I know that mixing a Japanese flavour like green tea with the animal symbol of China is a little like mixing metaphors but I couldn’t help myself after seeing a panda and bear cupcake in the Claire Crespo Hello Cupcakes book.

This is my entry for two competitions. I decided I would make two flavours of animals, both with a cupcake base of sesame and vanilla but I would make a Panda one filled with green tea creme patiserrie for La Petite Boulangette’s Sugar High Friday Asian sweet invasion challenge and a Bear one filled with vanilla creme patisserie for the Master Baker April Vanilla challenge.

What I sought to do was create something like a Beard Papa puff-slightly crunchy on the outside but filled with a voluptuous creme patisserie custard inner so that when you bit into it, the sensation of oozing custard was replicated. I used a reliably good Delia Smith recipe for creme patisserie custard.

I confess I’ve never eaten tahini by itself before. When we went to buy some, my husband screwed his nose up at it having been fed tahini all of his life by his alternative parents. When I tried it I gasped, it was awful and bitter. I asked him if it was off and offered him a spoonful. He declined the spoonful and only dipped his pinky in. “Yep, that’s right, that’s tahini and that’s why I can’t stand it”. I had to eat some passionfruit butter to get the awful bitter taste out of my mouth.

Given that one of my main flavouring ingredients was bitter, I needed a vanilla cupcake recipe that was sweet and one of the sweetest and best is the Magnolia Bakery’s vanilla cupcake recipe so I set about basing it on that.

I had a lot of highfalutin ideas for decoration involving shards of sesame toffee but once I saw the pictures of the panda, undoubtedly a symbol of China, and thus true to the theme, I was sold. The cupcake wasn’t particularly crunchy on the outside, if I were to do it again I’d add some sugar crystals and/or sesame seeds on the top before baking it. Still, my husband declared this his favourite cupcakes ever. Yes I know, he says this often but it’s the thought that counts.

Vanilla and Sesame Cupcake

Makes 12-14 full sized cupcakes. I made 8 large and 8 mini cupcakes from this batter.

• 3/4 cup self-rising flour
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup/125g unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Queen’s vanilla bean paste)
• 2 teaspoons of tahini
• 1 tablespoon white sesame seeds

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/180c.

2. Line a (1/2 cup-12 capacity) muffin tins with cupcake papers.

3. In a small bowl, combine the flours. Set aside.

4. In a large bowl, on the medium speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter until smooth. Add the sugar gradually and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Add tahini and beat until just combined.

5. Add the dry ingredients in 3 parts, alternating with the milk and vanilla. With each addition, beat until the ingredients are incorporated but do not over beat. Add sesame seeds. Using a rubber spatula, scrape down the batter in the bowl to make sure the ingredients are well blended.

6. Pour batter into measuring jug and pour into liners, filling them about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean.

7. Cool the cupcakes in tins for 15 minutes. Remove from the tins and cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Cupcake recipe adapted from Magnolia Cupcake bakery

Green tea and vanilla creme patisserie

• 1 large egg, plus 1 egg yolk
• 1 oz (25 g) caster sugar
• 7 fl oz (200 ml) whole milk
• ¾ oz (20 g) plain flour
• ¾ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. To make the pastry cream, break the egg into a medium-sized mixing bowl, then add the egg yolk and sugar. Next, put the milk on to warm over a gentle heat while you whisk the eggs and sugar together until the mixture becomes thickened and creamy – about 1 minute with an electric hand whisk on the first speed. Then sift in the flour and whisk that in.

2. Now turn the heat up to bring the milk to boiling point and then whisk the milk into the egg mixture. After that return the whole lot to the pan and continue to whisk, this time with a balloon whisk, over a medium heat until the mixture becomes very thick – keep the whisk going all the time because the mixture can catch very easily if you don’t. As soon as a bubble on the surface bursts, remove the sauce from the heat and quickly pour it into a bowl, then stir in the vanilla extract.

