Cupcake Bouqet- The Perfect Gift

It was my mother in laws birthday coming up and we were already stumped as to what to get her for her birthday, so whilst I left the gift idea to my boyfriend, I did a little research on cupcake bouquets as I had come across a couple of different images before and its something I have been waiting to give a go. The cupcakes are the easy bit, I shall out some links to my cupcakes at the bottom of the post, but its the structure which is the tricky bit.

Start by investing in your basic materials, so you need a plant pot, standard sized plant pot, or you could use a small metal bucket.
I got two packs of tissue paper: green to go around the cupcakes to act as leaves and a pink tissue to go around all of the cupcakes.
You'll need scissors obviously and a pretty ribbon to go around the pot.
Either online or in any good cook shop store, you will need a polystyrene dome, you can get them on eBay, it doesn't matter if they are slightly too small to fit the top of your plant pot, as you can fill out the top with tissue paper.
Lastly you need cocktail sticks to puncture the polystyrene dome and then to attach to the bottom of the cupcake's. I had 5 large cupcakes in my bouquet, but obviously the bigger pot you get the more cupcakes that will fit!

http://buttonsbaking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/carrot-walnut-cupcakes.html


http://buttonsbaking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/reeses-cups-cupcakes.html


http://buttonsbaking.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/coffee-and-chocolate-cupcakes.html

Malteser Fridge Cake

Sometimes its nice to have something sweet, tasty and indulgent but quickly, and that can be the only downside I find when you're baking, the waiting. Luckily I do have a couple of recipes I turn to when I need something quickly, and one of those being my Malteaser Fridge cake, which is sweet, chewy and the texture of it is absolutely delectable if I do say so myself. I also find that they are a bit of a winner when I need something to take into work and keep everyone going.

Malteaser Fridge Cake

Ingredients

300g Chocolate Digestives

100g Malteasers

100g Butter

3 tbsp. Golden Syrup

100g Dark Chocolate

2oog Milk Chocolate

Method

Start off by placing the digestives into a food processor or a food bag and bashing into crumbs. Try and allow for some bigger bits and having variations in size of biscuits as it enhances the texture well. Then place half of the Malteasers in a food bag and lightly bash, allowing the variations in size once again. Prepare a cake tin with cling film or greaseproof paper to set your fridge cake.

In a saucepan on a medium heat, melt the butter and the dark chocolate. There is no need for a bain-marie here as you have the butter in with the chocolate. Once melted, add the golden syrup and stir with a wooden spoon. Take off the heat and add the biscuits and Malteasers. Then pour the mixture into the pre-prepared tin and flatten. Then place in the fridge.

In the microwave or in a glass bowl over a pan of boiling water, melt the milk chocolate, then pour over the cake and spread out evenly. To finish the cake I crumbled the rest of the Maltesers over the top.

Enjoy!

Banoffee Pie

Good afternoon to you all. Its been almost 2 months since I last wrote up one of my recipes or any of my latest cooking/baking ventures, which is a shame as I have been in the kitchen as always, but I have found myself rather busy lately and therefore my admin commitments to the blog have gone a little down hill, however I am back in business and firstly I had to upload my recipe for Banoffee Pie!
Banoffee Pie is my brothers absolute favourite and as he has been working so hard recently and lacking in the free time department I told him I would make him a massive fudge cake to make him feel better, and he said 'Nope, Ill have a Banoffee Pie please'. So luckily for him, it was May half term last week and I had time to spare!
This recipe is a real simple one, but effective and tasty: you can choose to have either a pastry base or a biscuit base, however for me I stick with the classic pastry base. I also insist on making my own pastry and although its not for everyone I make it into a little bit of a mission for myself, however you can buy a ready made pastry case to save yourself time and effort!

Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

225g plain flour

110g butter (room temperature)

80g sugar

1 egg

2 ripe bananas

397g Carnation Caramel Tin

300ml double cream

Cocoa for dusting

Method

Start by making the pastry: place the butter and flour in a food processor and whizz until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.

Add the sugar and whizz again until incorporated.

Crack the egg into the food processor to bring the pastry together. If the pastry is too crumbly, add a splash of milk to moisten.

