The sun has got his hat on...

I'm loving the weather we are having at the moment. It just makes everything so much better!!! We have had 4 bbq's already in the past 2 weeks!

This week i had a lovely lady called Sharon come to a cupcake lesson with me. We had a great time chatting away but she created some fab cupcakes that she is now going to go away and practice making more with her little girl!

It's been pretty quiet on the cake front the past couple of weeks. The last big lot I did was for a wedding in Corby. Lovely wedding and lovely couple. A couple of pics below but apologies for the quality as they were taken with my phone. One thing i'm saving for is a proper camera as the pictures I take of my cakes are really pretty bad!

For my birthday I got the big cupcake cake pan from my best friend so I must make one of these soon the 1st chance I get. The I think i'll add them to the site for people to purchase if they want. Big giant cupcake!! Can't be a bad thing!

I'm thinking about some new designs to do to celebrate the better weather. So i'll keep you posted. But lots of brights!

The recipe i want to share for this post is the cake I made Phil for his birthday. It's not fancy looking but it tastes like a birthday cake should. Let me know if any of you try it. I found this recipe on Nigella's Website

INGREDIENTS
200g plain flour
3 tablespoons Bird’s custard powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 eggs
225g soft butter
200g caster sugar
2–3 tablespoons milk

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM FILLING
125g icing sugar
4 teaspoons Bird’s custard powder
75g soft unsalted butter
11/2 teaspoons boiling water

FOR THE CHOCOLATE ICING
60ml water
2 tablespoons golden syrup
125g caster sugar (or use 50g if using milk chocolate)
175g dark chocolate
1 pot hundreds and thousands

Serving Size : Makes up to 12 slices

METHOD

1.Make sure everything you need is at room temperature before you start. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180°C, and butter and line two 20cm sandwich tins.

2.Put all of the above ingredients except the milk, into a food processor. Process to a smooth batter, and then add the milk a tablespoon at a time to make a soft dropping consistency. Divide between the two cake tins and bake for 20 minutes. The cakes will have risen and feel spookily puffy; this is because of the cornflour in the custard powder.

3.Let the tins sit on a cooling rack for 5 minutes and then turn them out on to the rack, peeling away the paper.

4.FOR THE BUTTERCREAM ICING - Process the icing sugar and custard powder to get rid of any lumps, and then add the butter, processing again to make the buttercream come together. Feed the boiling water down the funnel with the motor running to make the filling easier to spread. Then sandwich the cooled sponges together with the custardy buttercream.

5.FOR THE CHOCOLATE ICING - Combine the water, syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stirring to dissolve over a low heat.

6.Let it come to the boil and then take it off the heat.

7. Break up the chocolate into small pieces if you are not using chocolate buttons (as I do for cooking, but good quality not confectionary standard), and then add to the pan, swirling it around to cover in the hot liquid. Leave to melt for a few minutes, and then whisk the icing to make it smooth and shiny. Pour over the buttercream filled cake, letting it drip down the sides, and then sprinkle generously with the hundreds and thousands before the icing sets.

Have a fab weekend everyone.

Jess xoxo

What a busy week!

Well Mother's day weekend was very busy in our house! Lot's of lucky mum's out there getting yummy cupcakes! Below is a few pics of some of the one's that went out.

I also had a cupcake class with a lovely couple from Wales who want to set up their own cupcake business. It was a fun few hours and they had a great time learning decorating techiniques and were really pleased with how their cakes turned out. Below is a picture of them!

My cupcake classes are getting more popular now with a lot of bookings coming in, and i love doing them.

Order wise not much this week. Had some to do for a 40th Birthday this weekend and it's my lovely man's birthday so some baking to be done there!

On Tuesday at 20:30 BBC2 "The Delicious Miss Dahl" starts and I cannot wait. I have her book "Miss Dahl's Voluptuous Delights" and it's one of my favourites. Yummy recipes and a beautiful book to read as well.