3. Divide the pastry into two bowls and add 1/2 teaspoon of green tea powder to one bowl and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste to the other and mix well to incorporate. Cover the pastry cream with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming, and leave it to get completely cold.

Creme patisserie recipe from Delia Smith’s Summer Collection.

To decorate both pandas and bears:

• 1/3 packet of Chocolate fondant
• 1/3 packet White fondant
• Cutters (large and small, I used regular round cutter and also the end of an apple corer for the smaller ears)
• icing sugar or cornflour and vegetable oil to prevent fondant sticking
• Pink decorations for mouth (I used small pink hearts)

1. Make the white fondant pieces first. Rill out fondant dusting surface with cornflour or icing sugar to prevent fondant sticking to surface or rolling pin. Use biscuit cutter roughly the same size as surface of the cupcake to make the “face” of the Panda cupcake. Then make eyes for the pandas and the bears as pictured.

2. Lightly grease a new chopping board and use biscuit cutter roughly the same size as surface of the cupcake to make the “face” of the bear cupcake, ears for the bear and ears for the pandas and also pupils for the eyes of the pandas and bears.

Assembly

1. To assemble, cut out deep cone of cake from the centre using a sharp knife. As I wanted these to be like the custard filled Beard Papa Chouxs I dug quite deeply and almost towards the edge. You may have to “Dig” twice to get it as cavernous as possible. Be careful not to hit the edge. Keep a thin “top” of the cupcake to replace back onto the cupcake.

2. Fill with custard and replace with cupcake top. Then add ears, faces and eyes onto the pandas and bears. For Bears see story here

This cupcake could almost be called the Bannoffee cupcake. It has most of the parts of a Bannoffee pie: banana slices, caramel and whipped cream. The only thing missing is the buttery biscuit base. So I call this the almost Bannoffee cake so that the most ardent and religious fans of the Bannoffee won’t complain that its not entirely faithful.

Banana & caramel (almost Bannoffee) cupcakes

Sour Cream Banana cake

• 90g butter, softened
• 1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup (75g) self raising flour
• 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2/3 cup mashed overripe banana
• 1/3 cup (80g) sour cream
• 2 tablespoons milk

Filling and decorations

• 380g can top n fill caramel
• 1/2 cup (125ml) thickened cream, whipped
• 2 medium bananas (400g) sliced thinly
• 100g dark eating chocolate

1. Preheat oven to moderate (180c/160c fan forced). Line 6 hole texas or 12 hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.

2. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy.

3. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, banana, sour cream and milk. Divide mixture among cases and smooth surface.

4. Bake large cakes about 25 minutes, small cakes about 20 minutes. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.

5. Remove cakes from cases

6. Fold 2 tablespoons of the caramel into cream

7. Cut cakes horizontally into three slices. Re-assemble cakes with remaining caramel and banana. Top cakes with caramel flavoured cream.

8. Using a vegetable peeler, grate chocolate and sprinkle over cakes.

Recipe adapted from Womens Weekly Cupcakes book

Each year, you know its approaching Easter once the Valentines Day products disappear and the Easter eggs and chicks come out. For some reason I have a bizarre liking for these tiny little yellow chicks. I even made a miniature nappy with safety pins for one. A year ago, we had put them in our mini cactus garden but I accidentally watered one and once you get water on these little chicks, they are ruined. I knew my Easter cupcakes had to include these chicks, in memorandum of the one I accidentally killed with water. RIP little chickadee. And don’t worry, these ones will live the life of a free range chick in our cactus garden afterwards.

I saw the basket weave decoration in the Womens Weekly cucpakes book but their recipe is for a fruit cake cupcake. Surely something more chocolatey would be more suitable for Easter? So I used a Double chocolate raspberry cake in place of the fruit cake. The main problem was that my royal icing was not as stiff as theirs. Theirs looks quite different to mine in the picture although I followed it word for word, even making two batches of the stuff. Perhaps they used meringue powder or something like that to get their icing rock hard.

