Lemon Berry Ice Cream Cupcakes

The idea for these ice cream cupcakes came from creating a summer recipe to pair with a glass of Chablis Wine for the Chablis Wine Blogger Challenge. The Petit Chablis is a young wine and has floral and citrus notes. I started thinking about cake pairings and decided on a light and fruity bake. As it's almost summer, I thought it would be fun to bake them in ice cream cones. Instead of my usual buttercream icing, I decided on a yoghurt berry topping to keep it light, refreshing and healthy. The flavours also pair well with the Petit Chablis and would be perfect for a summer garden party or BBQ. The sponge is light and lemony and pairs well with the slightly tangy berry topping. Everyone thought the cakes were light and refreshing just like the wine! 

golden caster sugar, self raising flour, cornflour, butter, eggs, lemon, fat free greek yoghurt, berry assortment 

 Chablis and Petit Chablis wines 

 ready to go in the oven 

 making the berry compote 

 fresh from the oven 

 loosen up the yoghurt by stirring with a spoon in a bowl 

 add the berry compote 

 delicious berry yoghurt 

 Perfect with a glass of wine 

Makes 10 ice cream cupcakes

For the cupcakes
10 ice cream cones with a flat base
115g golden caster sugar
115g self-raising flour, sifted
15g cornflour
115g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

For the topping

2 x 170g pot of fat free greek yoghurt

Selection of berries - I used strawberries, blackberries and blueberries -approximately 120g

1 tablespoon of caster sugar (or to taste) 

Sprinkles

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Add the lemon zest and juice. 
• Add the flour and cornflour  
• Spoon into ice cream cones until 2/3 full and bake for 15-18 minutes until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely. 
• In the meantime, make the berry compote by placing all the berries in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon of caster sugar.
• Simmer on a low heat until the sauce thickens and it turns into a syrup. This will take approximately 15-20 minutes.
• Place the yoghurt in a large bowl and loosen it by stirring it through with a spoon. 
• Add the berry compote and swirl it gently.
• Place the yoghurt berry mixture in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and place 1 large 'star' on top of each cupcake.
• Decorate with sprinkles.

Disclaimer: I was sent a bottle of Petit Chablis and Chablis wine for the blogger challenge. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Chocolate and Mint Ice Cream Cupcakes

In addition to the Chocolate and Mint Giant Cupcake that I baked for the Macmillan Information Centre, I also made these chocolate and mint ice cream cupcakes. I used the same chocolate cake mixture and mint buttercream icing but I added chocolate chips to the buttercream icing to make it a mint chocolate chip icing! I also made some chocolate ganache to go on top and decorated it with sprinkles and a cherry on top. 

I'm entering this to Treat Petite hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi. The theme this month is 'Who will you bake for?' in conjunction with World Baking Day on May 18th. I baked these for my local Macmillan Information Centre and I hope they were impressed with them. 

I'm also sending it to the Biscuit Barrel Challenge hosted by Laura from I'd Much Rather Bake Than... The theme this month is favourites. Chocolate and mint is one of my favourite flavour combinations and I also love ice cream and ice cream cupcakes. 

This would also fit in nicely with this month's Calendar Cakes challenge hosted by Rachel from Dolly Bakes as the theme is Bank Holiday Bakes and we are asked to share what we make to relax, share with friends or take on picnics. 

 I used some foil to support the ice cream cones whilst baking. Try not to overfill the cones as I did here - 2/3 full is more than enough 

 I used an ice cream scoop to place a scoop of mint chocolate chip icing on top 

 Drizzled some ganache on top 

 added some sprinkles 

 and a cherry on top! You can also pipe a 'star' of whipped cream before adding the cherry for added decadence. 

 I used the ganache as a 'glue' to stick the cones to a cake board. They were still a little wobbly and have to be transported with great care. 

For the chocolate cake, follow the link for Nigella's Old fashioned chocolate cake - I used about 1/2 a cake recipe to make 9 ice cream cones - as mentioned in my previous post, I made a double recipe and used it to make 1 giant cupcake and 9 ice cream cones.

