Showing posts with label Carrot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carrot. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Bubblegum Cupcakes
I made these for Cupcake Camp London 2010 and they were my second most popular flavor on the day. The kids really loved them. They’re just so fun who could resist! I was really proud they came in as a runner up in the most unique ingredient contest.
My popcorn cupcakes would make good companions to these as well.
They were made with white chocolate chip cake, filled with bubblegum pudding and then topped with Bubblegum buttercream. The pudding was bubblegum flavored Snack Packs that are typically sold in any US grocery store.
They look really cute all together.
All my varieties for Cupcake Camp. Click here for round up.
White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart (makes 24)
Ingredients
3 1/4 cups self rising flour, sifted
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1/2 cup plus 6 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites at room temperature
2 cups white chocolate chips
bubblegum snack packs (4 filled all the cupcakes)
I got these from Bake it Pretty
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Line muffin tin with cases (these popcorn buckets stand on their own). Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the vanilla into the milk to combine.
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter until smooth. Add the sugar in a steady stream, beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, mixture in three batches, alternating with the two additions of milk mixture, and beating until just combined after each.
3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites until just combined. Toss the chocolate chips in one tablespoon of flour and gently fold into batter.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full (I usually do 2 cookie scoops worth of batter for each cup). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean about 22 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When completely cool cut out the center of the cupcake in a cone shape and scoop in two teaspoons of pudding. Place a small piece of the cut out section back on top.
Bubblegum Buttercream
Ingredients
3 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
2 pounds icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pink food coloring
2 vials bubblegum flavoring
gumballs for decoration
I got these at the $1 Store in the US. They also have them at Cyber Candy in London
1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the icing sugar ½ cup at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate the frosting, then return to medium. This should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth, add small amount of pink food coloring to achieve a pink color, and beat until color shows through. Add both vials of bubblegum flavor and beat until combined.
To Decorate
Pipe frosting in big swirls and add the sprinkles you want first before the icing becomes stiff.
Or pour some sprinkles into a bowl and roll the edges of the cupcake in. Or pipe the bottom swirl, roll in the sprinkles and then continue and pipe on the top swirl.
More details and photos about decorating and sprinkle techniques can be found here.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Masterchef Live 2010
I love food shows. I try to get to all the ones that come to London each year. I love looking for new, different and interesting food. I took lots of photos while at Masterchef. Click here to see them all.
Juan Sheet is Plenty (what happened to Brenda and Audry?)
I watched the invention test first. I thought about signing up but I don’t think I could think so quickly and cook without any recipes in front of me.
Jon and Gregg getting ready to judge the entries
I got Gregg’s Pudding book. I thought if I ever move back to the US I can impress at dinner parties with an English dessert. Can’t believe that they didn’t look up! Oh well…
I bought a few bars of Seed & Bean chocolate. The Lemon & Poppy seed was excellent.
Therapeutic Chocolate. Weird.
Giant Italian Sandwiches.
They have at least 3 different kinds of Toffee Vodka at every food show I’ve ever been too. I think it’s vile!
Bramley & Gage were selling mini bottles of liquor which I thought would be perfect for cupcakes.
I tried a sample of an African Yam. Interesting. Tastes a lot like a potato.
There were a few cupcake things but nothing that shouted out at me really. Holly Cupcakes had some good extracts imported from the US. I bought a bottle of Pineapple.
Powdered vanilla?
I liked these Glorious Soups.
This Harp & Lyre Tea was really nice. It will be on sale over the Internet soon.
I love this Revolution Tea! I’ve bought it at several different shows.
I bought some caramel, coconut & cinnamon popcorn from Joe & Seph’s.
I bought some restaurant tokens with my tickets. I loved this chocolate cake from Theo Randall
Slow Roast Pork from…Roast
Platter from Ming Jiang
Blueberry Cheesecake with Lemon Curd from The Luxe. It was only OK nothing special.
Chicken Satay from Bintang. Very good.
Lisa Faulkner’s Rhubarb & Custard Crumble
I had a really good time and went home completely exhausted and stuffed! I can’t wait for Taste of Christmas already!
Juan Sheet is Plenty (what happened to Brenda and Audry?)
