Red velvet cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting

I am a newcomer to the pleasures of red velvet, as are my husband and friends. We are all evangelists now! The rich red brown cocoa sponge, balanced with the rich, creamy sweetness of a white chocolate and cream cheese frosting. Pure decadence!

The cupcakes originate from the Hummingbird Bakery cook book. The icing is mine. And boy is it good... but not good for you!

Preheat oven to 170C
12 hole cupcake/ muffin tin with  paper cases

60g unsalted butter at room temperature
150g caster sugar
1 egg
20g cocoa powder
1 1/2 tablespoons red food colouring
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
120ml buttermilk
150g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1 1/2 teaspoons white wine vinegar

Icing 

60g unsalted butter (soft)

200g icing sugar

100g cream cheese (Philadelphia) cold from fridge

75g white chocolate

With an electric whisk beat the sugar and butter until light, add the egg. Combine cocoa, food colouring, vanilla and 2 tbsp of the buttermilk to make a smooth paste. Whisk into the butter and sugar. Add half of the buttermilk, then half the flour with baking powder added, repeat and whisk till very smooth. Then for the kitchen magic. Sprinkle the baking soda with your fingers to get rid of lumps into the centre of the batter, pour over the vinegar and watch it fizz with a child's delight. Whisk up to combine. Spoon quickly into the cases and pop into the oven. Cook for 20 mins or so till risen and set in the middle.

Cool on a wire rack, take out of the tin after 5 mins.

Leave until completely cool. Meanwhile make the icing.

Melt the chocolate gently in a bowl over boiling water. DO NOT let the bowl come in contact with the water. Remove before it is completely melted and stir as it finishes melting. White chocolate can overheat and go grainy easily. This happens even more easily with cheap  white chocolate. Leave to cool for about 10 mins.

Whisk butter and sugar with an electric whisk, if helps to add the sugar gradually so you don't get a snow storm. It WILL come together. When light and fluffy add cream cheese and whisk well. Add the cooled white chocolate, beat just until combined. Be sure that the cupcakes are completely cool before you ice them. At lest an hour after coming out of the oven.

Enjoy!

Chocolate pavlova... with raspberries and cream

For my sister, Mirin

Crisp on the outside, squidgy on the inside, fat free (before you add the cream!) and very chocolatey... served with raspberries... and cream!

3 egg whites
75 g/ 3 oz caster sugar
3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder
1 tsp white wine vinegar
1 tsp corn flour/ corn starch

Preheat oven to 150C

Whisk egg whites till stiff. Add sugar, whisk till glossy. Add other ingredients whisk until combined.

Put onto a non stick baking sheet - spread about 1 1/2 inches thick, about 9 inches in diameter. Bake for 45 mins at 150C. (It will be crisp to the touch - my oven is quite fast, so yours might need a little longer.)

When cool, cover with 250 ml cream whipped and a punnet of fresh raspberries, and dust with icing sugar.

Cake for Breakfast: Popple Cake

This is a breakfast cake! Well, I ate it for breakfast, still warm from the oven. But it's delicious at coffee break or tea time too. I know, I tried it then too!!

What is a breakfast cake? Well it's higher in nutrients, contains fruit and, is lower in butter, and is not iced. It contains all the ingredients people might eat for breakfast: wheat flour, oats, fruit, eggs, buttermilk... but in cake form. It is about as worthy as cake gets. Except it doesn't taste worthy It is moist and spiced, bejewelled with plump cranberries and oh so more-ish.

I made it to use up a large jar of apple puree that I had bought for the baby. But homemade stewed apple would be perfect too, just make sure it's not too sweet.

And the name? Porridge + apple. See I told you it was healthy! It is adapted from Beth Hensperger's lovely Bread for Breakfast, another great American baking resource. So cup measures at the ready!! (I know it looks like quite a list of ingredients, but the method is simplicity itself.)

Lucy Loves...

My Perfect All-American Chocolate Cake - it disappeared WAY too fast, I'm missing it already! Described thus: "Imagine if a brownie and a chocolate cake had a baby. This would be it..."

I love condensed milk - preferably out of the tin with a spoon! - so this Condensed Milk Pound Cake at Sweet as Sugar Cookies sounded good to me!

The prettiest pink macaroons with raspberries and cream - you have to see these! 

Oh forgot all about this peanut butter cookie cake, got to try it!

Perfect All-American Chocolate Cake

For Leigh, Lydia and Francesca

Imagine if a brownie and a chocolate cake had a baby. This would be it...

This cake is from  Rose Levy Beranbaum's authoritative Cake Bible. I made this today for my 3-year-old's birthday. The description in the Bible was pretty grand. I read it to my guests before we ate it. Partly to scoff... but, after trying it, we all agreed it was spot on - and not at all immodest.

