frosting Archives - Page 7 of 9

Date Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache Frosting

4|06|2014

Sticky Date Pudding. Just saying those words make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Puddings and winters are just so made for each other. This winter, I have been a bit obsessed with puddings. It just seems so easy when you leave it to the moulds or ramekins to give shape and structure to your desserts. And in this case, cupcake liners. I turned the date puddings into cupcakes. Instead of the butterscotch sauce, I frosted them with a white chocolate ganache.

These cupcakes are moist, buttery and taste like caramel which is what makes them so delicious. But they are not overly sweet which is why they can be paired with white chocolate ganache. I was a bit worried initially if the combination would work. Or the resulting cupcake would be too sweet. Coming to think of it, most buttercream frosted cupcakes are high on the sweet too. These were perfect for me because I am all about caramel and ganach-y goodness. If you are making this and you are worried about the sweetness, you can add a teaspoon of lemon or orange zest to the frosting. That should add a touch of citrus tang which balances out the sweet.

The date cupcakes are the same recipe as the sticky date puddings I had posted earlier. The puddings traditionally are cooked in a water bath so they are gooey and extra sticky. To make cupcakes, I baked them directly and they were the right consistency for a cupcake. The ganache is the one I used in this cake recipe. Since it was already tinted at the time I made the cake, it was just a matter of whipping it up and decorating with sugar flowers.

Date Cupcakes with White Chocolate Ganache Frosting
Yields 8

180g dates, pitted and roughly chopped

1 1/4 cups (310ml) water
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 cup (165g) firmly packed brown sugar
60g butter, softened chopped
2 eggs
1 cup (150g) self-raising flour
White Chocolate Ganache Frosting, to decorate (recipe below)
Sugar flowers, to decorate

For the White Chocolate Ganache Frosting
250 g good quality white chocolate, finely chopped
150 ml thickened or heavy cream
Blue Food Colouring (I used a gel based food colour)

For the Date Cupcakes: Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C fan-forced). Lightly grease a 12 capacity muffin tray or line with paper liners. Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.
Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add eggs one at a time, beat until light and fluffy. Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through sifted flour, divide mixture evenly between the muffin liners, until 2/3 full.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool to room temperature. Once cooled pipe frosting onto the cupcakes. Decorate with sugar flowers.

For the White Chocolate Ganache Frosting:

Place chocolate in a large mixing bowl. Heat cream over low-medium heat in saucepan until just boiling, pour over cream and set aside for 5 minutes. Use a whisk to combine mixture until smooth. Add food Colouring if using, little at a time till the desired shade is reached. Cool slightly in the refrigerator and whip up to a pipeable consistency using an electric mixer.

Banana Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

10|04|2014

If this banana cake is looking anything different to you than…well, a banana cake, let me assure you this is the same one, you and me bake in a loaf pan and slice up for breakfast or bake into muffins to put into your lunchboxes. Yeah, the same one that transforms the fate of overripe bananas and they end up with some dessert love (a lot of love in my house) than entering the dustbin.

I started out the usual, predictable way. Ignoring the bananas while they turned black and made the cupboard smell serving as a reminder each time I opened the door that it was time to use them up. I put the batter together intending to bake it in my loaf tin. But the loaf tin was nowhere in sight. And that was because it was sitting in the freezer with a semifreddo I made a few days back. I didn’t want muffins so the batter landed up in a cake pan.

You know I have a weakness for round cakey objects. I feel the urge to spice it up or add nuts or anything that would go with the cake.And frost and decorate and just do something to it. So, before it hit the cake pan I added some poppy seeds to the batter. I frosted it with a quick cream cheese frosting which I’ve been meaning to try out in a while. This one uses whipped cream instead of butter along with the cream cheese so it is lighter and naturally uses far less sugar to get a piping consistency. The frosting can be easily spread on top of the cake if you are not comfortable with piping bags. A drizzle of caramel sauce (store bought) finished the cake. Both the recipe for the cake and the frosting have been separately adapted with some variation from Joy Of Baking

The flavours are lovely together. I was amazed how good the poppy seeds tasted in a banana cake. I think this is by the far the easiest cakes I have made despite having a dressed up look.

Banana Poppy Seed Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Serves 6-8

For the Banana Poppy Seed Cake
13/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp. poppy seeds
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (113 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 large ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1 tsp vanilla essence
Cream Cheese Frosting, to frost
3-4 tbsp. thick caramel sauce, to drizzle (I used store bought)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting
125g cream cheese, room temparature
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup icing sugar, sifted
1/3 cup cold whipping cream or heavy cream.

Preheat oven to 180 degree C. Grease and line the base of a 19 cm round cake tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and poppy seeds.
In a medium sized bowl combine the mashed banana, eggs, melted butter and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Lightly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until combined. Take care not to over mix the batter or it might result in a rubbery cake. Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre come out clean.

