Under The Sea Birthday Party for Szonja -with Ruffled Blue Ombre Cake

 

 

 

Blues….LOTS of blues! When we decided that my daughter will have an Under The Sea party I instantly fell in love with the whole idea. I made some research of what I could bring to the table and I am happy to say that I managed to put it all together, but what is more important is that my daughter and her friends had a wonderful time, they enjoyed the party very much, including me 🙂

 

 

This post is a bit more than just cakes and cupcakes. I want to share with you my beautiful 7 year old daughter’s party details, because it was a great pleasure for me to host it and have these cheerful, happy, funny and very well behaved kids in the house for a couple of hours.

I will start with the party table then finish with the decorations and party activities.

 

I made each party guest her own starfish biscuit with her own printed name, and my daughter placed them in order where she wanted them to sit.

 

We put tiny white chocolates on their plates too, which I wrapped in tulle and glued on a small, real seashell.

I made little sandwich castles of two kind. There were tuna sandwiches and butter with ham.

I served blue Ocean Water which was in fact strawberry flavoured water with few drops of blue food colour. I planned to make blue jelly as well, but eventually I gave up with it, because I realised that there was plenty to eat already and it would have been a waist. Instead I gave them fresh blueberries and I think it was definitely a healthier and testier option.

I put cute little jars of several kind of blue and white candies, sweets, bonbons which all looked pretty and the kids loved it!

I made vanilla cake pops and covered them with blue candy melt, but I didn’t dip them in the melted chocolate to make it smooth, but instead I used a spoon and kind of painted the blue chocolate all over the cake pops to get this rough finish and I named it Ocean Waves Cake Pops. I sprinkled some edible glitter on them too.

Under the cake I placed little bite size seashell cookies. I made these from tiny biscuits filled with white chocolate cream and a large chocolate pearl. I wanted to tint the white chocolate ganache with blue food colour, but as you can see it came out a little greenish…. That’s because the white chocolate has an ivory-yellow colour and mixed with blue it will result in green. It still looked pretty so I didn’t mind really.

Same cream on top of my cupcakes. These were strawberry cupcakes and some are frosted with plain whipped cream, others with the chocolate ganache. I placed edible seashells on top. Some I left pure white, and some I dusted with pale blue edible lustre.

And last but not least the Birthday Cake!

I made a  white chocolate cake with many layers and many blue ombre ruffles. On top I just sprinkled brown sugar and placed several small fondant seashells.

Now, a bit about the decoration and the party…

I put some beautiful white flowers on the table, a blue candle, and several real, large seashells which I borrowed from my son’s preschool. They looked pretty and made a real statement on the table.

I made blue and white pompoms from tissue paper and hang them to the ceiling above the party table. Good thing that none of them fell down while they were siting by the table:-)

There was a sign at the front door written with chalk: Mermaids this way. We did not took a picture of that 🙂

I set up a little corner named Mermaid Boutique where we had bottles of loose pearls, beads, and also necklaces, bracelets and hair clips as many as the girls. I made each girl her own necklace and bracelet and hair clip which they received during a game and of course they got to keep them.

Szonja had a different hair clip, a special handmade from Bali that I bought her few weeks ago.

She also got this wooden treasure box that I made her myself for her birthday.

After the girls (and 1 boy) arrived we asked them to sit to a little table and write or draw a birthday message to Szonja, then they had to insert their message into a bottle.

In order to get their necklaces, bracelets and hair clips, they had to find few treasures in a large bucket filled with sand. They had to dig in and bring what they found. Also they had to pick a flash card and they had to be able to say some facts about the sea animal shown on the card. In exchange they got their prize.

Digging for hidden treasures…

I sprayed hair glitter on their hair before giving them their hair clip. This was a huge hit of the party. Honestly 🙂

The girls had fun with the mermaid photo booth! I made this huge drawing so they can take turns posing as mermaids, and they all did so 🙂

Along with their party favour bags filled with lots of sweets and some other stuff, I prepared these little baby food jars containing sand, seashells and colourful sea creatures.

 

This was MY fizzy Caribbean cocktail drink 🙂

My oldest and my youngest with their friend. I made these tutu skirts for them.

