VALENTINES DAY CUPCAKES RECIPES

Saint Valentine's Day or Valentine's Day falls on February 14, this year it is on a Wednesday. It is the traditional day on which lovers can show their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards and gifts to each other such as red roses, sweets, chocolates and Valentines Cupcakes usually anonymously. The holiday is named after two men who were both Christian martyrs named Valentine. In the Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished the day became associated with romantic love. The shops in England are now showing displays of Valentines items such as red hearts, roses and all type of gifts in elaborate boxes with hearts and lots of red, white and pink colours.

Why not make some Valentine cupcakes to treat someone you love and make a lovely presentation of them for the day.


I have made these cupcakes as an example of what can be done with some coloured icings, sprinkles, glitter writing icing and coloured hearts cut out of rolled ready made icing using a heart shaped metal cutter.
These cupcakes are the basic recipe plus I added some mixed spice, cherries and sultanas. I bought some cupcake cases with hearts on them. These are cooling down and going to be decorated.

Cupcakes for Love

Cupcakes, Heart in the Pink

Cupcakes with love hearts in red, white and lilac.

Cupcakes for your sweet heart

This is a simple decoration, a swirl of cream and a sweet heart. A simple cupcake recipe and decoration for Valentines Day.

It is thought that in the world one billion Valentine cards are sent, absolutely staggering!

Enjoy

CUPCAKES IN SPACE

These are some of my most photogenic cupcakes upto date. I iced the cupcakes in various shades of blue. I then added a chocolate drop covered with tiny coloured balls. I then put on shiny balls and lilac sprinkles in edible glitter. I then used glitter writing icing and spread this out with a stick to get the effect I required


These are some postcards that I bought on a holiday to Iceland, they show the Aurora Borealis. That is the fantastic phenomenon that occurs during winter in the night sky at Northern latitudes. I also bought a dvd taken of them to show the fantastic movement in the sky.

I think these are really cupcake art. What do you think?

Remember to check out the archives and cupcake store for more ideas.

LIME CURD AND GINGER CUPCAKES

These cupcakes have their centre taken out and filled with lime curd(see chutney link for the recipe). I use a sharp knife, insert it on the side and cut around in a circle pointing the blade at an angle to the centre so that I remove a cone of sponge. I then fill the centre with lime curd or you could add cream cheese such as marscapone which you have creamed and added lime juice and grated lime rind to make a tangy filling for the cupcakes. Replace the cone onto the cupcakes.

These cupcakes have then been topped off with lime curd, marscapone cream cheese and fine slices of fresh lime.
Chilli, Lime and Ginger cupcakes an adult cupcake cocktail to enjoy with a long fresh fruit drink .
This cupcake has been garnished with slices of fresh sweet peppers and slices of fresh chillis to make a sophisticated adult cupcake.

Remember to check out the Archives and cupcake store for lots more ideas. Enjoy

LIME, PINEAPPLE, GINGER CUPCAKES

These cupcakes use the Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe. This is then combined with the exotic flavours of lime curd, pineapple and coconut. The fruit flavours work really well with the ginger. The moist, light sponge of the ginger combines with the creamy texture of the lime curd and I have made butter cream or butter frosting with the added flavour of fresh chopped root ginger.

The recipe for Lime Curd is on the link to the Chutney site. This recipe also works for Lemon and Orange Curd. This recipe is in the archive for October 2006.

This shows how to easily cover cupcakes with coconut. Empty some coconut onto a plate. Spread lime curd over the top of the cupcakes and then turn upside down and gently dip into the coconut. Turn the right way up and the cupcake has been covered.



This Ginger Cupcake has been covered with lime curd and then topped off with fresh pineapple, a slice of fresh lime and a glace cherry.

This cupcake has had a cone removed from the centre, filled with lime curd and the cone replaced. I then made some Ginger Butter Icing using, Ingredients:1/4 cup--2oz--50gm butter or margarine, 1/2 cup--4 oz--125gm icing sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of milk of extracted juice. Method: Get the butter to room temperature and cream in a bowl. Add the icing sugar, use a sieve to remove any lumps and then cream with a wooden spoon or with a mixer. Add the milk or juice. Add extra if it is still to dry. It is now ready to use. To make it more tangy add 1 teaspoon of fresh ginger chopped as fine as you can. I put the Ginger Butter Icing on the top of the cupcakes and then dipped it into coconut. I topped it off with fresh pineapple and a fancy cocktail decoration. This butter cream would also be good with a 1/2 teaspoon of a liquor such as Cointreau, Cherry brandy, Brandy or Benedictine to give a real exotic flavour and create Liquor Butter icing. If you put in too much liquid add some extra icing sugar and mix in
Cocktail Cupcakes with exotic liquors and parasol decorations

Coconut and Pineapple Cupcakes with Lime and Ginger Cupcake recipe base.

