St Patrick's Day Lemon and Ricotta Ring CakeWith April Fools day this Saturday, you may be debating the best way you can prank your friends and family. If you love baking and pranks, why not combine these together and get on board making our featured recipe this week - hilarious Spaghetti and Meatball Cupcakes from the wonderful Ruthanne over at Easy Baked

Prank your guests by serving up dinner for dessert with these cleverly decorated cupcakes. You can take pride in their confusion as they eat something that looks savoury but actually tastes deliciously sweet. Easy to make, these cupcakes are perfect for making by yourself or with younger children too. We're sure your kids will enjoy creating their spaghetti and meatball cupcake concoction!


To find out how to make these funny little cupcakes, you can view the full recipe measurements and method by just clicking here 

Ingredients:

  • One box of yellow cake mix (including the ingredients required on the box)
  • Salted butter
  • Unsalted butter
  • Powdered sugar
  • Vanilla
  • Yellow food colouring
  • Raspberry pie filling
  • Ferrero Rocher chocolates
  • White chocolate chips

For the full instructions on how to make these delicious cupcakes, just head to Ruthanne's blog here!

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 Cupcake Tray Giveaway

The Great British Bake Off folks are trying something new for tonight's episode: it's Botanical Week, meaning three green-fingered challenges that use herbs, fruits, flowers, and other plant-based ingredients.

Yesterday, we teamed up with food blogger Jamie to bring you a sweet spin on the botanical theme: Vanilla Flower Cupcakes with Marzipan Bees. Today, to celebrate the arrival of another mouthwatering new Bake Off episode, we're giving away a 12 cup cupcake tray so that you can try the recipe at home.

If you'd like to win this handy cupcake tray for yourself, here's what to do...

How to Enter:

Note: You will need a Twitter account!

  1. Follow @BakewareUK on Twitter.
  2. Retweet the competition tweet at the top of our feed.
  3. Come back at 12 noon on Tuesday the 4th of October to find out if you've won!

Good luck, and remember to catch Bake Off tonight at 8pm on BBC One!

Vanilla Cupcakes & Marzipan Bees

It's a special week on Bake Off this week, because for the very first time, it's Botanical Week! The bakers must complete three challenges inspired by nature and are allowed to use any ingredients that grows to use in their bakes. Keeping with this theme, we thought we'd share a flowery based recipe that you can bake at home.

This week, why not have a go at making these spectacular Vanilla Cupcakes? Created by the extremely talented Jamie from Jamie's Cookery, each of these fantastic cupcakes has been topped with a beautiful buttercream rose and features a marzipan bee. They're a great way to celebrate the last few days of summer. 

Not only do these cupcakes look great but they're also extremely easy to make! For more tasty recipes that are really easy to follow, we highly recommend that you head over to Jamie's blog; it's brimming with spectacular recipes!

Ingredients:

Makes 12 cupcakes

For the Cupcakes

  • 175g of Butter
  • 175g of Caster Sugar
  • 175g of Self-Raising Flour 
  • 3 Eggs
  • 1tsp Vanilla Extract

For the Buttercream

  • 180g Butter
  • 450g Icing Sugar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2 tbsp Milk, if needed

For the Marzipan Bees

  • 1 Egg Yolk
  • 1 tsp Honey
  • 1tsp Fresh Orange Juice (or apple juice)
  • 100g Ground Almonds
  • 50g Chocolate, melted
  • Some Flaked Almonds

Method:

Step 1 - Pre-heat the oven to 175°C and place 12 cupcake cases into a cupcake or muffin tray, and set aside.

Step 2 - Then, add the butter and caster sugar in to a bowl and mix well until they have all combined.

Step 3 - Add the vanilla extract and the eggs - one at a time - mixing well after each egg.

Step 4 - Finally, add the flour to the mixture and mix well - ensuring that you get all the flour off the edges of the bowl! This should provide you with a nice smooth batter.

Step 5 - Spoon an equal amount of batter in to each case and pop them into the oven for around 12 - 15 minutes or until they are firm and golden brown. Once baked, put aside to cool.

To make the Buttercream

Step 1 - Put icing sugar, butter and vanilla into a mixing bowl and beat until a smooth thick buttecream is formed. If the buttercream is too stiff, then add a little milk to loosen it. If you want to do different coloured icing, divide your buttercream and use food colouring to reach your desired colour for each batch.