For the buttercream frosting - feel free to halve the quantities, I made a large batch as I needed it for my giant cupcake and these ice cream cupcakes

300g butter
600g icing sugar
1 tablespoon peppermint extract + 1 teaspoon (or adjust to taste)
a few drops of milk
green food colouring

100g chocolate chips 

For the chocolate ganache

100mls double cream

75g dark chocolate, chopped 

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Prepare the cake batter as instructed.
• Place a ring of foil as shown to support the ice cream cones in a cupcake tin. 
• Carefully fill each ice cream cone until about 2/3 full - do not overfill as the cake will spill over. 
• Bake for about 15-18 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating. 
• Make the icing by beating the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Add in the peppermint extract and green food colouring. You may need to add a few drops of milk depending on the consistency required.
• Finally stir in the chocolate chips by hand. 
• To make the chocolate ganache, heat the cream in a small saucepan until just boiling. 
• Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until melted.
• Keep stirring until smooth. 
• Decorate as shown above 

Orange Spice Cake, Breakfast Smoothie and a Review

If you know me well, you will know that I love kitchen gadgets. I have a lovely new addition to my kitchen and to christen it, I started thinking about recipes to showcase my new food processor. I remembered watching Mary Berry making an orange spice cake on the Great British Bake Off which looked really good. She used a food processor to make the recipe so I decided to give it a try. Plus it's a very spring-like cake which is perfectly seasonal.

The cake itself was really easy to make. You have to boil a whole orange until it's soft and then blitz it in the food processor. You add all the cake ingredients into the food processor and that's it. The cake itself was absolutely delicious with a strong orange flavour. The hint of spice added to the flavours and paired well with the mascarpone cheese filling. My colleague made the lemon version of this cake and that was really good too! I will have to try that next time.

I also made a smoothie with the liquidiser and it was so quick and easy. It has now become a breakfast staple which is perfect for the warmer weather. I used up fruits that were past their prime and added some milk, honey and a little scoop of ice cream. You can of course use yoghurt and the fruit variations are endless.

So what I did think of the Kenwood FP190? Well, when it first arrived I thought it was smaller than I imagined but it's really handy to have in a small kitchen. I have a lot of kitchen appliances and a lack of worktop space so this is a good space saver. It's handy having a food processor and liquidiser in one as it's so versatile. You can use both at the same time as the blades operate simultaneously when you turn it on. It's a nice, simple design with added functional details such as the suction cups at the base which keeps the unit steady when you're using it and the bracket at the back to wind up the power cord. It's light yet sturdy enough to blend, chop and blitz food, fruits and nuts. It's dishwasher safe but as I don't have one I'm pleased that it's quite easy to clean as there's no little nooks and crannies where food gets stuck which I have experienced previously. 

This little gadget is perfect for a small family but would not cope with large volumes. For example with this orange cake mix, the processor was at the maximum volume limit and it just about coped with mixing the batter. The cake turned out beautifully so it obviously did a good job but would not have coped with a larger recipe.  I've also made crumble, waffle batter and another cake mix with it and they all turned out beautifully. The whisk attachment is really handy for whipping cream or egg whites - I have to say I wasn't sure it would work looking at the attachment but it does. It whisked up my cream perfectly in less time than it takes with my KitchenAid! It's also perfect for small volumes whereas the KitchenAid or similar is better with larger volumes. 

 The Kenwood FP190 with a liquidiser and food processor and different attachments - knife blade, slicing plate, shredding plate, plate carrier, whisk, maxi-blend canopy. 

 ingredients for orange spice cake 

 boil whole orange until soft 

 blitz the whole orange 

 making the cake batter 

 adding the orange pulp to the batter 

 first layer of cake 

 completed 4 layers 

 cover with mascarpone filling 

 For breakfast smoothie - milk, banana, strawberries, kiwi, honey, ice cream 

 pour in 100mls of milk - the liquidiser jug has measurements in mls and cups on the side 

 add the other ingredients 

 and pulse for 1-2 minutes 

 smoothie to go 

Recipe for Orange Spice Cake available online 

Recipe for Breakfast smoothie
Place 100mls milk, 1 ripe banana, 1 kiwi and a few strawberries with a small scoop of ice cream (optional) and a drizzle of honey (to taste) Whizz in the liquidiser and serve.

Disclaimer: Thank you to Argos for the Kenwood FP190 used in the creation of these recipes. All opinions expressed are my own.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes

I can't believe it's September already. September is my favourite month of the year as we head into autumn but more importantly it's my birthday month! I absolutely love birthdays, it was always a big celebration in my family growing up and that tradition has continued. It turns out that it's birthday week this week at work so I had to make something extra special (3 birthdays in 3 consecutive days).  Here's a snippet of the conversation at work which gave me my inspiration. 

