Ghastly Ghouls

Last year I made several different cupcakes for Halloween. This one is from Lily Vanilli's A Zombie Ate My Cupcake book.  It is full of fabulously weird cupcake recipes perfect for this time of year. I loved the book so much that I bought a copy for my sister-in law and my cousin.

The meringue frosting is quite messy (that may be just me) but it is totally worth it.

Instead of using black fondant for the eyes, I used silver and gold edible balls which were really effective.

Ghastly Ghouls

(Makes 12 cupcakes)

Ingredients:

One batch of vanilla cupcakes

12 White Marshmallows

Black fondant or chocolate chips

For the meringue frosting:

4 Large Egg Whites

200g Granulated Sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Pinch of Salt

Directions:

1. You will need a small saucepan and a heatproof bowl that will sit neatly on top of it (or use a double boiler, if you have one). Pour a few cups of water into the pan and bring to the boil. The water should not touch the base of the bowl.
2. Whisk the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl using an electric mixer, then place the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to touch and all the sugar has dissolved – about 1-2 minutes.
3. Remove from the heat and, using the mixer on medium-high speed, beat until the eggs form a cool stiff meringue, about 5 minutes or until hard peaks have formed.
4. Secure a marshmallow vertically in the centre of each cake using a tiny bad of the meringue, and use a spoon to heap frosting on top of each cupcake to make a ghost shape. Smooth the edges with the back of the spoon.
5. Use black fondant or chocolate chips to create 'eyes' with suitably menacing expression.

Witches Fingers

I hope that you agree that these witches fingers biscuits look quite repulsive but they do taste very good. The melted chocolate under the nails give the impression of dirt.  

I made these at Christmas time but added some green food colouring to the dough turning them into Grinch's fingers. 

Witches Fingers

Ingredients:

100g Butter

100g Caster Sugar

200g Plain Flour

Few drops Vanilla Essence

Whole Blanched Almonds (one per biscuit)

Milk Chocolate

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 180C,
2. Mix together the butter, sugar, vanilla essence and flour into a firm dough.
3. Shape into 'fingers' marking with fine lines across the middle to look like knuckles, and flatten slightly at the top end to look like a finger nail. Press in a blanched almond into each finger.
4. Bake for 10-12 minutes until golden then remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.
5. Melt the chocolate, remove the almond from the finger and paint over the fingernail area with the melted chocolate and immediately replace the almond nail.

Cupcake Cookies

I have a major cupcake obsession and will buy almost anything with a cupcake design on it. My obsession is that bad that I even have a cupcake tattoo on my wrist. So you can imagine my delight when I opened up a recent copy of  Cake Decorating Magazine to find a cupcake cookie cutter.

As my Jane Asher cake book was still lying about from making the Ice Cream & Jelly Cake I decided to use her Vanilla Cookie Dough recipe. 

Ingredients:

280g Plain Flour

200g Firm Butter

100g Icing Sugar

2 Egg Yolks

1 tsp Vanilla Extract / Essence

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200C / Gas mark 6. Gease two baking trays or line with baking parchment. 
2. Put the flour in a bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mix looks like breadcrumbs.
3. Add the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla extract / essences and mix to a dough.
4. Put in a plastic bag and chill for at least 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and cut out as required. 
6. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges. Leave to coll and harden on a wire rack.

Jubilee Themed Baking

It is not long now until the Queen’s Jubilee which has inspired me to make some British themed goodies.

I had a look on the internet to get the creative juices flowing and stumbled across BakingMad. They had a special section on Union Jack cakes which got me thinking about making some Union Jack biscuits.

I used the recipe for Mini Me’s birthday party last year and they were a resounding success. They were devoured within minutes which resulted in complaints from my mum as she wasn’t quick enough to grab one.

Thinking about the best of British Cakes, I thought I would make some vanilla cupcakes using my basic sponge mix (omitting the baking powder) and topped a mascarpone frosting with strawberries and blueberries to keep with the British colours. I was pleasantly surprised to see a recipe for a low calorie Victoria Sponge cake which would be great for those who still want to celebrate but watch their weight at the same time.

Double Biscuits

Ingredients:

125g Butter

75g Caster Sugar

1 Egg Yolk, beaten

200g Plain Flour, sifted

Pinch of Salt

450g Royal Icing Sugar

Food Colouring – your own preference

Smooth Jam – any flavour that you fancy

Directions:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 160 Fan Assisted Oven / Gas Mark 4. Line two baking trays with baking paper. Put the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until evenly blended.
2. Stir in the beaten egg yolk. Add the sifted flour and salt, and then mix with a round-bladed knife until the mixture forms clumps. Gather the dough together with your hands.
3. Lay on a sheet of clingfilm on a work surface. Cover with another sheet of clingfilm and roll out to the thickness of a £1 coin. Remove the top sheet of clingfilm and cut the dough using your choice of cutter.
4. Put the biscuits on the baking trays, leaving a gap between each one then bake for 12-13 minutes until golden brown. Leave on the trays for 5 minutes or until hard, then move to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Put 75ml cold water in a bowl and add the royal icing and a couple of drops of food colouring. Beat with a spoon for 5 minutes or until smooth.
6. Spread over only half of the biscuits using a spoon and leave to set.
7. On the remaining biscuits, spread a small amount of jam then place the iced biscuit on top.

Vanilla Sponge

Whilst I may be adventurous making birthday cakes for mini me (1^st birthday – candle; 2^nd – a number 2; 3^rd – Postman Pat van; 4^th – rainbow; 5^th – flip-flop), I decided it was best to play it safe and make a round vanilla sponge with white icing and red hearts (40 to be precise).

I use Jane Asher's basic sponge mix and it has never failed. I even use it for making cupcakes.

To make life easier I cheated and bought ready rolled white icing.

Basic Vanilla Sponge

(makes 2 x 8inch round cakes or 12 good sized cupcakes)

Ingredients:

250g Butter, softened

250g Caster Sugar

250g Self Raising Flour, sifted

4 eggs

2 tsp Baking Powder (omit for cupcakes)

2 tsp Vanilla Essence

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160C / gas mark 4. Grease 2 round cake tins or if making cupcakes, place cupcake cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
2. Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed, slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.
3. Add the flour, baking powder and vanilla essence and continue to mix on a medium speed untilall is incorporated.
4. Divide the batter evenly between the tins (or cupcake cases). Bake in the oven for 25 minutes for sponge, 15 minutes for cupcakes. A skewer should come out clean.
5. Leave to cool slightly before transferring to a wire rack.

Variations:

Chocolate cake – replace 50g flour with 50g cocoa powder

Coffee cake – replace vanilla essence with 4tbsp of instant coffee dissolved in 4 tbsp of boiling water

Orange / Lemon cake – replace vanilla essence with 2tsp or desired fruit juice and grated rind

Butter cream

Ingredients:

200g Butter, softened

½ tbsp hot water

300g Icing Sugar, sifted

Directions:

1. Put the butter into a bowl with the hot water and mix together well.
2. Beat in the sifted icing sugar a little at a time, until the mixture is light and creamy.

Variations:

Vanilla butter cream – add 1 tsp vanilla essence

Lemon butter cream – substitute 1 tbsp lemon juice for the hot water

Chocolate butter cream – add 150g melted dark chocolate

Coffee butter cream – dissolve 2 tablespoons instant coffee in the hot water