Raspberry Cupcakes With Caramel Chocolate Cream

Fresh, sweet raspberry with caramel it’s a very good combination. I’m glad I had the initiative to give it a go. 

I baked a batch of my favourite vanilla recipe with adding 200 g of fresh raspberries.

 

 

The cream is caramel chocolate melted in double cream. To finish the cake I piped a little whipped cream on top of the caramel cream and I decorated it with paper roses.

 

 

Little Jars of Heaven – Strawberry and Chocolate Cakes in Jars

 

Not much to say here really…leftover chocolate cake crumbles + fresh strawberries + double cream and whatever little jars. Could be baby food jars or yogurt jars.

 

 

I had the cake in my freezer, left from the Christmas chocolate cake. First I put the cake in a bowl, I let to defrost then I add 2 spoon of cream, to make it a little moist. I evenly divided a layer of cake in the jars, then put the diced strawberries, more cake, finally the whipped cream.

To make the whipped cream a bit more special, I add 2 teaspoon of icing sugar and 2 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

 

Orange and Poppy Seed Cupcakes

 

My inspiration for this cupcake was found in the January issue of Tesco Food Family Living, which is a free food magazine and I usually grab a copy on the way out of the store. Although I used  a few elements from this recipe, it wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, so I searched the net for more recipes in the subject. I came across to Food Network and I found Zesty Orange and Poppy Seed Cake made by Andy Bates. So, I took those two recipes, combined them, left some elements out, added some new ideas and here we are 🙂

 

 

 

Both recipes need a syrup. You either make it yourself or use Golden Syrup for this purpose, but eventually I used a special syrup which is originally something to add an extra flavour to your coffee. It’s called Le Sirop de Monin – Vanilla  and it worked perfectly!

 

 

Ingredients:

-3 big oranges (+ for decoration)

-2 eggs

-250 g brown sugar

-1 tsp baking powder

-100 g poppy seeds

-290 g ground almonds

-10 g melted butter

-about 100 ml syrup (Golden Syrup will be just fine)

-2 cardamom pods

-pinch of salt

 

Place the 2 oranges in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil then simmer for 30 minutes or until gets softer. Transfer them in cold water to cool down. After cooling cut the oranges in chunks and put it in a food processor to chop the oranges in small pieces. The final result should be watery from the orange juice but also chunky from the orange peels. 

Preheat your oven. Line your cupcake tray with the baking cases. Mix the poppy seeds with the almond, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

Beat the eggs and brown sugar in a mixing bowl with your electric mixer until light and thickened for 4-5 minutes. Add the melted butter. Gently fold in the almond/poppy seeds mixture then add orange pulp.

Pour the mixture (or use a tablespoon) into the cupcake cases, smooth over the top and bake on the middle shelf on the oven for about 20-25 minutes until golden and a fine skewer poked in the middle comes out clean. Remove, leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes then place them out onto a wire rack.

While baking, cut the remaining orange in half and squeeze out the juice. Put the syrup, the cardamom pods and the orange juice in a pan, bring it to boil. Poke the cupcakes in several places with the skewer and pour a tablespoon of warm syrup on each cupcake. Then leave it to cool completely.

Beat about 300 ml double cream with a tablespoon of icing sugar and carefully add few spoons of the cool leftover syrup. This was a last minute idea and was happy with the outcome, because the whipped cream had a distinctive, not too strong orange and cardamom flavour. The cake was really good too, much better than I anticipated, so I will definitely make this again.

I thought why not make few poppy flowers from fondant! As you can see they don’t look too glamorous….Unfortunately my red fondant is not of a very good quality and soon after I place the decoration on cream it starts to melt. Every time! And only the red fondant. Why does it happen it’s beyond me. As much as I like the red colour, I don’t like to decorate my cupcakes with it, because the result can have a catastrophic end…

 

 

Walnuts and Spices Cupcakes for Christmas

 

I baked these cupcakes for Christmas alongside with the Truffle Cake in Hungary because we have spent the Holidays there. Walnuts is very commonly used for cakes around Christmas time in most Hungarian home.

To simplify this for decoration I choose  paper stickers.

