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Posts Tagged ‘Cupcakes’

Recipe ~ Easy Dark Chocolate Ganache

May 7th, 2013

Don’t you just love dark chocolate ganache? It’s one of my favourite toppings for chocolate cupcakes and chocolate cakes. Whilst on a family holiday in Cyprus recently, I noticed that the hotel we stayed in regularly served chocolate ganache in one form or another in it’s desserts. I am pretty certain that it was made using the same % of cocoa solids in the chocolate as I use (53.8%), as it tasted the same as the recipe I use at home and in my chocolate classes.

Chocolate ganache is so simple to make, it uses a combination of cream and chocolate. It tastes so decadent, grown up and almost naughty.

In it’s fluid form, you must use it quickly as it will begin to thicken and set. I usually take a tablespoon or two and literally spoon it over a chocolate cupcake. Within ten minutes it will set enough to add any further decorations on top, or you could just take a big bite? I know what I’d rather do…

Recipe for Dark Chocolate Ganache (for topping 12 cupcakes)

200ml single cream

200g chocolate buttons ( I use Callebaut, 53.8% cocoa solids)

Method

- Place the single cream in a microwaveable bowl and add the chocolate buttons

- Microwave together for 1 minute, then stir

- Microwave for 30 seconds, then stir

- Repeat until the chocolate has melted into the cream, stir until smooth

Please note that the microwave I use is 900W, therefore you may need to adjust your microwave timings.

Enjoy!

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in Cupcakes

Cupcakes in California

April 23rd, 2013

This year I seem to be on the road more than usual. I knew I had some trips in the diary but I had no idea I would be flying over to a business conference in San Diego, California. It was a marketing conference that a friend of mine was already going to, and it was to be attended by the world’s top bloggers and online marketers. As my blog audience continues to increase, I was keen to learn from those with really successful blogs. It wasn’t primarily aimed at just food bloggers, there were bloggers from all industries and niches.

The conference was a real insight, the states are at the forefront of most things especially anything internet related. The audiences the professionals have on their blogs in the US is huge in comparison to many UK and European bloggers.

The trip was an amazing whirlwind of meeting some fantastic people doing some amazing things, whilst being surrounded in the beautiful city of San Diego. With an eight hour time difference and staying for only four days we didn’t really slip into the time zone. We were so busy and in awe of the place that we didn’t let jetlag stand in our way. In fact we even managed to track down the only cupcake bakery in San Diego, helped by the man in this picture…

A few streets away and we found ‘Heavenly Cupcake’ lounge and bakery.

We took a peek inside and I took a couple of pictures on my iphone of the cupcakes behind the counter.

Mothers Day was a popular cupcake theme, in the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day in March whereas the USA celebrates it on the second Sunday in May.

I didn’t purchase any cupcakes because I had just eaten this delicious (and large) Mexican meal

And look what I eat for breakfast earlier that day. Being a typical Brit I thought the pancakes would be the size of a small saucer, I nearly had a heart attack when I was served with 3 enormous buttermilk pancakes. I only managed to eat one which I drenched in maple syrup, and I think my face said it all when the server put the plate in front of me.

Until next time…

Happy Baking!

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in Travel

Recipe ~ Skinny Lemon Cupcakes

January 9th, 2013

I reluctantly stepped on the scales last week to find that I have gained a good few pounds after the excess of Christmas. This can have its challenges when you bake for a living, and especially when you love cake and most diets completely forbid any cake to pass your lips. Well, I think that a little of what you fancy in moderation is fine, but if moderation is something you struggle with then maybe these skinny cupcakes could be the answer. Instead of the usual 300 calories per cupcake these skinny cupcakes check in at only a 167 per calories per (muffin-sized) cake!

Read the rest of this entry »

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in Baking Recipes, Cupcakes

30 days till Christmas Countdown.

November 25th, 2012

Can you believe it’s 30 days until Christmas Day?

To help you countdown the days I will be posting each day on the blog leading up to Christmas. Look out for sweet Christmas inspiration such as cupcake, cakepops and cookies, as well as Christmas gifts and ideas for your home. I just love this time of year, so I hope you’ll join me on my Christmas Day countdown. I’m super excited so let’s get started!

