Monster cupcakes (apple and cinnamon)

The monsters! 

These apple and cinnamon cupcakes were actually made back in February - before I used the same recipe to make the Sheep Cupcakes for my friend’s hen weekend – I just haven’t gotten around to writing them up!  These cupcakes were made for a visit to see my sister, brother-in-law and 18-month-old nephew. I wanted to make something fun and remembered having pinned monster cupcakes to my Cupcake Inspiration board on Pinterest.

I experimented with different piping nozzles for the buttercream – making spiky monsters with a small round nozzle, hairy monsters using a grass effect nozzle, and wiggly wormy-like monsters with a medium round nozzle. I chose purple and green buttercream to contrast, but you could make any colour monsters!

To decorate the cupcakes, I made circles out of white fondant icing for the eyes and mouths out of black fondant icing. I have this small cutter set, which has lots of basic shapes and is very useful! Making the teeth and sticking them on was quite fiddly – as they are tiny pieces of fondant – but worth the effort! The easiest way to make tiny triangles is to cut out stars using a star cutter, and the cut the triangles off each star. The tongues were made from fizzy belt sweets, cut with a pair of kitchen sweets and then inserted through the mouths – again a bit fiddly! The hair/antennae were simply made from strawberry pencil sweets, cut into short lengths. You could experiment with various different sweets for different hair-types / antennae.

If you wanted to make these cupcakes as a fun activity with kids, you could use white chocolate buttons for the eyes, teeth / lip / fang sweets for the mouths and various different types of sweets for the hair!

These cakes tasted fantastic, but the cake / icing didn’t really go with the strong taste of the sweets on top! If I were to make monster cupcakes again, I’d probably go for a simple vanilla cupcake, or a strawberry cupcake to go with the sweets!

Cinnamon cupcakes with apple puree and maple syrup buttercream 

(makes 12 cupcakes and 4-6 mini cupcakes)

Ingredients

1. 110g butter, at room temperature
2. 225g golden castor sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 150g self-raising flour, sifted
5. 125g plain flour, sifted
6. 120ml semi-skimmed milk
7. 2 tsp cinnamon
8. 1 tsp vanilla extract
9. 2 large / 3 small Bramley apples
10. ½ - 1 tblsp soft brown sugar

Buttercream:

1. 115g butter, at room temperature
2. 500g icing sugar, sifted
3. 2 tblsp maple syrup
4. 2 tblsp milk
5. Food colouring

To decorate

1. Sweets (I used fizzy belt sweets and strawberry cables)
2. White fondant icing
3. Black fondant icing
4. Black writing icing (optional)
5. Red food colour pen (optional)

For the eyes and mouths (this can all be done in advance):

1. Roll out a small amount of white fondant icing.
2. Use various circle cutters to cut out different sized eyes.
3. Use a star-shaped cutter to cut out several stars and then use a knife to cut these stars into small triangles for teeth.
4. Cut out small rectangles for additional teeth.
5. Roll out a small amount of black fondant icing.
6. Use an oval cutter to cut out mouths and shape as desired.
7. Use a paint brush dipped in a tiny amount of water to attach the teeth to the mouths.
8. Use scissors to cut tongue shapes from the belt sweets.
9. Cut small slits in the mouths and then push tongues through these.
10. Use black writing icing or a black food colour pen to add pupils to the eyes.

For the cakes:

1. Peel and chop the Bramley apples.
2. Place the chopped apples in a saucepan with two tablespoons of water and half a tablespoon of soft brown sugar.
3. Cook over a low heat until softened and mostly pureed ( a few small lumps is fine).
4. Taste and add extra brown sugar as required.
5. Place to one side to cool.
6. Preheat oven to 160C.
7. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
8. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (this will take at least 5 minutes with an electric hand /stand mixer – don’t rush this stage).
9. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing for a few minutes after each addition. It should result in a lovely light mousse-like mixture.
10. Combine the two flours and the cinnamon in a separate bowl.
11. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.
12. Add one third of the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and stir gently to combine.
13. Pour in one third of the milk mixture and stir gently.
14. Continue to add flours and then milk mixture alternately, stirring gently after each addition, until all have been added.
15. Spoon mixture into the cupcake cases, filling to about 2/3 full.
16. Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until lightly golden brown. The cakes will spring back lightly when touched, if cooked.
17. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in tin for about 10 minutes, before carefully placing on a wire rack to finish cooling.

