Ginger and Chocolate Cupcakes

I don't know why, but I really fancied baking something with my marrow and ginger jam yesterday - well jam is probably pushing it as it's more like sauce! It was a friend's birthday and as it is National Cupcake Week, I thought I'd better bake some for her. I adapted a primrose bakery recipe for ginger cupcakes, altering the quantities, using ginger and marrow jam instead of stem ginger and adding bits of chocolate. I also thought this would be a good opportunity to, err, have another go at piping - deep breath, gritted teeth ......

This is how I did it:

• Melted 125g unsalted butter in a large pan together with 125g molasses sugar and 1 tbsp treacle.
• Allowed to cool a little whilst I got on with weighing the flour and chopping the chocolate.
• Mixed in 75ml sour milk and stirred until smooth.
• Beat in 1 large egg.
• Stirred in 2 tablespoon of marrow and ginger jam.
• Sifted in 180g flour (half wholemeal, half white), 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp bicarb of soda, 1 tsp ground ginger and a pinch of salt and stirred to combine.
• Stirred in 50g chopped dark spiced orange chocolate (51%), reserving 24 pieces to place on top.
• Spooned mixture into 12 cupcake cases, dropped in 2 pieces of chocolate and baked at 180C for 20 minutes.
• Turned out onto a rack and left to cool.

• Creamed 125g unsalted butter with 250g sieved icing sugar until almost white.
• Beat in 2 tsp lemon juice and 3 tbsp of the syrup from the marrow and ginger jam.
• Spooned into a piping bag and using a star nozzle succeeded in getting the buttercream onto the cupcakes - hoorah!

Well, my piping skills obviously need some improvement, but I was reasonably pleased with these. I didn't break the bag or shoot the nozzle out of the end for a start, that's got to be progress. I tried total coverage as well as just a whirl in the middle to see which I liked best. Both CT and I felt that full coverage gave the best effect.

They had a delicious gingerbread taste, but had a lighter texture and the ginger was not as strong. Combined with the lemony tang from the ginger and marrow jam, the fragrant aroma and chocolate nuggets, these were real winners; I shall be making them again for sure. Just as well I was giving these away or I might have polished off quite a few of them. That was my friend's avowed intention anyway.

Four Bar Chocolate Fudge Cake

An extra large birthday cake was needed recently for a combined birthday and house warming celebration.  I was so impressed with the sponge that I made for the Chocolate Mocha Layer Cake earlier on this year, that I was determined to make it once again.  It is also quite a large cake.  The dilemma was what to sandwich and top it with.  As I was a bit unsure of the audience involved, I thought a general crowd pleaser would be the best option, so chocolate fudge icing it had to be.  This is what I did:

• Melted 200g 70% dark chocolate and left to cool slightly.
• Creamed 170g unsalted butter with 350g soft brown sugar until my arm was incapable of beating any more and the mixture was light and creamy.
• Beat in eggs yolks from 3 large eggs (reserving the whites for later use).
• Sifted in 370g flour (20g quinoa, 175g wholemeal, 175g white), 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
• Stirred in 250g Greek yogurt and 250g water.
• Whisked eggs whites until soft peaks formed then folded into the batter with a metal spoon.
• Divided between two 22cm cake thingies and baked at 180C for 30 mins. 

• Melted 100g 70% dark chocolate and 100g 35% milk chocolate with 30g unsalted butter then stirred until smooth.
• Put 50ml water, 2 tbsp golden syrup and 1 tbsp cocoa in a pan.  Gently heated and stirred until mixture was smooth.
• Stirred this into the chocolate together with 100ml double cream.
• Left to cool completely then used half of the mixture to sandwich the two cakes together and spreading the remainder on top.
• Decorated with little gold stars.

For once nothing went wrong with this cake and with four bars of chocolate in it, I was mightily relieved. It turned out as good as I could have wished for - in fact I was particularly proud of this one.  The cake disappeared as soon as it was cut into and I only just managed to save a couple of pieces for the host and hostess - it obviously wasn't big enough after all.  Luckily, a friend saved me a bit of her slice or I would not have been able to verify that it was indeed as good as it looked.

Chocolate Mocha Layer Cake

A few weeks ago, we were invited to a 60th birthday party, so something a bit special was called for. Having been impressed with the chocolate cupcakes I'd made from the Primrose Bakery cookbook, I thought I'd try their recipe for chocolate layer cake - only with a twist, a coffee twist.

This is what I think I did (hmm, it was a while ago now):

• Melted 200g dark chocolate 70% & left to cool slightly.
• Creamed 170g unsalted butter with 350g soft brown sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Beat in 3 duck egg yolks followed by the chocolate.
• Sifted 370g flour (1/2 wholemeal & 1/2 white) together with 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1.5 tsp bicarb of soda and 1/2 tsp salt.
• Added this to the butter mixture alternately with 250ml water.
• Stirred in 250g Greek yogurt and 2 tsp vanilla extract.
• Whisked eggs whites from the 3 eggs until still and folded this into the mixture.
• Divided mixture between two 21cm cake thingies and baked at 180C for about 30 mins.
• Left to cool for a few minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.

• Mixed 150g unsalted butter, 300g icing sugar, 2 tsp instant coffee (dissolved in a little water) and 1 tbsp milk together.
• Used half of the mixture to sandwich the cakes together and the other half to ice the top.
• Decorated with chocolate coffee beans.

Again, I was impressed with this cake and give the yogurt some of the credit for the lightness and superior texture - yogurt was not in the original recipe. Being in a bit of a hurry, the cake had not sufficiently cooled when I put the icing on, hence its tendency to slip off, as can be seen from the photo. All I can say is, the Birthday Boy and party goers seemed to be happy with the end product.

Chocolate & Peppermint Cupcakes

Finally I have got around to making a recipe from the Primrose Bakery book. I bought this sometime ago (well before Christmas in fact) and it's been sitting by my bed, much read but little used - until now! Of course I couldn't bring myself to follow the recipe to the letter; I've really liked how cakes have been turning out since using the Greek yogurt, so some of that had to go in for sure. To balance this inclusion, I substituted the milk with water and used less of it. I also used the same method I did for the white chocolate & passionfruit cupcakes rather than the more involved one from the book - I was in a hurry.

This is what I did:

• Melted 100g 85% dark chocolate with 85g unsalted butter.
• Stirred in 175g soft brown sugar.
• Beat in 2 duck eggs.
• Sifted in 185g flour (1/3 wholemeal, 1/3 white, 1/3 buckwheat), 3/4 tsp baking powder, 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda, a pinch of salt and 2 heaped tsp cocoa.
• Stirred in 2 tbsp Greek yogurt (TOTAL 0%), 1 tsp vanilla extract and 150ml water.
• Filled 12 cupcake cases up to 2/3 full and then divided remaining mixture between 2x4" mini cake thingies - thought I would use those for something slightly different.

• Creamed 50g unsalted butter with 100g sifted icing sugar.
• Beat in a tbsp milk & 1 drop peppermint essential oil.
• Spread this on top of cupcakes and decorated each with a peppermint cream.

All who tried these at my Easter Tea were impressed with the texture and flavour of these cupcakes. The sponge was moist, light and chocolatey. The mint icing was fun to try and made the whole cupcake seem like one big peppermint cream. I'm not really a fan of food colourings, but rather wished I'd put in a drop of green, just to give it that final finish. I've heard that the recipes from this book turn out well - this one certainly did.