allergies and handy to have in your recipe book.

The dinky little chocolate bars are made in the mini tablet bar silicone mould which is available to buy from our website at www.siliconemoulds.com - currently for £2.25 plus p&p. Simply pipe in tempered chocolate and leave to set. As soon as they are hardened, the mini bars are ready to use.

I used a JEM 2D piping nozzle for the swirls on these cupcakes and 18" strong, savoy disposable piping bags - currently a bargain at 10 for £1.00 !

The chocolate cupcake recipe is enough to make 12.
The frosting recipe makes enough to do 18 > 24 cupcakes. Extra frosting can be frozen.

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES (EGGLESS)

1 cup (250mls) of milk - normal or soya
1 tsp cider vinegar

3/4 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of vegetable oil

2tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup of plain flour

2 tbsp cornflour

1/2 cup of cocoa powder

3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp of baking powder
good pinch of salt

Pre-heat oven to 170deg C fan / 180deg C normal.

Line a 12 hole standard muffin mould or pan with paper cupcake cases.

Sieve dry ingredients and add wet. Mix with a balloon whisk until well combined and no lumps remain.

Transfer the mix (will be runny) into a jug and split evenly between the 12 cupcake liners.

Bake for approx 20mins until cocktail stick comes out clean.

Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Here is the secret to my gingerbread biscuit frosting....

This stuff is awesome ! In Europe, it tends to be called Speculoos. In the UK, the closest we get are Lotus biscuits - yummy little carmelised spiced biscuits often served alongside coffee.

The lovely people at Lotus now distribute this as a spread in the UK and it's widely available in many supermarkets such as Waitrose and Sainsbury's.

GINGERBREAD BISCUIT FROSTING

125g salted butter

200g Lotus spread (1/2 a jar)

2 tbsp of condensed milk

1 tsp of vanilla extract
3 cups sieved icing / powdered sugar

150ml double cream

2 tsp mixed spice.

First of all, warm the cream and add the mixed spice. Leave to cool and infuse.

Cream the butter and Lotus spread until pale and fluffy. Add the icing sugar and infused cream. Beat with a hand mixer until thick and silky smooth (took about 10mins)

Enjoy !

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com  - December 2013

Quick and Easy Carrot Cakes - Recipe and Video Tutorial from SiliconeMoulds.com

I'm not going to kid you on. This is a recipe I have made many many times before. I've even blogged it before (back in 2010). Sometimes I make these little carrot cakes as muffins and other times I make it as one big cake and just cook for a bit longer.

It's moist, tasty and delicious. Not overly sweet - until you smother them with lashings of cool cream cheese frosting. Then you know you've died and gone to heaven....

Generally I try not to repeat recipes on the blog ....... but fact is that we bake favorite recipes on a regular basis. Not everything has to be "new" and I've no shame in reposting this recipe.

However, I DO have something new to share, and that is the new little carrot silicone bakeware mould I've designed. 

You may be asking yourself why on earth I'd want to make a mould that makes it fast and easy to make sugarpaste and chocolate carrots - but these really do look wonderful on top of carrot cakes. 

Hopefully you will also like my Youtube Tutorial showing how to use these. These moulds are a brand new product release and can be found HERE on our website at www.siliconemoulds.com , currently priced at £3.25

Recipe

10oz / 280g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

100ml of fresh orange juice (preferably with "bits")

2 tablespoons honey

5oz / 140g of caster sugar

6oz / 165g carrot finely grated

6oz / 165g carrot coarse grated

100ml vegetable or sunflower oil

3oz / 85grams sultanas or raisins

For the cream cheese icing - I usually just take a good 3 to 4 tablespoons of cream cheese and add as much icing sugar as required to get the right consistency. Start with a little and gradually beat more in with a woden spoon

Put wet ingredients in one bowl and sift dry ingredients into another. Add the two together and stir until just combined.