To make the Marzipan Bees

Step 1 - Put all of the marzipan ingredients into a bowl and mix them until a firm ball is made.

Step 2 - Then, roll twelve individual balls from this mixture - this will be your bees.

Step 3 - Stick two flaked almonds into each bee to make the wings.

Step 5 - Put your melted chocolate into a piping bag, snip off the end and use it to create stripes and eyes to complete your bees.

To decorate

Step 1 - Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a Wilton 2D nozzle, then use it to pipe buttercream roses. To do this, start from of the cupcake and make a couple of outward circles, stopping when you reach the edge of the cupcake.

Step 2 - Place a marzipan bee on to each cupcake.

Step 3 -Enjoy!

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Vanilla Bean Cupcakes

We have a fantastic Friday treat for you here at British Bakeware thanks to our good friend Sammie from Feasting Is Fun!

If you haven’t already seen Sammie’s blog, you take a look at this recipe along with all of her other fantastic bakes via the link below this recipe! These Vanilla Bean Cupcakes look fantastic and are utterly delicious, a perfect way to treat yourself after a long week! This recipe is directly from Sammie and she has very kindly let us share it with you! Made in our 12 cup bun tray, these Vanilla Bean Cupcakes are very easy to make. A fantastic tip that Sammie shares in the recipe is to use the 3 tbsp of boiling water for the buttercream frosting. The reason for this is to stop the frosting forming a hard crust on top, a great tip there! To top off these wonderful cupcakes, the edible pearls on top will bring a sparkle to your kitchen! So why not try these cupcakes by Sammie at home this Friday or over the weekend, they are the perfect thing to bake with children or for as a treat to go with your Saturday afternoon cup of tea!

 

Ingredients:

For the Vanilla Cupcakes

  • 150g of plain flour
  • 150g of unsalted butter
  • 125g of caster sugar
  • 3 large free range eggs
  • 1/4 of a tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of vanilla bean paste
  • 1 and a half tsp of baking powder
  • 25ml of whole milk
  • 12 cupcake cases

For the Buttercream

  • 3 tbsp of boiling water
  • 400g of sieved icing sugar
  • 200g of unsalted butter
  • 1/8 of a tsp of salt
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • Edible sprinkles for decoration (optional)

Instructions:

Step 1- Preheat your oven to 175 degrees celcius/160 degrees celcius in a fan oven. Take a large mixing bowl and add the 150 of unsalted butter and the 125g of caster sugar.

Step 2-Whisk together the sugar and butter until it turns a creamy colour. Once you are happy with it, add in the 3 eggs, tsp of vanilla bean paste and the ¼ tsp of salt. Mix together until all ingredients are well combined.

Step 3-Sift in the 150 of plain flour and the 1 and a half tsp of baking powder. Fold everything in the mixing bowl together to ensure it is well combined. This helps out with the texture of the cupcakes, making sure they are deliciously light and fluffy in the centre.

Step 4- Place each of your 12 cupcake cases in to our 12 cup bun tray before filling each cupcake case about half way with some of the mixture.

Step 5- Once you have done this, place the 12 cup bun tray in to the centre of your pre-heated oven for around 20 to 25 minutes. You will know the cupcakes are ready when they have turned a delicious golden brown colour and are springy when you touch them in the centre. Remove them from the oven, allow them to cool for a few minutes before removing them from the 12 cup bun tray and placing on a cooling rack.

Step 6-Now you can start the buttercream frosting for these delicious Vanilla Beam Cupcakes! In to another mixing bowl, add the 200g of unsalted butter, the 400g of icing sugar, the 3 tbsp of boiling water, the 1/8 tsp of salt and vanilla extract.

Step 7-Using a mixer, start combining the ingredients on a low speed before increasing. Continue mixing for 10 minutes or so for the perfect buttercream. If you are doing this by hand, just mix together slowly again increasing speed until the frosting is stickier in appearance.

Step 8-Now take a large piping bag and fill it with the finished buttercream. Ensure you use a circular motion when piping the buttercream on to the cupcakes, creating a swirl effect as you go along. If you are using edible pearls or decorations, these will add a certain sparkle to these already beautiful looking cupcakes!

Step 9-That’s it, you can now enjoy these delicious Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with a nice afternoon cup of tea. Enjoy!

Feasting Is Fun 

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