Coffee Cupcakes

I prefer to use Camp Coffee when cooking. It's a rich syrupy strong liquid coffee. Alternatively you can use instant coffee mixed with water; 1tsp of instant coffee mixed with 1 tbsp of water is the equivalent of 1tbsp of Camp Coffee.

We made coffee cupcakes using camp coffee, here's the recipe

Ingredients

6oz SR Flour
6oz Caster Sugar
6oz Butter
3 Eggs
4 tbsp Camp Coffee
1 tub Mascapone
2 tbsp Soft Brown Sugar

Method


Mix together the flour, caster sugar, butter eggs and 3 tbsp of coffee until smooth. Fill 12 muffin cases and bake at 170C (fan) for 25 mins. When cooked remove from tin and allow to cool.

Now make the icing: mix together the mascapone brown sugar and 1 tbsp of coffee until well blended and pipe onto top of cupcakes.

I have recently bought some Wilton piping nozzles and have found them to be marvellous, it's sometimes better to invest in a good product. It's certainly the case here.

This is the nozzle I used for these cakes:

Raisin Soda Bread - Daring Bakers Challenge, February 2012

For this month's Daring Bakers Challenge, Lis of La Mia Cucina, asked us to bake Quick Breads. I m still in a great mood for baking even after the BM, My Oven still hot and running baby!!!! I tried baking Raisin Soda Bread from Joy of Baking. We loved it!!!  Seeing the top of bread brown and rising was a sheer bliss!!! Lets hop on to the recipe!!!!

Ingredients

3/4 Cup All Purpose flour

3/4 Cup Whole Wheat flour

1.5 tablespoons granulated white sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1.5 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut in small pieces

1/2 Cup raisins, I used sun-Maid California raisins (or any dark raisin)

3/4 Cup buttermilk (soured milk)

Method

• Preheat oven to 190C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. 
• Cut the cold butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture, with a pastry blender or best, your hands, until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. 
• Stir in the raisins. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add most of the buttermilk. Using your hands,mix (adding more buttermilk if necessary) until you have a soft moist dough.
• Transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough into a round. Place the round on your prepared baking sheet and then, with a sharp knife, cut a 1/4 inch deep "X" across the top of the bread.

• Bake for about 40 - 50 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. You can also test that is fully baked by tapping the bottom of the bread - it should sound hollow. Remove from oven. 
• The bread tasted heavenly with a blob of butter on top. Loved the Raisins in every bite. 

Announcing Serve It Series - Serve It - Stir-Fried

The "Serve It" event had been on a break for the past two months. Some personal things were keeping Denny and I busy since the start of new year.
Finally we got back on track for the event. The previous Serve It - Sweet Baked received 53 yummy entries. Our blogger-friends sure made it lovely with varieties of baked sweet goodness celebrating the holiday season. 
This month's theme is Serve It -