Hope everyone has a fab week :-)

I can't believe it's March!

The past few months have wizzed by! I can't believe we are in March already. I'm happy that the snow seems to have steered clear for a while now and i'm looking forward to getting some more sunshine!!

Some sunshine theme cupcakes

Last time I mentioned I launched the cupcake classes. I have 2 people coming on Friday for a 121 class. So looking forward to that. She is looking to set up as a business so will be sharing my experience of setting Jessica's Cupcakes up.

This week I have some cupcakes I'm donating for a charity cake sale for a local nursery- they are going to be Chocolate orange brownie flavour. Yummy crumbliness (is that a word?!). Have posted my recipe below.

I also have some christening cupcakes to do in a pink and cream theme. So a fairly quiet week- means I can do some testing with new flavours and designs.

Something i've always wanted to do is to write a book so currently researching that- want to do a cupcake book- or maybe baking in general. Need to do some thinking. If anyone has any hints and tips on writing/publishing a book then please let me know!

Remember the upcoming dates for cupcake classes are:

Friday 23rd April 2010
Friday 21st May 2010
Friday 18th June 2010

They run from 10am-1pm and cost £50. See http://www.jessicascupcakes.com/ for more info.

Here is an order i did for a girly girl who loves Top Gear!

Chocolate Orange Cupcakes

Makes 12 and few cupcakes

Ingredients

60g milk chocolate

Rind and juice from 1 orange

90g softened butter

225g brown sugar

2 eggs

80g self raising flour

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius

1. Put chocolate, orange rind and orange juice in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until melted. Then leave to one side to cool slightly.

2. Put butter, eggs and sugar in a mixer and mix until light and fluffy.

3. Sift flour and cocoa into butter mix. Then add the chocolate orange mixture and mix until combined.

4. Spoon into cupcake cases and bake in oven for about 25 minutes and then cool.

For topping you can use a vanilla buttercream, chocolate buttercream or a yummy cream cheese frosting with some orange zest added.

Cupcake Classes Launched

Yesterday i launched my cupcakes classes. They will be held at my home in small groups and will allow people to learn some of the techniques of decorating cupcakes.

The dates I have so far are:

Friday 23rd April 2010
Friday 21st May 2010
Friday 18th June 2010

They will run from 10am until 1pm and cost £50. I'm very excited about these as I love teaching people how to decorate cakes and get great satisfaction seeing people suprised at what they can create.

On the order front been quite busy which is fab. I have a lot of birthday and Valentine's orders coming up including some stig cupcakes for a 6 year old girl which i think is fab!

Here are some Birthday cakes I did recently.

Happy New Year

Wow xmas was a busy time, also was poorly for a lot of it so wasn't much of a relaxing time. Hope everyone had a great xmas and New Year.


Wedding orders starting to flow in now for 2010 which is great. I love doing wedding cupcakes :-)


My new favourite flavour is coconut and pineapple cupcakes, soooo yummy. Also Strawberry Cheesecake is a close second.


This year i'd like to start branching out into bigger celebration cakes, will look for a couple of courses as i'm getting lots of requests for bigger cakes.


Here are some pictures of cuppies done the past few weeks:



Xmas cupcakes for a Vet





Magician Cupcakes






Girly Birthday Cupcakes

Merry Christmas

Hi Everyone, hope xmas plans are coming along.

I love Christmas! Busy time of year though. Got a few orders coming in which is good. 18th Birthday, Thank You cakes for local vet, Christmas Cupcakes etc.

Anyone been watching Kristie's Homemade Xmas? I love that show. So many fab ideas for Xmas and how much do I want to do Salt dough shapes! ?Takes me back!

Jobs I'm planning to do over the weekend: make candles, make cookies, send xmas cards, order xmas food shop online, make some more chutney and finish sewing bear.
Also I want to update the www.jessicascupcakes.com website. Need to freshen it up a bit, add some more pics and add some more flavour ranges so watch this space!

