Iron Cupcake London June Challenge - Celebration

It’s the 1 year anniversary of Iron Cupcake London (ICL) so the theme was ‘celebration’.  Happy Birthday ICL! I was surprised that it was probably the quietest event I’ve attended so far especially since it’s a celebration for ICL.

There were definitely more eaters than bakers this time which didn’t help when it was time for the mad scrimmage for cakes. Unfortunately there was a problem with the flooring this time (it was raised) which meant a row of chairs placed to prevent people tripping over them thus creating an obstacle course of sorts. It was near enough impossible to get to the cakes as only a few people could actually fit by the bar where the cakes are. I didn't even get anywhere near the bar when I went to refill the tray as people just grabbed the cakes off my tray en route.

Luckily I had lots of friends with me this time and we managed to get a good selection of cakes. I got there really early as I needed to finish decorating my cakes (with flake bars and cherries) I therefore managed to take photos of just about every entry which is probably a first for me. So be prepared to be dazzled with lots and lots of photos of cake here. I’d suggest making a cup of tea :)  

Special mention to my fellow baker friend, Karen who made an amazing ‘choc velvet’ cupcake. This is her secret recipe chocolate cake (I’ve already asked for the recipe but it’s a secret) topped with a wonderful cream cheese frosting. Love her icing technique.

You can read the label quite clearly for most of the cakes so I won't repeat myself. Will make a few notes here and there. Enjoy :)

Do check out the caked crusader website in a few days time for a full write up and more pictures.

L to R :Best decorated cupcake, Winner of amateur category, runner up of amateur category.

My ice-cream cupcakes.

These were delicious. I love the little umbrellas. They were made by Anne of I heart cupcakes

Only managed to taste a crumb of this but it was good. These were made by Andrea of Made With Pink

Definitely got my vote for best decorated cupcake. Absolutely stunning! Made by the same baker, Andrea of Made With Pink

One of my favourites (there are many!)

They're so cute!

Love the look of these. Tasted good too. Everyone keeps asking about these. They were made by Kelly of An American Cupcake in London

These were yummy, love the caramel cream cheese frosting. How cute are the champagne candles?

Runner up in the professional category. Another favourite of mine. I have a weakness for peanut butter.

Karen's entry - choc velvet. Definitely a winner in my book.

Praline cupcake, yet another fav

I really liked this as well - it had celebrations chocolate baked in it.

Loved the profiteroles

Didnt get to try this one but looks quite impressive

Winner of professional category. I personally don't like apricots or rice pudding but I really liked this cake. It was really delicious!

Cant remember what berry was in the cake with elderflower but it was yummy

Chocolate orange cake

Still amazed by the decoration

Brownie cupcake with popping candy in the chocolate balloon. I had a taste of the cake which tasted like brownie - yum! Sadly I didnt get to try the chocolate as it was gone by the time I got back to the table :(  These were made by Gem of Cupcake Crazy Gem

Thanks again to everyone who voted for me :)

Ice Cream Cupcakes

Where does the time go? Can’t believe it was time for Iron Cupcake Challenge again. The theme this month was 'Celebration' as ICL celebrates it's 1 year anniversary. I was thinking and debating what to make for a while. Unfortunately I was too busy to try out different recipes but I bounced a few ideas off friends. Chocolate immediately came to mind, specifically celebrations chocolate. I thought about popping candy but wasn’t sure how to make it work and as I didn't have time to experiment, I quickly binned the idea. I also thought about cocktail cupcakes but I'm not much of a drinker so left this to one side. Clearly other bakers had the same ideas as we had a good selection of these on the night (more on that later)

I then got inspiration from Fiona Cairns book Bake & Decorate (my new fav book) to make ice cream cupcakes. I love ice cream and it definitely says celebration to me :) I also thought it would be really fun and cute. I followed her recipe by making an orange drizzle cake (rather than a plain vanilla sponge) and made different coloured vanilla buttercream frosting. The result was simple yet effective. I made a quick test batch and brought it to work and it was definitely a winner! The cake was moist and citrusy and the cone added a little extra crunch. The frosting was a little sweet but I needed it to be thick so I could pipe it on the cakes.