Colleague : Ros, what cake are we having tomorrow?
Me: Cake? Well I wasn't planning on baking anything but what would you like?
Colleague : Oh the brownies were really good. Pause. Actually that peanut butter cake you made was amazing....now I really want peanut butter.
Me: Ok I'll think of something.
Colleague : It's J's birthday tomorrow and E's birthday the day after.
Me: And mine the day after that!

So I decided to make these peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes - some baked in ice cream cones and others decorated to look like a giant ice cream cone. I also got a chance to use my silicone spoon mould to make some chocolate spoons. I wanted to make chocolate biscuits but ran out of time. These were so popular I made them again the next day so in total I've baked over 50 cupcakes in 2 days and there's 2 left that I know of! 

I used my trusted peanut butter cupcake recipe which has a lovely light texture and is full of peanut butter flavour. The first day I made a peanut butter cream cheese icing as I didn't have any double cream and the second day I made peanut butter frosting with double cream. Personally I prefer the cream cheese version as it helps balance the sweetness of the cake. I also made a batch of chocolate buttercream frosting which went well with the peanut butter/chocolate cupcakes. 

I'm entering this to Calendar Cakes hosted by Laura from Laura Loves Cakes and Rachel from Dolly Bakes. The theme this month is cupcakes as it's National Cupcake week between 16-22nd September. 

I'm also entering this to a new blogging challenge called Treat Petite. It's hosted by Kat from The Baking Explorer and Stuart from Cakeyboi and the idea is to submit any sweet treat that's individually portioned and not a big cake. Luckily cupcakes are acceptable, otherwise I'll enter my chocolate spoons! The theme this month is 'No Theme' so anything goes. 

 ready to bake my cupcakes

 I bought 2 different ice cream cones. The cornets for decoration and the cup cones for baking. 

 my chocolate batter was quite liquid compared to the peanut butter one but they turned out well after baking 

 I used some foil to support the ice cream cones. 

 start with some chocolate dough

 add some peanut butter dough

 peanut butter cream cheese frosting 

 ready to decorate. I coloured some of the peanut butter icing to resemble ice cream flavours 

 I used some icing to stick the cone to the tray and to stick the cupcakes to the tray 

 pipe different colours on each cupcake and decorate with sprinkles 

 silicone spoon mould 

 fill with melted chocolate and leave to set in the fridge 

 ice cream cone cupcakes 

 The cones remain crisp after baking but will go a little soft after leaving it overnight with frosting on top 

 you can see the 2 different batters I used for the cupcake. 

 Tip for carrying ice cream cone cupcakes - use an egg tray 

Peanut butter cupcakes
Makes 12 cupcakes

75g butter
130g smooth peanut butter
190g dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
120g plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
60ml semi-skimmed milk

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar until well blended. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time and then stir in the vanilla extract. 
• Combine the flour, salt and baking powder in a separate bowl.
• Add 1/3 of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.
• Pour 1/3 of the milk and beat again.
• Repeat until all the flour and milk have been added. 
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and/or ice cream cones 
• Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes (depending on size of your cupcakes) until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. (The ice cream cones need about 20-25 minutes) 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating. 

Chocolate cupcakes

125g/1 cup all purpose flour
40g/ 1/3 cup cocoa powder
56g/ 1/4 cup caster sugar
100g/ 1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
180mls/ 3/4 cup whole milk
125mls / 1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten

• Preheat oven to 160C.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugars, baking soda, baking powder and salt. 
• Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add milk, oil, vanilla, and eggs.
• Stir until just combined, scraping bottom of bowl with a rubber spatula to incorporate all of the flour
• Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and/or ice cream cones
• Bake for 18 - 22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Buttercream frosting
175g dark chocolate
225g butter
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g icing sugar, sifted

• Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. 
• Beat the butter, milk, vanilla extract and icing sugar until smooth.
• Add the melted chocolate and continue beating until thick and creamy.

Peanut butter cream cheese frosting

200g icing sugar
200g cream cheese
110g butter
125g smooth peanut butter

• Place all ingredients in an electric mixer and beat until smooth.

Peanut Butter frosting

110g icing sugar
200g smooth peanut butter
70g butter, at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
80ml double cream

• Place the icing sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
• Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work.
• Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.