Banana & Nutella Cupcakes

It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth, in fact I think all of my teeth are sweet! :) It's mini-Mi's first birthday soon, WOW a year has passed by way too quickly and I started thinking about what amazing creations I could make for his first birthday cake. Then I stopped to think about the fact that we have been providing him with a well balanced and healthy diet so far and why should his first birthday cake be any different? In addition, he is allergic to eggs so it got me searching for recipes that are egg-less/vegan and low/no sugar. This was completely unknown territory for me so I spent a lot of time reading about different egg and sugar substitutes. In the end finding a replacement for egg was relatively easy and as for sugar I didn't really feel that any alternatives we necessarily "better" for you and so I took the opinion that everything in moderation is okay and I would reduce the quantity and use unrefined whenever possible. Most importantly, I wanted it to be a cake that was still delicious and appealed to grown-ups too! Anyway, here is my first attempt of an egg-less, reduced sugar recipe slightly modified from Two Red Bowls.

Banana & Nutella Cupcakes

• 1/2 cup raw caster sugar
• 100 g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 1 cup natural Greek yoghurt
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp Nutella
• 1 tsp oil

Modifications

• Doubled the quantities of ingredients mainly because I had three ripe bananas to use up, but kept the amount of sugar the same yielding 24 cupcakes
• Used raw sugar instead of white sugar
• Omitted egg (banana can be used to replace egg)
• Used butter only, no oil
• Used half plain and half wholemeal flour

The end result was absolutely delicious! The cupcakes were light and fluffy packed with banana goodness and just the right amount of sweetness. I made some for mini-Mi without Nutella and he loved them. Next time, I think I will try making them without sugar and perhaps add a hint of cinnamon. Mi xo

New York Cheesecake with Blueberries

Must be blueberry season as our fridge seems to be overflowing with them at the moment. Luckily mini-Mi loves eating blueberries but even so I didn't think he could eat that many!! Time for some baking me thinks. Mr Mi loves cheesecake. I'll admit I haven't really baked many cheesecakes in my time and so didn't have any basic recipe up my sleeves. After a little searching on the internet I came across a Jamie Oliver recipe. We have a decent collection of Jamie's cook books so I didn't really think I could go wrong with this one. I wanted to make a cheesecake slice rather than "cake" so made a few modifications.

New York Cheesecake Recipe by Jamie Oliver

• 250 g digestive biscuits, crushed
• 150 g unsalted butter, melted
• 95 g caster sugar
• 2.5 tbsp cornflour
• 750 g cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 95 ml double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon

Modifications

• I wanted a thinner layer of cheesecake so reduced the quantity accordingly
• Used a 20 x 30 cm rectangular tin instead of 24 cm cake tin
• Placed blueberries in the cheesecake layer prior to baking instead of making a blueberry sauce
• Reduced cooking time to 35 minutes

It turned out pretty well and Mr Mi was satisfied with the outcome. Next time, I think I will make the biscuit layer just a little bit thicker as I found it was a bit to thin and crumbly this time but otherwise a great, easy and delicious recipe. Mi xo

Chocolate Cupcakes with Strawberry Cheesecake Frosting

Happy new year! My new year's resolution is to bake and blog more so here it goes first post of the year.

This dark chocolate cupcake recipe has been my go to recipe lately. It's so easy and the best thing is that the cupcakes remain moist and fresh even after a couple of days. Every time I go to the website I end up having to convert some of the quantities of ingredients, so I've decided to re-write the recipe below with the quantities in grams.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes (from Two Peas & Their Pod)

• 110 g unsalted butter
• 60 g dark chocolate (I use Nestle Club Dark)
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yoghurt

I topped off the cupcakes with a cream cheese icing scaled down from this recipe (250 g cream cheese, 70 g unsalted butter, 1 and 1/3 cups icing sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract) and a strawberry. Mr Mi's favourite flavours! Mi xo

I am a bear

This post is dedicated to my dear friends Miss T and Miss H, I am so incredibly proud of what you have both achieved and feel so very lucky to be a part of Manly Panto! You really can't go wrong with this dark chocolate cupcake recipe and what better way to to dress it up then to add a dollop of delicious chocolate ganache, chocolate buttons and there you have it "I am a bear".  Love Mi xo

MiNaScope

The MiNaScope microscope stage with various "biological" samples.

Yes, I know it's been a very, very long time since we've posted anything. I've had this one saved in the drafts folder since August and just haven't had the time (or motivation) to finish it off. Better late than never I guess!

A few months ago, Na sent me an email about the "Great Microscopy Bake-off 2013" held at The University of Sydney. The brief was to make a science or microscopy-themed cake, cupcake or biscuit. This was right down our alley and we really wanted to make a joint submission. We brainstormed and came up with various ideas, being so like-minded we actually came up with very similar ideas so it made the final decision easy. As we are both microscopists, we felt very strongly about making something microscope-related but a microscope seemed too obvious. In the end we decided on a microscope stage and various "biological" samples, this way we could easily make the components separately and then arrange them together on the day.

The MiNaScope microscope stage was chocolate brownie on the inside covered in basic vanilla buttercream and fondant. I bought the white icing at the supermarket and black fondant at The Essential Ingredient. Na's gingerbread cookies were covered in royal icing and decorated using a feathering effect described here. The writing on the "glass slides" was achieved by using a pen with edible ink.

Anthea Leonard from Sweet Art was there to judge the cakes and we came second! How amazing is that? Mi xo

Gingerbread cookies with "fluorescent cells" made by Na.

"Bacterial plate"gingerbread cookies made by Na.

Gingerbread "glass slides" made by Na.

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Nutella Ganache

A friend of ours is totally obsessed with Nutella, it has been so long since I had some. I remember as a kid spreading a thick layer of it on a fresh slice of white bread (crust off of course!) or eating spoonfuls of it straight from the jar. So when we had our baby reunion last week, I wanted to make some Nutella inspired cupcakes. I made a dark chocolate cupcake using this recipe and covered it with a Nutella ganache. It turned out pretty well, but next time I think I will have to boost the quantity of Nutella. It's a shame that she couldn't make it in the end, guess I will just have to make it again! Mi xo

Ice Cream Cake Pops

After his first attempt of no-bake cake pops my little brother, BroMi embarked on another adventure to make these super cute ice cream cake pops. He used a guide which can be found on Cakegirls. Basic instructions are as follows:

1. Melt some yellow candy melts and paint the cone area with a paint brush (see photo of cake pop mould below).
2. Put this in the fridge for 5 minutes and then go over with a second layer to cover any gaps, put in fridge again.
3. Melt the white candy and paint the ice cream area as well as going over the yellow cone area, repeat with a second layer as described above.
4. Once set, press the cake mixture into the ice cream and cone leaving a gap of about 5 mm from surface.
5. Coat the tip of a cake pop stick with candy melt and push it into the cake or I found it easier to place the stick in and put some cake on top of it.
6. Spoon more melts over the cake layer to fill it up. Even it out and place into fridge until set.
7. Once set remove from mould. Use a paint brush to put piping gel over the areas you want sprinkles and then sprinkle them on!