Mr Greedy Birthday cake

Here is a photo of a Birthday cake I made last week, Mr Greedy!

Macmillian coffee morning results!

As you know Lady Muck's teamed up with Cafe La Strada in Frome to hold a coffee morning in aid for Macmillan cancer support. I really enjoyed the morning it was a really good turn out, the regular  customers were a massive help. Everyone seemed to really welcome the event and helped to spread the word. I managed to raise £150 from my cake sales and Jude the owner of Cafe La Strada generously matched that!, We finished on a total of £300. I'd like to thank everyone for their donations Macmillian is such a great charity and I like to think we made a difference with the money we raised!  Thanks again x

Chocolate Orange cupcakes

This morning I woke up thinking of chocolate orange (for some strange reason), So naturally I decided to bake some choc orange cupcakes,

Makes 12
100g SR flour
140g Caster sugar
40g Butter
20g Coco powder
Orange essence
Zest of 1 orange
120 ml Milk
1 Egg

250g Icing sugar
80g Butter
Orange food colouring
Chocolate sprinkles (optional)

Put the flour ,coco powder, sugar and butter into a mixer or mixing bowl combine until the mixture forms a bread crumb like texture, put the egg in with the milk along with the orange essence mix, slowly pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients to form a batter.

Pour into cupcake cases 1/3 of the way up. Bake for a bout 12 minutes

while the cakes are baking make the orange buttercream, Place the icing sugar and the butter into a mixer cream together, once combined add a few drops of milk beat together for at least 5 minutes this will make the buttercream light and fluffy, add a few drops of orange essence along with a few drops of orange food colouring mix again until the icing is a mic even orange colour.

Wait for the cakes to cool down, pipe the icing on ,cover in sprinkles ,
Finished!

Worlds biggest coffee morning

Worlds biggest coffee morning in aid of Macmillan cancer support is only a week away Lady Mucks are teaming up with Cafe La Strada in Frome Friday 28th 9-12!

Popcorn & Golden syrup

This recipe was made to see if popcorn worked in a cupcake, it's safe to say it does
So as usual a simple vanilla sponge recipe is used the only difference being is that golden syrup is added to the batter, the amount is entirely up to you!
Bake 12 cupcakes
While there in the oven make the popcorn, you can get popcorn kernels in any whole food shop if not I'm sure the microwave popcorn will work as long as its sweet!
When the popcorn has all popped and is cooled down add sugar and some golden syrup give it a good stir to make sure the syrup is covering it all, when the cupcakes are done put to one side to cool
Make a vanilla buttercream adding golden syrup.
Pipe the buttercream and finish with the popcorn!

Burger cupcakes

I saw these whilst doing some cupcake research and I had to try them!

Really simple
Bake 12 vanilla cupcakes,12 chocolate cupcakes and 1 amount of buttercream

Bake the vanilla cupcakes and the chocolate cupcakes leave to cool, make the buttercream divide into 3 colours red, green and yellow. Remove the vanilla cupcakes from their cases and cut in half, remove the chocolate cupcakes and cut the tops off to form a flat burger. Place the chocolate burger on top of the bottom cupcake bun, pipe the icing one colour at a time yellow,green then red!, put the top half back on! Done

Facebook

Lady Mucks also has a facebook page, please show your support and like the page, I would be extremely greatful

http://facebook.com/ladymuckscupcakes

Hippy Rave Cake

This cake was made for my brother's birthday any one who knows my brother would understand this cake ha!

it was based on a (yes you guessed it) Hummingbird bakery recipe, the original cake is a 3 layered cake which is sometimes referred to as a princess cake.

It was easy to make, I baked the cake the night before so it was completely cooled down making it really easy to cut into 3!

The recipe is :

Quantity for ALL THREE layers (if you want to make it in one go):
360 grams plain flour
360 grams castor sugar
4 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
120 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
360 mL whole milk
3 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Vanilla frosting:
500 grams icing sugar
160 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
50 mL whole milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

I added a few drops of baby blue food colour, the choice is yours colour wise!

