I-Scream, You-Scream, We all Scream for Ice-Cream...

8th Birthday Cupcakes: 17-Aug-2011

I could not resist making these for my oldest birthday - for him to share with his fellow classmates! What a ball they must have had... and of course, I just HAD to share some pictures... & here they are... Yum Yum Yum!! It sure smelt GREAT as I was carrying them to his classroom!!

So what did I do to produce these cute cupcakes, I hear you ask... 

Well, I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe (any cupcake/cake recipe will work really...) & filled each cone 2/3 with the prepared cake batter & baked it at 180C for about 30 mins. I then made a simple butter frosting (but half the amounts of sugar - as I found it too sweet, if 4 cups were added in...) and coated the cupcakes with it. Retain the remainder frosting, as you will need it again.

I then topped it with chocolate magic topping (what you would usually use on real ice-cream where the cold from the ice-cream will actually harden the chocolate), or you could make your own using this recipe, which I have yet to try & if anyone does, let me know how good it is... but at least making your own means that there will be minimal preservatives, additives, etc... :-D. Anyway, I digress...

Once topped with chocolate magic topping, using your icing bag, ice more buttercream on top of the chocolate topping (so that it resembles freshly piped whipped cream), sprinkle some 100s & 1000s on top, & top with an orange jaffa chocolate. Hopefully that doesn't sound too complicated! :-)

Packed & ready to go to school... :-)

Some inspirational sources when I was wondering how to do this & looking at pictures online to help...

(a) This one I thought was really cute... http://musiclovecupcakes.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=110635712

(b) http://tomkatstudio.blogspot.com/2010/03/cupcake-monday-super-cute-ice-cream.html

(c) Totally love the presentation of this one... http://cakecentral.com/gallery/41286

But if you do google & search for "ice-cream cupcakes" you will find tonnes of pictures... Really fun to do! ;-D And the kids will LOVE it... *hehe*

Thanks for reading & enjoy baking... :-D

I-Scream, You-Scream, We all Scream for Ice-Cream...

Lime Marmalade Muffins

Breakfast: 14-Jan-2010

The best marmalade muffins ever... been making these for quite a few years now... its very more-ish... the kids have just about eaten almost all of them... Loooovvveee the taste... I think because its a citrus flavored muffin, its very appetizing... :-)

Recipe was adapted from "Australian Quick 'n' Easy Cakes & Muffins Biscuits, Slices & More" by Robyn Martin, Recipe: Lime Marmalade Muffins, pg 8.

Ingredients:
1. 2 cups plain flour
2. 4 tsp baking powder

Best Marmalade!

3. 1/4 cup raw caster sugar
4. 1/2 cup Lime Marmalade (Best is: Buderim brand)
5. 2 eggs
6. 1 cup milk
7. 50g butter - melted

Notes:
1. You can substitute the plain flour & baking powder with 2 cups self-raising flour if you want!
2. Original recipe mentions you can use any marmalade but suggests lime marmalade as the best.
3. I used low-fat Lactose-free milk due to lactose intolerance in both myself & my daughter.

Just before baking

4. Original recipe uses 50g butter but I have changed that to 50g olive oil which measures to 1/4 cup.

Method:
1. Sift flour & baking powder into a bowl.
2. Stir in sugar. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.
3. Beat marmalade, eggs, melted butter or oil & milk together.
4. Pour milk mixture into dry ingredients.
5. Mix to just moisten.

Just after baking

6. Three-quarter fill greased, deep muffin tins or jumbo muffin tins (I used small silicone muffin cups as pictured)
7. Bake at 200C for 15 mins for regular muffins or 20 mins for jumbo muffins or until cooked. (Mine took about 15 mins).

Recipe makes approximately 26 small muffins.

Enjoy a most yummy breakfast with these muffins!

Removing from the moulds

Lime Marmalade Muffins