Tuesday 15 February 2011

Camera cupcakes

It was my chap Tom's birthday the other day.  He is the photographer responsible for all of the beautiful photos on my blog. (The not so good ones are by me...)  And so, as his camera is his second love, I decided to surprise him with some camera cakes.  I say surprise.  I tried my best to pretend that
"Oh, I just haven't had time to make you any cakes....I always make you cakes...I thought you'd be sick of cakes..."
As if.
But still, I managed to sneakily bake and decorate them when I had the place to myself and deliver them to the restaurant we went to on the sly. Which I'm proud of.  


The actual cakes themselves were my new favourites, white chocolate and strawberry, crammed with chocolate chunks, strawberry jam and topped with white chocolate icing. Ya-hum.  They were originally a bit of an experiment, as I had some strawberry sauce and strawberry jam from a couple of farm shops, for which I am an absolute sucker...


I adapted some of my favourite recipes and came up with this:

For the white chocolate chip cupcakes (makes about 12)
110g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
2 large eggs
150g self raising flour
125g plain flour (plus a couple of tablespoons)
120 ml semi skimmed milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
6tbs strawberry syrup

120g white chocolate
For the filling
12 tsp seedless strawberry jam

For the white chocolate buttercream (from the 'Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery')
 
200g white chocolate
120g vanilla buttercream (which is 8tbsp)
6 tbsp double cream
.



*Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4
*Cream together the butter and sugar for a good while, until really white and creamy.  
*Add the eggs one at a time, beating for a good few minutes after each.
*Sift and combine the two flours (not the extra 2 tablespoons).  
*Then add a third to the mixture and beat just until it's combined.
*Add the vanilla extract to the milk and then add a third of that to the mixture and beat until combined..
*Alternate between the milk and flour, using a third at a time until it's all in.
*Add the strawberry sauce.  Try and get any chunky bits of strawberry in there.
*Chop the white chocolate into small chunks and then rub flour all over them.
*Add the floury chocolate to the mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until they are spread evenly through the batter.
*Spoon into cupcake cases until they're half full.
*Bake in the oven for around 20 mins or until a sharp knife goes in and comes out of one of them clean (except for some gooey chocolate)
*Allow them to coole completely.
*Cut the middle out of each cake using a sharp knife (point it down straight and make cuts straight down, moving the knife round in a small square so that you end up pulling out a little pointy piece of cake (which you can eat!)
*Using either a teaspoon and a lot of patience or a piping bag, fill each hole with the strawberry jam.
*To make the icing, melt the white chocolate and let it cool.  
*Then, combine all the ingredients and whisk.  Keep adding icing sugar until it reaches the consistency you want.


The first time I made these, I cut out little strawberry stars using a small cutter and some fresh strawberries.  After a day the strawberry juice started to ooze out onto the icing, which was yum.


As you can see, I also made some other choccie cupcakes (because I panicked that there wouldn't be enough...)  These were chocolate fudge, with little fudge pieces and a gooey chocolate centre...

I made the cameras out of black sugarpaste. I tend to use ready coloured paste when using really deep colours.  I based it on one of these...Although I had to leave out....most things because they were teeny.  I coated them with some confectioners glaze so they looked more plasticy and if you look reeeally close, you'll see a tiny bit of edible paint at the top where it's supposed to say 'Canon'. Oh yes!
I noticed that when these were dished out, quite a few people didn't actually eat the cameras.  Possibly because they thought they were too pretty.  Probably because they didn't want to see me cry....






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