1.Preheat oven to 170°C/340°F.

2.Beat together flour, sugar, baking powder and butter on a low speed until the ingredients are mixed in a sandy texture.

3.Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until incorporated.

4.In a separate bowl, whisk together egg/s, vanilla extract and the rest of the milk briefly and then pour into the flour mixture.

5.Continue mixing for a couple of minutes until the mixture is smooth.


6.Bake in pre-heated oven for about 20-25 minutes. The cake is done when light golden brown on top and a skewer comes out clean.

7.Leave to cool slightly before removing from cake tin to completely cool on a wire rack.

8.For the frosting, beat the icing sugar and butter together on low speed until combined.
Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and add to the butter mixture slowly. Once all the milk has been added, turn the mixer up to high speed and continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes). The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.
If you’re making blue frosting, add a couple of drops of blue food colouring and continue beating.
Place the bottom cake layer on a plate or cake stand. Cover it with a thin layer of frosting, then add the second layer on top. Cover with frosting and add third layer. Cover the entire cake with the remaining frosting and decorate as desired.

This cake went down a treat as its appearance is very appealing and it tastes lovely too :)

Treats With a Twist

At the Nunney fayre I also came across this stall Treats with a Twist, this stall sells loads of beautifully wrapped sweets and treats all at a very reasonable price. The lady behind this even holds sweet buffets and chocolate parties.

She is based in Bristol
The link to her website is www.treatswithatwist.co.uk

Bry's Cupcakes

At the weekend I went to a local village fayre in Nunney which is in Somerset. I came across some lovely looking cupcakes. Bry's Cupcakes are based in Westerbury!

Here is a link the their website

www.bryscupcakes.co.uk



and here are some images of their cakes




I tried a raspberry with a white chocolate icing and a lemon one, both cupcakes had a light fluffy sponge, the raspberry one had a raspberry jam centre. The icing on both was generous but extremely light!

Marshmallow & Butterscotch bars

This is yet another recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery, I can't get enough of this book it's called "Cake days" and it's the best cook book I own and I have a fare few!

Here is the recipe and method
For the base
150g flour
40g icing sugar
120g unsalted butter, softened

For the topping
100g pink and white mini marhsmallows
210g caster sugar
150g soft light brown sugar
190g golden syrup
70g unsalted butter
60ml double cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
60g crunchy peanut butter
30g mixed chopped nuts (I only had pecans so went with that this time)

Preheat the oven to 170C; grease and line a 22cm x 31cm baking tray.
Mix the ingredients for the base until a dough forms (by hand or with an electric mixer using the paddle attachment).
Press the dough into the prepared baking tray, making a slight lip around the edge and bake for 20 minutes or until the edges are a light golden brown and the middle is pale but cooked.
Place the marshmallows on top of the baked base, spreading them out evenly.
Place both types of sugar with the golden syrup and 240ml of water and bring to the boil.
Allow the mixture to boil until the sugar reaches the soft-ball stage (see notes below and picture above).
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.
Bring the butterscotch back up to the boil and allow to bubble away for approximately 3 minutes.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the double cream, vanilla essence and peanut butter.
Stir continuously until the peanut butter has melted.
Pour the mixture on to the base and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top.
Allow to set at room temperature for a few hours or preferable overnight.
Slice into bars and serve.
These bars are lovely great for picnics!

Elderflower cupcakes

Elderflower is a light summery flavour, I wanted to see if I could use it in cupcakes.
I found a recipe on the Internet as I always use recipes from The Hummingbird bakery I wanted to use something different!,
The recipe I used was on www.goodtoknow.co.uk
This website has loads of good recipes

I personally didn't like this recipe as the cakes came out a little to heavy almost like banana bread. It's all trial and error!

