vanilla (kinda) yin yang cupcakes

I had a good think about the type of cake I should make for this book. Angel's cakes in the book are all spectacular affairs, and I've never actually decorated a cake before so there was no way that mine would be that good.I did think that I should have some innate talent in the area as my mum used to make the most amazing birthday cakes when me and my brothers were little. Two of her crowning achievements were a cake in the shape of a horses head for one of my birthdays and a optimus prime cake that she once made for my brother. I've been asking for a remake of this cake for quite a few birthdays now but it hasn't materialised so far.My mum used to decorate these cakes with butter cream icing, she never piped them in one long line but she did individual tiny blobs on the cake in each colour as she thought it looked neater.This reminded me of the next problem, I don't own a piping bag. I can't even attempt such a feat without a piping bag. The final hurdle in my way was the fact that I haven't been able to cook a large cake in my oven as it's a fossil and brute of a oven.It doesn't hold a steady temperature but just seems to get really hot no matter how low you have it and burns the outside of things whilst the middles still raw. So it had to be cupcakes again, this still fits into the story as Angel always serves cupcakes to her customers whilst discussing what type of cake they want.So far so good, but I had to decorate them in some way. I hit my baking and cupcake books with a passion, but there were too many awesome looking cakes to pick one. All googly headed I sat down and thought about the book again, I then remembered that Angel made a cake in a red and green ying yang shape for one of her customers perfect.All I needed to do was make some plain buns and put some of that ready to use coloured icing cut into shape on top.Next problem, I couldn't find any in the right colours. I ended up buying some food colouring and adding it to normal icing, hence the atrocities in the above picture.The food colouring makes the icing runnier and impossible to control, hence the indistinct lines.My boyfriend saw these and laughed he's tits off, asking who's kids I'd been entertaining. He also said that I couldn't possibly put a photo of them on my blog but I've defied him thinking that it's good for a laugh. Besides they tasted good even if they do look incredibly amature. The recipe was a Rachel Allen one from her Rachel's food for living book and you make them like so.

vanilla cupcakes

pre heat the oven to 200'c and line a twelve hole bun tin with papers

ingredients

for the cupcake mixture

75ml milk

25g butter

75g flour

1\2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 medium eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

125g caster sugar

Heat the milk in a saucepan till it just comes to the boil. Then take it off the heat and add the butter. Leave it to the side for now.

Beat the eggs and the vanilla together until fluffy, gradually add the sugar until the mixture goes thick.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into the mixture gradually, then add the milk.

Stop beating as soon as it,s incorporated. The mixture looked really sloppy at this point, but don't worry it still comes out as cakes.

spoon into the paper cases and bake in the oven for about 15 minuetsor until risen and golden on top.

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

for the icing

100g icing sugar

1-2 tblsp single cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the ingredients together. If like me you add food colouring be very careful.

Ice the buns when cool and remember that even if people laugh at how they look that they're still going to eat them because they taste so good.

Bee charmer

It took me ages to decide what to cook for this post. Fried green tomatoes seemed the obvious choice but there was a problem. You can't buy green tomatoes in England. Hard flavourless red tomatoes yes, but green tomatoes no.
In fact the only way to get them is to grow them yourself, and not wanting to be an a##hole I thought better of going in someone Else's garden to help myself.
The next best choice seemed to be a barbecue as it was mentioned alot, but I'd already cooked one and I fancied something different.
The back of the book is sprinkled with recipes and whilst perusing these and drooling at the idea of dessert I had a brainwave. Idgie is called a bee charmer and when she shows her skill to Ruth it helps cement their relationship, so a cake with honey in it seemed perfect!
I found this recipe in Afternoon teas by Susannah Blake, these buns are incredibly sickly but good. Only have one at a time and they are one of the few cakes that I actually prefer cold as they mellow a bit.

Honey buns

pre heat oven to 170'c, 325'f, gas 3

put 60g butter, 50g caster sugar and 4tblsp honey together in a saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.

remove the pan from the heat and add 80ml milk and one large bearen egg.

sift in 115g self raising flour and stir in.

spoon the mixture into a 12 hole cupcake tin and bake for 20min.

once the cakes are cool spread with icing made from

2oog icing sugar and 2 tblsp lemon juice. Add sprinkles for extra whimsy.

Picture yourself munching on these whilst going on some crazy adventure in 1930's Alabama. Flowery dress of dungarees are optional.

Age of innocence inspired wedding cupcakes

Here as promised is the recipe for my Age of innocence inspired cupcakes. I've adapted these from Cupcakes from the primrose bakery, from the wedding section.
I thought that wedding cupcakes would be perfect as most of the conflict in the book was caused by marriages! Archers wedding to May, Countess Olenskas to the count. Generally marriage caused a whole lot of problems in the book. So enough with the waffling and on with the cooking.

Age of Innocence inspired cupcakes

1. 11og unsalted butter
2. 180g caster sugar
3. 2 lrge eggs
4. 125g self raising flour
5. 120g plain flour
6. 125ml milk at room temp
7. half tsp almond essence

for the icing

1. 115g unsalted butter
2. 60ml milk
3. 1 tsp vanilla extract
4. 500g icing sugar {i used fondant }
5. quarter tsp almond essence
6. flaked almonds to decorate

method for the cakes

pre heat the oven to 160'c\ 350'f\ gas mark 4. Although to be honest i just bung mine on a medium temperature as my ovens a brute and i just watch things in it very carefully.

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar with a wooden spoon, an electric whisk would be better but i don't have one so I'm going with the spoon. If doing it by hand really put some welly in it as the smoother you get it the better the cake.
2. Break one of the eggs into a cup and break it up a bit with a fork. Now add this to the butter mixture and mix it in. Do the same with the other egg.
3. Sift the two flours together in a bowl. Now put the milk in a jug and add the almond essence to it.
4. Add one third of the flour to the mixture, mix it in a bit and then add a third of the milk. Continue until all the flour and milk is Incorporated in the batter.
5. Spoon the mixture a third of the up into muffin cases carefully for a great sized cupcake. You should get 12 cupcakes from the mixture.
6. Bake in the oven for about 20 min. Check regularly and take out when golden and risen. Let the cupcakes cool on a rack whilst you make the icing.
7. To make the icing soften the butter in a bowl with the vanilla extract and milk. Add half of the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the rest of the sugar and keep beating. Using the fondant icing sugar here gives the icing a really glossy finish.
8. Finally add the almond essence. Taste the icing to see if the flavour is strong enough.
9. To ice the cupcakes take a blob of icing on a palate knife. smooth this on the cupcake adding more icing as necessary. to finish, sprinkle almonds on top to decorate.

my review for the age of innocence is here