Mr Whippy Cupcakes

I have always had a soft spot for my childhood favourite – Mr Whippy Ice-cream.  I can remember waiting on a hot summer’s day for the van to noisely rumble down our street with its unmistakable completely out of tune nursery rhyme or ‘jitty’ playing as it tempts all the children out of their front doors like the Pied Piper…

I made these cupcakes with that in mind creating a vanilla cupcake with soft creamy swirls of buttercream and finishing them with a lavish drizzling of caramel sauce, the beauty of these is they can be enjoyed any day of the year whether the summer sunshine is out or not!

Personalised Cupcakes

Cupcakes have become more and more popular for gift giving…be it to toast the arrival of a new baby, to celebrate a birthday or special event, or maybe even to just add a little edible sparkle at special times of the year such as Christmas, Easter and New Year!

These cupcakes were ordered by one of my closest friends for whom I had also made her wedding cupcake tower.  The children at the wedding loved the cakes so much that Louisa wanted to surprise them at Christmas with their own personalised batch of sparkling cupcakes..

Gooey Caramel Cupcakes

I am currently trying to catch up on blog posts having just about recovered from the festive season in which I have been busier than ever creating delicious cakes and treats!

As it was Christmas I decided to add a hint of ginger (a festive spice!) and little miniature gingerbread men for that final festive flare!  I should add however that these cakes are to be enjoyed at any time of the year and work just as well without the ginger in all their caramel goodness!

These particular cupcakes seem to be a firm favourite with family and friends due to their indulgently rich gooey caramel centre that oozes out as you sink your teeth in…

 

 

Tretherras Christmas Gift and Craft Fair – 19th November 2011

Saturday was RosyCheeks Bakery’s first ever Christmas Fair!  It seemed only right to include some special limited edition Christmas flavours that are only brought out at this time of year these were:

Christmas Cupcakes – A cupcake filled with Christmas Spices such as warming cinnamon and all spice, as well as sticky raisins, sultanas and dried apricots, topped with a vanilla brandy buttercream and for that extra special festive touch – edible holly berries.

Gingerbread & Caramel Cupcakes – A vanilla and ginger sponge decorated with vanilla buttercream, mini gingerbread men and a swirl of rich toffee caramel sauce.

Simply Snowflake – For the purists! A light moist vanilla sponge topped with a vanilla buttercream and finished with a sparkling edible snowflake.

Chocolate Twinkle Cupcakes – A moist chocolate sponge topped with a gooey chocolate custard and a swirl of chocolate buttercream sprinkled with edible gold stars for that final lavish touch!

As well as the limited edition cupcakes I also served up a choice of double stuffed Oreo Brownies and Chocolate Gooey Brownies.  Doggy treats were also on offer as there should always be a choice for the best friend in our families!

 

If you didnt get chance to come and taste any of the delicious treats on offer – don’t worry!

RosyCheeks Bakery will be in St Austell this coming Saturday – 26th November 2011 as part of the MAKE Craft Fair from 10am until 4pm.  This is  a one day get together at St Austell’s fabulous Market House celebrating all things handmade and local.  Come and take a look around, eat some delicious Cornish food, listen to local live music, try something new, tell your friends and why not showcase your own crafty skills!  The event is the first of many, to celebrate the stunning 19th century building that has soooo much to offer!

You can also order cakey goodness directly from rosycheeksbakery@gmail.com and free local delivery is provided right up until Christmas Eve in Newquay and the surrounding areas, why not treat yourself and your family and friends for Christmas!

Are you afraid of Spiders?!

There are two key things to remember at Halloween in my kitchen:

1. There is an abundance of pumpkin entrails (come on it’s halloween I had to get that word in somewhere!)

2. Anything goes – although I prefer to stay with the idea of cute rather than too gross to eat!

Now the first feedback I received when I said I was going to use the mountainous pile of pumpkin to create a sweet pumpkin cupcake was not exactly encouraging.  It was more like the way you shout at the TV ‘don’t do that!’ as the girl in a horror film has made the lame decision to go down the stairs into the basement having heard something that is probably going to result in her sudden and untimely gruesome death…

I decided to work on the idea of similar ingredients to that of a carrot cake, using lots of warming cinnamon and allspice combined with chopped walnuts and a little white chocolate to add a more distinct sweetness.

The cupcakes were then finished with a simple vanilla buttercream so not to distract from all the flavours in the sponge (although I do think they would be delicious with a Cream Cheese Frosting!).  This was coloured bright orange – obviously a typical halloween festivity colour but also very autumnal as are pumpkins!