"This cake has a full chocolate flavour and exceptionally soft, fine texture for a chocolate butter cake...Ross Horovitz, after photographing this cake of Chocolatier magazine, said "when you bite into this cake," he rhapsodised, " its seems light; then it becomes fudgy and chocolaty; then jist when you begin to think you have something, it simply vanishes so you want to take another bite!" My mother was more succinct: "It tastes like a chocolate bar but softer." And that was my goal."

So you have to try it really, don't you? (And if you love baking I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The woman is a baking goddess - scientific in the extreme in her approach and consistently perfect in her recipes.

I have adapted the recipe very slightly...

Rhubarb buttermilk upside down cake with orange and cardamom

Woah what a mouthful of a title. and what a mouthful of a cake. You can just call it breakfast - like I did this morning and eat 3 slices! Treacly sharp rhubarb on a sweet, tender cake fragrant with cardamom. Combining three ideas: one from Darina Allen, one from Sarah Raven and an adapted buttermilk cake recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's wonderous Cake Bible.

Lucy Loves...

What a lot of yumminess this week...

I have just discovered Food Gawker for the very best food pics in the blogosphere - be warned, you will be drooling all over your computer! I have set myself a challenge to get onto this!

My Chocolate Almond cake has been getting a lot of traffic- (and eaters!) this week.

This toasted cream coconut pie caught my eye when it popped up on my blog list this week....

Or how about a chocolate fudge ice cream pie? Whilst you're there have a good look around - wow what an archive of deliciousness! Looking good Jamie!

Chocolate almond cake (gluten free)

This one's from my friend Rachael Tomkins, a regular Queen of Puddings reader. She had a winning discovery of this gluten-free chocolate cake, which uses almonds instead of flour. It went down a treat with her sister-in -aw (who is coeliac). There were no complaints from the rest of the family either apparently! It was, according to her "really easy and super yummy!!!" 

So I had to try it didn't I? And she also suggested it might be nice warm with ice cream - well what are friends for but to act on your every whim? That is my professional obligation, here at Queen of Puddings. Nothing goes on here unless it's been tried and loved first. So warm with ice cream it was. And I agree wholeheartedly. Super yummy. My two-year-old (nut hating child) is currently devouring it beside me! It also fills the house with a chocolatey fug for the whole day so you get to waft around feeling like a true domestic goddess, despite the sink stacked with washing up!

I am still on the look out for a dairy, egg and wheat-free cake for Andra - I have a great  vegan cake recipe, but it has wheat flour. Any suggestions dear readers?

Instant Donuts

No deep fat frying. No syringes. No yeast. These are my almost instant donuts which use a classic Yorkshire pudding method! They take only 20 mins start to finish... and much less time to eat (as you can see from the picture!)

Lucy Loves...

What's cooking this week?

• My instant donuts- oh mama they were good!! 
• Spring flower tea from Dreaming Aloud
• Fushi - fake+sushi made from sweets!! And more here! Perfect for a cherry blossom picnic!
• Tie Dye cupcakes- rainbow colour wonders, seeing is believing!
• The best peanut butter fudge anyone?
• Or do Strawberry & White Chocolate Passion Fruit Soups With Mixed Berries Muffins sound intriguing to you?

Sakura cupcakes

This is my standard cupcake recipe, quick to whip up, they keep well (if you don't eat them!!) and as light as a fairy. If you ice with a water icing they are much lower in fat than a normal cupcake: I love the creamy ultra light vanilla icing though!

The original recipe (which I have adapted) comes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cook Book.

We served these at our cherry blossom (sakura) picnic with a spring flower tea - for this visit my other blog

Hummingbird Cake

For Mary

A variation on the carrot cake them- but with no carrot! This recipe is the Hummingbird Bakery's signature cake, hence the recipe, but they have 3 times the sugar in the icing (it must be terrifyingly sweet). I have also added some brown flour to the mix to add nutrition. In my dear friend Mary's words: "OMG that is like the BEST cake I have ever tasted!" Personally I wouldn't go THAT far... but it does look mighty impressive. Try it and see for yourself.

Raspberry almond pudding cake

I had frozen raspberries and wanted to make a pudding for our roast chicken dinner. But didn't want crumble. So improvised this - a mix between my all time favourite River Cafe Plum and Orange cake with almonds, another fav, Nigella Lawson's Easy Almond Cake, and a remembered cake that my step mother brought over to celebrate the birth of my first daughter. We liked it, a lot. 3 adults ate 3/4 of it!

So what's it like? A damp, sweet, buttery, crumbly almond and citrus scented cake with a crisp caramelised crunchy almond topping and tart raspberries at the bottom.