While the cakes are in the oven, make up the buttercream:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, maple syrup and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
3. Add milk (if needed to bring the buttercream to a piping consistency) and beat again.
4. Put buttercream into a piping bag with a nozzle adaptor.

Once cakes are cooked and cooled: 

1. Use a tea spoon to cut a cone out from the centre of the cakes.
2. Cut the top disk off each cone and retain.
3. Fill the hole in each cake with a teaspoon of pureed apple and then replace a cake disk onto each cake to seal the hole.
4. Pipe the butter cream onto the cakes using various nozzles.
5. Add eyes, mouths and hair / antennae.  

Bramley apple and custard cake

This week, I’ve been given another big bag of Bramley apples so I’ve been flicking through Pinterest to find some new Bramley apple recipes. Whilst browsing, I found this fab looking cake and followed it through to Cookie’s Cakes and Bakes (CCB) – a lovely baking blog with lots of delicious looking recipes (like her coconut and lime drizzle cake – yum! Will be trying this one out!).  I just love custard but had a bit of a failure when I last tried making a custard cake, however, I couldn’t resist giving this one a go.

It’s not a quick cake to make: firstly you need to make the custard, then the cake, then peel, core and slice the apples before arranging them neatly on top of the cake! However, it is worth the effort! I followed the recipe given by CCB almost exactly; the only thing that I changed was the addition of the apricot jam glaze, which just helped the cake to look that bit more special. 

I love the custard layer running through this cake; the texture of the cake is great and the apples on the top are delicious. However, like last time that I made a custard cake, I found that the custard powder in the actual cake leaves a dry taste in your mouth. I’ll definitely be making this cake again (would be also be fantastic with rhubarb) but next time, I’ll leave out the custard powder and simply up the flour (which is the recipe I have given below).  

Bramley apple and custard cake

Ingredients

1. 200g soft butter
2. 110g caster sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 1 tsp vanilla extract
5. 225g plain flour
6. 2 tsp baking powder
7. 2 tablespoons milk (at room temperature)
8. 3-4 Bramley apples, peeled cored and cut into slices
9. Demerara sugar for sprinkling over the cake
10. 2 tblsp apricot jam, warmed and sieved to remove any lumps

For the custard:

1. 2 tablespoons custard powder
2. 55g caster sugar
3. 250ml milk
4. 20g butter
5. 2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.
2. Grease a 20cm deep cake tin and line the bottom of the tin with baking parchment (or simply line with a non-stick cake tin liner – much easier!).
3. Mix together the custard powder and caster sugar in a saucepan.
4. Whisk in the milk, stirring over a medium heat until the custard thickens.
5. Take the custard off the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla extract.
6. Pour into a bowl, place some clingfilm over the top (making sure that it touches the surface of the custard to prevent it forming a skin) and leave to cool.
7. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl.
8. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes in a stand mixer).
9. Beat in the eggs, one at a time until the mixture is frothy and mousse-like. Add a tablespoon of the flour with each egg to stop the mixture curdling.
10. Gently stir in remaining flour.
11. Mix in 2 tablespoons of milk to loosen the batter a little.
12. Spread half the batter in the cake tin.
13. Spread the cooled custard all over the batter.
14. Use a small spatula to carefully spread the remaining batter over the custard, making sure that all the custard is covered with batter.
15. Place your apple slices over the top of the cake.
16. Sprinkle Demerara sugar all over the cake.
17. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until risen and golden. A skewer inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean.
18. Allow to cool for 15 minutes and then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack.
19. Use a pastry brush to brush the top of the cake with the warmed apricot jam.

Caramel Apple Crumble Cake

Bake Number Three for EHH’s birthday! Having been given a carrier bag full of Bramley apples, I’ve been searching out cake recipes using cooking apples. I found this recipe on the Waitrose website and, seeing that EHH loves anything caramelly and we still had loads of apples, it seemed like the perfect thing to bake for his birthday.

I made a few adaptations to the recipe. Firstly, my deep 20cm cake tin was already in use for my carrot cake, so I decided to split the recipe between two sandwich tins and then sandwich the cakes together with a filling. As you can see from the photo, I went rather OTT with the fillings and used pureed apple (that I already had in the fridge), cinnamon buttercream and the remaining Carnation caramel – layering the buttercream, then the apple and then the caramel. This was way too much and it oozed out everywhere! I would recommend that you use one of the fillings, or alternatively, make less of each and put the apple in the middle with a ring of buttercream around the edge!

