HELLO!!Publish Post
Wow it has been over 2 weeks since I last posted. When you no longer have to study you no longer have to find means of procrastination. Chem went well(ish haha) and food systems went even better (it was a week after chem). Anyway I have been back home in Auckland a week and I am already bored. Casually needing money to buy craft supplies . .
I did however take a wonderful trip to Milly's in Ponsonby. My favourite shop ever. If its kitchen and cooking related they have it. They have a whole cave dedicated to cake decorating. Excellent. So half an hour and a grumpy Chris and $20 later I exited this paradise with a 1M nozzle and some white-violet edible glitter. So worth driving over the bridge haha and scaring myself and Chris and the rest of Auckland's motorists with my driving.
This trip was inspired by my making of these red velvet cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The nozzle I had bought a few weeks ago was too small to make the roses I had wanted on these cupcakes. Never fear, they turned out lovely anyway and were gobbled up in no time at all.
Ok so I use the Wilton gel food colouring, which meant that I had to add extra water to the cocoa in order to make a paste. Uhhhg it went EVEYWHERE except my white tshirt luckily. It stuck to the spatula, the spoon, the sides of the bowl. Such a pain. But lovely colour :) So worth it.
Thick paste of despair.
Now it just looks black.
The other day I went to the supermarket and found these purple themed cases. Perfect. Hmm they were a bit too small however so the resultant cupcakes were a bit flat - an even greater surface area for which to place icing. hmm :)
Oh No!! what is this?! Left over mixture!! How terrible. I am now forced to make some mini cupcakes . . .
Here is the 1M nozzle I bought. If you want to make pretty roses this is the nozzle for you. To learn how to make them check out this tutorial I found. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYy2uiK6T94
Fatty . . . Here is Jack by the way.
Here is the recipe adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
60g butter softened
150g castor sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml purple food colouring (since I used a gel I added a dollop and a few teaspoons of water)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Cream cheese icing
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until extra fluffy and well incorporated (see the photo above). In a separate bowl make a paste out of the cocoa, food colouring (and water) and vanilla. Add to the egg, sugar, butter mixture. Turn the beater down to slow and add half the buttermilk. beat until well combined then add the sifted flour. Add the rest of the buttermilk then flour. Beat until the mixture is smooooooth. In a small dish mix together the baking soda and vinegar then add to the rest of the batter. Beat this in well. Spoon the mixture into paper cases until two thirds full and bake for 20 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when touched. Once the cupcakes are COOL (very important) ice with a standard cream cheese icing (ask your mum if you are not sure how to make one). Dust with magical fairy glitter and immediately hide from your brother.
This should make 12 large cupcakes.
So that is my morning cupcake (and cookie making) they received an overall 8.5/10 from my brother (quite a score haha).
I also bought a ruffle nozzle . . . so next time you see me I shall have a ruffle cake to show you. Exciting.
Wow it has been over 2 weeks since I last posted. When you no longer have to study you no longer have to find means of procrastination. Chem went well(ish haha) and food systems went even better (it was a week after chem). Anyway I have been back home in Auckland a week and I am already bored. Casually needing money to buy craft supplies . .
I did however take a wonderful trip to Milly's in Ponsonby. My favourite shop ever. If its kitchen and cooking related they have it. They have a whole cave dedicated to cake decorating. Excellent. So half an hour and a grumpy Chris and $20 later I exited this paradise with a 1M nozzle and some white-violet edible glitter. So worth driving over the bridge haha and scaring myself and Chris and the rest of Auckland's motorists with my driving.
This trip was inspired by my making of these red velvet cupcakes from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The nozzle I had bought a few weeks ago was too small to make the roses I had wanted on these cupcakes. Never fear, they turned out lovely anyway and were gobbled up in no time at all.
Sorry about the below average quality, I am still using my ipod's camera. Cbf charging my camera batteries . . .
Anyway so here is the messy adventure that is my purple velvet cupcakes . . .
BEAT!
Oh hey! Cookies! Something I just whipped up earlier at the request of my brother, Jack..
Ok so I use the Wilton gel food colouring, which meant that I had to add extra water to the cocoa in order to make a paste. Uhhhg it went EVEYWHERE except my white tshirt luckily. It stuck to the spatula, the spoon, the sides of the bowl. Such a pain. But lovely colour :) So worth it.
Thick paste of despair.
Reliving this sticky purple mess is just painful.
Now it just looks black.
Haha since we didn't have buttermilk (which is a by product of butter production funily enough - i'll give you the food lesson another day) but basically it is a low fat, acidic, bacterially full, lumpy mixture. I substituted it with milk with a tub of plain vanilla yogurt. The yogurt lowers the pH of the milk which is what we want :)
I couldn't resist turning the milk purple . . .
Next I added 150g of plain flour. Mixed in half the milk mixture then half the flour then half the milk then half the flour. Bam. Mixed.
Like my apron? I decided things were getting a bit too splattery for my brother's white tshirt. Time to armour up.
White wine vinegar and baking soda :) Hmm this brings me back to beach volcano building with Dad that and simple acid base chemistry. Now children, what gas is being released?
Mix this in well and beat until smooth.
Oh No!! what is this?! Left over mixture!! How terrible. I am now forced to make some mini cupcakes . . .
Plus two casual loner cupcakes . . .
Hmm told you I made a mess . . .
Ta daaa!!!! Clean! Mum and Dad will never know.
And here they are, starting to think colouring them doesn't make much of a difference as the cocoa just drowns out all other colours. However, they do appear purple in the light, lots of light.
Here is the 1M nozzle I bought. If you want to make pretty roses this is the nozzle for you. To learn how to make them check out this tutorial I found. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYy2uiK6T94
My 12 inch piping bag was to narrow at the tip so I had to snip of about half a cm in order to fit the big nozzle.
FIRST ATTEMPT AT THE ROSE! WIN!!!!!!!
Oh arn't they pretty :) Mum will forgive me for baking almost immediately after she sees these.
Wait, ones missing . . .
Fatty . . . Here is Jack by the way.
Naawwwwww :) I also sprinkled them with my new glitter - which you probably can't see in this picture but trust me, it makes the roses look all dewy and lovely.
I did some experimenting on the mini cupcakes too.
60g butter softened
150g castor sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml purple food colouring (since I used a gel I added a dollop and a few teaspoons of water)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
Cream cheese icing
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C.
Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until extra fluffy and well incorporated (see the photo above). In a separate bowl make a paste out of the cocoa, food colouring (and water) and vanilla. Add to the egg, sugar, butter mixture. Turn the beater down to slow and add half the buttermilk. beat until well combined then add the sifted flour. Add the rest of the buttermilk then flour. Beat until the mixture is smooooooth. In a small dish mix together the baking soda and vinegar then add to the rest of the batter. Beat this in well. Spoon the mixture into paper cases until two thirds full and bake for 20 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when touched. Once the cupcakes are COOL (very important) ice with a standard cream cheese icing (ask your mum if you are not sure how to make one). Dust with magical fairy glitter and immediately hide from your brother.
This should make 12 large cupcakes.
I also bought a ruffle nozzle . . . so next time you see me I shall have a ruffle cake to show you. Exciting.