Style Saturday: Summer Cupcakes #2

I'm back with another Summer cupcake recipe again this Style Saturday as promised. This weeks recipe is the '99' Cupcakes as I think that '99' icecream just sums up the Summer and this sounded like a perfect recipe. These cupcakes are pretty much just plain vanilla sponge with vanilla frosting with a few added extras, so they really quick and simply to make but look really impressive. These cupcakes will be perfect for Summer parties, BBQ's and picnic's. 

There are several ways in which you can decorate these cupcakes as it's up to you and you can base it on how you like your '99' icecream... plain, with a flake, stawberry sauce or sprinkles.  I made a few with a flake and a few with strawberry sauce so there is a little selection.

These cupcakes have a delicious bake there golden brown and crunchy on the outside and the inside is light, fluffy and very moist too. There is a lot of buttercream icing on these cupcakes so there very sweet, and if your not the biggest fan of icing then there probably not for you.

For the cupcakes you will need...

175g of unsalted butter

175g of caster sugar

1tsp of vanilla extract

3 eggs

55g of ground almonds

150g of self raising flour

For the icing you will need...

150g of softend butter

1tbsp of milk

150g of icing sugar

To decorated the cupcakes you will need...

(These are all optional) 

8 mini chocolate flakes

sugar sprinkles 

raspberry or strawberry jam 

To make these cupcakes...

Firstly you need to cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy with an electric whisk in a large bowl, then beat in the eggs one at a time. Then add the flour and whisk for a couple of minutes, then add in the vanilla. After gently fold in the almonds. Line a cupcake baking tray with the cases- this recipe bakes 8-10 cupcakes. Then spoon in the mixture until the cases are about 2/3 full. Bake in the oven until golden brown and are springy to touch, then allow to cool on a wire rack. 

To make the butter cream icing...

Place the butter, milk and icing sugar into a medium sized bowl and whisk until smooth with and electric whisk. 

To decorate the cupcakes...

Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a large star nozzle and pipe the icing over the cakes to a peak like an ice-cream cone. Press a flake into each cake and then if you like you can scatter a few sprinkles on top. If you want to add strawberry sauce you need to warm the jam and then drizzle a little over the cakes. 

I hope you like this recipe -If you bake these cupcakes be sure to send me your pictures on Instagram with the hashtag #connielovesbeauty

xoxo

Connie

Style Saturday: Cupcake Decoration Haul

Hey guys, the other day I went food shopping with my mum and I brought some ingredients and decorations for some cupcakes that I'm planning on making. I saw a recipe for these Watermelon Slice cupcakes from the Betty Crocker "The Big Book of Cupcakes" and I thought they would be perfect to make for the summer time.

I needed some food colouring for the icing so I picked up red and green. I also picked up some vanilla flavouring.

I needed some chocolate chips for the in the cupcakes mixture and to decorate as they are supposed to be the seeds of the watermelon. I picked up the Dr.Oetker dark and milk chocolate chips.

For the recipe I needed powdered strawberry flavour jelly and I saw these jellly crystals so I hope they're same thing. 

To decorate I picked up some piping bags and piping nozzles and to decorate the cupcakes I need a few different piping nozzles.

These ones by Waitrose have 4 differnt piping nozzles; petal, flute, ribbon and a round shaped one. So I thought that they would be good.

And lastly I got some more icing sugar as otherwise I can't decorate the cupcakes.

That's it!

xoxo 

Connie 

Surprise Sunday: Afternoon Tea Anyone?

Coming from a family of tea lovers, I never really liked tea all that much for along time. But recently I have been really getting into it and I'm even starting to crave the stuff, I swear it's some kind of drug. We went out for afternoon tea to this local Vineyard as it was my grandparents anniversary. And I had what the place called a 'Tadpole' which consists of tea with 1 scone with jam and clotted cream. 

The tea didn't come in it's normal form, the tea bag, it came loose. I'd never really had loose tea before and I didn't even know that tea came loose. So there was no hope in me knowing what a tea strainer was, but thankfully I do know now. We had a little cup and saucer which we were to drink our tea from and the tea strainer was really cute, it was in a little tea pot shape. I've always thought tea tastes nicer in a cup than a mug, is that just me? And also, now I've tried loose tea, it tastes 10x better than tea from a bag. I know, I'm sounding old.

What I love about the place is that it is so quirky and nothing matches. Everyone has a different cup and saucer, everyone has a different plate and everyone even has a different chair. It has their personal touch that everyone will remember. 

Of course I was going to have a scone, who wouldn't. I just had a plain scone but I could of had a cheese or a fruit scone. It came with jam and clotted cream which is an absoloute treat as I never normally have that. It was absoloutely to die for as the scones were homemade, and you could even see in the kitchen where they made them. The clotted cream and jam were also local produce from the area. It was proberly one of the best scones I have had for a long time and I'm craving one now as I'm typing this. Thanks for reading!

xoxo

Connie