Remove the cake from the oven and keep aside for 5 minutes. Carefully turn the cake onto a wire rack and cool till room temperature. Once cooled, pipe or dollop cream cheese frosting onto the cake. Drizzle with caramel sauce.

To make the cream cheese frosting: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and confectioners sugar and beat until smooth. Gradually add the heavy cream and whip until the frosting is thick enough to pipe. Add more sugar or cream as needed to get the right consistency. In case you are using a brand of heavy cream that does not whip easily, then whip the cream separately to stiff peaks and fold it gradually into the cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate till needed.

Candy Cane Cupcakes. White Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream

26|11|2013

I know I am starting early but it’s hard to resist with all the inspiration around. The shelves at the stores are filled with sweet holiday inspiration…Candies, cookies, puddings and so on..I am excited just looking at them. I so love this time of the year. And I plan to do a lot of baking in the next few days leading up to New Year’s.

I intended to post this along with my children’s favourite recipes last week but couldn’t do so. Kids and candies..classic pairing! So I had to do at least one candy based recipe. I’ve come across a lot of candy cane cupcakes mostly using dark chocolate, therefore I made mine using White chocolate. The frosting is a simple buttercream flavoured with peppermint extract. There is a subtle caramel flavour from the white chocolate in the cupcakes. I wouldn’t say I was blown away by the pairing, but it tasted good.

I have used my basic vanilla cupcake recipe (from Joy of Baking) with a little melted white chocolate added to it. I love the pink colour in the frosting…actually I love pink desserts. Which means you need to watch out for what is coming up next. Or can I say I have been painting the town pink.

I will be back with more of my pink creations shortly!

Candy Cane Cupcakes. White Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Buttercream
Yields 12

White Chocolate Cupcakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter (113 g), room temperature
1/2 cup castor sugar
3 large eggs
100 g white chocolate, melted
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
11/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and line a muffin tray with 12 paper liners. In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the melted white chocolate and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk in three additionss, scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Evenly fill the muffin cups with the batter and bake for about 15-20 mins or just until set and a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean. (Do not over bake or the cupcakes will be dry). Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, frost with icing.

Peppermint Buttercream

2 cups icing sugar, sifted
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp peppermint extract
3-4 drops pink food colouring

In an electric mixer or with a hand mixer, cream the butter until smooth and well blended. With the mixer on low-speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk and beat on high-speed until frosting is light and fluffy (about 3-4 minutes). Add a little more sugar or milk as needed. Add the peppermint extract. Tint with pink food colouring.

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Malt Buttercream

17|10|2013

‘Milo’ is a word Australian homes with kids would be all too familiar with. Malt drinks are a hit with a lot of children. Mine really love it and will eat spoonfuls of it straight from the tin. Sometimes, I mix it with banana and vanilla ice cream to make a milkshake. Yesterday while the blender was doing its work and I was staring into it, the cupcake Gods suddenly smiled at me and I smiled back. Why didn’t I think of this earlier! Banana Malt Cupcakes!

I really like the flavour of these cupcakes. Better than the milkshake! And it is such a great recipe to make for kid’s parties and get-togethers. When I told my boys the cupcakes had Milo in it, their eyes lit up.

The cupcakes are soft and moist and the buttercream has a flavour similar to milk chocolate. So they work well together. A dusting of milo powder gives it an extra malt boost. You can replace the chocolate malt powder with your preferred malt powder.

Please note while making the frosting that most chocolate malt powder are already sweetened so I have reduced the icing sugar than I would normally use to make my buttercream. The resulting buttercream will be fluffier (not very stiff) and not the perfectly pipeable one. It’s actually wonderful spooned or spread over the cupcakes. Though I managed to pipe, I wasn’t too happy with the end result.

Banana Cupcakes with Chocolate Malt Buttercream

Banana Cupcakes
2 cups self-raising flour, sifted (or 2 cups plain flour+2 tsp baking powder)
3/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup milk
125g butter, melted, cooled
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 cup mashed banana (about 2 large ripe bananas)

Preheat oven to 200 degree C. Grease a 12 capacity muffin pan or line with paper cases. Combine flour and castor sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Stir in cinnamon.

Add milk, butter, eggs and vanilla to flour mixture. Using a large metal spoon, stir gently to combine. Add the mashed banana.
Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Once cool, spread or pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Dust with chocolate malt powder or cocoa powder.

Chocolate Malt Buttercream
1/2 cup unsalted butter (113 g), room temperature
11/4 cup icing sugar, sifted (add another 1/2 cup if you want a stiffer frosting)
2 tbsp milk
1/4 cup chocolate malt powder (I used Milo)
2 tbsp cocoa powder

Add the malt powder to 2 tbsp warm milk and stir to make a smooth paste. Keep aside. In an electric mixer or with a hand mixer, cream the butter till smooth. With the mixer on low-speed, gradually beat in the sugar. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the malt milk paste and cocoa powder. Beat on high-speed until frosting is light and fluffy.