Raspberry white chocolate cupcakes

I used to make cupcakes quite often for celebrations but now tend to make more cakes for birthdays. There have been several family birthdays this month, so I'm finishing off my month of baking with some decadent raspberry white chocolate cakes.

This is a modified version of a recipe from my favourite local cupcake recipe book, Divine Cupcakes by Tamara Jane, formerly of Tempt Cupcakes. I halved the quantities and still ended up with more than two dozen cupcakes! I also added a teaspoon of Fresh As freeze dried raspberry powder, popped some dried raspberries into the centre of each and added a teaspoon of raspberry powder to the vanilla frosting. Yum!

Raspberry white chocolate cupcakes

Ingredients

• 300 g plain flour
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t freeze-dried raspberry powder
• 250 g butter, chopped
• 250 ml milk
• 450 g sugar or caster sugar
• 150 g white chocolate, chopped
• 2 eggs, whisked
• 1 t vanilla essence
• freeze dried raspberries

Method

1. Sift flour and baking powder together into a large mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and set aside.
2. Put butter, milk, sugar and white chocolate into a medium saucepan and melt together over a low heat. Stir continuously with a flat-bottomed wooden stirrer until the chocolate has melted and the sugar has dissolved. Alternatively, place ingredients into a ceramic bowl and melt in the microwave on high for approximately 5 minutes, or melt gently over a bain-marie. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
3. Preheat the oven to 155°C while you wait for the chocolate mixture to cool. Line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake papers.
4. Pour the cooled mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk together until smooth and all lumps are dissolved. Gently stir in the eggs and vanilla essence until just combined. This is a very runny mixture.
5. Divide the mixture evenly between the cupcakes papers. They should be two-third full. Press 1-2 freeze dried raspberries into the centre of each cupcake and cover with mixture. (Beware: they will keep trying to float up to the top!)
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool cupcakes in the muffin trays for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Decorate by piping with vanilla or vanilla and raspberry buttercream frosting or white chocolate ganache. 

Raspberry white chocolate cupcakes

Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake

It's been a big baking weekend. Numerous batches of hot cross buns, birthday cakes and party food has seen my kitchen buzzing quite a lot recently.

My mouth watered at the sight of this rustic chocolate cake. I love baking with buttermilk and baked this cake twice this weekend, once as an 8" round cake and once as an 8" ring. Both took similar times to cook but neither rose evenly. I also discovered that its soft, crumbly finish meant that it would have been better served layered with chocolate ganache or topped with whipped cream than shaped into a birthday cake and decorated with fondant. Oh well - it still tasted amazing!

I found the layout of the original recipe quite confusing, so here is my simplified version of it with metric measurements.

Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake

Ingredients

• 1 cup hot strong coffee
• 85 g dark chocolate
• 1 3/4 c (245 g) flour
• 3/4 c (60 g) dutched cocoa
• 1 3/4 c (385 g) sugar
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1 t baking soda
• sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 t vanilla essence
• 1/2 c canola oil
• 1 c buttermilk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line an 8" (20 cm) round tin.
2. Pour hot coffee over dark chocolate and stir to melt. Set aside.
3. Combine sifted flour, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda with salt and sugar.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla essence, canola oil and buttermilk to combine.
5. With your mixer on a slow speed, gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Add the coffee mixture next and mix slowly until just combined. (Do not over-mix.)
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. This is a very thin mixture.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Serve frosted with ganache or whipped cream.

Rustic buttermilk chocolate cake
- pre-frosting

Hot cross buns

Mmmm, hot cross buns. Baking and eating hot cross buns is one of my favourite Easter activities. I have experimented with a few different recipes for hot cross buns and keep coming back to the original one in my Panasonic breadmaker book with a few variations.

I don't usually bother with glazing the buns (we certainly don't need more sugar in our diets) but this is easily made by boiling together 3 T each of milk and caster sugar until syrupy, then brushing over the cooked buns as soon as they are removed from the oven. I also use sultanas instead of currants and leave out the citrus peel.

Hot cross buns

Ingredients

• 3 t Surebake yeast
• 450 g high grade flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 2 T milk powder
• 6 T (90 g) butter
• 3 T brown sugar
• 4 t spices (see below)
• 200 ml water
• 1 medium egg
• 3/4 c sultanas

Spices
Any combination of spices that adds up to 3-4 teaspoons will work. Here's my favourite combination:

• 1 t cinnamon
• 1 t allspice
• 1 t cloves
• 1/2 t mixed spice
• 1/2 t nutmeg

Crosses

• 3 T flour
• 1 T canola oil
• water to mix

Method

1. Add ingredients to the pan in the order specified by your breadmaker instructions. Set to BASIC - DOUGH RAISIN (2 hours 20 minutes). Remove dough from pan when finished and leave to rest for another 20 minutes.
2. Divide dough into 12 equal portions. [I weigh mine into ~80 g balls to ensure they rise evenly.] Roll each portion into a smooth ball and place onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Space each ball with a 1 cm gap in between.
3. Lightly spray with canola spray and cover loosely with cling film. Leave to rise in a warm place (30-35°C) for 30 minutes or until doubled in size. [I use the proof dough setting on my oven.]
4. Preheat oven to 200°C. Prepare the crosses by mixing together flour and oil then adding water to make a thick paste. Thin with more water until smooth. Spoon mixture into a piping bag and pipe crosses over the buns. [I do this in long lines across the whole mixture, firstly horizontal then vertical.]
5. Bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Brush with glaze while still hot, if desired.

Hot cross buns