Butter a 12 hole standard silicone muffin tray if not lining with paper cases. This will generally make 10 big muffins in lined muffin tins or 12 slightly smaller ones if in unlined silicone muffin trays. Where icing with cream cheese frosting, I do like to use muffin cases inside the trays. I don't bother if I'm not icing

Preheat the oven to 180deg C - Fan oven and bake for approx 25 mins

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cupcakes (Recipe) and Peek-A-Boo Chocolate Bears

It's been a cold snowy month here in Norfolk. We've had 6" of snow and temperatures down to -14deg C.

There have been a few days when the postal service and courier networks ground to a halt, schools shut and most people stayed home due to some rather nasty winter weather. After you've made snowmen outside, and come back in to thaw out.... these rib sticking cupcakes do down rather nicely with a hot cup of tea.

I couldn't resist adorning mine with these gorgeous chocolate Peek-A-Boo bears. These little bears were made in one of our new Chocolate collection silicone bakeware moulds from www.siliconemoulds.com and are due for release early March 2013. You can find the new PEEK-A-BOO silicone chocolate mold here

Recipe - Makes 15 

180g plain (cake) flour

2.1/2 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

90mls corn (or sunflower) oil

150g light brown sugar

150g chopped and pitted Medijool dates

Add the chopped dates to a bowl with 180mls of boiling water, then pop in a microwave for a further minute. Remove and mash with a fork until thick and pulpy

Whisk sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until thick and foamy. Sift flour and baking powder and fold into the whisked mixture, followed by the mashed dates.

Spoon equally into silicone muffin moulds, placed on a baking tray and lined with paper cupcake cases. Bake for approx 15 > 18 mins at 160deg C Fan / 180deg C normal until the tops are golden and springy and a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the toffee frosting..... You will need to excuse me here as I tend to make most of my buttercream by eye rather than by weight !

Salted Toffee / Caramel Frosting

quick toffee sauce :

Put equal amounts of salted butter and golden syrup in a pan. Bring to the boil for approx 2 mins.  Remove from heat and add to a mixer bowl with 500g powdered icing sugar.

Start to beat and then add in about 150g of softened salted butter. Beat thoroughly until it comes together and is smooth and glossy. If too runny, you can add some more powdered sugar.

This frosting is quite slack and suitable for spreading or dolloping on cupcakes. It's not the sort that you can pipe into big ice cream swirls.

If at any point, it turns into something that looks really curdled and horrid or starts to sieze- do NOT panic. Simply put the bowl over a pot of hot water and keep mixing until it becomes smooth.

You do need to apply it to cakes whilst still a little warm.

The adorable little chocolate feet were made in another silicone chocolate mould from my Spring 2013 collection. A registered design from www.siliconemoulds.com

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - January 2013

Carrot Cake Muffins - adored by children and friends !

This recipe can easily be made into one large cake, or bakes just as well as 12 muffins / cupcakes. I think they would be best referred to as muffins since there is no creaming of butter and sugar involved. These have a very high carrot content which adds loads of natural sweetness and also keeps them very moist.

Frosting really is not required - but it's quite nice to plaster some lemon buttercream or cream cheese icing on top.

Oliver and I rattled two batches of these up a fortnight ago before work one Saturday morning. One batch was for colleagues and customers and the other lot were for a friend (Mel), her husband and kids.

You can never make too many of these. They'll keep for a couple of days in the fridge ok, or freeze well.

RECIPE

280g plain flour

2 tsp baking poweder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp salt

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1egg

90ml fresh orange juice

zest of an orange 

360g carrots (1/2 coarsely grated, 1/2 fine grated)

1 tsp vanilla essence

100ml vegetable oil

Add nuts or raisins if wished.

Add oil and orange juice together and mix in the egg with a fork. To this, add the grated carrot.