I'm loving the hummingbird bakery cookbook. I have done 2 recipes so far and both have been fab. Coconut and Pineapple and Strawberry Cheesecake. Yummy!

Couple of weeks ago I held a cupcake party, a girls night in one. They all had a fab time and made some fabulous cupcakes.
Next weekend is my Nephew's birthday so he will be having cupcake decorating and I'm also doing "magic" theme cupcakes for him.

I'm hoping that 2010 the party bookings get a bit busier as I love doing them.
Right must be getting on with things. Will post update and more pics soon, especially of anymore "crafty bits"!

Preparing for Christmas

Well I've been getting organised for christmas! Done most of the present shopping and wrapping which i'm very pleased about. Plus made a few yummy edible gifts.

A few people wanted the recipes so thought i'd post them on my blog. Let me know if you try any!

Rachel Allen's Fudge

375g condensed Milk

450g golden caster sugar
100g butter

1tsp vanilla essence (if required or 75g of chocolate chips)

1. melt the butter then add milk and sugar, cook for 10 to 15 minutes on a low heat.

2. fill the sink with some water and place this pan on and mix this mixture with some minutes. this will make the mixture hard quickly. when grainy, its time to put into a baking tray.

3. then put this mixture on the tin and spread out about 1cm think.

4. let it cool for about 5 minutes and you have to cut the shape within 3 to 5 minutes otherwise this mixture will very hard.

I put mine in cellophane gift bags here is a link for some I have used http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/acatalog/Cello_Bags.html

Pear Chutney

1kg (about 6) ripe pears
150g ready-to-eat dried prunes, chopped
150g sultanas
150g raisins
200g shallots, finely sliced
2 eating apples, peeled, cored and sliced into wedges
300g light muscovado sugar
1 cinnamon stick
600ml cider vinegar

1. Peel and core the pears, then chop them into chunks. Place them in a pan with the prunes, sultanas, raisins, shallots, apples, sugar and cinnamon stick. Pour in half of the cider vinegar, season and slowly bring to a simmer, stirring, until the sugar has dissolved. Cook for 25 minutes more, until tender.

2. Pour in the rest of the cider vinegar and cook for a further 30 minutes, stirring often, until thickened. If it’s still runny, simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

3. Divide the hot chutney between sterilised jars, place a disc of waxed paper directly onto the chutney and seal with airtight lids or cellophane and elastic bands. Leave to cool.

Chocolate Winter Bark- Delicious Magazine

225g white chocolate, chopped
350g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), broken into pieces
200g salted peanuts

1. Put the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring now and then, until melted. Remove from the heat. Meanwhile, in a separate heatproof bowl, melt the dark chocolate over another pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally in the same way.

2. Stir the peanuts into the dark chocolate.
Spread out on a baking paper-lined baking sheet, so that the peanuts form a single layer.
Drop spoonfuls of white chocolate on top, and swirl both chocolates together using a skewer or the end of a spoon (so that it looks like tree bark). Allow to cool.

3. Set in the fridge for about 1 hour. Break the bark into large pieces.

Again I will put these in cello bags and tie with ribbon.

Easy Strawberry Jam

1kg/2lb strawberries

1kg caster sugar

The zest and juice of 1 lemon

Place the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest into a saucepan. Place over a low heat and simmer very gently until the sugar dissolves. Turn the heat to high and boil vigorously for 10 minutes.

Do the wrinkle test (see introduction); if the jam has set, remove it from the heat and leave in the pan for 10 minutes to ensure even distribution of fruit and juice.

Spoon into sterilised jars, seal and allow to cool before storing in the fridge or cool place.

I cut out circles in fabric and placed over jam jars and tied with ribbon/string.

I'm planning to make some xmas decorations etc but need to get a sewing machine 1st. I'm planning to get on this weekend. So will post some updates once i've made some bits.