Peaches and Cream Cupcakes

 Peaches are one of my favourite fruits, and peaches and cream are an ultimate treat. These cupcakes are really refreshing and fruity. They're not to sweet as there is cream instead of icing. 

For the cupakes you will need...

400g of canned peach slices in fruit juice

115g of softened butter 

115g or caster sugar

2 eggs

115g of self raising flour

150ml of double cream

Preheat oven to 180oc and line a 12-hole cupcake tin with 12 cupcake cases. Drain the peaches and reserve the juice. Keep 12 peach slices and leave to one side as you need these for decoration. Finely chop the remaining slices. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and cream together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy, then gradually add the eggs one at a time and beat after. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture. Then fold in the chopped peaches and 1 tablespoon of the remaining juice. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until golden brown. When the cupcakes are done, leave them to cool on a wire rack. Then when they are ready to decorate, place the cream into a bowl and whisk with an electric wisk until very thick, you have to over wisk the cream. Then spread the cream on top of the cupcakes using a knife and then place a peach slice on each cupcake. 

And that's it. I hope you liked this recipe.

xoxo 

Connie 

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: Summer Cupcakes #1

Hello my lovelies, welcome to this weeks Style Saturday, today's post is going to be a summer cupcake recipe. This is going to be the first post of hopefully many more summer cupcake recipes. Recently I have been getting into baking cupcakes, and I'm really enjoying it. I think baking and decorating cupcakes is 'style' in it's own way, so hint why I'm uploading this on a Saturday.

This weeks recipe is going to be the Strawberry & Rhubarb Crumble Cupcake. I think this cupake sounds and looks pretty impressive but it's actually very easy to make. If you love berry and rhubarb crumbles then these cupcakes will be right up your street. 

These cupcakes are really lovely and moist on the inside and there is a great contrast of flavours with the strawberry and rhubarb. Also these cupcakes are good if your not the biggest fan of really sweet cakes and icing, as sometimes it can be a bit sickly. But these cupcakes have a refreshing summer difference to normal cupcakes, as they have been decorated with freshly whipped cream, a perfect summer time treat! 

This recipe bakes 24 cupcakes, so you will have plenty to share at summer parties or BBQs as they are perfect for that!

For the crumble you will need:

1/2 cup of plain flour

3 tablespoons of caster or granulated sugar 

1/4 cup of cubed butter

For the cupcake mixture you will need:

15 fresh strawberries

1/4 cup of milk

2 3/4 cup of plain flour

3 teaspoons of baking powder

3/4 cup of butter

1 1/2 cups of caster sugar

5 egg whites

2 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla essence 

A few drops of red or pink food colouring 

1 cup of finely chopped rhubarb

To decorate you will need: 

250ml of fresh whipping cream

How to make the Strawberry and Rhubarb Cupcakes: 

1. Firstly in a small bowl you need to make the crumble, this is done by rubbing the butter, sugar and flour together and then when finished leave to one side.

2. Then in a blender you need to blend the milk and strawberries together until you create a sort of juice/ smoothie consistency and leave to one side.

3. In a large bowl you need to cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I used an electric whisk to do this. Then add the egg whites one at a time and whisk together. 

4. Next add the rest of the dry ingredients- the flour and the baking powder and whisk together after. 

5. Now add a few drops of red food colouring until you get a pinky red colour. And then slowly add the strawberry mixture and whisk until it's all combined together and there is no lumps, you should have a lovely pink smooth mixture. 

6. Then you can add the chopped rhubarb to the mixture and just mix with a wooden spoon. You then need to line a cupcake tray with cupcake cases. I chose to use red polka dots cases but you can use any ones you like.

7. Then spoon the mixture into the cases, you need about 2 tablespoons of mixture in each case. After that you need to add the crumble on top, so you need about a heaped teaspoon of the crumble and evenly place on top of the cupcakes and slighty press it into the mixture. 

8. You then need to bake the cupcakes for 20-25 minutes. 

9. After the cupcakes are baked and have cooled down it's time to decorate them. You need to whisk the fresh cream, I used an electric whisk as you need to over whisk it as it is supposed to be the 'frosting' of the cupcake so it needs to be really thick.

10. To decorate the cupakes I put the cream into a piping syringe and piped a small swirl in the middle. I didn't cover the cupcakes in cream as I wanted the crumble layer to still show. 

And that's it! 

 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: Baking Cupcakes

Hey guys, I did a little bit of baking yesterday and I made some marshmallow fluff cupcakes. The recipe wasn't my own it was this one- bbcgoodfood-link. It was my first time making them and the actual cakes turned out really well but the icing ended up being a bit too runny. 

Here's are all the ingredients... 

Here's what they looked like before they went in the oven...

And here they are out of the oven and before they have been decorated... 

I decorated them with a marshmallow fluff butter cream icing and I made my own icing bag. But because the icing was a little bit too runny I found that it didn't work that well. I then used some sweets to decorate them as I didn't have any sprinkles.

That's it.

xoxo

Connie 

What I Ate Wednesday (27.4.14)

Breakfast

Again I had porridge, its just so quick and easy and its really filling. I had the original one today and I added chopped banana on top.

Lunch

I had lunch out as I was in town with my best friend. We went to the Wilkinson's cafe as the food is great and really good value. I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans. It came with lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber and I'm not sure what the dressing was but it was delicious. 

Snack

We went to the cinema in the afternoon and my friend and I shared a small popcorn, we had half sweet and half salt as we couldn't decide on which one to get. 

Dinner

Just had a small dinner as I wasn't that hungry. I had popcorn chicken with new potatoes, carrot sticks, cucumber and  a cous cous salad.

 Dessert

I had the the vanilla cupcake that was with a butter cream frosting and a chocolate star, my mum had the chocolate one. I wanted both but she ate the chocolate one before I got to it in time. They are from Sainsbury's  and they are absolutely delicious.

xoxo

Connie