Red velvet cupcakes with chocolate dipped strawberry toppers!

 

Wow has this week been hectic. l've finally completed a full week at my new job and I'm still absolutely loving it. l think I'm slowly learning that if you're not doing something you love then you are going to resent having to go in everyday. This week I've even worked late twice, but you won't here a winge or a moan from me because I'm just so excited to be doing such interesting work!
 

Still...work isn't eveything and we all need to find ways to relax. This is going to be quite difficult for me.

 

Much of this weekend was taken up with flat hunting. l'm in a period of transition right row and can't afford to just sit back and watch the weekends pass me by.

 

Nonetheless with all this going on I've decided to make Sunday's a day for baking and blogging. For me there is nothing more relaxing than mixing cake batter or icing swirls of buttercream. Who's with me?

 

I first made these cakes when Wimbledon was in full flow. When the tennis is on it seems inevitable that everyone becomes obsessed with strawberries and cream. I took these two classics and turned them on their head - the cream became buttercream and the strawberries HAD to be dipped in chocolate (it's my favourite way to eat them afterall).

 

This didn't seem enough though. A vanilla cupcake wasn't going to be immensely transformed just by adding Chocolate Dipper Strawberry Toppers, so instead I chose to pop them on top of a red velvet cupcake. Not only did the red sponge look striking against the light buttercream and vibrant red strawberries, but the cocoa powder in the sponge also tied in with the chocolate the strawberries had been dipped in!

 

The combination really is inspired. If you too love the strawberry and chocolate combo then you should definitely give it a go.

Birthday Bake-a-thon!

Firstly, let me apologise for my late night blogging! Who’s up reading blogs at this time of night...besides those of you who don’t live in England and it’s probably a reasonable time of day! I do have an excuse however, as I have been doing ALOT of baking...

Yesterday I embarked on another epic bake-a-thon! Last year I did my first bake-a-thon for my Dad when he wanted to take cakes to work for his birthday, and since I have done a number of bake-a-thons for cake sales that his work often hold for charity.

Yesterday, I was baking for my boyfriend Jon’s birthday (which is today! Happy birthday!) He too wanted to take cakes to work – he’s still very new so wanted to make a good impression! I told him he could have ANY cakes he wanted...after all, he was paying! But we decided to keep it relatively simple, one batch of vanilla cupcakes topped with vanilla butter cream and dolly mixtures, one batch of chocolate cupcakes topped with chocolate butter cream (made with a mix of dark and milk chocolate for depth of flavour and sweetness) and a sprinkle of M&M’s, and finally one batch of blueberry muffins!

After Dinner Cupcakes

At Christmas we get through a mountain of After Eights and Matchmakers. Everyone loves a dark chocolate filled with mint after their dinner. So when we ran out, I though why not make an after dinner cupcake! A chocolate bun with peppermint icing and sprinkled candy cane on top!

By tweaking a standard cupcake recipe I was able to make these delicious after dinner cupcakes!