Hi, my name is Mary Berry. It sounds kind of like Melberryy doesn't it. Kinda.
As I am basically the Queen of Baking it should be absolutely no surprise to y'all that I love to bake. So when the lovely Talking Tables emailed me about a possible collabaration I knew that I wanted to test out some of their beau-tiful baking range.
Picture the scene, it's the Sunday after a week of very little sleep, the weather has finally started to get cooler and you're trying to prepare for another busy week at work. I feel like baking is the obvious choice of activities here.
Maybe it's because my Dad is a chef (although whenever this comes up in conversation, I have to mention that he once cooked us a lamb crumble. Let that settle in your nogin for a bit) but baking, and even cooking, has always been a great way for me to relax. I remember constantly looking through the cooking book to find things we could book, licking the bowl clean because I don't care about no raw eggs and sitting by the oven waiting for things to cook. And so now I love to bake whenever I have time.
Anyway, less about my childhood. I spent the most of Sunday morning trying to figure out what I fancied baking. I knew that I was gonna take them into work and I wanted them to be pretty funky looking. So I settled on mixing a few recipes together to finish with Rainbow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.
So preheat your oven to 177°C, clean up your kitchen and get your apron on!
Ingredients:
1 - Seperate the eggs, if you don't know how to do this there's a few tricks over here, my personal favourite though is using a shot glass. Once you've done that whisk up the egg whites until they form soft peaks and leave them in a bowl to the side.
2 - Cream up the butter until it's nice and fluffy. Side note, probably because my Dad is a male chef, I was always taught not to use the electric mixer and use my arms, get some muscles going like. Pah. That worked well...not. Anyway to make these I used an electric mixer and I swear I've never found things easier, or cupcakes lighter! Maybe my Dad was just trying to hold me back all this time and now I've broken free. Sorry Dad. Now back to baking. I whisked up the butter for a minute or so until it gets all fluffed up.
3 - Then you chuck in the egg yolks, and again whisk it up until it's all incorporated together. Next add half of all the dry ingredients, get your calculator out to work out the math of that and throw it in. Using your mixer as low as it goes, slowly mix the dry ingredients in but be sure not to over mix them. Mix it just until everything is all together as one. Then do the same with the milk, and then the rest of the dry ingredients. Again, make sure you mix until everything is incorporated.
4 - Take those super light egg whites we whisked up early and slowly fold them in to the mixture. By folding I mean with like one of those flat wooden spoon things (or just a wooden spoon tbh) and and slowly mixing things in, as gently as possible. The egg whites will bring the air and act as an extra raising agent in the cupcakes, making them super light and scruffy.
5 - This is where things can kind of get complicated. As I am (I was literally about to say a student, waaaaah) an idiot, I only have one mixing bowl and one normal bowl. In a perfect world you would segregate the mixture into as many different colours you have and then colour them all as necessary. I had to sort of guess how much was a fifth of the mixture, but I made it work. Once I had coloured them I just filled up the cupcake cases in alternate colours.
6 - Shove them in the oven! Keep an eye on them, mine took about 21 minutes. To test to see if they've done put a cocktail stick, or the end of a spoon in the cake and if it comes out clean it's all done. Stick them on a cooling rack and whilst they're cooling you can make the frosting!
7 - Start by whipping up the butter again, use a whisk and make sure it's all fluffy like we did in the first place. Turn the whisk down and add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Whip again until everything is all one and there isn't any non-chocolatey bits. Then add the vanilla essence and milk and whip at LIGHTNING SPEED. Give it a try, go on, and make sure everything is blended properly.
8 - Once the cupcakes are cool you can put the icing on. You could use a piping bag if you're super fancy, I used a knife. It's up to you. Piping bag is probably a better option but ya know. Then I sprinkled things on top but this is totally up to you.
I was lucky enough to be sent some absolutely beautiful decor from Talking Tables. I'm going to do a few of these posts because of two reasons. Number one they are so lovely and sent me such lovely stuff I couldn't possibly get it all in one post. And Number two I want to bake.
These plates are absolutely beautiful and would be the perfect addition to any picnic or party. I really like the way that they go with the paper underneath, makes such a change to the average marble background! They also sent me some loooovely bunting which will definitely be making an appearance on my bedroom walls once I've finished with using them for baking! And these flags are so cute for parties and the likes - as I took these into work and will be doing the same for my next bake I have a great idea for how to use them!
I'm so excited to bake more and show you guys more of the stuff that Talking Tables has to offer, their ranges are truly beautiful and they helped make our Blogger Picnic in the Park so much more instagrammable! I would definitely recommend going to check them out.
As I am basically the Queen of Baking it should be absolutely no surprise to y'all that I love to bake. So when the lovely Talking Tables emailed me about a possible collabaration I knew that I wanted to test out some of their beau-tiful baking range.