Now for the technical bits and picking the recipe apart. Their recipe says to pipe directly onto the cake but when I did, this odd white bloom formed between the cake and the icing the next day after I left it to dry overnight. So luckily I had piped the basket weave onto the cupcake paper for some of them and that seemed fine-although eating the icing off the paper doesn’t make for good eating. Also I wasn’t able to pipe onto the cupcake all at once, I had to do it in two batches - one half and then the other half, as my royal icing was not that firm so I didn’t want them to sit upright as the effects of gravity on setting icing are obvious. So put plenty of time aside for this-2 days to be certain that the icing dries.

I’d also recommend using the a straight edge cupcake paper pan as you will want to pipe upwards and it makes it easier. Of course its up to you but I did use one of the brown paper ones that you can get at stores. It did mean that since they are larger, I got half the amount of cupcakes though so be sure to adjust for numbers. There’s nothing worse than a kid missing out on a cupcake-or an adult for that matter.

Easter Basket cupcakes

Double chocolate raspberry cake

• 60g dark eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
• 1/2 cup (125ml) water
• 90g butter softened
• 1 cup (220g) firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup (100g self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup (40g) almond meal
• 100g frozen raspberries

Royal icing

• 500g pure icing sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• brown food colouring

Decorations

• sugared almonds or mini chocolate eggs

1. Preheat oven to moderately slow 170c/150 fan forced. Assemble cupcake liners on tray and double case them (to ensure that they hold their shape, place one liner within another)

2. Combine chocolate and water in small saucepan, stir over a low heat until smooth

3. Beat butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until just combined

4. Stir in sifted flour and cocoa, almond meal, then warm chocolate mixture, fold in raspberries. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface.

5. Bake cupcake about 30 minutes if you’re using the larger ones like I did (smaller ones will take 20 minutes or so)

6. Once cakes are cooled pipe royal icing around cakes in two lots using a basket tip (I used a small star tip as my store had sold out of basket weave tips). Pipe one vertical line from the top of the case to the bottom, followed by short horizontal lines across the long vertical line. The horizontal lines should be a tube-width apart. Pipe the next long vertical line at the end of the previous short horizontal lines. Pipe short horizontal lines into the gaps, between the two vertical lines. Repeat previous steps, continuing the basket weave design until the design meets with the starting point. It will take a long time and I let one half set overnight before doing the other half.

7. Fill baskets with sugared almonds or chocolate eggs.

Royal Icing

Sift icing sugar through very fine sieve. Lightly beat egg white in a small bowl with a clean electric mixer; beat in icing sugar a tablespoon at at time. When icing reaches firm peaks, use wooden spoon to beat in juice and colouring. Cover tightly with plastic wrap.

These are my entry for the Master Baker challenge for March!

And also for the Easter Cake Bake!

I have to declare that whilst these little cupcakes are an arresting sight, they actually taste as good as they look. The orange rind and cream cheese make them so soft and they taste like moist orange scented friands. I am one of those people that sticks whole oranges in the freezer in case I ever need rind or juice. It would probably be better if I zested and juiced the oranges first and put them in a zip lock bag I know. Perhaps I’ll get around to doing that sometime.

I am very excited as these featured on the Cupcakes Spectacular 2008

as well as Cupcakes Take the Cake’s mini round up!

