Monthly Archives: January 2013

Valentine’s Day Cookies

Posted on by

Hi all!

Valentine’s Day is coming. For those absent minded, it’ll be on February 14th ; )

If you are in love, most likely you’ll celebrate this special day with your partner. If you’re not, don’t worry:  it’s never too late to fall in love!

My suggestion is to make this day the sweetest one of the year!

You can start the day with a sweet and colorful breakfast: some heart shaped biscuits decorated with royal icing.

Good morning!

Valentine's Day Cookies

Valentine's Day Cookies

As you can see, these butter biscuits were decorated with white royal icing (outline) and pink runny icing (filling) by means of  a piping bag (tip #3). Once royal icing dries, it gets pretty hard, but it becomes a wonderful combination on the crispy biscuit. Yummy!

It was the first time I made royal icing, as well as my first experience decorating with it! But more attempts will come soon, for sure! Decorating cookies is really fun and relaxing : )

Valentine's Day Cookies

Let’s continue with my Valentine’s Day suggestion. In the evening, you can surprise your partner with a candlelight dinner and also sweeten your night with some more lovely biscuits for desert. Yes, this year I’m obsessed with heart shaped biscuits… Love is in the air!! lol.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Valentine's Day Cookies

These ones are delicious biscuits with strawberry jam filling. I’ll show you how to make them step by step. You’ll need:

•  Butter biscuits (click here to check the recipe)

•  Heart shaped pastry cutters: 1 standard size and 1 small size               

 

•  Strawberry jam

 

Process

Once the dough is rolled out, cut the biscuits with the biggest pastry cutter. Then, remove the center of half the amount of the biscuits by using the small cutter. You’ll get a heart shaped hole in the middle of them. Bake  them all, following this recipe, and let them cool on a wire rack. Combine one whole biscuit and one with a hole in the middle and fill them with some strawberry jam, by spreading it over the back side of the whole one. Put them together to form a single biscuit.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Don’t throw away the center of the biscuits, as you can make mini heart-shaped ones! I baked them (be careful, they get burned pretty easily) and once cooled, I decorated them with melted white chocolate, which I coloured with red paste colouring (“Sugarflair Red Extra”). I applied it onto the mini biscuits by means of a small squeeze bottle.

Valentine's Day Cookies

Valentine's Day Cookies

I made all these biscuits with so much love… Try to make yours to sweeten that special day! :)

Valentine's Day Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Sara

 

Chocolate and Cream Cheese Muffins

Posted on by

Hi!

Today I bring a new recipe. And I bet you can’t believe me: it’s not a cupcakes one. There’s no icing anywhere. What’s wrong with you, Sara? You are mad about cupcakes! Then, where are they?

Actually I was looking for a new cupcake recipe with cream cheese as the main ingredient. Then I saw this muffin recipe in the meloguisomelocomoto blog. It seemed so appealing to me that I decided to give it a go! And you? Are you going to? If you do, you won’t regret!

Choco & Cheese Muffins

Choco & Cheese Muffins

Chocolate and Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 12 big muffins

Ingredients

(I changed some quantities from the original recipe)

♦  125 grs butter (room temperature)

♦  175 grs granulated sugar

♦  200 grs cream cheese

♦  3 eggs

♦  250 grs plain flour

♦  1 1/2 tsp baking powder

♦  1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

♦  1 tsp vanilla extract

♦  150 grs dark chocolate 

♦  125 grs chocolate chips

Process

1) Preheat the oven at 170º.

2) Melt the dark chocolate. Leave it to rest until cooled.

3) Sift the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda. Set aside in a separate bowl.

4) Cream the butter with the sugar. Mix for about 4-5 minutes.

5) Add the cream cheese and the vanilla extract. Keep mixing: you’ll get a really creamy and moist batter.

6) Add one egg at a time and mix until well incorporated.

7) Add the melted dark chocolate (already cooled) and keep mixing for some seconds.

8) Gradually add the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda) and mix gently (don’t overbeat).

9) Add the chocolate chips and combine by means of a spatula.

10) Place your muffin liners into a muffin pan and fill them 3/4 full of batter.

11) Bake them for about 20-22 minutes. The baking time will depend on your oven. Check the muffins with a skewer: if it comes out clean, they’ll be ready.

12) Let them cool on a cooling rack.

Choco & Cheese Muffins

Muffins are usually less sweet than cupcakes because they don’t have icing on top, although you can add, for example, chopped fruit, chocolate chips or nut chunks in the muffins batter to make them tastier. Finding some chocolate chunks inside your muffin is priceless! :)

Choco & Cheese Muffins

This is the “heart” of one of the muffins I ate: soft, light and tender. I admit I had seconds… I can’t avoid having a sweet tooth!

Choco & Cheese Muffins

Thanks for reading my post.

Hope you all have a nice (and sweet) weekend!

Sara

Coffee Cupcakes

Posted on by

Hey there,

I love having tea everyday, specially since I’ve been in London. I’m not a fan of drinking coffee, but I like its flavour and smell. I can’t deny it! So I enjoy coffee sweets, coffee ice creams, coffee milkshakes…

Coffee Cupcakes

I have a coffee maker at home which serves at least eight cups . It was a gift from my mother. She knew I didn’t drink coffee, but she told me: “Just in case“. Luckily it’s pretty useful when I have guests at home. The “problem” comes when I have to make coffee just for one or two… The result: a lot of left over coffee!!

I found an excellent solution which I carry out when this happens: making my own coffee buttercream!

Coffee Cupcakes

Coffee Buttecream Recipe

Ingredients

♦  200 grs Butter (room temperature)

♦  300 grs Icing Sugar (sifted)

♦  4  tbsp Espresso Coffee or add to taste

Process

 1) Mix the butter with the icing sugar until light and fluffy (around 5 minutes).

2) Add the coffee and mix together until well incorporated.

Optional: If you want a deeper colour, add a few amount of brown colouring paste.

Coffee Cupcakes

Coffee Cupcakes

I moistened these cupcakes with coffee syrup. After that, I attached a gum paste handle to some paper liners to simulate a cup. Once the handles were well attached, I spread some coffee buttercream and I piped a small swirl (tip #2D). Finally, I added some “coffee beans”, which I made with chocolate fondant.

Some people who don’t like coffee and tasted these cupcakes, told me that they really liked them!

Coffee Cupcakes

Coffee Cupcakes

As you can see in these pictures, I also have another coffee maker, but it’s quite tiny and it doesn’t work properly. I just use it as a garnish in my kitchen. I’d better get a new with a standard size, unless I want to carry on making lots of coffee flavoured cupcakes!

See you soon.

Sara