welcome to holland cupcakes

The other day I went to pick up someone from the airport who was coming over to Holland for the first time, and as a little welcome present (I also met him for the first time that day) I decided to make cupcakes (though really and truly I use any excuse to try out new baking stuff of course!). This time my eye fell on red velvet cupcakes with strawberry finishing, a combination of 2 recipes I fancied.

So first of all, a big splash of red food colouring mixed in with some cocoa powder and vanilla extract added to a simple cupcake mix gives you these beautiful red velvet cupcakes. Fancy as they are already, I pimped them with the following: cream cheese icing and strawberries.



The cream cheese icing was a simple cream cheese/icing sugar/bit of butter combination, but the strawberries I actually 'marinated' in strawberry liqueur. I added a bit of icing sugar to thicken the liqueur then dropped 6 nice look strawberries in. I spooned over the liqueur a couple of times, and then just let them soak.




So, dollop on some cream cheese icing and then I halved the strawberries and placed them on top. So pretty!!! I just have to share some more purrtyyy pictures!!



For my birthday I also got some lovely gift boxes especially for cupcakes. I hadn't had a chance to use them yet, but this occasion seemed fitting, so this is how this little cupcake travelled to the airport!



I think they were a success ;)

xoxo Jennifer

ps. for those of you who didn't know already, you can click on the pictures to see a larger version ;) ;)

dee-licious choc chip (chunk!) cookies

The other day I needed to fix up a quick desert, and except for the 5 minute microwave cake I don't know anything quicker than a batch of cookies. So that's exactly what I made, with thanks to Martha Day for the best cookie recipe I've tried so far.

So the recipe was for chocolate chip cookies, but due to a lack of chocolate chips, I cut up a bar of chocolate, into nice big chunks (taste better!). Next I added some chopped up walnuts to the better as well.



When all mixed and done, I dollopped the cookie mix onto a baking tray. I could have used 2 trays to space them out better and not have it turn into one big cookie, but I like it this way! And they really didn't stick together that much anyway.



The result? Yummy slightly chewy (the way I like them!) chocolate chunk/walnut cookies.



xoxo Jennifer

Cranberry cravings

It's a rainy Saturday afternoon, perfect for baking I say! Today I decided to try crumble topping muffins (in memory of the de-licious muffins Mariko once made). So here they are, apple/cranberry muffins with crumble topping. Enjoy!



First up, here's a quick overview of some of the ingredients I use :P





Chop the apples, mix the ingredients... on my merry way! And then make some crumble to pour over the top. Besides butter, flour, sugar and cinnamon, I also added some muesli to give the crumble some extra crunch. Voila, they're ready to go in the oven.



After 20 minutes of anticipation, they are out of the oven! And they do look good, if I may say so myself ^^



Too bad there's no one around to enjoy them ;) More for me I say!

xoxo Jennifer

cheating

So yes, sometimes I cheat. Well not a lot really, but tonight I had a craving for cake and no energy to really make anything. So I did a quick search for 'quick cake', and I found one that could be ready in 5 minutes. Made in a cup. In the microwave. Imagine that! To be honest it really didn't sound that appetising but I felt I had to give it a try. So here's what happened:

First, mix the flour + cocoa powder + sugar.





Then add an egg, a bit of milk and some vegetable oil.






3 minutes in the microwave, and presto, cake! Looks pretty impressive so far.










Now for the tasting... I have to say the cake was a little dry, though possibly I put it in a little too long... Plenty of solutions though, like adding a nice little bit of vanilla ice cream, and it was a decent enough snack!











Not sure if I'd make it again though, I'll stick to real cakes ^^ But in case you're interested, here's the originalo recipe: microwave cake in 5 minutes!

xoxo Jennifer

New baking tin try out 1

Hello again!

After a visit to my Grandma in England I have returned with some brand new baking tins, yay yay~! She gave me two wonderful baking tins for my birthday (and lots of other lovely baking goods!!) and a quick trip into town led to the purchase of three more!! Two tins are technically my mum's and while in England we tried those out:

First up, a new individual brownie tin!

omnomnom look at that chocolatey-goodness...


And the beautiful result!


Another lovely cake tin is one especially for Lemon Drizzle Cake (though of course anything is possible :) )

This is the tin....









And this is the result!


The third baking tin we bought in town is perfect for this summer heat, for it combines cake with ice cream. Better yet, they are cake ice creams. Not ice cream cakes, nooo cake ice creams! Check out these awesome ice cream cones made of vanilla/chocolate marble cake. YUM!

Too bad I didn't have a proper ice cream scoop, maybe next time?



So there it is, part 1. My other new cake tin try-outs will follow soon!

xoxo Jennifer

Feeling HOT HOT HOT

Hello my darlings,

So over here it is HOT HOT HOT I can tell you, and as lovely as that is for going to the beach, having BBQ's, going to festivals and generally enjoying the sun, it does not motivate me to bake. This is for the simple reason that my room is a sauna and putting the oven on nearly kills me, BUT: I can't help myself! Here are my latest creations:

First up, for my friend's BBQ I made a white chocolate strawberry cheesecake. Now that's quite a mouthful, but it wasn't as rich as it sounded, because I actually got the recipe from a slimming magazine. So it suggests low-fat quark rather than cream cheese and I used soy margarine in the ginger snap base rather than actual butter. The chocolate mixed in with the quark (I grated a bar of white chocolate so it wouldn't be TOO rich) isn't that healthy I suppose, but I used sugar-free jelly and fresh strawberries. Of course stuffing our faces with meat and bread and hummus before eating the cake kind of defeats the purpose, but it was interesting to make such a yummy cake (for it WAS!) while using slightly-less-bad-for-you ingredients :)


So here's the cake, fresh out of the oven and after letting it cool and set in the fridge overnight, I added sliced, fresh strawberries.


What made this cake so pretty and eye-catching for me in the first place was the jelly: it's strawberry jelly I got from my little British shop. In the picture with the recipe the strawberries were completely immersed in the jelly, but mine just floated to the top the whole time, stubborn little things. No matter though! I finished off the decoration right before presenting it with just a couple more fresh strawberries.


Taking the cake tin off made me a little nervous (especially when at first it didn't want to come off!) because the cake in the recipe picture was so perfect. Mine was quite that, for one it was brown and not white (I still haven't got the hang of baked cheesecake, I just can't tell when it's done or not!) but it was beautiful on the inside!!




Now will you look at that little slice of gorgeous. Definitely something I want to try making again!!




Now next up, quietly inserted at the end, for this night is not something we really want to remember, but for the World Cup final I made chocolate cupcakes with orange icing (flavour as well as colour). They were cute and yummy but unfortunately did not help us win one bit. Oh well! They were good consolation food for us :)

cake cake cake

Dear all,

Another cake update! I've got 2 cakes for you today: the gorgeous carrot cake I made for a Korean drama night at my place, and my brother's birthday. Ready, steady, go!

Carrot Cake



Sebastian's birthday cake
I decided to make a chocolate cake, as it is his favourite, and use my new square cake tin while I was at it! I shaved off a little off the top to make it more even before putting on the icing:


So my brother asked for a cake with orange icing for when Holland beats Brazil in the World Cup. Of course, I had no faith in our team so did not think I would have to actually make it, but we kicked some Brazilian ass, and so an orange cake it was! For my brother's wish, is my command!











The Happy recipient: HAPPY BIRTHDAY BIG LITTLE BROTHER!!!