I watched the invention test first. I thought about signing up but I don’t think I could think so quickly and cook without any recipes in front of me.
Jon and Gregg getting ready to judge the entries
I got Gregg’s Pudding book. I thought if I ever move back to the US I can impress at dinner parties with an English dessert. Can’t believe that they didn’t look up! Oh well…
I bought a few bars of Seed & Bean chocolate. The Lemon & Poppy seed was excellent.
Therapeutic Chocolate. Weird.
Giant Italian Sandwiches.
They have at least 3 different kinds of Toffee Vodka at every food show I’ve ever been too. I think it’s vile!
Bramley & Gage were selling mini bottles of liquor which I thought would be perfect for cupcakes.
I tried a sample of an African Yam. Interesting. Tastes a lot like a potato.
There were a few cupcake things but nothing that shouted out at me really. Holly Cupcakes had some good extracts imported from the US. I bought a bottle of Pineapple.
Powdered vanilla?
I liked these Glorious Soups.
This Harp & Lyre Tea was really nice. It will be on sale over the Internet soon.
I love this Revolution Tea! I’ve bought it at several different shows.
I bought some caramel, coconut & cinnamon popcorn from Joe & Seph’s.
I bought some restaurant tokens with my tickets. I loved this chocolate cake from Theo Randall
Slow Roast Pork from…Roast
Platter from Ming Jiang
Blueberry Cheesecake with Lemon Curd from The Luxe. It was only OK nothing special.
Chicken Satay from Bintang. Very good.
Lisa Faulkner’s Rhubarb & Custard Crumble
I had a really good time and went home completely exhausted and stuffed! I can’t wait for Taste of Christmas already!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Pumpkin Pie with Crunchy Pecan Topping
I love Thanksgiving and it’s such a bummer that I have to go to work each year. I would love to stay home and cook all day! Maybe I can stay home on our newly minted bank holiday, April 29th, and bake cupcakes in honor of the royal wedding.
I love Thanksgiving even more now. When I was studying to to be an accountant one sitting of the exams always fell on Thanksgiving. Between going to work all day, studying at night and on the weekends there was no time to bake pie. Now that I’ve been finished for some time I enjoy this time of year even more (really makes you appreciate your free time).
This is a basic Pumpkin Pie recipe but instead of evaporated milk I used vanilla soy milk to make it dairy free and it tastes exactly the same. I can only eat Pumpkin Pie with some kind of biscuit base. I think all the spices in the pie are complimented by the cinnamon in graham crackers or the ginger in ginger nut biscuits.
I love this topping (from Bakerella). It’s so amazing. The chocolate chips and the pecans are just heavenly. I should have maybe put some aluminium foil over the top towards the end so the edges didn’t get so crisp.
Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie
adapted from Sunset
Ingredients
Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 can (15 oz) pureed pumpkin
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
2 eggs
Crust
Graham Cracker shell purchased
or Ginger Nut biscuit base (300g ground biscuits mixed with 80g melted butter and pressed into a pie shell)
Topping
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs maple syrup
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F/ 220 C. In a large bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
2. Add pumpkin, soy milk and eggs. Whisk until well blended. Pour into the pie shell. I had a little leftover so don’t overfill your pie.
3. Mix all of the ingredients for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Bake the pie for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 F/180 C and gently pour the topping mixture evenly over the top of the pie and bake for 45 more minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (place a piece of foil over top towards the end if getting crisp on top. (I meant to make mine a bit crisp…).
5. Set the pie to cool on a rack for at least 2 hours.
I love Thanksgiving even more now. When I was studying to to be an accountant one sitting of the exams always fell on Thanksgiving. Between going to work all day, studying at night and on the weekends there was no time to bake pie. Now that I’ve been finished for some time I enjoy this time of year even more (really makes you appreciate your free time).
This is a basic Pumpkin Pie recipe but instead of evaporated milk I used vanilla soy milk to make it dairy free and it tastes exactly the same. I can only eat Pumpkin Pie with some kind of biscuit base. I think all the spices in the pie are complimented by the cinnamon in graham crackers or the ginger in ginger nut biscuits.