For my first Christmas post I wanted to share with you these fabulous Christmas cupcake toppers our students made over the weekend. Sam from the Magical Cupcake Company was a guest tutor at Magenta Cakes HQ and she shared her talented modelling skills with a wonderful group of ladies.

Didn’t they do well?

I just love these cute snowmen all lined all up together…

And this is the collection they all came away with.

We had some great feedback from the student’s too:

“Sam was an excellent teacher and it’s a wonderful environment to come and learn in”.

“I would recommend Sam & Tracy to anyone. It was such a fantastic day!”.

“Another excellent course from Magenta Cakes that has opened up a whole new world to me, thank you so much!”

This weekend’s class was a great start to our 30 day Christmas countdown.

If you’d like to check out more of Sam’s work and tutorials, these are available at The Magical Cupcake Company website.

Happy Baking!

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in Classes

Introducing Just Bake….

November 14th, 2012

I first came across the ‘Just Bake’ a few months ago and recently I caught up with ‘Just Bake’ to find out a little more about their online shop.

When was Just Bake founded and where is the company based?

Just Bake is a relatively new online baking supplies company, founded in January 2012. Our offices are based in the lovely Nottinghamshire countryside in the quaint market town of Southwell.

What services/products do you currently offer?

We offer a wide range of baking supplies; however, we specialise in products suitable for cupcakes and cake pops. We have a lovely selection of cupcake wrappers, cases, packaging and pretty sprinkles. We’ve recently introduced a range of high quality cutters which are proving very popular.

We pride ourselves in providing excellent customer service and we’ve found that many of our customers keep coming back to us because of this. Our customers love the quick and efficient delivery service that we offer – we aim to dispatch all orders within 24 hours, so there’s no hanging around!

We also offer free delivery if you spend over £75.

Where do you currently deliver to?

We deliver predominantly to the UK; however, we’re also able to deliver orders to the whole of the EU.

What are your best sellers?

Definitely foil cupcake cases! We have a wide range of different coloured foil cupcake cases in both standard and mini sizes. Purple foil cupcake cases seem to be very popular at the moment!

What are ‘Just Bakes’ plans for the long term?

We’re continuously expanding our product range so that we can offer more and more to our customers. We’ve just designed and produced our own range of cupcake wrappers – we’re looking to expand this range over the next few months. We’ve got so much in the pipeline…it’s exciting times!

A favourite cake you like to nibble on?

Anything chocolatey is an absolute winner!

Where can we find you?

You can find ‘Just Bake’ at www.justbake.co.uk or you can visit our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/justbakeonline

‘Just Bake’ are currently offering readers of the Magenta Cakes Blog a 10% discount until 1^st December 2012. Please use the voucher code ‘MAGENTA’ .

Perfect for stocking up on your baking supplies before Christmas!

Until next time…

Happy Baking!

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in Sweet Products

Fun Fridays ~ Kiefer Sutherland in TV Cupcake Advert.

September 14th, 2012

It’s been a while since we had a Fun Friday post, so what better way to kick them off again by showing you this hilarious advert featuring Kiefer Sutherland.

One of our previous students wrote to me to show me this video, as she thought we’d love to share this with the wider cake community.

In a ad campaign for computer company Acer’s Aspire S5 Ultrabook™ from Mother, Sutherland is back in his Jack Bauer character from the popular TV series ’24′ but this time he’s showing his softer side – making cup cakes. For further details on the story behind the advert click here.

Sit back and enjoy, it’s bound to make you smile!

Until next time…

Happy Baking!

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in Fun Fridays

Introducing… Cupcake Heaven

September 13th, 2012

If you haven’t seen it in the shops already, look out for the latest copy of Cupcake Heaven Magazine which is on sale now.

For those unfamiliar with the magazine, Cupcake Heaven is part of the ‘Food Heaven’ series which also includes ‘Baking Heaven’ and ‘Cake Decoration Heaven’.

Every issue has inspiring recipes and the opportunity to learn new techniques to take your baking skills to the next level.

Cupcake Heaven’s current Autumn/Winter 2012 issue includes cupcake ideas for Halloween, Bonfire night, Christmas and New Year.

