Vintage Rose Cupcakes

As I am now off for the Summer Holidays I have went on a baking overdrive as I am obsessed. The other day I had been to the dentist and I was in terrible pain therefore I decided to go on YouTube. I found this great tutorial on icing roses so later on in the day I decided I would have a go at creating them. To be honest I was very proud of myself as this was my first try and they tasted great!

Ingredients;

Makes 12

Cupcake

• 110g/4oz butter or margarine,
  110g/4oz caster sugar
  2 free-range eggs,
  1 tsp vanilla extract
  110g/4oz self-raising flour
  1-2 tbsp milk

Icing

175g unsalted butter
350g icing sugar, sifted
a couple of drops of vanilla extract (optional)

Method

• First you preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
• To make the cupcakes you can use the all in one method where you basically just add all of the ingredients at once and just mix it with a mixer or with a spoon however sometimes I like to add the ingredients one at a time to make sure the mixture is smooth with no lumps.
• When the mixture is smooth you then evenly distribute the mixture into the cupcake cases on the tray.
• Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
• when the cupcakes are springy to touch take them out of the oven and place them on a cooling rack.

Icing

• first cream the butter until it is smooth and then gradually add in the icing sugar mixing every time.
• if you are using the vanilla extract you would then add it in to the butter cream icing.
• fill your piping bag and you are ready.
• Instead of myself typing out the method of the roses I am going to link you to the YouTube video as it is easier to show than write and probably if I wrote out how to do it your cupcakes would turn out to be a catastrophe. Here is the link to the YouTube video.

If you decide to make these cupcakes tag me in your pictures on instagram and twitter so I can have a look at them!

Grainne

xox

Shortbread Biscuits

Hey Everyone,
The other day I decided to make some shortbread biscuits so I flicked through some recipe books and found a great recipe which is Truly Scrumptious so I decided to share it with you so lets get started.

Ingredients:
100g Margarine
150g Plain Flour
50g Caster Sugar

1. Turn your oven on to 150 degrees Celsius or gas mark 3 to preheat.
2.Dollop your margarine into the bowl. I like to mix it around to make sure it it smooth.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and mix together. when your dough starts to form take out your spoon and start to knead it with your hands until it forms a ball with no residue left in the bowl.
4. Sprinkle your work surface and your rolling pin with a little flour and roll out your dough.
5.Once your dough is evenly spread out cut into shapes either with cutters or free hand with a knife
6.place your biscuits on a tray that is lightly greased or has some greaseproof paper on it.
7. Bake for 10- 15 minutes don't let the burn, only let them slightly golden.
8. Place biscuits on cooling rack and sprinkle with caster sugar

I hope you like this simple recipe and you try it out at home you could also add some dried fruit or chocolate chips to the recipe to spice it up. Don't forget to send me pictures on Twitter and Instagram of your creations.

See You Soon

<3

I Have Extended My Blog!

Hey Everyone,
You may be wondering what on earth does she mean by "extending her blog" but recently I have noticed my blog has been quite boring, so after a little bit of brainstorming I have decided to branch it out a bit and open up some doors. One thing I love doing so much is Baking and over the past while I haven't had time to do much baking as I have been very busy, but since it is getting closer to Christmas I have started to do a little more baking at home. I have decided to start featuring different blog posts every so often on my blog and letting you into some of my favourite recipes. I hope you like my new idea and I can't wait to see how it comes along!

See You Soon,

<3