I love this topping (from Bakerella). It’s so amazing. The chocolate chips and the pecans are just heavenly. I should have maybe put some aluminium foil over the top towards the end so the edges didn’t get so crisp.
Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie
adapted from Sunset
Ingredients
Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 can (15 oz) pureed pumpkin
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
2 eggs
Crust
Graham Cracker shell purchased
or Ginger Nut biscuit base (300g ground biscuits mixed with 80g melted butter and pressed into a pie shell)
Topping
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs maple syrup
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F/ 220 C. In a large bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
2. Add pumpkin, soy milk and eggs. Whisk until well blended. Pour into the pie shell. I had a little leftover so don’t overfill your pie.
3. Mix all of the ingredients for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Bake the pie for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 F/180 C and gently pour the topping mixture evenly over the top of the pie and bake for 45 more minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (place a piece of foil over top towards the end if getting crisp on top. (I meant to make mine a bit crisp…).
5. Set the pie to cool on a rack for at least 2 hours.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Masterclass at Dri Dri Gelato Notting Hill
I was invited for another gelato masterclass! This time by Qype. What a lucky girl am I? I’ve been to two gelato making classes now! Click here and here to read about my previous lesson. I took a lot of pictures. Click here to see them all.
Dri Dri Gelato opened on Portobello Road in summer 2010. They use organic and seasonal ingredients to make authentic Italian gelato. Even though I’ve already been on a class the two places are different and I learned a few new things!
Dri Dri serve their gelato in a traditional pozzetti counter. This type of counter is strictly temperature controlled. The gelato contains no emulsifiers or thickeners and would melt in the usual open case freezer you typically see.
They also serve coffee and traditional Italian hot chocolate. I love this stuff. It’s so thick and chocolaty.
Gelato is apparently a more healthy choice than ice cream. It uses milk rather than cream. Gelato is 6% fat compared to ice cream at 18-24%
For our class we were making Granny Smith Apple Sorbet.
Roughly chopping up the apples
The apples are then thrown into a juicer. Obviously, I was too excited about all that gelato to remember to not turn my camera so if you have a laptop flip the screen around!
The apple juice, lemon juice and sugar mixture are all whisked together with some water.
The mixture is then poured into the gelato maker.
Adriano has an authentic 1960′s Italian gelato makeer which was pretty cool.
It’s cool how it churns. It only takes about 20 minutes for the gelato to become thick and creamy!
But how to get all the gelato out of the machine? A giant paddle of course!
There’s Eamon who works at Qype giving it a go.
The finished product! It tasted amazing. The flavor of the apple was so clean and crisp. It really did taste natural.
Adriano was nice and let us pretty much taste every flavor. The William and Kate was not only cute it was also one of the best tasting! My only regret is not tasting more gelato! I left hungry and not stuffed like I had hoped.
I enjoyed my class at Dri Dri. It’s a cute shop that has a nice friendly neighborhood feel. It’s more expensive than your average ice cream shop but you can taste the quality and it’s worth a trip to Notting Hill if you’re ever in the area. The gelato flavors change with the season so expect to be amazed!
Thanks to Qype and Adriano for inviting me! Can’t wait for more Qype food events!
Dri Dri Gelato opened on Portobello Road in summer 2010. They use organic and seasonal ingredients to make authentic Italian gelato. Even though I’ve already been on a class the two places are different and I learned a few new things!
Dri Dri serve their gelato in a traditional pozzetti counter. This type of counter is strictly temperature controlled. The gelato contains no emulsifiers or thickeners and would melt in the usual open case freezer you typically see.
They also serve coffee and traditional Italian hot chocolate. I love this stuff. It’s so thick and chocolaty.
Gelato is apparently a more healthy choice than ice cream. It uses milk rather than cream. Gelato is 6% fat compared to ice cream at 18-24%
For our class we were making Granny Smith Apple Sorbet.
Roughly chopping up the apples
The apples are then thrown into a juicer. Obviously, I was too excited about all that gelato to remember to not turn my camera so if you have a laptop flip the screen around!
The apple juice, lemon juice and sugar mixture are all whisked together with some water.
The mixture is then poured into the gelato maker.
Adriano has an authentic 1960′s Italian gelato makeer which was pretty cool.
It’s cool how it churns. It only takes about 20 minutes for the gelato to become thick and creamy!
