Comic relief Bake off

How nice was it having bake off backing in our lives?! Comic relief BO was short but definitely sweet with 4 eps, a host of funny celebs baking and some trying to bake....but its all for a good course so they were forgiven. Paul was being his strict self but Mary was being soooo nice, looking for anything to give good comments on.
Some raw cakes...which according to Ed Bryne is just 'a variety of textures' and apparently its okay to serve pple biscuits that have fallen on the floor lots of times Simon reeve what were u doing?!

I enjoyed it loads and it was all done for a fab course my favs were Ingrid's choc +orang Paul Hollywood face cake from ep 1(no surprise there). Some yummy looking gateaus in ep2. Bob's Baker st cake looked cool in ep3. Claudia who is hilarious had some yummy choc cookies in 4.  
                  

Bye big tent. Bye twinkly music. Bye Berry,Hollywood+ mel see u in series 4. My mind is currently occupied by chocolate eclairs  .....hmmmm am I brave enough to attempt choux pastry???!!

Cinnamon Bics

Pics courtesy of  my lovely friend again 

Behold my second ever attempt at making biscuits ppl, yes really second, this is because my first attempt was not a good experience + they were the size of hockey pucks. Which was totally not what I was going for believe it or not, so I have been reluctant to revisit biscuits....but revisit I did and I give you my cinnamon stars.

 I had planned on making Lorraine Pascal's ginger/cinammon ones from her xmas ep but I didn't have a lot of the ingredients so I made some/lots of changes and hoped they wouldn't betray like the hockey pucks did!

errr....I thought we weren't getting dressed up?! 

Recipe 

150g brown sugar

150g butter

2 heaped tbsp of cinnomon (the hockey pucks didnt taste like cinommon last time so i upped it)

2 tbsp of honey

250g of self raising flour

1 egg

I followed Lorraine's method of melting   sugar,butter, cinnamon and honey in a pot which smelled gorgeous.

Let that cool, then pour that on top of sieved flour and mix. Don't forget to add the egg to help bind everything which I nearly did!

When it all comes together roll in to a ball and begin rolling out with rolling pin and cut out shapes. I rolled them really thin because I was keen to avoid a repeat of the before mentioned failure biscuits.                  They shall forever haunt me..(.shudder)

Place 6 on baking tray lined with baking paper put in to a preheated oven 180c/GM 4 bake 4 about 10/15min.

I like these bics (not just because these actually worked) as they tasted of cinnamon and they were a bit crunchy. However they weren't sweet enough for me so to satisfy my sweet tooth I drizzled some icing over them which worked nicely I must say.     

I have something I would change if I baked them again, but biscuits take 2 a relative success yeah!

Freehand icing ......fun.

.

.

  

Dark Chocolate & Orange Truffles/ Alpha Bakes Challenge

I have prettier pics for you today.......... thanks to a lovely talented friend. 

Hiya,so I made Chocolate Truffles for the first time ever and my only thought is why have'nt I made them before? their so easy and my gosh so yummy!

I decided to use dark chocolate because I wanted to make something starting with  D so I could enter the Alpha Bakes challenge, hosted by Caroline Makes

 and The More Than Occasional Baker. This month's host is Caroline Makes and the letter is D.  

Back to the chocolatey truffles, It's Dark chocolate and Orange which is a flavour I really like as you can tell from my last post. I took them in to work and they went down really well which was lovely  I managed to get my hands on one before they were all gone, by this time they were really soft as they weren't kept in the fridge, but they were still really nice. Silky and chocolatey and orangey! I was really happy with them which I wasn't expecting to be oddly enough, because I thought they were gonna be too bitter because of the dark chocolate but thankfully they weren't! Not too sweet either.

Dark chocolate and Orange Truffles Recipe 

150 ml of Double Cream  this is the smallest pot in Tesco's but but worked perfectly and I ended up with a good amount of truffles. 