On the Sunday night when I was baking for the actual challenge, I had quite a few mishaps along the way but fortunately it all worked out in the end. I baked the cakes in the cones and some of them overflowed but it was salvageable. The cake to frosting ratio is good as there's cake all the way to the bottom of the cone. The cone didn’t burn or become too soggy which was also good. However, I created a right mess in the kitchen whilst frosting and decorating. It took ages to pipe the frosting as I only have 1 piping bag so had to wash and dry between colours. By the time I got all the cakes frosted, the icing had dried which made it difficult for the sprinkles to stick. Fortunately I managed to get some on most of the cakes (with a lot of wastage) and I topped with flake bars and cherries just before plating. Next time, I'll decorate as I frost the cakes. (I'm still cleaning the kitchen!)

Next challenge was how to transport the cakes. They were too tall for my cupcake carrier so I tried putting them in cake tins but a few fell over. I ended up using a cake carrier box I have and piped icing on the bottom of each cone to act as a 'glue' I also had to pack one of the boxes with lots of tissue and bubble wrap so the cones wouln't fall on top of one another. It was definitely a challenge and a half travelling through London in rush hour with these cakes. So pleased that most of them made it there in 1 piece.

I was really pleased to win runner up prize in the amateur category :) Quite unexpected! Thank you to everyone who voted and especially to my friends who came to support me. More on the challenge itself in the next post so do check back later.

Back to the cakes....

Cream butter, sugar and zest until pale and fluffy

yummy cake batter

cones waiting to be filled

This was the fun albeit messy part :)

testing out the cherry

This was a result of me being too lazy to wash the piping bag when changing from white to pink frosting. It made a 'raspberry ripple' effect which i really like. Should have done a few more of these! I'll know for next time :)

They look much better with flake and cherries on top :)

Orange Drizzle Cake

250g unsalted butter, softened

250g golden caster sugar

grated zest of 2 large oranges

75ml orange juice

4 eggs, lightly beaten

250g self-raising flour, sifted

(I made a double recipe which yielded 35 cones and 3 cupcakes)

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (adapted from Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery)

110g butter, softened

400g icing sugar

~4 tablespoons milk

Food colouring (optional)

(I made 2.5 recipes which frosted all my cakes plus some extra)

35 flat based ice cream cones

Sprinkles, flake, cherries - anything that takes your fancy :)

To make the cake batter: 

• 
  
  Preheat oven to 170C
• 
  
  Cream the butter, sugar and zest until very pale, light and fluffy (see picture)
• 
  
  Add the eggs gradually, beating between each addition, along with 1 tbsp of the flour to prevent curdling. 
• 
  
  Fold in the remaining flour and lastly, slowly mix in the orange juice.

To make ice-cream cupcakes:

• 
  
  Place ice cream cones on a baking sheet.
• 
  
  Divide the cake batter evenly between them and bake for 15-17 minutes, or until they spring back to the touch.
• 
  
  Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

• 
  
  Make the buttercream frosting by combining all the ingredients together, preferably in a mixer.
• 
  
  If using different colours, divide frosting and colour each portion accordingly.
• 
  
  Pipe buttercream on top of each cake using a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
• 
  
  Decorate as desired.

Iron Cupcake London Challenge May - Fruit

It's been a while since the last Iron Cupcake Challenge as we didn't have one in April which is just as well as I would have had to miss it. I'm so glad it worked out that way as it would have been a shame to miss the fruit challenge. This month was slightly quieter than previous months but the standards were just as good if not better. Everyone was really creative and there was fruit galore. Click here for full details of the event.