Kaleidocakes cupcakes

Orange buttercake

• 90g butter softened
• 90 cream cheese softened
• 2 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
• 2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g plain flour

Fondant Icing

• 300g white prepared fondant, chopped coarsely
• 1 egg white
• 1/4 teaspoon orange essence

Royal Icing

• 1 1/2 cups (240g) pure icing sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• food colouring in desired flavours

1. Preheat oven to moderate (180c/160c fan forced). Line 12 hole standard muffin pan with paper cases

2. Beat butter, cheese, ring, sugar and eggs in bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy

3. Beat in flours on low speed until just combined. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface

4. Bake for 15-20 minutes.

5. Make fondant icing (see below). Spread over cakes. Allow to set at room temperature

6. Make royal icing (see below). Divide evenly among five small bowls. Using colouring tint icing and cover each tightly with plastic wrap. Pipe patterns on parchment and when dry, very, very carefully lift off and place on top of fondant topped cupcake (I piped directly onto the cupcakes as I misread the directions on the recipe)

Fondant icing
Place icing in a small microwave proof bowl and heat on 30% heat for 30 seconds, stir and test, then another 30 seconds. It should look soft like marshmallow spread. Stir in egg white and essence. Use immediately. Spread fondant quickly over cakes, use a metal spatula dipped in hot water to smooth surface (the spatula will need some water on it or it will stick to the fondant)

Recipe adapted from Womens Weekly Cupcakes book

This recipe is a mix of a few and I wanted to make something a little different with the cinnamon as part of the Master Baker’s challenge.

This is the first challenge I’ve entered being blissfully unaware of these food blogging events. I wanted to do something a little spicey (chili), a little aromatic (cinnamon) and a little rich (chocolate mud).

I received this Dagoba Chili Cinnamon organic hot chocolate mix for my kitchen tea as part of a large chocolate basket from my friends Gina and Teena from Peters of Kensington. The chili and cinnamon chocolate ganache gives it that little bit extra. If an overload of chili and cinnamon is not to your taste, you could always just add the chili and cinnamon mix to the ganache and have a regular cupcake on the outside or you could always reverse it and have the chili and cinnamon in the cupcake and leave the topping as a regular gooey chocolate ganache. As it is, the quantities that I’ve stated are for those who like a little tingle of chili but an all-enveloping hug of cinnamon. If you don’t have access to Dagoba chocolate powder I would suggest a home made version with a ratio of perhaps: 2 tablespoons chocolate powder (not cocoa) to 1/4 or 1/8 teaspoon chili powder and to 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon or play around with that ratio to your taste. It also depends on how hot your chili powder is.

The decoration is not hand made (I am not that dextrous) but rather some individually wrapped Sasha chocolates bought for me by my sister from Tokyo. Please don’t be scared off by the combination of flavours, my husband declared these his favourite cupcakes ever as did A&D whom we brought a fresh batch to that evening. Make no mistake, the chewy dense chocolate mud cake is gorgeous and a must bake.

Cinnamon, chili and chocolate mud cake

• 165g butter
• 100g dark eating chocolate chopped coarsely
• 1 1/3 cups (290g) caster sugar
• 2/3 cup (170ml) water
• 1/4 cup (60ml) coffee liquer (optional)
• 8-12 tablespoons Dagoba chili and cinnamon powder (depending on how hot you like your cupcakes)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 cup (150g) plain flour
• 2 tablespoons Self raising flour
• 1 egg

Chili, cinnamon and chocolate ganache

• 300g dark chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup cream
• 4-6 tablespoons of Dagoba chili and cinnamon powder depending on how hot you like it
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon extra

1. Preheat oven to moderate 170C degrees/150C fan forced. Line 6 hole texas or 12 hole standard muffin pan with paper cases

2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, the water, liquer and powder in small saucepan, stir over low heat until smooth

3. Transfer mixture to large bowl; cool 15 minutes. Whisk in sifted flours, then egg (at this stage it will look like liquidey dark chocolate ganache). Divide mixture among cases.

4. Bake large cakes for about 1 hour, small cakes about 40 minutes. Cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.

For Chocolate, chili and cinnamon ganache
Combine chocolate and cream in a small heatproof bowl; stir with metal spoon over pan of simmering water until melted and smooth. Stir in chocolate powder and cinnamon. Cool in fridge until it reaches a piping consistency and pipe over cupcakes.