Then my favourite part…Oreo Spiders!  I placed a variety of Oreo cookies on to the cupcakes (Regular & Snack Size) and then used sugarpaste in white and black to create little eyes and of course as reminded by a close friend the 8 legs that makes a spider a spider rather than an insect (see I do listen!)

The Spiders were super cute and a little Sesame Street-esque but at the same time had that Halloween theme that I was aiming for.  I have to give a big shout out to the amazing pumpkin carvings done too! (mine was the cat!) See for yourselves…

And…most importantly for all the doubters out there…the cakes were wickedly good (sorry I couldn’t resist one last Halloween word play!)

Happy Halloween everyone x

A Marbling Delight!

Usually when I make a cupcake its that final flourish of Buttercream or Chocolate Ganache that really turn it into a thing of beauty (combined with glitter and sprinkles of course!), there is one exception to the rule and that is Double Baked Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes! The cupcakes are a combination of dark chocolate sponge and vanilla chocolate chocolate chip cheesecake (yes complete indulgence but entirely worth it!) I sometimes like to add a little crushed oreo biscuits just to add a slight crunch.

They have such a unique finish that is almost like marble and a complete shame to even contemplate covering in any form of icing, that said if you just cant utter the word ‘Cupcake’ without sugar filled buttery lovelyness then a cream-cheese based frosting works really well.

More Wedding Bells…

I seem to be asked more often than not to create wedding cupcake towers over traditional wedding cakes lately…not that I am complaining!  As this time the bride was family, and so obviously the bride’s family were my family without trying to sound too much like the mafia – this time it was personal!

Kelly wanted cupcakes that would match the burgundy and cream theme of the wedding with a little golden sparkle to finish.  We decided upon two different flavours – Caramel Crunch and a simple but delicious Vanilla sponge.  Each individual cupcake was tied in a burgundy ribbon and finished with tiny little gold stars as well as a hand-made sugar roses. Kelly wanted a traditional cake on the top tier so that she could still have that moment as the bride to cut the cake with her new husband.  This was made to resemble the smaller cupcakes finished with a large burgundy rose with stars shooting out of the top.

When I agreed to make this cake (or these cakes being that there were over 100 of them!) I didn’t exactly consider the logistics of transporting from Cornwall 300 miles into the Midlands. With a little bit of careful packing and some very careful driving they all arrived safely – phew!

I couldn’t finish this post without mentioning the incredible dance moves that took place later on at the evening reception and decided to include a few anonymous pic’s – you know who you are!

National Baking Week – Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Keeping up with the theme of National Baking Week (see earlier posts) I decided to bake a batch of cupcakes my friends and family love.  I know it is a favourite because they rarely stay on the cake stand for more than an hour after serving!

The Cupcakes are a cocoa based sponge that is dark and delicious topped with a Vanilla Buttercream that is blended with crumbled Oreo cookies.  For that final lavish touch half an Oreo cookie is simply pressed gently into the buttercream.

I managed to get just one picture before they all disappeared… 

Going to the Zoo, Zoo Zoo, You can come to…

I was lucky enough this summer to have my sister Beth from ‘Up Country’ come to stay and this mean’t without a doubt baking something weird and wonderful was on the cards. Beth may only be 15 but has the sugarcraft skills of a pro and I have no doubt that whatever she chooses in life she will make the most of it!  We decided to create some multi-coloured cupcakes that would be topped with a green grass buttercream and zoo animals – we had visited Paradise Animal Park earlier in the week and this was enough inspiration for us…

P.S. You can click on the picture below to see it in full screen glory! Claire

Ding Dong the Bells are going to Chime…

It all started with a message posted on one of my wedding cake pics by the lovely Louisa Ussher that simply said “When are we going to talk about mine then?!” Little did I know at the time she would become one of my closest friends, and I couldn’t be more happy for the now Mrs Ussher-Bass, you deserve all that life can offer x

Now I have finished gushing about the romance of the day lets talk cake!  Louisa wanted a simple cupcake tower that matched the colour theme of the wedding – Cornflower Blue and Yellow.  Louisa and I decided to go with a simple rose swirl buttercream on a base of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes finished with a cute little sugar flower and the customery RosyCheeks Bakery sprinkle of glitter!  The tower was decorated with beautiful fresh flowers from the wedding breakfast tables. I base the success of the cakes on the small children seen sneaking over during the first dance to carefully take a cake and disappear into the darkness never to be seen again, the only evidence were the empty cases littered around the marquee…