Picture the scene, it's the Sunday after a week of very little sleep, the weather has finally started to get cooler and you're trying to prepare for another busy week at work. I feel like baking is the obvious choice of activities here.
Maybe it's because my Dad is a chef (although whenever this comes up in conversation, I have to mention that he once cooked us a lamb crumble. Let that settle in your nogin for a bit) but baking, and even cooking, has always been a great way for me to relax. I remember constantly looking through the cooking book to find things we could book, licking the bowl clean because I don't care about no raw eggs and sitting by the oven waiting for things to cook. And so now I love to bake whenever I have time.
Anyway, less about my childhood. I spent the most of Sunday morning trying to figure out what I fancied baking. I knew that I was gonna take them into work and I wanted them to be pretty funky looking. So I settled on mixing a few recipes together to finish with Rainbow Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting.
So preheat your oven to 177°C, clean up your kitchen and get your apron on!
Ingredients:
CUPCAKES
- 2 large eggs, room temperature and separated
- 280g sifted plain flour
- 2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 180g unsalted butter, softened too room temperature
- 350g granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 240ml whole milk, room temperature
MILK CHOCOLATE FROSTING
- 230g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 420g icing sugar
- 45g cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 45ml whole milk
1 - Seperate the eggs, if you don't know how to do this there's a few tricks over here, my personal favourite though is using a shot glass. Once you've done that whisk up the egg whites until they form soft peaks and leave them in a bowl to the side.
2 - Cream up the butter until it's nice and fluffy. Side note, probably because my Dad is a male chef, I was always taught not to use the electric mixer and use my arms, get some muscles going like. Pah. That worked well...not. Anyway to make these I used an electric mixer and I swear I've never found things easier, or cupcakes lighter! Maybe my Dad was just trying to hold me back all this time and now I've broken free. Sorry Dad. Now back to baking. I whisked up the butter for a minute or so until it gets all fluffed up.
3 - Then you chuck in the egg yolks, and again whisk it up until it's all incorporated together. Next add half of all the dry ingredients, get your calculator out to work out the math of that and throw it in. Using your mixer as low as it goes, slowly mix the dry ingredients in but be sure not to over mix them. Mix it just until everything is all together as one. Then do the same with the milk, and then the rest of the dry ingredients. Again, make sure you mix until everything is incorporated.
4 - Take those super light egg whites we whisked up early and slowly fold them in to the mixture. By folding I mean with like one of those flat wooden spoon things (or just a wooden spoon tbh) and and slowly mixing things in, as gently as possible. The egg whites will bring the air and act as an extra raising agent in the cupcakes, making them super light and scruffy.
5 - This is where things can kind of get complicated. As I am (I was literally about to say a student, waaaaah) an idiot, I only have one mixing bowl and one normal bowl. In a perfect world you would segregate the mixture into as many different colours you have and then colour them all as necessary. I had to sort of guess how much was a fifth of the mixture, but I made it work. Once I had coloured them I just filled up the cupcake cases in alternate colours.
6 - Shove them in the oven! Keep an eye on them, mine took about 21 minutes. To test to see if they've done put a cocktail stick, or the end of a spoon in the cake and if it comes out clean it's all done. Stick them on a cooling rack and whilst they're cooling you can make the frosting!
7 - Start by whipping up the butter again, use a whisk and make sure it's all fluffy like we did in the first place. Turn the whisk down and add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder. Whip again until everything is all one and there isn't any non-chocolatey bits. Then add the vanilla essence and milk and whip at LIGHTNING SPEED. Give it a try, go on, and make sure everything is blended properly.
8 - Once the cupcakes are cool you can put the icing on. You could use a piping bag if you're super fancy, I used a knife. It's up to you. Piping bag is probably a better option but ya know. Then I sprinkled things on top but this is totally up to you.
I was lucky enough to be sent some absolutely beautiful decor from Talking Tables. I'm going to do a few of these posts because of two reasons. Number one they are so lovely and sent me such lovely stuff I couldn't possibly get it all in one post. And Number two I want to bake.
These plates are absolutely beautiful and would be the perfect addition to any picnic or party. I really like the way that they go with the paper underneath, makes such a change to the average marble background! They also sent me some loooovely bunting which will definitely be making an appearance on my bedroom walls once I've finished with using them for baking! And these flags are so cute for parties and the likes - as I took these into work and will be doing the same for my next bake I have a great idea for how to use them!
I'm so excited to bake more and show you guys more of the stuff that Talking Tables has to offer, their ranges are truly beautiful and they helped make our Blogger Picnic in the Park so much more instagrammable! I would definitely recommend going to check them out.
1 comments
I love them! They're so beautiful! And I love the story about your dad and the whisking, got to be an electric whisk soz daddyberryy
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