Cookie dough Cupcakes

It's been a while since I last blogged, so here are some cookie dough cupcakes,
For these I made a simple cookie dough recipe the ingredients are:
For the plain dough
225g (8oz) soft butter or margarine
140g (5oz) caster sugar
280g (10oz) plain flour
1 egg yolk
pinch of salt
2tsp vanilla extract,
I added just under a packet of chocolate chips (leaving just enough for decoration )
The dough is really easy to make beat the sugar and butter until pale, add the egg yolk followed by the flour, then add the vanilla and then finally the choc chips, turn out and place in the fridge!

For the sponge I used a basic chocolate cupcake recipe from The Hummingbird bakery it makes 12

Fill the cases 1/3 full with the cupcake batter ,for each case roll a ball of cookie dough (a little bit smaller then a ping pong ball)place in the middle of each case
Cook at 180•c for about 18 mins

For the icing I used
250g icing sugar
80g butter
2tbs of milk
Beat the icing sugar and butter together until a sand like consistence add a the milk and a few drops of vanilla beat again until fully mixed!

This icing recipe is really simple there are more indulgent cookie dough frostings out there

I iced the cakes once cooled, I decorated them with half a cookie and the rest of the chips!

Enjoy!

Shrimp & banana cupcakes

I made these so I could try out new icing techniques, the sponge yet again is a simple vanilla sponge with cut up bits of shrimp and banana sweets, the sweets melt whilst cooking this gives the sponge a better flavour!

The icing is divided into two and coloured, in a piping bag I put one table spoon of yellow followed by the pink I repeated this until the bag was full. I then topped each cupcake with the icing ad finished with a shrimp and banana

Pretty Pansy cupcakes

These Cupcakes are just a simple vanilla sponge, topped with grass green buttercream and finished with picket fence wraps and pansy toppers!

Twitter

Lady Muck's now has a Twitter please follow @ladymuckscakes x

Jubilee

Ideal for street parties

The Creative Collective Group

Check out this small interview I did for the Creative collect group while your there take a look round the blog feature interviews with local designers, artists, chefs amongst many others, reviews on local businesses and events and general posts about hobbies, crafts and anything inspiring.

http://www.creativecollectivegroup.com/2012/04/lady-mucks.html

Earl Grey Cupcakes

I was trying to come up with british flavours for the Jubilee , us brits certainly like our tea so I thought why not early grey!

I used the simple Vanilla cupcake recipe from The Hummingbird bakery, that recipe includes milk so I boiled the milk with 3 Earl grey tea bags and added it just like I normally would!, the icing also has earl grey in it this time I used one tea bag with a small amount of boiling water the recipe for the icing is also from The Hummingbird instead of milk I used the Earl grey!

Peanut butter Dino time!

Last night I was craving something sweet the only thing I could find was peanut butter so me being me I put two and two together and baked peanut butter cupcakes.


The recipe is
160g Butter
170g Caster sugar
170g Self raising flour
3 Eggs
3 tbs Coco powder
2 tbs of Peanut butter
a few drops of Vanilla essence

Cream together the sugar and the butter until pale, add the eggs one at a time then sieve the coco powder and the flour together , add to the egg mix when all ingredients have been mixed together add the peanut butter and vanilla essence.

Put 12 cases into a deep bottomed baking tray, fill each case to 3 quarters full, bake for about 2O mins

For the topping,
80g Butter
250g Icing sugar
2 tbs Peanut butter
A few drops of milk

Beat together the icing and the butter to form the texture of breadcrumbs add the milk followed by the peanut butter.

Pipe, decorate finished!

Enjoy!

Colourful Cupcakes

Colourful cupcakes were baked for children I wanted to make them as eye catching as possible, a simple chocolate sponge topped with bright orange butter cream.

Cupcakes make great gifts

These cakes were baked for my friends birthday, The sponge was chocolate with white chocolate chunks, the topping was marshmallow a rich buttercream icing with melted marshmallows.