 

 

 

Ingredients:

 

-1 cup flour

-1 cup brown sugar

-2 eggs (room temperature)

-200 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

-5 tbsp walnuts (chopped)

-2 tbsp honey

-3 tbsp milk

-2 tsp vanilla extract

-1 tsp baking powder

-pinch of salt

-100 g chocolate (chopped)

 

Frosting cream:

-250 g Mascarpone, soft cream-cheese

-5 tbsp powder sugar (icing sugar)

-300 ml milk

-40 g custard powder (or one sachet of Tejszínízű pudingpor)

-1 tsp Schwartz Mixed Spice (optional but it definitely gives an exclusive character to the cream)

-3 tbsp finely chopped walnuts (using an electric grinder)

-salt

 

Method:

1.Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. My oven is an old gas oven and have absolutely no idea how many degrees are inside, I just switch it to gas mark 6-7, well somewhere in between.

Line your cupcake tin with the cupcake cases and put it aside.

2.Stir the flour, salt and baking powder together and set aside.

3.Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and cream together until you get a smooth mixture. Add the honey and chopped walnuts, give it a stir then add the flour and the milk and mix it but only until everything is combined. Finally stir in the chocolate.

I used milk chocolate, but you can use dark chocolate if you like, and also ready made chocolate chips will do.

Before chopping the walnuts I put them on a baking tray and roasted it for about 10 minutes. Be careful and don’t burn them! After cooling, chop the walnuts in pieces with a knife. It’s up to you how small or big you chop them, I like them at the size of the chocolate chips so it’s crunchy after baking.

4.Scoop the batter into the cupcake cases, filling only 3/4 way up. Bake for around 20 minutes. Do NOT open your oven in the first 10 minutes, but after that you can turn the baking tray if necessary (I need to do it in my oven). When they’re done, let them cool for about 5 minutes in the baking tin before taking out on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting cream, you have to prepare a thick custard cream and let it cool completely.

I used a Hungarian Dr.Oetker sachet of custard which is called “Tejszínízű pudingpor” (this is for my Hungarian readers :-), this contain 40 g of custard powder. You can easily replace this with vanilla custard, I don’t think it makes any difference.

So, stir the 40 g (must be about 2 tbsp) of custard powder with 3 tbsp of icing sugar, add 300 ml of milk and bring it to boil until you get a thick custard cream. Let it cool completely.

In a mixing bowl cream together the Mascarpone cream cheese and 2 tbsp of icing sugar, add the fine walnuts and the cold custard cream gradually. In the end stir in about 1 tsp of Mixed Spice and -call me crazy but throw in a pinch of salt, it only makes it better!

 

 

 

 

 

Halloween Cupcakes with Chestnut and White Chocolate Cream

My kids where waiting for Halloween to go on trick or treat especially my daughter, but sadly we won’t do it as they got a virus and the doctor said we shouldn’t go in public because it is contaminating. What are the chances?! Halloween is once a year and they got ill on that week!

We did some dressing up and they painted Halloween ceramics and I baked some cupcakes all in the spirit of Halloween.

For this occasion I baked a batch of vanilla cupcakes -which once again has proved to be a perfect base as it is plain but delicious and easy to make.

The frosting is made from white chocolate ganache with chestnut puree. When I use chestnut puree in a recipe I usually just whip it with double cream, but this time I made a white chocolate ganache first (the previous day) and then whipped up together. Very good and dense!

The Halloween toppings are stickers from Hobby Craft. No way I could find the time to make sugarpaste decorations, although I had some good ideas, but I will save it for next time.

In the end I sprinkled black glitter on top for that extra special Halloween touch.

 

 

Ingredients:

-125 g butter, softened at room temperature

-1 cup brown sugar

-2 eggs

-1+1/3 cup flour

-1/3 cup milk

-2 teaspoon vanilla extract

-pinch of salt

-2 teaspoon baking powder

 

 

Frosting:

-300 ml double cream

-150 g white chocolate

-250 g chestnut puree (mine is from Hungary, it comes frozen, it is pure chestnut, naturally sweet, so no need to add sugar)

-black gemz glitter

-Halloween stickers and tooth pricks to attach them

 

Method:

 

Preheat the oven to 160 C (in my case I turn the gas on mark 7). Line your cupcake pan with the cases. In a bowl, use an electric mixer on high speed to cream the butter and sugar together until it’s light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix well.