Luscious lemon squares

These are light and lemony. and super quick to throw together - under half an hour from start to eat. And eat them we did. They may look simple, and are certainly a classic, I claim no great surprises here, certainly no fancy icing... but boy are they good...myself and three kiddies (5,3, and 1) wolfed down half a pan of still warm squares in less than 10 minutes. So panic not about them being too sharp-tasting for kids. They would be great for a school bake sale or unexpected guests for tea.

I made them because we had a big batch of lemons to use up, and hundreds of our yummy yellow yolked free range eggs from our dear chooks who live under the kids' trampoline. Good eggs make all the difference.

Banana Loaf Cake

For Amy, Loo and Caragh who all love this cake.

A homely cake which fills the house with a wonderful cakey fug which seductively lets everyone who enters know that you are truly a domestic goddess. A crisp crust and moist springy sponge. Kids love it. And the adults do too! It's perfect for using up those deep brown spotted bananas that populate the fruit bowl.

We eat it plain. You can butter it. Or ice it, with a cream cheese icing, a la carrot cake, or a lemony butter or even lemony water icing. All are divine. Or how about a chocolate butter icing for a kiddies birthday cake (just bake it in a round tin).

It is divine still warm from the oven, but keeps well a few days too as the banana adds moisture. Ring the changes and cater to your individual crowd's needs: add 100 g sultanas (soaked in rum or orange juice to make them extra plump), 100g chocolate chips or chunks, and/ or 60 g chopped pecans or walnuts.

With thanks to Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess and Rose Levy Beranbaum's  The Cake Bible for their combined techniques!

All American Blueberry Muffins

For Gill

For me America is the land of baking. Pancakes, brownies, cookies, whoopie pies. They are the stuff of dreams to an Anglo-Irish girl brought up on lardy cake, scones, crumpets and victoria sponge. The summit of America's baking achievements for me is the blueberry muffin. The ease of making, the simplicity of method, the crazy indigo of the vibrant berries in the light crumbed cake. Blueberries in Europe are never as good as American ones: ours are meaner and less flavoursome. But still each time I eat one I feel I am transported back to my first bite, in America, aged nine.

Secret Brownies

Brownies... the ultimate gooey, gunky chocolate sensation. But definitely NOT good for you.

Well not any more. These secret brownies are super-chocolatey yet light, gooey and cakey...and nutritious. The secret? Tofu! It replaces some of the eggs, sugar and butter. And you would NEVER know it was there! Tofu is a great low fat protein source. As well as containing all sorts of cancer protecting isoflavins and the like. I also find for some reason that they don't give me a nasty sugar high like other brownies.

You'll have to trust  me on this one. I do not do worthy bakery. But I may, in this recipe, just have found a perfect compromise. I ate six today...I'm not sure if they're THAT healthy... ah well!

Hotcakes

My kids know that Saturday morning means one thing, and one thing only: pancakes! They can choose between crepes (pancakes) or these classic American pancakes which we call "hotcakes". They differ from the English drop scones that I grew up with which are slightly floppier and more rubbery. The combination of buttermilk instead of milk, oil instead of butter and a dash of cornflour makes these so light and airy they could float off by themselves.

Toppings depend on the person. For me it has to be Vermont maple syrup, salty butter and if available hickory smoked American style (streaky) bacon fried till crisp. And they have to be stacked up. My children love strawberry jam or Nutella as well.

Florentine Crispies

Dear friends, brace yourselves to reach heaven. Well, that is if you like white chocolate, and if you don't we may need to reassess this friendship thing. You also need to be a little nutty... (if you know what I mean!) And yes you need to like candied peel. Now I know that this seems to disqualify most of my close friends. But their loss. Myself, my husband, sister and step mother sit and gorge on these. There is a reason that I only cook them once or twice a year! that and the ingredients aren't that cheap. But boy are they a good grown up treat. Gorgeous as a snack, or an after dinner snapple.

These are grown up chocolate crispy cakes with a florentine vibe going on. Regular readers know that contains nuts= a health food in my book and it cancels out the less wholesome nature of any other ingredients contained therein!

With credit to Andrew Garrison Shot's divine book Making Fine Chocolates for the original version of this recipe.

Peanut Butter Blondies

With thanks to Rachel Allen from whose book Bake I got the original, even sweeter, version. I know, because I know her, that she makes these for her school bake sale. Easy as pie to make, easy as sin to devour: blink and they're gone. Ditch the guilt and (like me) persuade yourself they're a health food because they've got nuts in! I nearly didn't make them. Cooked peanut butter, I thought, yuck, how American! But take it from me, if you like peanut butter these are all good!

Like brownies in texture and more-ishness, but not, obviously, in colour - hence blondies. Cunning!