Lemon Icing Cupcakes

These are the latest efforts...Lemon Icing Cake.

I was asked to make them for my sister who's husband was having a meeting at his home. So she asked if I could make some cupcakes as refreshments for them. They went down very well from all accounts, someone even commenting that he would happily pay for them! I was so pleased. It has given me ideas to open a cupcake house, where you can choose your base and your topping...a bit like an ice-cream shop. It would have tables and chairs for you to be able to have a cuppa while you were there! Me and my brainy ideas...I have been dreaming about this shop and even what areas I would open them in. I am mad, I am sure of it.

Today, I have had terrible toothache, eating helps especially cupcakes. I don't think I will lose any weight this week at weight watchers! I have to go to the dentist tomorrow and I think he is going to extract my tooth. I am really not looking forward to it but have decided that it has to be better than the pain I am in. I even thought of pulling it out myself, do a Tom Hanks special (as in Cast Away!). Will let you know how it goes?

What do you guys think to the icing technique? Do you think it's getting better?










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Chocotastic success!

They have come up stunning, using the standard 8oz method with the added 2tbs of coco and 150g melted chocolate. This is them when they came out of the oven...



The icing was also perfect 110g of butter, 250g icing sugar, 1tbs of coco, vanilla essence, and 150g melted chocolate.







Decorated with marshmallows and my favourite glitter!

I feel yet again like I am on top of the world! Even James is in a good mood.

Lesson learnt: never cook or bake when in a bad mood!

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Today...

I have decided to have another go at chocolate cupcakes!

I hope they work this time as i honestly don't think my brain would be able to cope with another cupcake failure! On the brighter side, I am going to propoints them for anyone else on weight watchers and then post the complete recipe on here. Do you think its good to be baking cakes after returning to WW for the first time since the holidays? Oh well, I have no cakes to tempt people with so I need to replenish my stocks! I'll try not to eat any or the mixture....promise.

Will post my progress....

Okay the chocolate!

Well I am not going to say very much about these! I think pictures speak a thousand words in this case. Needless to say the day I made them, the cakes have taken on how I felt!!

I feel much better today, so hopefully the next batch will rise!





They do taste good though, especially as I am a huge chocolate fan!

This is what they look like with the topping on....




Xxxx

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Bad day

Hi all,

Well for the first time on this blog, i feel like I am having a bad day..I think it started with the chocolate cupcakes that sank yesterday! I feel so disappointed that I can't even bring myself to write about it. (I will...I am just being melodramatic!)

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before, but I suffer with rheumatoid arthritis and joint hypermobility syndrome as well as PND. Today, my feet are so sore it's been like walking on thousands of needles. I am honestly not one for moaning, but hey this is my blog and yes I think I should use it to moan. That way my poor other half Jim, doesn't have to listen to it. This is my outlet after all.

Thankfully, my pnd seems to be better, but reoccurs when strangely I have nothing planned for the day and Grace is with me! Then I feel guilty for thinking that she should be at nursery or something. What the brain does to us is scary. It makes me just want to scream at times. I went to bed last night thinking 'okay, today grace and I are going to have a good day!' then you wake up, my feet are sore and I am just not in the mood. You can't really explain it either, I can tell you that my joints are sore but the affect that has on my brain and just moving is something unless you know what i am on about, you just can't explain. It's exhausting.

Anyway, enough of the moaning now...even I am sick of hearing it!

Blow the cobwebs out!

Goldenacre park in Leeds, my mother and little one, grace, throwing the ducks the left overs from the failed bread and butter from last night!

I must say that there is something about getting out in the fresh air when your feeling a bit pants!

Man it's cold still.....role on summer.


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Location:Church Ln,Leeds,United Kingdom

How does this work out??

Okay, so I thought i would share this with you....

My mother invited us around for dinner today. Although she decided my house would be better and of course I could help her. She informs us that she is baking a  bread and butter pudding. With great expectations, as after all she is my mother, the one who taught me all I know, the one who taught me how to bake my first Victoria sponge we open the oven to this.....


What did she forget???

The Egg to bind it all together.

So my inspiration failed us tonight, and provided us with a hot bread, raisins and milk slop with what look like rabbit droppings on top,  instead of the bread and butter we should of had.

At least we saw the funny side!!

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Apple Surprise

I attempted last night a dream that had kept me awake the night before! It had kept me awake for two nights so decided that the only way I could get rid of it was to bake them.

I dreamt of making a toffee and apple cupcake! The apple was to be gooey in the centre, with melted toffee pieces in the mixture itself, finished with a green icing topping! In my dream it works perfectly, in reality totally different.

My first issue was the toffee I had brought turned out to be fudge. So now it's fudge and apple! I couldn't decided weather to add it to the precooked mixture or after. I decided after much discussion with James to add it to the mixture. The results I will tell you about in a moment.

The second issue was how on earth does a novice get apple to the centre of a cupcake??? So armed with a knife I chopped the tops of my perfect looking cakes...it felt so so wrong but I had to choice but to proceed. Fill with apple sauce baked a few moments earlier then place the top back on!

Third issue, green buttercream icing.....perfect colour icing, just as I imagined, but I just didn't have the piping equipment to cope. So after using my £4 bargain syringe piper, after 6 cakes it broke! What do I do now? Back to the trusty method of butter knife and spreading. After all the faffing, the icing started to get too warm and was melting. Man nothing was going to plan or according to my dream.

After completing the above processes....They had to be placed into my fridge/conservatory to set.

What would they come out like??

Pictures to follow.....

The results

The fudge that was meant to be toffee sank to the bottom of the cake.....

The apple centre worked beautifully, just as in my dream...

The icing wasn't as planned but at least the colour was right.





You can just see the darker bottom in this picture of the fudge!!




The taste......STUNNING....Just what I was aiming for.

I did all this while not sleeping for two nights, a headache and trying to cook dinner too.
I had forgotten I have a family to feed too, to busy trying to bake cupcakes....
Does that make me a bad mother and housewife????

Are they purple??

Okay so I think I have a problem! When I get bored I have this urge to bake! This is the latest collection.

They are purple cupcakes with a hint of lemon although I didn't have any lemon essence so it was not too strong, apparently more like raspberry! Not sure how that happened.

I have discovered however the joy of edible glitter! It's fabulous stuff, I have uses some on these, can you see it?


We popped into morrisons for basic supplies only to discover that they have a huge range of cake ingredients and toppings. I have never been so excited to be in morrisons! James left me in that aisle while he got the rest of the shopping and made an emergency visit to the loo with Grace! Poor James, he's been dumped for cupcakes, and more worryingly I think he likes it!



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