Sift all the dry ingredients and add wet ingredients to the bowl. Mix in roughly with a wooden spoon - only until combined. Spoon into a lined tin or paper cupcake cases in a 12 cell muffin mould or tin

For cupcakes, bake at 180deg C fan for approx 20mins,. For a large cake - same temperature in a  http://www.siliconemoulds.com/250mm-blue-round-birthday-cake-mould-p-137.html  (but I forget how long - probably about 50 > 60 mins)

Devilishly Decadent Chocolate Cupcakes - Pirate Coins Toppers (New Mould)

How many of you have Little Pirates ? Oliver adores anything pirate related - especially chocolate pirate coins !

I was constant nagging to make our own chocolate pirate coins that inspired the creation of this REGISTERED DESIGN silicone pirate coins chocolate mould.   Ours has had loads of use already. After all, you can never have enough gold dubloons / pirate treasure. It's fun to wrap them in your favourite coloured foil wrappers and a super way to entertain kids on a wet and rainy day. Do be prepared for lots of chocolate mess, sticky hands and faces though if making these with toddlers ....

This photo of my little pirate was taken by a friend's husband at a recent children's party. Oliver has to pirate outfits, but loves this one most. I must say - I do too - he looks rather fetching in it :-) Too cute. I guess he'll break a few hearts when he's older.

Here's the new mould - it's quite a large mould the big coins are approx 50mm diameter. You can see what the coins in both sizes look like on my hand below. BTW - my hands are more akin to builders hands and I do take a large glove size....

Couple some decadent, dense and fudgy cupcakes with rich chocolate buttercream and pirate chocolate coin toppers and you'll be an instant hit at the next kid's party or play day.

Makes 24 cupcakes :

2 cups white caster sugar

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water
• 
  

I use a cup with 250ml volume

Combine all wet ingredients. Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Add wet ingredients and mix until combined.

 Bake in an oven at 180deg / Gas mark 4. I used 170deg Fan oven.

When cooked (approx 18 > 20 mins), remove from the oven and allow to cool before frosting

Chocolate Buttercream Recipe

4 cups icing sugar

115g salted butter (soft)

1 tsp vanilla extract

50g cocoa powder

1/4 cup milk

1 cup dark chocolate chips (melted)

Beat the butter and add icing sugar, vanilla, cocoa powder and milk. Beat until smooth and creamy. It is best to use a mixer, and beat for at least 5 mins. All melted chocolate and beat in. If the buttercream is too thick at this point, add some extra milk.

Note - last time I made this frosting, it was to frost one larger cake. I made it without weighing ingredients this time - but suspect you will need double the amount if you want big ice cream style moulds of frosting on 24 cupcakes.

Loaded Apple Spice Muffins (low fat content) FOODBUZZ #5 14/11/11

I was totally taken in by the stunning images on Anncoo Journal of some wonderful Italian apple cupcakes. Gosh – they looked so good I visually ate the lot off the screen. The ingredients list was awesome too. There was whacking great amount of butter – bound to make any cake taste good.... but not exactly easy on the waistline. Then again, what cake doesn’t add inches to your waistline. Blimey. I’m sure just thinking about it makes mine expand.

Hmm. My apple trees did well this year. I’ve got a fridge drawer full of Bramleys, a shelf full of Empire Reds and a car load of Jonagolds. Apples are bountiful in England in the autumn and winter months. I’ve been good. I don’t each much cake these days. I’ve got an abundance of apples begging to be used. How many excuses does a fat girl (trying to get thin) need to bake ?

I’ve waited a week.

“Mummy .... I need to bake cake !” a little voice chirps up and a fluffy blond head pops round the door.

One. Just one. That’s all the excuse I need.

Three years ago, I was convinced I was going to have a little girl. I had dreams of riding ponies together and threading daisy chains on the grass. Instead, I was nurturing a little boy that would love mud and cars. I worried as he’s start to grow up, all he would want was to spend all his time with Daddy.

 That may well happen.... buy my little boy loves mud, and cars and BAKING with Mummy.

