Profiteroles

After flicking through my countless baking books searching for something to bake, I was struck by inspiration whilst out shopping and decided my challenge would be to make profiteroles and here are the results :)

Have a lovely weekend!

Vicky xoxo

How To: Red Velvet Cupcakes

Summer from Nothin' fancy. Really. left a comment on my 'Bargains and Baking' post to ask if I would post the Red Velvet recipe I use so here it is :) It is originally from the Hummingbird Bakery book however I have slightly adapted it - mainly with the icing, opting not to use cream cheese.

Ingredients: for the cupcakes

• 120g (4oz) unsalted butter
• 300g (10 1/2 oz) caster sugar
• 2 large eggs (room temperature)
• 20g (3/4 oz) cocoa powder
• 40ml (1 1/2 fl oz) red food colouring
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tsp salt
• 300g (10 1/2 oz) plain flour
• 240ml (8 1/2 fl oz) buttermilk

Ingredients: for the icing

• 300g (10 1/2 oz) unsalted butter
• 600g (1lb 5oz) icing sugar 
• Approx. 2 tbsp milk/buttermilk

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes

Baking time: 18-20 minutes

Makes: 12-16 cupcakes

Instructions

1. Pre-heat your oven to 190° (gas mark 5) and line a 12-hole muffin tray with muffin/cupcake cases.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and use an electric whisk to cream the butter and sugar together for a minimum of 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating with the whisk after each egg is added.
3. In a separate bowl, stir the cocoa powder, food colouring and vanilla essence together until they form a paste. Add this paste into the batter created in the large bowl.
4. Sift together the flour and salt in another bowl, before adding half to the batter and mixing with the whisk.
5. Add half of the butter milk to the batter and whisk again.
6. Add the remaining flour-salt mixture and whisk again.
7. Add the last half of the buttermilk and whisk until the batter has a smooth consistency.
8. Spoon the batter evenly into the cake cases and cook on the middle shelf of the oven for approximately 18-20 minutes or until the cakes are springy and you can remove an inserted skewer cleanly.
9. Set the cakes aside to cool.
10. In a new bowl, use an electric whisk to mix together the butter and icing sugar, adding a small amount of milk/buttermilk to create a thick but spreadable icing.
11. Once the cakes have cooled, ice to your preference using either a piping bag or a flat palette knife.

Tips

• The better quality of your food colouring, the better the colour of your cupcakes
• Using an electric whisk combines the ingredients far more effectively than mixing by hand

I hope that was helpful, if you have any further questions; please ask!

Vicky xoxo

Bargains and Baking

Before I get into this post I just wanted to quickly say thank you for the lovely comments on the '2011 Favourites' video I posted! I'm hoping to film a 'What's in my bag?' and a 'Haircare routine' this week as well as any other suggestions you may have so if there's anything you would like to see - please comment and let me know.

So, work has been pretty hectic for me over Christmas and New Year but when it hasn't been, I've been baking up a storm. Above are Red Velvet cupcakes that I made last week. They were divine!

Meet my new baby... I picked up this coat today in the Oasis sale for a bargainous £35, down from £95! I did see this coat when it was full price and I fell in love but I refuse to spend £95 on a coat when I have an insane amount - I love a coat and a quick mental count on the way home from the shop saw my coat/trench tally reach 15. I think I may have a problem.

I'm not one for sale shopping if I'm perfectly honest - I find the sale items really aren't worth the effort, stress and elbow damage of getting to the bottom of a pile of tops that I never would have paid full price for. When I do browse a sale rail I will always ask myself one main question: would I have paid full price? The answer is rarely yes!!

Have you picked up any bargains in the sales this year? 

Have a lovely week! 

Vicky xoxo

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes

After a productive start to the day yesterday I decided to carry that through into the afternoon and bake these little marvels:

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes inspired by the Great British Bake Off which somehow I managed to miss yet I bought the cookery book, hence how I found out about these lovely little treats.

I'm a bit of a baking enthusiast if I'm honest and seeing as I have quite a bit of time on my hands at the moment, it's a nice way to spend an afternoon. I'm aiming to make a proper pie one day next week, like a pie for dinner? But I'm not sure what sort I want to make... answers on a postcard please!

On a different note, having too much time on my hands has resulted in me deciding to pursue on thing I said I wouldn't: YouTube!! Quite a lot of people both online and in real life have suggested I do YouTube and get involved with the beauty community as a way of sharing things I love and I've always kind of put it off, being too shy etc., but I've now decided I'm going to give it a whirl!

I hope to have my first video up next week and suggestions of what you'd like to see would be brilliant so please feel free to comment below or send me a message or email :)

Have a lovely weekend :)

Vicky xoxo

Wonderful Wednesday

 

Image from Google :)

 After a horrible start to the week with all the unrest and riots around the country which unfortunately reached my local area,Wednesday saw the trouble stop here and the chance to get back to normality.

I started by baking cupcakes...

They are lemon flavour and I'm too scared to eat them because the cases are too pretty!

Myself and two friends then decided to go out for a quiet evening which included:

Bowling... as you can see, I'm not very good!

Sangria in a cute Mexican restaurant...

And a hat that was far too big for me!

All in all it was nice to have a relaxing day in the middle of the week for once.

I hope you're all having a lovely week.

Vicky xoxo