Once a dough is formed, place in the fridge for 10 minutes, then well oil a pastry case.

Roll out the pastry to a 1cm thickness and lay into the pastry dish. Ensure the pastry is pressed into the case firmly and bake with baking beans for 20 minutes until light brown in an oven heated to 190oc. Once baked allow the pastry to cool completely.

Dice the bananas into thin disks and arrange at the bottom of the pastry case, evenly.

The beauty of the Carnation caramel is that it has already been done for you, so spoon out the caramel and smooth down with a spatula.

For the cream I hand whisked it, as you don't want to over whisk it, you want it to be silky smooth rather than airy. Whish until the cream leaves a trail, then spoon the cream directly onto the pie in the middle and spread out a little, however I left space between the edges and the cream so that you can see the contrast in colour and the caramel.

To finish I gave the pie a dusting of cocoa, however you can also grate chocolate to go on top!

Enjoy!

Ombré Monster Chocolate Cake

Morning all! I am so excited to share my latest creation with you: a completely over the top ombré chocolate cake, it was so much fun to make and it is so delicious!! Yesterday afternoon, I really fancied making something which challenged me but is also a lot of fun so this was what I endeavoured to create. Ombré really is the in-thing at the moment, it's everywhere, clothes, hair, decor and now cake! It may look tricky but if you tackle it bravely you will be absolutely fine! 

This cake is a one bowl wonder, however I would advise that you use an electric whisk in order to combine all ingredients. 

Ingredients

300g Self Raising Flour

300g Granulated Sugar

300g unsalted Butter

4 Eggs

4 tbsp. Milk

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla Essence

3 tbsp. Cocoa powder

400g Butter

500g Icing Sugar

1tsp. Vanilla

200g Nutella (to add gradually)

Oreos

Wither Original Toffees

2 Reeses cups

Chocolate of choice (middle)

Method

1. Start by cracking all of the eggs in the mixing bowl and whisking for 3-4 minutes until double in size. Then pour into a jug and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180oc and prepare 2 tins with greaseproof paper
3. In the mixing bowl whisk the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs in, vanilla essence, cocoa and the baking soda.
4. Gradually add the flour in to the mixture, then add the milk.
5. Divide the mixtures between the two tins, smooth and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Use a cocktail stick or a knife to check the sponges are cooked. Do NOT over cook!
6. Once the sponges are cool: use the electric whisk to combine the butter, icing sugar and vanilla: at this point your icing will be yellow. Now add 1 tsp of Nutella.
7. Spread 2tbsp of butter cream onto the bottom sponge and then sandwich the two together.
8. Now using a pallette knife, spoon one large tbsp of icing to the top of the cake and the top third of the side of the cake. 
   9. Now add 1 tsp of Nutella to the icing, this will make it slightly darker, Hse your knife to cover the second third of the sides of the cake.
   10. Finally add one large tbsp of Nutella to the icing, then use the pallette knife to the last third of the sides of the cake.
   11. You should have enough icing left to either pipe some icing around the sides of the top of the cake or use a knife to smear icing around the sides. 
   
   
   Decorate the top of your cake however you please, I used Oreos, toffees and reeses cups, however it is completely up to you! Enjoy!! 

Giant Black Forest Cake

Okay, today's challenge was to make a giant Black Forest cake and I tell you what, I have absolutely smashed it, if I do say so myself! It is delicious and looks massive and over the top, so for me this couldn't be any more of a success. 

My boyfriend was also pretty chuffed that he gets to take a good chunk of this to take into work tomorrow. Obviously I cheekily made out I slaved over this cake all day but I tell you what it's simple and a real crowd pleaser!!