200g of Dark Chocolate  I used Bournville

5 tsp of Orange Extract

1. Heat cream in a pot. Don't let it boil!
2. Chop chocolate in to small pieces and add to the pot of cream, let it sit for a minute and start stirring keep stirring until the choc has melted and is lovely and smooth.
3. Also stir in the the Orange Extract, I know 5tsp seems crazy but it really isn't  I kept adding till I was happy with the orange flavour in the chocolate. In end you have a lovely subtle orange flavour not an orange overload.
4. Pour in to and let it firm up in the fridge it took a while so after a bit I chucked it in the freezer and that sped up the process.
5. when the chocolate is firm enough,scoop some out with spoon and roll in to small balls and then roll in Cocoa Powder. Carry on until there is no chocolate left. Store in a container in the fridge/freezer eat at room temp.  

.

I am much happier for having prettier pics for you, thanks again A I love them!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

So here Is my first bake for my blog,I thought it should be cupcakes since my blog IS called my cupcake habit . 

I love a chocolate orange combo and wanted to put it in cupcake form. The chocolate butter cream was rich and tasted like Terry's chocolate orange. Yummy chocolatey orangeyness and THEIR NOT Terry's THEIR MINE! 

Recipe for the orange sponge

6oz  flour

6oz butter

6 oz sugar

3 eggs 

1 tsp of baking powder

2 tsp of orange extract

1. Preheat your oven gas mrk 4 and line your cupcake tray with cases.
2.  Cream butter and sugar for about 5min till light and fluffy in a bowl I use an electric whisk. The longer u beat these two the lighter + fluffier your cupcakes will be!
3. Then mix in your beaten eggs 1 at time mixing each 1 in as you ago.
4. Now sift your flour and baking powder in to the mixture and fold in the flour along with 2tsp of orange extract, remember not to over mix as that will result in denser cupcake. Stop when everything is incorporated and spoon the mix in to your cupcake cases filling up 3/4 of the way.
5. Bake for 20 min, cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean.

For the choc orange buttercream
100g of butter
200g of icing sugar
70 g of cocoa powder I used sainsbury's  100% cocoa powder= very chocolatey.

Mix all the ingredients togther untill fluffy. If a little thick add a splash milk, keep going till your happy with the consistency.
I had my twin hold a tea towel around the bowl to stop the icing suagr +c powder flying every where. 
A yummy messy business this. 

Lastly I piped on rose swirls on with a small star shaped nozzel...start in middle and pipe out.  x

Baking Haul: Things I bought

I figure Hauls shouldn't just be for fashion youtubers so I'thought now and again I would do a baking haul, where I show you the baking related things I bought. I love looking at and buying pretty things to display and store my bakes in, here are two things I bought recently. 

The first is a 2 tier heart shaped cupcake stand from Wilkinson it was a fiver...so I thought why not. Its all right funnily enough it looks better in the photo then it does in real life....it was a fiver so what did I expect. It will suffice as a cutesyish stand.

I am much happier with purchase number 2, as you can see it is glass cake stand. The photo doesn't do it justice! It is from the The Great British Bake Off range I bought this from Marks and Spencer for £12. A lovely glass cake stand for £12+ its related to the bake off I love so much...yes please.

                        

Just managed to upload pics....will now work on uploading pretty/better pics!!!! pls bare with . 

Hello: My first post!

Hiya, 
Happy New Year! so I'm starting this new year by starting my baking blog. Instead of admiring every one else's lovely blogs I thought I'm gonna go for it and start my own.
I love baking and I'm currently obsessed with cupcakes (well who can blame me really their lovely) but I want to bake new yummy things.
So I'm using this blog to share all of the new things I'm going try, I'll share all the things that turn out great as well as the ones that don't...there is sure to be a few. Hopefully not too many if I STICK to the recipe COMPLETELY which I have a tendency not to do sometimes....and i wonder why some bakes don't work out. 
Along side my new bakes my beloved cupcakes will pop up now and again...cus that's a habit I don't ever want to kick! So have a look around.... maybe even follow or leave a comment if you fancy.
                                 Roll on my first bake!                                
                                     
Thanks for stopping by 
                               Cupcake Girl x