Who Lives in a Pineapple Under The Sea?

SpongeBob SquarePants!

I made these cupcakes for an 8th birthday. SpongeBob SquarePants themed.

Patrick Star

SpongeBob SquarePants
Gary

Sheldon Plankton
Mr Krabs
Sandy Cheeks
All Vanilla Cupcakes, with vanilla buttercream icing, and blue and white cachous.

Recipe of the Week - Banana Nut-Case

This is the recipe I came up with to enter in the Cupcake Hero Contest. I've never entered before... There are some amazing bakers out there that make incredible things and I was just too nervous to enter anything!! But this time, I thought why not! You can find more information about Cupcake Hero here, as well as great recipes and other cool things at I Heart Cuppycakes!
The ingredient for November is... Peanut Butter!

Banana Nut-Case Cupcakes

(also known as Banana - Peanut Butter - Honey filled - Choc Chip Cupcakes)

[Makes approximately 18 cupcakes]
Printable Recipe

You Will Need:

I used normal cadbury dairy milk chocolate, and cut it up to resemble choc chips. You can replace this with actual choc chips if you want. Or any kind of chocolate you feel like.

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and line your cupcake tray with wrappers.

Beat together the peanut butter and the sugar.
Add the eggs to the peanut butter/sugar mixture
Beat until thoroughly combined.

Stir in the flour, bicarb soda, mashed banana, sour cream, milk & chocolate in 2 batches.
Mix together until all combined.

Place a heaped table spoon of mixture into the prepared cupcake tray.Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Let cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the tray before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.
Once cupcakes are cooled, cut a hole in the center. (You can do this however you find easiest.)
The easiest way I have found is using a large piping tip. Insert piping tip into top of cupcake and you have even sized holes for each one! Remember to keep the bit you take out to place back on top once cupcake is filled.

You will need for the filling and icing:

Drizzle honey into the centre of the cupcakes you just made and place 'lid' back ontop.

I'm not sure exactally how much honey I used (sorry!!)
It would have been approximately 1/2 teaspoon for each cupcake!

Spread a thin layer of peanut butter over the tops of the cupcakes.
You can always leave the cupcake at the Peanut Butter stage if you're not a huge chocolate fan..

Next spread a layer of nutella over the peanut butter.
Using a vegetable peeler shave some chocolate from a block and sprinkle on top of the nutella.

Recommended : A tall glass of ice cold milk.

Thursday Tutorial - Chocolate Leaves

This is how I made the chocolate rose leaves that were on my Mum's Birthday Party Cupcakes.

Take your leaves, and place them on a tray lined with baking paper.

Make sure you have washed them thoroughly before hand.

Melt your chocolate, depending how many leaves you need, will depend on the amount of chocolate, but you won't need very much. 5 rows (about 20-25 grams) gave me enough leaves, with spares, for 36 cupcakes. There was plenty of chocolate left over.
Mix a dash of vegetable oil into the chocolate to make it thinner and easier to paint on.

Then using a food only paintbrush, paint the chocolate onto the leaves, and place them back onto the baking tray.
Put in the freezer until they are set.

Once they are set, gently peel the leaf away from the chocolate. It is easier to do a few at a time, because they start to melt quickly when you are handling them. If this happens, just place them back in the freezer.
I found that using the back side of the leaf that had the raised bits gave a better mold then the front side.

Quick and easy!

Movember

Movember (The month formally known as November) is a moustache growing charity event held during November each year that raises funds and awareness for men's health. If you're a man who wants to grow a mo, or even a lady who wants to support the efforts of the mo bro in your life, head on over to the Movember website, and see how you can help.

Anybody can help!!!

Recipe of the Week - Chocolate and Orange Cookies

I came across this blog recently, and thought I would give it a try.. Maria and Rosie from Sweet & Simple Bakes, give you a simple recipe that you can make at home. Then you just send in what you have made, and on the 1st of every month they post the creations.

This is the one for November.

Chocolate and Orange Cookies(you can find their recipe here and a printable recipe here)
I substituted the white chocolate chips for a mixture of white and dark because I ran out of white..

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees celsius

Beat the butter and the sugar together until light and creamy.

Add orange zest and 1 egg
Once egg and orange zest is thorougly mixed in, add sifted flour, bi-carb, baking powder, salt & chocolate chips.
Mix well until all ingredients are combined.

Place tablespoon scoops of dough onto baking paper lined trays, and flatten slightly with your fingertips.

Let cook for 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Leave on tray to cool for 5 minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

When cool, store in airtight container for up to 5 days.

They probably won't last for 5 days, as these will get eaten straight away!!

Halloween Slasher Cupcakes

Fitting with my horror film week for halloween, are these kitchen knife cupcakes.
Vanilla Cupcakes, filled with strawberry jam, with fondant decorations. Worthy of any slasher film.