Little Lady!

This is my friends daughter, she is Lady Muck's biggest fan!

Sea Shanty Cupcakes

Vanilla cupcakes recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery - 'Cake Days' cook book
Topped with sprinkles called 'Sea Shanty' from the Happy Cupcake Company in Bath!

Coca Cola Cupcakes

I wanted to try these for a while! I used this recipe 2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups small marshmallows 1/2 cup butter or margarine 1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cocoa
1 cup Coca-Cola®
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, sift sugar and flour. Add marsh- mallows. In saucepan, mix butter, oil, cocoa, and Coca-Cola. Bring to a boil and pour over dry ingredients; blend well. Dissolve baking soda in buttermilk just before adding to batter along with eggs and vanilla extract, mixing well. Pour into a well-greased 9- by-13-inch pan and bake 35 to 45 minutes. Remove from oven and frost immediately.

I used Cupcake cases instead and they took around 20mins
They are really moist and light with a slight taste of coca cola
For the icing
225 grams of icing sugar
30 grams of butter
3 tablespoons of cola
1 tablespoon of cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 packet of cola bottle sweets - either the jelly ones or the fizzy sugary ones, which ever you prefer!

Gifts from my Parents!

Cupcake toppers from Linda's Cupcakes.

www.cupcakelinda.co.uk

"Bake yourself happy"

Today I found my favourite new shop The happy cupcake company

Full of brightly coloured sprinkles, loads of pretty toppers, cases and all sorts of things to literally "Bake yourself happy" which is their motto quite fitting!

Take a look
http://www.thehappycupcakecompany.co.uk/gallery

The face behind the cakes

Lady Muck

Polka dot birthday cake

Traditional occasion cake decorated with a polka dot theme.

Coconut Skull cake

Coconut sponge covered with Coconut flavored buttercream decorated with icing and edible glitter, finished with silver balls!

Red velvet cake

This cake is really popular at the moment it's a American recipe. The sponge is bright red it's a shame I didn't take a photo of the inside!
The topping is made of creme cheese and icing sugar it's surprisingly light. I used a Nigella lawson recipe for this the recipe was for cupcakes but I doubled the recipe and used a 10"inch round cake tin!
Ingredients ( needs to be doubled)
250g/ 8 oz plain flour
2 tbsp/ 30 mL cocoa powder
2 tsp/ 10 mL baking powder
½ tsp/ 2 mL baking soda
100g / 3 1/2 oz soft, unsalted butter
200g / 7 oz sugar
1 heaped tbsp/ 15 mL Christmas-red paste food colouring
2 tsp/ 10 mL vanilla essence
2 eggs
175 ml/ 3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp/ 5 mL cider vinegar

For the frosting (needs to be doubled again)500g/16 oz icing sugar
125g/ 4 oz cream cheese
125g/ 4 oz soft unsalted butter

Butterfly cake

This cake was baked to go with the very hungry Caterpillar cupcakes, the 3 year old was a girl hence the pink and purple decoration. This cake was a tradional birthday cake, Victoria sponge,vanilla buttercream, strawberry jam and icing

The very hungry Caterpillar Cupcakes

I really enjoyed decorating these, they were baked for a 3 year olds birthday party I also baked a Butterfly cake for the main cake.

Hello Kitty Birthday cake.

This Hello Kitty cake was baked for a birthday, a simple Victoria sponge filled with tradional vanilia buttercream and strawberry jam , decorated with icing to create the face of Hello Kitty

Hummingbird Bakery

when in London I visited the Hummingbird Bakery, This made me extremely happy as I use Hummingbird Bakery cookbooks on a regular basis. The Cupcake I tasted was the lightest cake I had ever had!

Check out the Hummingbirds website
http://hummingbirdbakery.com/

It's been a while!

So it's been a while since I last blogged on here, I have still been busy baking so now it's time to update and show you what I've been up to!