On our recent trip to New Zealand I watched the movie Twilight on the plane. Initially, I was only partially interested because I am interested in all things slightly dark but dismissed it as Teen Fiction. I am not a Teen nor do I read a lot of Fiction. What I didn’t expect was to be completely entranced by the movie and as a result the book. I was then inspired to make these by Cakelaw’s Edward and Bella cupcakes. I was particularly taken by the image of the apple in the hand on the cover of Twilight.
When the flight attendant tried to ask me what I wanted for lunch while Twilight was on, I simply didn’t hear her. I was too engrossed. And when she asked me again I felt like getting one of those “Do Not Disturb” signs. Speaking of which, wouldn’t it be nice to be able to wear one of those during the work day when you just aren’t in the mood for human contact or non human as your colleagues might be. I was discussing this with friends and we discussed the idea of a “no contact” option on home delivered pizzas whereby one could order and pay for a pizza online and then tick the “no contact” option and have the delivery person leave it at the front door. I suspect we wouldn’t be the only ones taking it up either for loathe of wanting to change out of your PJs or brush your hair in an effort to look presentable.
Back to the cupcakes – I knew a Red velvet cupcake would have to do for this. After all there’s nothing more Vampirish than the redder than red of a blood red velvet. I will warn you that there is a lot of red colouring used in both the cake and the frosting so if you have issues with this or have some potentially hyperactive kids, friends or significant others, you can certainly make a chocolate cupcake and then frost it with the red icing to avoid doubling up on the food colouring. I wasn’t exactly faithful to the cover in that I painted my nails but I felt the shade was appropriate: Chanel’s Vendetta. As for serving suggestion, there’s no better one for your resident Twilight fan than cradling the little cupcake in your outstretched hands.
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April 7, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
I admit I am not over the moon in love with Mars Bars. They always seem too cloyingly sweet for me. Unless of course I am low on blood sugar at 4pm on a workday afternoon and am craving sugar. Then they’re just about right to my slightly skewed sense of proportion. This cupcake is an homage to that super sweet and sugar chocolatey confection that I usually shun except for during my witching hour when only sweets will do.
The cake itself is a caramel mud cake topped with a chocolate icing. It’s sweet yes and inside and on top is a piece of Mars Bar to make it even sweeter. Please forgive the photos if you will, they were made last minute for a work fundraiser for the bushfires and due to the late hour, they lighting wasn’t as good as I wanted. And I broke my rule of not eating Mars Bars past 4pm and had one of those at 8pm at night. It was delicious, and not just for a 4pm sugar rush.
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March 8, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Look away if you’re squeamish and if you’re not, peer into my dark mind. As you may know, Halloween is my kind of holiday. Sure, I live in the wrong country for this as we don’t really celebrate it but give me Friday the 13th as an interim measure between the long year that stretches between Halloweens. I love anything dark and ghoulish so I was excited to be able to have a little bit of Halloween in February. Nothing bad has ever happened to me on Friday the 13th (that is one date where I truly do notice if bad things happen).
The brain decoration idea came from the very copied and popular cupcakes book Hey There Cupcake! by Claire Crespo. I thought that I’d make it a touch more grotesque with a blood clot hidden inside the cupcake. I needed a fairly stiff batter, one that would hold a clot so to speak so I turned to the Jam Donut cupcakes I made a while back. The cake itself is quite dense and whilst 4 cups of icing sugar sounds like a freakish amount… ok yes it is and there’s no other way to pitch it.
As with all things Halloween related, I took out my box of tricks and decided to ghoulify an already ghoulish cupcake idea. I would have loved to have some surgeon’s implements for the task but unfortunately my doctor friend Soph lives in another state and I’m sure the local hospital wouldn’t understand my need to borrow brain surgery tools overnight. Of course I could have paid them in one of these cupcakes. I hope that my broken mirror and bloodied knife suffices.
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February 12, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
I know, most of us are still in our first few weeks of our New Year’s Resolutions and even so, enthusiasm is waning. Eating healthily shouldn’t be a burden but it sometimes is, especially when confronted with delicious food. A friend asked me to make her some muffins, low in fat and high in fibre for she was absolutely gung ho about her NY resolution to lose some kgs. I humoured her for a while thinking that it would pass but when she kept asking me I realised that she was serious. This New Year’s Resolution was going to stay, however unwelcome it was.
I had made low-fat items before and I knew the best way to reduce oils was with apples or apple sauce. With the fibre I could have added some All Bran but I never have any in the cupboard as I think it tastes only marginally better than the cardboard box it comes in. Then I remembered I was sent a bottle of Fibresure along with a Donna Hay Cupcake kit and a baking tray. Aha by George I think I had my recipe! This recipe is adapted from Jessica Seinfeld’s Deceptively Delicious book in which she suggests ways of incorporating vegetables into dishes. This one has pureed carrot in it although you could substitute it for pureed squash or leave it out altogether as the Fibresure ensures that there’s plenty of fibre adding 20 grams of fibre.
I won’t lie, these aren’t exactly like regular muffins, I don’t think it’s possible to make them with that crumbly, buttery texture without a lot of butter and oil but they’re not bad, especially with the buttery, sweet streusel topping. It all depends on your expectation too. I had friends baulk at the Jessica Seinfeld Spinach brownies only because they had expected a chocolatey, gooey brownie which of course you’ll never get unless you add a lot of butter, sugar and eggs. But if you want something healthy that taste good and wholesome these will definitely satisfy a sugar craving.
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January 18, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
Now stay with me, please. This is not some bizarritey like Ham in Coca Cola (although have you tried it? It’s delicious). It’s a perfectly sweet cupcake, nothing pesto-like here at all, that just happens to have the pervasive taste and aroma of the most delectable nutty Browned Butter.
I’d cooked with Browned Butter ages ago but it had been over a year since I made something with it. It wasn’t until the Daring Bakers Caramel Cake that I fell in love with it again. And I fell fast. After the Daring Bakers cake, I made Ricotta Gnocchi in Browned Butter a couple of times and then wanted to make something sweet to go with it.
It wasn’t until a friend was coming around that I thought I’d take out the lovely Jasper Conran Chonoiserie setting that I have. I was devastated when I had bought a full 8 person setting of another pattern for our wedding only to find this range out. But if you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I say that about so many China settings (other fetishes aside from food: Chanel nail polishes, lighting fixtures, cake stands and hats). In good news though, my shoe fetish has almost completely abated and it has been a good 6 months since I bought a pair. And I hardly ever get the urge to buy fur lined Zanotti heels any more…
Fur mules-impractical.
A much more practical shoe
I digress, back to the cupcakes. I tried to make these with a basil syrup at first but my impatience cost me. In an effort to speed up the cooling process for the basil syrup, I transferred it to another bowl where it magically crystallised. I was frightened-I had never had sugar crystallise on me before. One second it looked good and the next it was petrified as if a Dementor has swooped in and sucked the life out of it. So this time I ground some basil with some sugar to make a forest green basil sugar.
Basil sugar
The cake itself is gorgeous with a very crunchy exterior top much like a macaron, the soft but firm inside is deliciously nutty courtesy of the browned butter. And as for the icing, I used a restrained touch and didn’t use basil in the icing although if you’re a fan you certainly could.
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January 8, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
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