Sure, this is cake, compared to Ann’s amazing Italian Apple Cakes, it’s much lower in fat. That does NOT mean eat six. Don’t eat cake in excess. You’ll get fat. Don’t sue me – I warned you !

 RECIPE

Makes 12 > 14

255g all purpose flour

3tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ginger

good couple of pinches nutmeg

good pinch of ground cloves

150g granulated sugar

90mls oil

150mls milk

1 beaten egg

350g finely cored and finely sliced apples ( I used some small Empire Reds, peel left on)

agave nectar (or warmed golden syrup) to glaze

Sift dry ingredients together.

In a separate bowl or jug, mix the wet ingredients together. Combine wet and dry ingredients, (taking care not to over mix) folding in the mass of apples in the final few strokes. It will look like mainly apples and not much batter !

Spoon into standard size cupcake / muffin paper cases in a muffin tray or silicone muffin mould. These need filling more or less to the top. There is so little batter in relation to apples that these muffins aren’t going to give a great rise.

Bake for approx 22mins at 180deg C fan oven until tops are golden and a cocktail stick comes out clean.

Glaze the top with some agave syrup brushed onto the tops of the hot muffins. Allow to cool and serve.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On leaving the house this morning, I put one of these in these in the fridge for Oliver. We’d made 14, though next time, I’ll use the batter to make just 12. Oliver had already demolished one still a little warm before we left. 

Twelve left.

I put the baking tray with the silicone mould containing the muffins on the back seat of the car. I didn’t box them up, as they were still a little warm. I wanted to take them into work to photograph and figured that the lads that work with me would find resisting these futile. What I didn’t forsee was that only 10 would make it to work.

I know what you are thinking.

The smell of my car was amazing. The wafts of warm spices cheered me up no end. Nothing like the smell of Christmassy spices to lift your soul. It made me hungry too.

The tray bounced and slid as I cursed and hit a pot hole that had escaped my notice. The tray slid and two muffins out and hit the floor. Only 10 lots of temptation remained.

I set my lightbox up on a table in the stove showroom to take a few snaps. I didn’t think it would take long before my colleagues would start coming to look at what I had in there. But it wasn’t Colin that was first (despite the fact he usually is). Nor Richard, or Martin. It was a little boy that came in the door with his mum to buy a fire grate as I was just starting to take some photos.

“I’m hungry!” he piped up.

Not much time for photos – they were a little hurried to say the least. I now wish I'd taken some more.

 The little boy and his mum had a cake. Colin, Richard and Martin had a cake. Another customer coming in had a cake as did I .... and the postman. The last two ? I don’t know where they went !

I didn’t eat them. I SWEAR I didn’t eat them.

Wherever they went, that has to be the most amazing fastest cake disappearance I’ve ever seen. Five minutes max and ...... gone.

The paper muffin / cupcake cases are a new design just in. You can find the RED DOTTY HEARTS paper cases here in standard 50mm size.

Sarah-Jane Nash, November 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware moulds.

Thanks for voting for these in the Foodbuzz top 9 !

Chocolate Cupcakes (eggless)

This is a really easy recipe for delicious, moist and fluffy cupcakes. It uses neither butter or eggs and is quick to make.

I've made it a few times now over the last year, but first time blogging the recipe. It is not overly sweet (until you top it with an enormous calorific mountain of chocolate buttercream) ! It's become my first choice recipe for chocolate cupcakes.

Martha Stewart's chocolate cupcake recipe is great too - but makes a massive batch of approx 24, whereas this recipe makes me a perfect 10 (quantity - unfortunately not dress size) and is very easy to scale up or down.

The original recipe was vegan, from the book VEGAN CUPCAKES TAKE OVER THE WORLD and can be found here. Talking of which, I've just ordered a copy :-)

Incase you are wondering where those seriously cute chocolate buttons came from, it's a new mould to our collection. This particular silicone mould is my own design and is now available online. Makes super cupcake toppers - or wonderful buttons simply to munch. They also look awesome packaged as a gift ..... if you can bear to give them away !