But how to get all the gelato out of the machine? A giant paddle of course!
There’s Eamon who works at Qype giving it a go.
The finished product! It tasted amazing. The flavor of the apple was so clean and crisp. It really did taste natural.
Adriano was nice and let us pretty much taste every flavor. The William and Kate was not only cute it was also one of the best tasting! My only regret is not tasting more gelato! I left hungry and not stuffed like I had hoped.
I enjoyed my class at Dri Dri. It’s a cute shop that has a nice friendly neighborhood feel. It’s more expensive than your average ice cream shop but you can taste the quality and it’s worth a trip to Notting Hill if you’re ever in the area. The gelato flavors change with the season so expect to be amazed!
Thanks to Qype and Adriano for inviting me! Can’t wait for more Qype food events!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Cupcake Camp Bournemouth
I attended Cupcake Camp Bournemouth recently. The event successfully raised over £1,800 pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support. I took a lot of photos on the day, click here to see them all. A lot of hard work into organizing the event.
I donated Chocolate Pretzel Man Cakes. There aren’t any cupcake shops in Bournemouth (as far as I know) but there are plenty of home businesses in the area. Nearly all of the cakes donated were from professional bakers. I really wanted to take a picture of each kind donated but it was too busy and the cupcakes dissapeared really quickly!
Here are some of my favorites from the day (if anyone knows who made these let me know and I’ll update each photo).
Bournemouth Beach Hut by Lucy’s Sugar Shack
Fish n’ Chips also by Lucy’s Sugar Shack
Mother’s Day Cupcakes
This was the best tasting cupcake of the day I think! It was a nut and spice combination.
On the whole I left the event feeling a little disappointed. When I left the last cupcake camp I attended, I left on such a high (not just a sugar high). This event had a different vibe.
I felt it was over before it even started. The event was advertised to start at 2pm and run until 5pm. When I arrived at 1:40pm to set up my stand people were already taking cupcakes. I wasn’t pleased when people kept trying to take them before I’d finished getting my display ready! The judging competition was also finished before the start and by 3pm all the cupcakes were gone and it was over. The good news is that people seemed to enjoy themselves and there were lots of kids having fun.
As a baker, in my opinion, I was disappointed that the businesses gave themselves a big profile and I thought the charity seemed to take second place. The event was organized with good intentions however.
I am excited for the next cupcake camp and I’m already thinking about some mind blowing creations!
I donated Chocolate Pretzel Man Cakes. There aren’t any cupcake shops in Bournemouth (as far as I know) but there are plenty of home businesses in the area. Nearly all of the cakes donated were from professional bakers. I really wanted to take a picture of each kind donated but it was too busy and the cupcakes dissapeared really quickly!
Here are some of my favorites from the day (if anyone knows who made these let me know and I’ll update each photo).
Bournemouth Beach Hut by Lucy’s Sugar Shack
Fish n’ Chips also by Lucy’s Sugar Shack
Mother’s Day Cupcakes
This was the best tasting cupcake of the day I think! It was a nut and spice combination.
On the whole I left the event feeling a little disappointed. When I left the last cupcake camp I attended, I left on such a high (not just a sugar high). This event had a different vibe.
I felt it was over before it even started. The event was advertised to start at 2pm and run until 5pm. When I arrived at 1:40pm to set up my stand people were already taking cupcakes. I wasn’t pleased when people kept trying to take them before I’d finished getting my display ready! The judging competition was also finished before the start and by 3pm all the cupcakes were gone and it was over. The good news is that people seemed to enjoy themselves and there were lots of kids having fun.
As a baker, in my opinion, I was disappointed that the businesses gave themselves a big profile and I thought the charity seemed to take second place. The event was organized with good intentions however.
I am excited for the next cupcake camp and I’m already thinking about some mind blowing creations!
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Carrot Coins
Carrot coins? Yawn. Matchsticks? Too much work! Next time you're making a stew or miso soup or gingered carrots, take a few minutes and make carrot flowers. It's simple, not too much extra work and the pay-off is big. Carrot flowers add a sweet, graphic visual to your dish and are an effort that is always appreciated. Step-by-step instructions below the jump.
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