Cupcake crazy

To celebrate National Cupcake week, I was sent some Cupcake books to look at (well, also to make some of the recipes).

I was sent Cupcakes by Sue McMahon, Special Cupcakes by Wendy Sweetser, and Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, which are all published by New Holland Publishers here– you can also check out their facebook page here.

All the recipes look amazing (click on the names to have a look on amazon where you can “look inside”).

Cupcakes has several pages devoted to various toppings (how good does toffee topping sound?)- “normal” ones like butter-cream and cream cheese frosting, and fancier ones like swissย meringueย butter-cream. It also has a little “special diets” section in the back.

Special Cupcakes is divided into different sections- party time, seasonal celebtrations, romance, cakes for kids to name a few. Sweet potato and orange cupcakes jumped out at me from this book.

Divine Cupcakes is filled with cupcakes (with the most beautiful photography and amazing decorations), then at the end there is a section for different frostings/ icings, and then a section for decorating tips (how to make sugar roses, or chocolate twirls)- I would need a steady hand there!

I could not resist the brownie cupcakes from Cupcakes, so that was what I made first. I loved that the recipe had 2 eggs, because then it was easy to only make half.

Yum- that is melted chocolate and butter, and a bowl with sugar and a whisked egg. Plus some scrumptious dark chocolate chips from Beyond dark.

They are more like little chocolate puddles than chocolate chips, but so so yummy.

The batter ready to go into the oven. The batter was super easy to make and smelled totally amazing.

When they came out- I love the appearance of the tops- like real mini brownies. The recipe had chocolate ganache as the topping, but I had no cream. It did say to leave that out for a less rich cupcake, so I went for middle ground.

Some whole earth dark chocolate spread, plus a few more chocolate chips.

Now to enjoy one while looking over all the other fabulous sounding recipes. ๐Ÿ™‚

I also had a few bananas a bit past their best, so I decided to make the banana toffee cupcakes from Cupcakes too. Although I had used all my cupcake cases so I made them in mini loaf cases (and some in a bigger one too).

Looking lovely in their mini loaf case things.

And then with the toffee topping- this was really easy to make (and could be used on top of loads of different cupcakes)- I made it in the microwave (although it did bubble over) and made them a little more special. I took these to work (well I kept us a couple to share) and they were a total hit- I think everyone was really impressed that I made the toffee topping and that it was not out of a tin, and it really was very easy to make.

Alas now I have run out of eggs (for now, until I visit my Mum again) so the baking shall have to cease! But I am sure you will see more recipes from these books popping up pretty soon.

So- look inside one of them on amazon (click on their names above), and tell me what you would love to see me bake on this blog! ๐Ÿ™‚

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21 thoughts on “Cupcake crazy”

  1. That toffee banana bread looks amazing, where was that recipe from?

    I’m going to think about what I would like to see you bake for your blog, will get back to you on that one.

    1. From the cupcakes book- banana toffee cupcakes- the toffee topping was just on another page (but the recipe said toffee topping, see page ..)

  2. I think the raspberry and white chocolate ones sound brilliant – but I’m intrigued by the “fishy wishy” bit in the Cupcakes book!
    The toffee topping looks delicious and I agree, chocolate puddles is exactly what they look like ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. I have had the little loaf things for ages, and keep forgetting about them- I decided it would be good for banana bread as you often get it in a big loaf pan anyway!

  3. mmmm I want one of those banana ones!! They look incredible!

    Have you ever made savoury muffins. A lady that used to come to our running club did those for all our ‘out and about’ meets and they were amazing.

    Rosexx

    1. I have never made savoury ones- Andy always says he likes the idea of things like cheese muffins, but they don’t appeal to me so I never had. Maybe I need to branch out!

        1. That sounds yummy- I like bread with those sorts of flavours. I will let you know if I find a good recipe ๐Ÿ™‚

  4. Could you tell me where you buy your mini paper loaf cases from please as I am having difficulty finding any.
    Many thanks

  5. Hi- I got them from Sainsbury’s- they are in the baking section with all the paper cases, and I also got some from Lakeland ๐Ÿ™‚

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