There are three sizes of buttons in the mould and 18 cells (six of each size). With the larger cells, you cna use a teaspoon to put the chocolate in the cell - but a piping bag (or food bag) with the tiniest snip out of the corner is needed to fill the tiny baby button cells. The big cells are similar to a coat button and the smallest, baby buttons or shirt buttons.

RECIPE - Adapted from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World

1 cup of milk

1 tsp cider vinegar

3/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup plain flour

2 tbsp cornflour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

good pinch of salt

Heat oven to 170deg C fan / 180deg C normal / 350deg F

Prepare your muffin mould or tin with paper cases

Put the vinegar into the milk and set aside for a few minutes to curdle. If really cold milk, it won't curdle straight away - so I zap it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Whisk the milk, other wet ingredients and sugar together.

Stir in dry ingredients and whisk until smooth (the odd small lump is ok).

Transfer into a jug and pour into paper cases to 3/4 fill. I found 10 was perfect - left some space at the top below the wrapper rim for frosting base. If you want your cupcakes a little higher (less buttercream), just make 9 instead

See Chocolate Mud Cake blog entry for the frosting recipe

Enjoy ! (PS - you're fighting Oliver for the beaters. I don't rate your chances !!!)

Oliver's quote of the day : "Mummy - don't forget the bit out the concrete mixer is mine!"

Concrete mixer being the beater from my gorgeous red Kitchenaid..... This is so NOT concrete !

Sarah-Jane Nash, August 2011 - www.siliconemoulds.com

Roses - Cupcake Bouquet (Tutorial)

Aren't cupcake bouquets beautiful ? So different, inexpensive to make and a lovely home made gift.

My first ever attempt was a mini cupcake bouquet. That later evolved into my idea for the rosebud fudge candy bouquet.

More recently, I had been admiring photos  last week of one a customer had made, and she directed me to some YOUTUBE videos (try searching for cupcake bouquets)

I made this on Monday (I think) - could have been Tuesday. I forget as much of this week has become a blur. Certainly, I started it one day and finished it the next ! That's what happens when you start a project at 2am. I made two lots of  the framework at some silly hour of night and made / iced the cupcakes the following morning.

To make the framework / base cupcake bouquet you will need the following :

1 sheet of green tissue paper

2 sheets of tissue in colours of your choice

1 piece of cellophane (optional)

an old cardboard box (preferably double wall thickness)

a staple gun

double sided sticky tape

glue gun (optional)

7 disposable plastic cups

1 metre length of ribbon

The first thing I did was fold the green sheet of tissue into four along the long side and then the opposite way into thirds. When cut, this gave me 12 squares. These tissue pieces were for going inside the cups to create a leaf effect.

I folded each square in half (across the diagonal to give a triangle) and each triangle in half to give a more elongated triangle. Then, snip the bottom 20mm / 3/4" off. It's just like the photos for cutting the circles - except you care cutting off the bottom part rather than the top.

When you unfold it, you will be left with a square which has a circular hole in the middle.

Originally, I tried taping them to the outside of the cup, but that did not give as good an effect. Taping them to the inside was a really slow job and very fiddly. Through trial and error, I found it was easier to do it as below :

Take two plastic cups. Put the cup base through the hole in the tissue square. Secure with a small piece of double sided tape approx 1/3 of the way up from the base of the cup. Put another piece of double sided tape on the opposite side of the cup.

Peel off the backing tape from both bits of tape. Gently squash the top of the cup with one hand. Take a second cup and insert the cup (with tissue on outside) about 1/2 way in. The tape will grip the inside of the cup and stick the tissue on the inside as you  remove the inner cup.