GINGERBREAD CUPCAKES RECIPE

Gingerbread Cupcakes Recipe
This recipe makes soft, moist and tasty cupcakes that can then be filled with different types of filling such as lime, lemon, orange and pineapple. They can also have icings and frostings with flavours and different textures such as coconut, yoghurt and cream cheese.
Ingredients
This makes 32 small cupcakes, half the ingredients for 16 large cupcakes.
4 oz or 4 tablespoons of black treacle
4 oz or 4 tablespoons of golden syrup
1 cup--8 oz--225gm butter or margarine
1 cup--8 oz--225gm brown sugar
3 cups--12oz--340gm plain flour (I used white but wholemeal may be good as well)
2 desertspoons of ground ginger
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
2 eggs (I always buy free range from the supermarket)
1/2 pint--1/4 litre of milk
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
Method
Put out 2 trays and fill with 32 large cupcake cases.
Put the flour, ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl, set aside.
Weigh the margarine/butter and the sugar, put on one side on a plate.
Take a large non-stick pan (I prefer to use a non-stick pan for this) place it onto your scales and weigh it. Make a note of this weight, leave the pan on the scales so you can check the weight.
Take a tablespoon and dip it into boiling water, use this spoon to weigh out the black treacle and syrup into the non- stick pan.
Put the pan on the stove with the syrup and black treacle, heat gently.
Add the sugar and butter/margarine to the syrup/treacle, melt together until the sugar has dissolved stir with a wooden spoon.
Add the melted ingredients to the flour and spices in the large bowl, mix together by hand with the wooden spoon.
Add the 2 eggs to this and beat well in with the wooden spoon.
Put the bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
In another pan heat the milk until it is warm to touch, add the milk to the bicarbonate of soda in the bowl, mix and then add this to the gingerbread mixture in the large bowl, mix it all well together.
Divide the mixture out into the 32 cupcake cases, they should be half full. Use a hot spoon to make it easier.
Cook in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes, put the 2 trays in together leaving room for cupcakes to expand.
Test by sticking a wooden cocktail stick into a cupcake. If the stick comes out clean they are ready.
Cool on a wire tray.

This shows Gingerbread Cupcakes baked in two different sizes of cup cases. The larger needs to be cooked for 20 minutes the smaller for 12 minutes. The size you choose depends on how you want to decorate the cupcakes.

This shows the gingerbread cupcakes in the oven. The cupcases are only half filled as the mixture does rise quite a lot and the end result was cupcakes that are level with the top of the cupcase. This was perfect for the type of fillings I wanted to do. Below are the cupcakes cooling on the rack. They are really delicious just warm like this with a blob of butter on them or you can let them cool and try different fillings for them.

Remember to look at the Archives and store for lots more ideas and cupcakes recipes.

Enjoy and please let me know how you get on with any of my cupcake ideas.

CUPCAKES WITH A MASK

I found this fantastic picture in my paper in the UK, The Times. I saved it in my scrap book of ideas which I keep to help me design cupcakes and cupcake recipes. I really like the images on the face. I had some small cupcakes in the freezer so I decided to do them in this style. It would be great to do this with the kids. They could collect face pictures from the paper and then have a go at making them on a cupcake.

First of all I iced the cupcakes in plain white icing made from icing sugar and a drop of warm water. I then got out the ready made icing in red, yellow and black. I thought that the eyes really stood out so I made three coloured circles and cut these in half and put them on the cupcakes. I then added more features using small bits of ready made icing which I shaped with my fingers. I then added more details with writing icing tubes in the same three colours.





I then decide to just make a face and put on a pair of shades. I made the hair by pressing some ready made icing through a metal sieve. I could do lots more of these and make all types of shades, children would love to do this.

Why not have a go and let me know how you get on.

Enjoy, Crazycupcakes

HAPPY NEW YEAR CUPCAKES RECIPES

A present for Christmas was a new food mixer by Dualit . It has got some useful attachments and is ideal for lots of cupcakes recipes. The photograph shows it in action on my first cupcakes of the new year 2007. I like to do things by hand but this does make things quicker.

This is a selection of the different types of cupcake cases that are available for different occasions and different cupcake recipes. The small foil cupcake cases can be used for mini-cupcakes. The white cupcake case is for the small fairy cake size and the larger cupcake case can be used for muffins and the larger cupcakes. It means that the case will take twice as much mixture or batter so I have doubled the recipe mixture. The cupcakes have more depth and will allow more opportunity for fillings and decoration.

I decided to make my first cupcakes to celebrate the new year. The recipe is as follows;
Ingredients
2 cups--8oz self-raising flour
1 cup--8oz butter or margarine
1 cup--8oz castor sugar (fine ground)
4 eggs
1 lemon--grate off the rind and squeeze out the juice
1 tablespoon of milk
16 large cupcake or muffin cases

Method
Cream the sugar and butter-margarine together. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well. Add the grated lemon rind, lemon juice and milk. Add the flour and beat gently. Divide the mixture into 16 cupcake cases, They must be the large ones. This mixture would make 32 cupcakes in the small fairy cake cases. Cook at gas 5, 190C or 375F for 20 minutes. Do not open the oven whilst they cook as they will not rise.
Decorate in the style of your choice.



These cupcakes are double the depth and allow for bigger decoration. I am going to use this size this year to create cupcake recipes with delicious fruit fillings and creams. These are tasty Lemon Cupcakes and I have decorated them to say Happy New Year 2007 to everyone who has been to my sites and also for my family to enjoy.

The cupcakes have been decorated with icing on the base , small sweets to show the words and then they are defined with writing icing tubes.

Remember to check out all my archives for cupcake recipes and decorating ideas.

I am hoping to start adding new recipes for cupcakes each week this year along with lots more decorating ideas.

If you have any comments please share these or if you want me to do a certain recipe again please comment.

Crazycupcakes.