Rainbow Pudsey Cupcakes and Smarties Cookies for BBC Children in Need

Tomorrow November 18th 2011 is the BBC Children in Need Appeal.  It first started in 1927 as a five minute radio broadcast and has now grown to a huge annual fund-raising event raising over  £600 million. Pudsey Bear made his television debut in 1985 when Terry introduced the new, brown cuddly mascot to the audience.  He was designed by Joanna Ball, a BBC graphics designer, who named him after the West Yorkshire town where she was born. He proved very popular and returned as BBC Children in Need's official logo the following year with his design amended to that of a yellow bear with a red spotted bandage.

I was asked by BakingMad to make a Pudsey Bear Dessert for their Children in Need campaign. I wanted to do something slightly different from the standard vanilla cupcakes so I decided to make it a rainbow vanilla cupcake. It's really fun and simple to do and would be a great project with the kids if you have any. I used my standard vanilla cupcake recipe and divided it into 4 equal portions. I used ziplock bags to save on washing up and it also helped to fill the cupcake cases neatly. I ordered some colourful Pudsey cupcake toppers online but sadly they have not arrived so I decorated them as suggested on the bakingmad website. Do check out all the other fantastic cupcake recipes there. 

If you like this recipe, please click here http://www.bakingmad.com/recipes/cupcakes/pudsey-rainbow-cupcakes and support my recipe as BakingMad are offering a prize to the recipe with the most page views. Thanks! 

I also made some smarties cookies to go with the cupcakes as they fit the theme. I didn't have time to buy the Pudsey bear cookie cutters - perhaps something for next year.  I hope they will raise some money tomorrow for this great cause.  If you want to donate, you can do so by visiting http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/

UPDATE : I've raised £46.10 at work today! 

 what you need to make rainbow pudsey cupcakes - cupcake batter, cupcake cases, food colouring, coloured choco beans, black writing icing and some ziplock bags

 I overfilled the bags so only got 4 colours but I love all of them! It's easy to mix the colours in the bags and then to pipe into the cupcake cases

 layer the batter in the cupcake cases. I've started here with blue followed by red... 

...and then purple... 

... and finally yellow 

 fresh from the oven - I had to trim the tops a little as they were slightly domed (note to self no need to add baking powder for this recipe)

 decorate with vanilla frosting, coloured choco beans and writing icing.

 isn't he cute? 

 cross section to see the beautiful rainbow effect

 add some cookies to the mix 

For the vanilla cupcake

250g unsalted butter

250g caster sugar

250g self-raising flour

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (I used Nielsen-Massey)

4 eggs

6 tablespoons milk

Food colouring

For the vanilla frosting

125g unsalted butter, softened

250g icing sugar, sifted

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon milk

Yellow food colouring 

To decorate

Black writing icing (I used Silverspoon)

Coloured choco beans (I used Silverspoon)

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases. 
• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition.
• Add the milk and vanilla extract and vanilla bean paste.
• Finally add the sifted flour.
• Divide the batter evenly into required number of colours - I used 4 here. 
• Add a little bit of food colouring to each portion and mix evenly. 
• Pipe a layer of the first coloured batter into the cupcake cases, followed by the second coloured batter and repeat until all the batter has been used. 
• Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 18-22 minutes until they spring back to touch and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Cool completely on a wire rack. 
• Prepare the vanilla frosting by mixing all the ingredients together (add the colouring last) until smooth (preferably in an electric mixer). 
• Spread the frosting on top of each cupcake. 
• Place choco-beans on 1 side to resemble Pudsey's bandage and draw the eyes, nose and mouth with the writing icing. 

For the smarties cookies 

• 250g butter
  250g caster sugar
  1 egg, beaten
  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  350g plain flour
  1 teaspoon baking powder
  1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  240g Smarties 
  
  
  • Preheat oven to 180C.
  • Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
  • Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
  • Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. 
  • Gradually beat in the sifted dry ingredients to form a stiff dough.
  • Finally stir in the smarties by hand.
  • Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop cookie dough onto the baking sheets, spaced well apart. (These cookies expand in the oven)
  • Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden brown.
  • Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 
  
  

Smarties cookies

I made these late one night - I'm not sure why I seem to do a lot of midnight baking! The recipe is from BBC Good Food and I think it's better than the candy cookies I've made previously. A definite hit at work as they disappeared really quickly.  They are buttery and crunchy with pretty Smarties on them. It's funny watching everyone choose, trying to pick one with the most Smarties. I tell them they're all the same (well kind of) but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I could have added the smarties by hand to each ball of dough to be fair but where's the fun in that? :)

 I added smarties to the batter 

 Yum!

250g butter

250g caster sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

350g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

240g Smarties (original recipe suggested 160g but I like more)

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
• Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. 
• Gradually beat in the sifted dry ingredients to form a stiff dough.
• Finally stir in the smarties by hand.
• Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop cookie dough onto the baking sheets, spaced well apart. (These cookies expand in the oven)
• Bake for 12-15 minutes until pale golden brown.
• Allow to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Candy Cookies

I saw these smartie cookies on one of my new favourite blogs les reves d'une boulangere and knew I had to make them.  They looked so cute and I happen to have a bag of smarties handy. The cookies really do spread a fair bit when cooking as pre-warned but as I paid little heed to that, my cookies turned out a little larger than I imagined! Next time, I'll use less dough and make even more cookies! I ran out of smarties so I used peanut M&Ms as well and they were great! The cookies are delightfully light and crispy with the extra crunch of smarties or M&Ms. I really enjoyed both of them, it's really difficult to choose a favourite. I love the bright, vibrant colours. Perfect for a party. 

cookie batter 

adding smarties 

fresh from the oven

adding M&Ms 

smartie cookies

M&M cookies

Recipe from bakingwithfrench 175g caster sugar
110g brown sugar
225g unsalted butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 2 tsp vanilla essence)
450g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
55ml milk
+ smarties/M&M/any candy for decoration

• Beat together the sugars and butter until pale and fluffy. 
• In a seperate bowl, use a whisk to beat together the vanilla and eggs. 
• Gradually transfer this egg mixture to the creamed mixture, beating between each addition. This will prevent the mixture from curdling. 
• Over this mixture, sift the flour, baking powder, soda and salt. 
• Use a metal spoon to carefully fold together until no lumps remain. 
• Gradually add the milk and stir until soft dough forms (be careful not to add too much milk or dough will be too sticky). 
• Leave in fridge for 20 minutes, covered. 
• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (fan-forced) and prepare 2 large cookie trays. 
• Remove from fridge and roll small balls of mixture; put on prepared tray and flatten slightly. 
• The cookies will spread a fair bit when cooking. 
• Continue rolling balls until no mixture remains. 
• Decorate the balls of dough with as many smarties/candy as you desire. 
• Bake biscuits for 8-9 minutes or until they are golden brown, but still slightly soft. They will harden slightly upon cooling. 
• If you want a crunchier cookie, then cook for longer until brown and rather firm to touch when removed from oven.