With all the cups done, it's time to piece them together. You have three choices here. A stapler is the fastest and easiest. It is likely to split the cups though, so put some sticky tape on them before you staple. Alternatively, you can use double sided sticky tape as I did on one of mine. It's possible to also use a glue gun - but be careful - the plastic cups melt a bit with the hot glue. I stuck my fingers together. Hmmm.

You want one cup in the middle(rim higher than the rest, and fasten the other cups round the outside

Take another sheet of tissue. Fold one corner up to meet the side across the diagonal. Cut the remaining strip off. Opened up, you now have a square. Keep folding across the diagonal and then cut the top piece off in an arch. When you open the paper up - you should have a circle (or something that resembles one !). If you want a really full and fluffy wrapped bouquet, also cut a piece of cellophane wrap in the same way

Draw round a 6" / 150mm saucer on to a piece of card and cut it out. You need to stick this to the bottom of your plastic cup to complete the frame. Glue gun works best, but I also had good success with double sided sticky tape. 

Put the glue or tape round the outside edge of the base of the cups and press the cardboard disc to the bottom. Place this on top of your tissue / cellophane circles. Bring the sides of the tissue / cello up. It's handy to have someone hold this for you - but if it's 3am and your husband is asleep.... I'd suggest a bit of double sided tape on either side to help keep it in place !

Tie the ribbon around the base to secure.

Now the base is done, all you need to make is a batch of standard size cupcakes and some buttercream icing. This mould is ideal. We also keep a wide selection of paper case cake liners. 

I used the vanilla cupcake and buttercream recipe I posted back in February here.

To pipe the roses, I used a disposable piping bag and a closed star tip..... But I believe a Wilton 1M tip gives even better results !

Take the piping bag, and using a small brush, apply some gel paste food colouring to the inside of the bag. You need only a very small amount. Rub the sides of the bag together. Snip the end off and insert the tip. You may need to wipe excess colour off the tip end with a cloth after insertion. The colour on the inside of the bag is going to create the two tone effect on the edge of the piped rose swirl.

Squeeze a little of the buttercream through. The colour will follow. After that, you can pipe the swirls. 

Start on the inside and pipe round the outside in a circle. Super video of it being done here

Once the buttercream on my cupcakes had hardened off, I popped them into the plastic cups. The cups hold them securely in place. Nothing else is needed.

I've been keeping my husband busy this week. We've been building a run for the chickens. It's not totally finished yet as the company that supplied it have not sent all the correct parts for the roof and there are loads of bits missing. Pah. They've promised twice to phone me back and sort it - nothing yet..

Chickens have been free range in our garden for almost 2.1/2 years now and give us loads of lovely fresh eggs. At this time of year, too many. Scrambled, fried, boiled, omlet, in cakes and still excess to sell. In the winter, very few.

Korma, Dansak, Tikka, Terminator, Custard, Blackie, Feathers, Henrietta and Fancy Pants.

 I really didn't want to pen them in - but the garden is pretty much destroyed. They've dug massive craters in the garden that used to be a  lawn (WHAT LAWN ??). Craters big enough they can jump in and hide.

 Open the kitchen window just a little, and they squeeze in and sit on the sink draining board. Leave the back door open for two seconds and they're in the house. In as quick as you can turn round, there will be a chicken in the living room watching tv or sitting on the sofa. I swear - they are taking over !

Korma likes to sneak in and stand in front of the kitchen cooker. We joke she's oven ready.

Well - they are going to have a massive run. Between that and Oliver's trampoline, there isn't a great deal of space left....but ..... I'm looking forward to being able to open the door again and not be falling over a rabble of chickens begging for some pasta or rice !  Shame we have to restrict their free ranging, but it's got a bit silly.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this slightly different blog entry. It's a bit more crafty this time - but still food orientated :-)

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware / cookware -  July 11

Homemade Lemon Curd and Cupcakes - FOODBUZZ #5 on 28/6/11

The tang of lovely, sharp lemon curd. Thickly spread on fresh bread, in a swiss roll or as a filling for cake. Mmmm. DELICIOUS.

