Recipe: Gluten- Free Spider Web Cupcakes

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a blog post about some Halloween themed baking ideas I'd found on pinterest and last week I decided to bake some. I also changed the recipe for the cupcakes so that they'd be gluten-free so more people can eat them. I've never baked something with gluten-free flour before so I wasn't sure how they would turn out but they were great and don't taste too different to the real thing! The chocolate on top of the cupcakes also adds some more flavour as well as the vanilla extract in the cupcakes.

Ingredients
125g butter (melted)
125g caster sugar
125g gluten-free self-raising flour
2 eggs
3 tbsp milk
few drops of vanilla extract
For the topping
100g milk chocolate
100g white chocolate

How to
1. Heat the oven to 190c degrees (170c fan)
2. Add the melted butter, sugar, flour, eggs, milk and vanilla extract to a bowl and mix with an electric mixer.
3. Spoon the mixture into paper cupcake cases.
4. Bake cakes for 18-20 minutes and allow cakes to cool.
5. Melt the chocolate in two separate bowls.
6. Working on one cupcake at a time spread milk chocolate onto the top, then pipe four circles in white chocolate inside each other on top. Using a cocktail stick or skewer, from the centre drag the stick along to the edge of the cupcake to make a cobweb effect, I did this about eight times on each cupcake.
7. Repeat with the remaining cupcakes alternating the chocolate to white chocolate with a milk chocolate cobweb. 

I enjoyed making these and attempting the cobwebs on top (plus eating all the left over chocolate of course). Let me know if you decide to bake these too!

Follow

Millionaire's Shortbread Recipe

It's now the Great British Bake Off season and it makes me want to bake even more than I usually do. With last week them focusing on biscuits I decided to bake Millionaire's Shortbread. I've never made this before and I was surprised it went so well, I'll definitely be trying other shortbread recipes now. I used this recipe here from BBC Good Food but just tried something a little different for the chocolate on top to make it look (and taste) even better.

Ingredients

For the shortbread:

• 225g/8oz plain flour
• 175g/6oz cold unsalted butter
• 75g/2¾oz caster sugar

For the topping:

• 150g/5oz butter
• 1 x 379g can condensed milk
• 100g/3½oz golden syrup
• 350g/12oz chocolate (I used 300g milk chocolate and 50g white chocolate)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. Line a square cake tin with baking paper.

2. Combine the flour and butter cubes and mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. (Alternatively, you can rub the butter in by hand.) 

3. Add in the caster sugar and mix again until combined.

4. Tip the mixture into the lined cake tin and spread it out evenly with the back of a spoon. Then press the shortbread down firmly with your knuckles so that it is tightly packed in the tin.

5. Bake the shortbread for 30 minutes or until very light golden brown. Set aside to cool.

6. Meanwhile, for the topping, heat the butter, condensed milk and golden syrup in a saucepan, stirring occasionally until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.

7. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring frequently. The caramel will thicken and turn golden-brown. Set aside to cool slightly, then pour over the cooled shortbread. Allow to cool completely.

8. Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave.

9. Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel and set aside until the chocolate has cooled completely.

10. Cut into squares and serve. (Or broken pieces like mine)

I'm looking forward to tomorrows episode for more ideas on what to bake next.

Watch technique

0:46 min

Follow

Chocolate Brownies Recipe

Mother's Day was quite a while ago now, which shows just how long I've been meaning to write this post for. For Mother's Day my brother and I decided to bake some chocolate brownies. I've attempted to bake brownies before but they've never gone quite right and turned out quite cakey, so as I thought these have gone the best so far I thought I'd share the recipe with you all.

I think where I may have gone wrong when making them previously from other recipe's is that I don't remember ever adding ingredients such as nuts and vanilla, which I think made a big difference, although these aren't necessary at all - especially if you're allergic to nuts!

Ingredients:

• 140g dark chocolate
• 140g butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 115g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 55g walnuts
• Ice cream

They also tasted just as good with ice cream as they did without, but as our first tasting of them after our meal we had ice cream on top which went well especially as the brownie was still warm.

Method:

• Firstly, pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (gas mark 4)
• Melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over the saucepan of water, then set aside.
• In a mixing bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar.
• Then in another bowl sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.
• Then fold the egg egg and sugar mixture into this and add the vanilla, chocolate and chopped nuts.
• Mix well together and then add to the tin and place in the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes (although I didn't need quite this long for mine, more of 15-20 minutes)
• When they're done set them aside to cool slightly and cut into squares and you're ready to go!

There you should have your perfect brownies - even if they don't look perfect I bet they taste it! Let me know if you decide to use this recipe as I'd love to see how they turn out or if you have a favourite chocolate brownie recipe, I wouldn't say no to making some more!

Abigail x

Pinterest Post #12 - Easter

As you all probably know, pinterest is full of things to make and bake and with it coming up to Easter this weekend I thought I'd share with you a few Easter ideas and treats. You can find more that I've pinned on my Easter pinterest board, but here are my top five.

Candles in Egg Shells - This looks like such a good idea especially for Easter, painting the egg shells also could make a cute display of different colours as a centerpiece for an Easter meal.

Easter Chick Cupcakes - I love baking but I don't think I'd have the patience to be able to make something this detailed, it almost looks too good to eat though!

Easter Bunny Cake - Now this is my kind of cake, whoever thought of this design for a cake is just pure genius. I'd love to try and bake this and I think children would be pretty entertained with this too.

Pom-Pom Easter Bunny - This could be a cute Easter gift to give someone who maybe doesn't like/or want chocolate for Easter, plus it's handmade which is also nice to give.

Bird's Nest Bites - These look much easier to make, and I love the cuteness of them looking so much like bird nests. Plus you don't actually need to bake them which makes them easier and quicker too.

What are your Easter plans?

Abigail x

AbigailsWorld

Quick & Easy Chocolate Orange Cake

Christmas is a time when we usually receive quite a few boxes of chocolates, so over the Christmas holidays this last year I decided to be a bit more creative and make something with some of them. So here's my recipe for a Terry's Chocolate Orange Cake! I didn't really know how to go about making this so I found a recipe for a microwave chocolate cake and just swapped the cocoa powder ingredients for the melted chocolate.

Ingredients:

• 100g Margerine
• 75g Self-Raising Flour
• 100g Caster Sugar
• 2 tbls Water
• 2 Eggs
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 Terry's Chocolate Orange

Method:

In one bowl I broke up the chocolate and put in the microwave for a couple of minutes until it had melted, and in the other bowl I added all of the other ingredients together. When the chocolate had melted I added it all to the bowl with the other ingredients in and whisked them together.

I cooked my cake in the microwave on high power for 6 minutes, which was what the original recipe suggested. Although some microwaves may need more or less time, it worked pretty well for mine despite how messy it looks.

Then simply turn it upside down onto a plate and ta-daa, I also added cream but that's totally up to you!

Let me know if you like to make anything in-particular with your Christmas chocolates. You can see some other yummy recipes I wouldn't mind making on my pinterest board here.

Abigail x