Ingredients

300g Self Raising Flour

300g Granulated Sugar

300g unsalted Butter

4 Eggs

4 tbsp. Milk

1 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla Essence

5 tbsp. Cocoa Powder

5 cups of mixed frozen forest fruits (defrosted)

600ml Double Cream

200g Icing Sugar

5 tbsp. of Raspberry Jam

Method

1. Start by cracking all of the eggs in the mixing bowl and whisking for 3-4 minutes until double in size. Then pour into a jug and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 180oc and prepare 2 tins with greaseproof paper
3. In the mixing bowl whisk the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs in, vanilla essence and the baking soda.
4. Gradually add the flour and cocoa in to the mixture, then add the milk.
5. Divide the mixtures between the two tins, smooth and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Use a cocktail stick or a knife to check the sponges are cooked. Do NOT over cook!
6. Once the sponges are cool: whip the double cream and add the icing sugar.
7. Spoon the jam into a bowl and mix to loosen.
8. Spread the jam onto the bottom sponge, spoon half of the cream and 3 cuts of fruit, then place the second sponge on top.
9. Dollop the remainder of Cream and Fruits on top to finish.

No-Bake Healthy Brownies

I am obsessed with this reciepe, it is amazing!

I am on a health kick at the moment, I can currently on a Ketogenic Eating Plan, which is basically a carb free/sugar free diet. However I am having massive chcocolate cravings, which is hardly surprising as I do have such a sweet tooth. I can across a reciepe, which gave me an idea for this one. It was a recipe for no-bake flapjacks, and as much as I like flapjacks, I love a brownie, as you can tell from the amount of brownie recipes I have on here!

Anyway, I have fiddled and brewed up the perfect recipe, for healthy, dairy free, gluten free, Paleo and Keto, no-bake brownies! 

I must mention, they are freezable so if you don't think you'll manage them all at once then you can freeze them! Happy days!

Ingredients 

2 1/2 cups Sultanas

1 1/2 cups flaked almonds

1/2 cup salted peanuts

10 tbsp cocoa powder

2 tbsp water

1/4 cup honey

2 tbsp vegetable oil 

4 tsp vanilla 

Method

1. Arm yourself with a food processor: whizz the sultanas, almonds, 6 tbsp cocoa, 3 tsp vanilla, 2 tbsp water, the ingredients will be sticky and clumpy, but don't worry, it's meant to look like that!

2. Prep a tin with cling film: I use a loaf tin, then flatten the mixture into the tin, press hard to flatten, then place in the fridge.

3. In a bowl, mix the 4 tbsp. cocoa, 1. Tap. Vanilla, honey and oil, until combined. Pour over the base of the brownies, then place back in the fridge for 2-3 hours. 

4. Slice to serve.

Easter Treats: Peanut Butter Chocolate Slab

Happy Easter to all! Last year I had the ingenious idea of buying a plain Easter egg, which I carefully split into two, filled with peanut butter and nuts, I then stuck it back together, wrapped it up and gave it to the other half for Easter. Peanut butter and chocolate is his favourite, however it was a little bish bash bosh, so this year I wanted to top that! It was delicious so I had to think carefully about how I was going to create something delicious and visually impressive. I did some research and I must say, the chocolate bark and slab ideas just look amazing and it is so nice to give someone something home made for any occasion, so I thought I would give it a go. I had to get mini eggs on board as my boyfriend loves them, which was easy enough as they are everywhere, obviously, right now. I made a cute little label, got some ribbon, made it look cute and lovely and boom, he's happy and munching on it right now! Give it a go, make a homemade chocolate treat this Easter, or perhaps for your next occasion- they look really impressive and these chocolate slabs allow you to get creative and use as many or as little ingredients as you desire, all you really need is chocolate to melt and you're half way there!!

Ingredients 

250g Milk Chocolate

250g Dark Chocolate

4 tbsp. Smooth Peanut Butter

Small pack of Milk Buttons

Medium bag of Mini Eggs

Method

1. Prepare a round cake tin with cling film and lightly butter it to avoid any sticking.

2. Break up the chocolate, keep them in separate bowls. I melt mine in the microwave but you can melt it on the job if you prefer.

3. Pour the dark chocolate into the Tim, then the milk, use a spoon to marble the two.

4. Place the peanut butter in a small bowl and melt slightly. Pour on top of the chocolate and marble with a spoon.

5. Leave to stand for a couple of minutes . Put the buttons and the mini eggs into a food bag and bash with a rolling pin.

6. Scatter the buttons and eggs over the chocolate, then place in the fridge for 2-3 hours.

Get creative!! Enjoy!