I also added the crumble topping. The original recipe was simply topped with a tablespoon of Demerara sugar, but I just love crumble cakes and so decided to add this to my version.

As I sent the complete cake into EHH’s work, I didn’t get a taste! However, the comments that came back were very enthusiastic, so I hope that it was nice! Will definitely be giving this one another go soon – possibly with a caramelised nut topping that I have seen in another recipe…

Caramel Apple Crumble Cake

Ingredients:

1. 125g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for buttering
2. 397g can Carnation Caramel
3. 2 medium eggs
4. 225g self-raising flour, sifted
5. 2 tsp baking powder
6. 2 tsp ground cinnamon
7. 300g Bramley apples, peeled, cored and diced
8. 2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk

For the crumble topping

1. 75g plain flour
2. 50g butter
3. 40g chopped nuts (optional)
4. 25g demerara sugar
5. 25g butterscotch pieces

To fill

1. Cinnamon buttercream:
2. 55g butter, at room temperature
3. 30ml semi-skimmed milk, at room temperature
4. ½ tsp vanilla extract
5. 2 tsp cinnamon
6. 250g icing sugar, sifted

Or

1. 100g Bramley apples (peeled and chopped)
2. 20g soft brown sugar

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C.
2. Lightly grease and base-line two 20cm sandwich tins.
3. Firstly prepare the crumble topping: Sift the flour into a bowl and rub in the butter. Stir through the sugar and nuts and set aside.
4. Place the butter with 225g of the caramel in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined.
5. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
6. Sift over the flour, baking powder and cinnamon and fold together.
7. Gently stir in the apple and the milk.
8. Spoon the cake mix into your cake tins and smooth the top.
9. Sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top of one of the cakes.
10. Bake for 40 minutes - 1 hour, or until risen and springy. You will probably find that the crumble-topped cake will need slightly longer in the oven.
11. Allow to cool slightly and then remove the cake from the tins and cool on a wire rack.

While the cakes are cooling, make up the filling. Either make cinnamon buttercream:

1. In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, cinnamon, vanilla extract and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
2. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.

Or:

1. Place the apples in a saucepan with a tablespoon of water.
2. Cook gently over a gentle heat until the apples are mushy.
3. Remove from the heat and taste.
4. Add the soft brown sugar to sweeten as desired.

   12. Spread the cake without the crumble with your chosen filling.
   13. Drizzle over the remaining caramel.
   14. Sandwich with the crumble-topped cake. 
   15. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the butterscotch pieces. 

Blackberry and apple crumble

Just a quick post to type up my blackberry and apple crumble recipe. For me, blackberry and apple crumble is an autumn must! Having made blackberry and almond crumble squares with some of our foraged blackberry haul, next on the list was proper crumble. I love the combination of blackberry and apple, and crumble is just so easy to make.

My crumble isn’t actually the traditional flour, butter, sugar combination, I follow a recipe from The Good Granny Cookbook, which uses oats rather than flour in the topping and so is more like a chewy, crunchy flapjack on top – delicious! By cooking the fruit in a saucepan first and then reducing the juices, you intensify the flavour and prevent the top from becoming soggy.  The great thing about crumble is that there really aren’t any rules – I tend to throw in a bit of spice and whatever nuts that I have in the cupboard!

As I was visiting a friend who has just had a baby, I split the crumble into two disposable tin foil containers: one for them and one for us! These are great: you can pop them in the oven to bake and once cool, pop the cover on and put them in the freezer. Then, when you want to eat, just pop them straight back in the oven to re-heat.   

Blackberry and apple crumble

Ingredients

1. 700g mix of Bramley apples (peeled, cored and diced) and blackberries (I used 400g blackberries, 300g apple)
2. 60g soft brown sugar
3. 85g golden syrup
4. 85g butter
5. 175g oats
6. 60g hazelnuts / walnuts
7. 1.5 tsp cinnamon

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 175C.
2. Put the fruit in a saucepan with the sugar and enough water to cover the base of the pan.
3. Cook gently until the fruit are soft and the juices running.
4. Taste to check the sweetness – stir through more sugar if needed.
5. Strain off the juice.
6. Put the fruit into the pie dish / foil containers.
7. Return the juice to the saucepan and boil rapidly until reduced and syrupy.
8. Pour the juice over the fruit.
9. Melt the golden syrup and the butter together (easiest done in a microwave).
10. Mix the oats, nuts and spice into the syrup/butter mixture.
11. Spread the mixture gently over the fruit.
12. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the top is lightly browned.