I made sticky toffee cupcakes with salted caramel buttercream which contain dates. Everyone kept asking what fruit? I thought I'd go for the subtle approach. Another great baker had the same idea (sticky toffee)- I like to think great bakers think alike :) Check out her blog here. I guessed there would be a lot of berries and citrus fruit and my fellow bakers didn't fail to disappoint.

Here are some photos from the evening

Winner on the right - watermelon cupcakes.

My entry :)

My 2 fav professional entries which won

Next month's theme is 'celebration' as Iron Cupcake London is celebrating it's first birthday. Any ideas?

Iron Cupcake London March Challenge - The Perfect Pair

This month's theme for the Iron Cupcake London challenge was the perfect pair ie no more than 2 flavours in the sponge and frosting. I have to admit I started thinking of ideas very late- a few days before the challenge. I had quite a few ideas but decided on chocolate and beetroot cupcakes and pecan and orange marmalade cupcakes in the end. I wanted to do something slightly different but not too wild. My other ideas were peanut butter and jam (there were quite a few of these at the challenge so it was a good thing I decided not to), apple and cinnamon, lemon and blueberry, ginger and honey(not sure why as I don't like ginger), chocolate and avocado (got strange looks with this one). The more I thought about it, the more ideas I had but there is a limit to how many cakes I can make or carry! I can't physically carry more than 36 cupcakes on the day so 2 entries is my limit especially since the minimum requirement has changed from 12 cupcakes to 18.
As usual, we had a good time sampling all the delicious cakes. I was so busy eating this time, I didnt take photos of all the cakes on our table! I met some fellow bakers/food bloggers and we shared a table hence got a larger variety of cakes to try. I enjoyed so many of them, it was really hard to pick a favourite (or 2 or 3!)
I think the pictures speak for themselves. Do check out the caked crusader for further details and information on each entry.

My 2 entries Love the caterpillar - it's so cute! The orange flower is really beautiful as well.

  We voted for the vanilla and strawberry which was the runner up.

Pecan and Orange Marmalade Cupcakes

My second entry for this month's Iron Cupcake challenge. I got this recipe from one of my favourite recipe books - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. I was given some delicious homemade marmalade so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try out the recipe. The cake was really delicious straight out of the oven with a generous dollop of marmalade on top. I actually remembered to take some pictures whilst making the cake so this will be a faily pictorial post :)

Delicious homemade marmalade - thanks Pat!

Orange juice mixture

Lots of batter as I doubled the recipe

Made about 32 cupcakes!

Topped with marmalade whilst still warmThought it looked a little plain so I roasted some whole pecans and put them on top

Cupcakes

55g unsalted butter, melted and cooled

125ml corn oil

60ml fresh orange juice (juice of approx. 1 small orange)

Grated zest of 1 small orange

80g thick-cut orange marmalade

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

250g plain flour, sifted

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

180g golden caster sugar

60g pecan nuts, toasted on a baking tray in a hot oven for a few minutes and then chopped

To decorate

Extra orange marmalade (slightly warmed if difficult to spread)

Toasted pecan nuts

• 
  
  Preheat the oven to 160C
• 
  
  In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter, corn oil, orange juice, orange zest, marmalade and vanilla extract.  Set aside.
• 
  
  In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and set aside.
• 
  
  Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl with an electric hand mixer, until the mixture is light, fluffy and quite thick.
• 
  
  Slowly add the butter, oil and juice mixture, keeping the beater on a low speed, until it is all combined.
• 
  
  Add one-third of the flour mixture to the combined egg, sugar and oil mixture and beat until just combined. 
• 
  
  Pour in another third of the flour and beat again.
• 
  
  Repeat with the last third of flour.
• 
  
  Gently fold in the pecans.
• 
  
  Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases filling them 3/4 full (They rise a fair bit - some of mine overflowed!)
• 
  
  Bake for about 25 minutes until slightly raised and golden brown.
• 
  
  Remove from the oven and while the cupcakes are still warm, top each one with 1 teaspoon marmalade and spread all over the top. Sprinkle with extra pecans if you wish. 
• 
  
  Serve immediately if possible.