Add the vanilla, flour and milk, and beat with the electric mixer until combined, but be careful DO NOT OVER-MIX, because it will become dry and sort of a bread (take Laura Vitale’s word for that 🙂

Use an ice cream scoop -if you have, and divide the mixture evenly in your cupcake cases, but fill them only 3/4.

Bake them for around 20 minutes, half way through you can turn your tray in the oven, but NEVER open the oven in the first 10 minutes of baking, this is important!

Take them out from the oven, but leave the cupcakes in the pan for about 5 minutes before you transfer them on a wire rack.

 

For the frosting (need to be done the day before or at least 6 hours ahead to allow time to cool), put the double cream in a deep pan, add the white chocolate broken into pieces and stir until completely melted, then put it away to cool. Eventually put it in the fridge over night. When they have cooled you mix it with the chestnut puree using an electric mixer.

 

My Halloween Baby in her scary costume 🙂

 

Red Currants and Lemon? Oh, yes!

How did I get the idea to combine these two? Well, remember my last post about the Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes? (yes guys, I’m still with the lemons… 🙂 I made those lemon cupcakes for someone, but she only asked for a few cakes, but since I baked a whole batch we had some for ourselves. This is how I combined these lemon cupcakes with fresh whipped cream and fresh red currants from the fridge, and voila! And remember, they also have a lemon cream filling inside….the recipe you can find at my previous post.

Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes Reloaded!

So, here I am again with a new batch of these truly amazing lemon cupcakes!

This time I will share the recipe too. I did some changes because the lady I made these for asked the cupcakes to be filled inside rather then having the cream on the top.

Ingredients:

-1 cup self raising flour

1 cup demerara sugar

-3 large eggs

-half stick of good quality butter which is 125 gr (my personal favourite is President french butter)

-2 large unwaxed lemon

-1 or 2 tablespoon of sugar (apart from the cup)

First, preheat the oven on Gas mark 6-7 and line the cupcake baking tray with cupcake cases.

Beat the butter in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy then add the sugar and beat them together too. Star adding the eggs one by one beating after each addition.

Add the sifted flour to the mixture but now use the lowest speed on the mixer and only beat until everything is combined.

Zest 1 of the lemons straight in your bowl and when done with that cut it in half and stir in the juice of one half lemon.

Divide the mixture in the cupcake cases and put it in the oven for about 20-25 minutes.

While baking, take the half lemon and the other lemon, juice them in a cup then stir in the tablespoon of sugar (1 or 2, depending on your taste…). You should get a tasty lemon syrup.

When your cupcakes are done, take them out from the oven and whilst it is still hot, prick them all over with a skewer then using a spoon spread over your drizzle mixture from earlier and  then leave it to cool completely.

I let them cool for about an hour then cored them and filled them.

For the filling I used double cream and lemon flavoured icing sugar to make a light, delicious cream. I also add a teaspoon of Sicilian Lemon Extract from Dr. Oetker to make it even more intense. Ah, that really worked well 🙂

Last time when I made the Lemon Drizzle Cupcakes with Vanilla  Cream, I didn’t core those, but instead I frost them with vanilla buttercream (butter+lemon flavour icing sugar+lemon extract+a little yellow colouring).

Strawberry Cupcakes Filled With Cream and Strawberries

I made these for someone last weekend. She wanted it to be filled with cream inside the cake rather then frosted. I do like a good cupcake that has creamy filling underneath the icing, and I think these came out pretty good!

I used my ever so popular vanilla cupcake from Laura Vitale’s Kitchen, so I will not write the recipe. I did few modifications though.

I add a cup of fresh strawberries to the batter, and after baking and cooling down, I cored each cupcake and filled them with a slice of strawberry and fresh cream which I previously whipped with strawberry flavoured icing sugar.

To decorate the cupcakes I used white sugarpaste/fondant and some glitter.

 I took these 2 cupcakes aside and made them to my husband who absolutely preferres a tall, extra creamy cupcake with fresh fruits versus a shallow, flat one iced with fondant. And so do I….