Not forgetting that ‘National Cupcake Week’ is also around the corner (17^th – 23^rd Sept), so check out their collection of 101 recipes which
will give you plenty of inspiration.

For those that love iphone apps, you can also download ‘Cupcake Heaven’ via itunes to your iphone or ipad.

I’m delighted to let you know that the ‘Carrot and Cardamon’ cupcake recipe from the Magenta Cakes blog has also been featured on pg 57 of
the magazine, in addition to an article I wrote on ‘How to set up your own cupcake company’.

Subsciptions are available online for readers in the UK, US and to the rest of the world, so make sure you grab a copy!

Happy Baking!

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in Cake Biz Tips, Inspiration, Sweet Products

Recipe ~ Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

September 5th, 2012

I feel slightly nostalgic of the fun that I’ve had with my little family over the school holidays, and we’re steadily settling back into our usual routines. Read the rest of this entry »

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in Baking Recipes, Cupcakes, Summer

Introducing Wondermilk…

July 4th, 2012

One of the things I love about teaching is the people that I meet. We often have international students coming to our classes and recently we had a lady (called Ella) visit us from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Ella was staying in London on vacation and decided to take a cupcake class with us before flying home the following day.

Ella spoke excellent English and was chatting to the group about the popularity of cupcakes in her home city.

She also mentioned that she visits a well known cupcake cafe called ‘Wondermilk’ in Kuala Lumpur, and raved about how fantastic their cupcakes were.

It’s common in the UK that we naturally look to the US for cupcake/ cake influences in design and trends, however I’m always intrigued
with how other countries perceive cupcakes, especially in the Far East.

I’m digressing … So getting back to Wondermilk. I was keen to find this cupcake cafe online and was delighted to find their website. They have 3 cafes in Malaysia selling a range of super cupcakes, yummy food and coffees.

What I like about Wondermilk is that it oozes fun with it’s whimsical design and branding.

It comes as no surprise to discover that the talented team behind Wondermilk are graduates from the University Of The Arts London. They’re a group of designers and artists, passionate about graphics, art, design and culture.

Since their beginnings in 2000 Wondermilk has evolved from working solely in graphic design, to creating unique cupcakes known as ‘Cuppacakes’, which in turn has led to their popular urban Wondermilk cafe.

Via their website you can view their cupcake design catalogue, and it’s worth a visit. Their cupcake designs are certainly unique
and inspiring.

I particularly love the ‘ Periwinkle’, ‘Enchanted’ and ‘simple Pleasures’ images from the Robin Collection.

You can take a look at their website here. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments box below.

All images are via Wondermilk

Until next time…

Happy Baking!

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in Sweet Places

Top Picks: Mother’s Day Inspiration Part 1

March 7th, 2012

As Mother’s Day in the UK is fast approaching, I thought I’d share with you a couple of gift ideas. These are ideal for mothers who love baking and indulging in the odd one (or two) cupcakes. Here is Part 1 of my top picks:

Flower Cupcakes

For those who wish to bake cupcakes as a gift for Mother’s Day, how about these pretty flower cupcakes from Betty Crocker (minus the candles). The flower petals have been made from cut up marshmallows that have been covered in pastel sugar sprinkles. For the centre of the flowers you could use a sugar coated jelly sweet for the centre (this may need a little sugar glue to stick it down). For full details of how to make these click here.

Image via Betty Crocker

Treat her to a Cupcake Class

Image via Ian Olsson

If your mum loves cupcakes and would like to learn how to professionally decorate them, then our 3 hour Let’s Decorate’ course is ideal for mothers and daughters. We have a few places available on our ‘Let’s Decorate’ cupcake class on Saturday 17th March ( shameless plug, I know ). Relaxed and friendly fun is guaranteed.

Baking Gifts

If your mum loves to bake bread then these original Hovis bread tins from NOTHS* would make a lovely gift. They are solid and heavy duty, perfect for bread and would equally look lovely with flowers or herbs in. Click on the image for further details. Mr S and little T, please take note that I’m putting this one on my wish list.

Happy Baking!

* Part of my affiliate program.

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in Classes, Sweet Products