Lemon curd is one of my Dad's very favourite things. I made him some and sent it to Scotland with a great big jar of homemade pickled eggs in time for Fathers Day. With the rest of the lemon curd, I made some lovely lemon curd filled cupcakes, with a lemon buttercream and topped them with some pretty patterned white chocolate discs.

The lemon curd came first. It's simple to make.

LEMON CURD RECIPE (makes two jars)

200g sugar

3 eggs + 2 yolks

100g melted butter

250ml lemon juice (or 150ml lemon and 100ml lime)

zest 3 lemons

The lemons I bought looked sublime, but infact were very disappointing.... Loads of peel and very little juice.I used 5 lemons and still had to top up with 100ml of lime juice on this occasion as I ran out of lemons !

First of all, melt the butter and them add the lemon juice and lemon zest.

Whisk together the eggs, yolks and sugar in a pan, then whisk in the butter and lemon mix.

Stir continuously over a low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Put into sterilised jars and seal. 

This lemon curd recipe does not need a double boiler. Keep a sink full of cold water nearby. If it looks like it might split, plunge the pan bottom into the water and then whisk like fury. I've never had it split yet...(though I've water dunked it once or twice before).

I used the same vanilla cupcake recipe as I did here in February (see Valentines Cupcakes - February)

Once cooled. I cut out a circle from the centre and filled the hole in the cake with some of the lemon curd. I kept the top of the piece removed and placed it back on top as a plug.

For the lemon buttercream, I used 4 cups of icing sugar (sifted), 155g salted butter (softtened). Instead of adding the normal 1/4 cup of milk - I put 2 x tablespoons of lemon curd into the 1/4 cup measure and topped it up with lemon juice.  Whip it up by hand or in a stand mixer until pale coloured, light and fluffy. I normally make buttercream in my mixer and beat for about 5 minutes.

This made a really nice, fresh tasting lemony buttercream.

I'd been desperate to play with chocolate transfers for some time - and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. The transfer sheets had been sitting in my kitchen waiting around for quite long enough !

Basically, what you do is take your transfer sheets and cut them up as required. I cut mine into strips.

Place them with the rough side up (plastic face down) on to a chopping board or similar. An over turned baking tray would work fine too.

Melt the chocolate in a melting pot or in a double boiler (glass bowl over a pot of simmering water) until just melted. Allow to cool and stir in some more solid chocolate until no more will melt to temper it. After doing so, spread it over your chocolate transfer sheets.

I used a WEDGE HEAD SPATULA for spreading. I love that thing. It makes spreading chocolate, ganache and icings on the top of cakes and flat surfaces sooo easy !

Leave until semi set and then mark your shapes with a cookie cutter. Leave to fully harden (I shoved them in the fridge) before removing the backing paper.

Note - I find it much easier to temper bitter (plain) chocolate or milk chocolate. Get your chocolate too hot and you get white marks where the cocoa separates or  not hot enough and it crystallises. I wrecked my first lot due to crystallisation !

The cakes would not have survived transit to Scotland - but they were polished off by work colleagues and the next door neighbours in no time at all. I can honestly say these were some of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten.

The last one got eaten by the postman who collects our big wire crates of mail at night. It was the eve of his retirement. We were sad to see him go and wish him lots of luck and happiness.

Not forgetting Oliver - he does love licking the beaters from the icing bowl !

This picture was from a day trip to Bressingham Steam Museum that Oliver and I took a couple of weeks ago  (day or two after I made the cakes). It was a dismal and wet day, but Oliver enjoyed riding the rails on the narrow-gauge steam trains and the Gallopers carousel. That's my handbag behind him (after I got off) - he was sat on a double horse as he's too little to ride it on his own yet.

Hope you all enjoy the weekend x

Sarah-Jane Nash - www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialist cook shop