Weekend Baking

This weekend I got back to my baking and it will keep coming. I couldn't decide what to start with so I went for a mix.

First I decided on some Chocolate Brownie Cupcakes as it was the weekend so I was in need of chocolate.

These had such a soft fudgey sponge. They were slightly rich but with the portion size of a cupcake they were great. One of these would satisfy a real chocolate crazing, maybe two. I forgot to pick up extra plain chocolate so ended up using a mixture of plain, milk and white chocolate. I don't believe that this affected them but will make them again soon, with all plain chocolate, to make sure.

I also need to work on these again as the tops came out a little crisp. They still tasted fine but I'll need to watch my temperature more.

The next bake was something different for me. Melting Moments biscuits. I don't think I've made biscuits like this before. They are a lot like shortbread but softer. As the name suggests they should melt in the mouth.

This was a very easy mix. Basically chuck everything in a bowl and mix.  Then came the challenge. I am no good with a piping bag but I tried and I got better towards the end. Can you guess which ones they are?

As you can see once they came out of the oven the first attempts at piping came out darker than the rest, being much smaller.

When I piped the first few I thought it was really difficult to get the mixture out of the bag but it became much easier once the piping bag had less in it. So lesson here, don't over fill the piping bag! It will make it difficult to pipe and you'll have biscuit mix go everywhere. 

When they were baking they smelt like shortbread (the smell filled my flat) and they tasted like that too but without the bite. As the name states they melt. They are so soft you could eat these with no teeth.

I'm not a shortbread fan so these didn't appeal to me so I moved onto cookies.

I decided on a batch of white chocolate chip and again it was all in one bowl. Easy. Until the transferring to a tray. These were meant to be soft and chewy but I put too much on the tray and they were too high and didn't flatten out as much as they should have and then I overcooked them. They were alright as a crunchy cookie but it wasn't what I was going for.

So again baking didn't turn out too well but it was another try at something I enjoy. Let's see what happens next.

Fall Food - Pumpkin Baking

In October seeing so many pumpkins made me want to bake with them. I had never even cooked a pumpkin never mind baked with one but I had a very strong urge for some pumpkin baking and wanted to test both a pumpkin and a can of puree.

Pumpkin, fresh from the oven

Sadly, I think I had the pumpkin in the oven too long and it dried out. Thankfully I had enough puree for both baking batches.
 
I got the recipies for both of these from one of my favourite youtubers Laura Vitale from Laura in the Kitchen, check her out here; http://www.laurainthekitchen.com

The first of the baking was Pumpkin Bread.

Pumpkin Bread

This turned out well. Nice soft centre with a slight crust to the outside but overall it was tasty. I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon or ginger but this was lovely. It had a slight gingerbread taste, just in loaf form, but it was milder. I think the sweetness of the pumpkin mellowed out the strong spices. I would recommend this to anyone even people that say they don't like cinnamon just because the taste of the spices is reduced significantly.

The bread was good cold but is better warm. I would really recommend this as nice breakfast treat.

Making Cream-cheese Frosting

Pumpkin Cupcake mixture

Next was the Pumpkin Cupcakes. I loved these. They came out with such a soft light sponge and again the taste of the spices was mellowed with the pumpkin. I really enjoyed these and had to make sure other people got some or I would have eaten them all.

 Pumpkin Cupcakes

The cheese cream frosting on top may have been a bit much due to how much I added but they were treats.

Pumpkin Cupcake

Halloween may be over but Thanksgiving is still to come so there is plenty of time to still bake with pumpkin.

Frosted Pumpkin Cupcake

I wonder what I can do next?

Lastest Baking - Cupcake Structure Issue

Apple Strudel Cupcake - Good Structure

Baking can be a tricky issue where measurements, temperature and timing are completely vital in the outcome.

Cooking is much more relaxed, where you add a bit of this and a bit of that, taste along the way and get a lovely outcome.

Baking, not so much.

Carrot Cake Cupcake - Poor Structure

What I am focusing on just now is the temperature of butter due to failed cupcakes.

A flaw of mine is being impatient, so when I want to bake I have at times not let the butter get to room temperature and then wonder why my cupcakes are a mess.

Apple Strudel Cupcake - Good Structure

Looking into this, for reasons why, I discover that room temperature not only makes creaming the butter and sugar together easier. It is also important in relation to the structure of the cupcake.

Carrot Cake Cupcake - Poor Structure

Think of the sugar and butter as your cake building block. The creamed butter and sugar are your cement the better the cement the better the structure. The better your creamed sugar and butter, the better the cake structure.

So be patient or prepared and make sure the butter is room temperature before you start baking.

I look forward to creating better cupcakes now and hope this helps anyone who may have had the same problem.

Recent Baking Trials

I have done several baking rounds over the last couple weeks and to be fully honest they didn't all end well.

This is just going to be a post to note my current baking failures and see what I can learn from it and hopefully that may help one of you when your baking.

Vanilla Cupcake

Day 1

First I went back to basics and just did vanilla cupcakes. These turned out well before getting to the cream. They tasted lovely but the cream I may have left a bit to long mixing (whilst eating a cupcake).

                                               Day 2

Choc Chip Cupcake

The second attempt were Jumbo Choc Chip Cupcakes. I wouldn't really call them jumbo but they were bigger than others I've made recently. They tasted nice but were a little crispy on top. This was due to the oven being at too high a temperature.

Mini Lime Cupcake

Then there was the Lime Mini Cupcakes. These were lovely, I ate too many but they were just so nice in light and the icing wasn't too sweet due to the lime cutting through the sugar. These I will be experimenting with to get bigger cupcakes with the same light and zingy taste.

Day 3

Chocolate Cupcake

Being a fan of Fairycakes/Butterfly cakes as a kid I thought I'd try Chocolate and Orange butterfly cakes but these were doomed from the start. Where was the orange! I didn't put in enough coco powder! Once these where baked it was clear I hadn't mixed the flour well enough either. 

They were edible but not successful but to top it off I didn't have enough butter to make the icing to disguise them and by that time at night I didn't want to.

Fudgy Cupcake

Finally was the attempt of Fudge Cupcakes. Let's ignore these. This wasn't a night for baking.

Wish me luck for next weekend's baking.