Valentine’s Cupcakes topped with Devon Fudge

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Fiona Martin

Valentine’s cupcakes topped with Double Chocolate Fudge from The Devon Fudge Company are the perfect indulgence for this time of year. Enjoyed by couples, families and kids alike, it doesn’t matter who you make them for, you know they have a versatile appeal and if you have kids they can be part of your Valentine’s celebrations.

For simplicity I just used the basic sponge recipe my mum taught me many years ago when I first started baking, 2 ounces of butter, sugar and flour to each egg. This is a simple one for kids to follow too and my two love mixing it up in a bowl for me with a wooden spoon (whereas it’d be straight in my stand mixer if I was doing it!).

So here goes to make a batch of 10 generously sized cupcakes:

2 eggs
4 oz caster sugar
4 oz butter
3 oz self raising flour
1 oz cocoa powder

Simply cream the butter and sugar together before slowly adding the beaten eggs, then fold the flour in to make a rich, chocolately batter.

Bake for approx 20mins in a 180c oven (test with a sharp knife to ensure cooked through in centre)

Then for the frosting I used a simple buttercream:

80g unsalted butter
160g icing sugar
a tablespoon of milk
small blob of red gel food colouring

Simply beat all the ingredients together, pipe on top of each cake and then decorate as you like, obviously here we have added small chunks of the utterly delicious Double Chocolate Fudge from The Devon Fudge Company along with some small pink chocolate hearts to add to the feel of upcoming Valentine’s Day.

The Devon Fudge tastes utterly delicious. We did taste test it before adding it to the cakes and didn’t want to lose the flavour in the cakes so put the pieces on top. As you bite down into the cake you really taste the fudge in the icing and it makes a delicous addition to what otherwise would be a standard chocolate cake.

For a quick a simple homemade treat this Valentine’s why not make a batch of these cupcakes and don’t forget to add some Devon Fudge for that extra special touch and flavour!

All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions and we received the product in order to write an honest review.

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Cupcake Masterclass at Mrs Brown’s

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Fiona Martin

Last weekend I met up with 8 other Plymouth bloggers at Mrs Brown’s, a local bakery and decided to do a vintage cupcake masterclass. I’ve always loved making cupcakes, although finding less time as the children get older and more demanding of my time. I’m a huge buttercream fan and tend to stick to this as is easy to work with and tastes delicious so it was interesting to work with other types icing and learn how to create different effects. I certainly picked up a few tips that I’ll be putting into practice the next time I bake. Can you believe I decorated all the cakes below with my own fair hands!

First off we learnt how to make an edible rose decoration. Would you believe that you start with 11 little balls of icing and by using your fingers to flatten and mould they become petals which in turn become a finished rose. Spray on a bit of silver lustre, add a sprinkling of pearlised balls and voila, my cake is done!

We then tried some other ideas before stopping for a break and trying a piece of a rather huge Victoria sponge cake, covered in chocolate coated strawberries, that Georgie (owner of Mrs Brown’s) had made for us. We then went back to our decorating class before boxing up our four creations ready to take home.

Here we are showing off our handiwork:

It was a great way to spend a couple of hours and I couldn’t wait to get home and see what the children thought. I think the pictures below show you of their approval for mummy’s cakes!!

Going to the cupcake class really reignited my love of baking and although I have a hectic few months ahead, I do hope to try out some new things and bake more regularly in the future!

A New Nephew and Fun at the Park!

Posted on May 19, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Ten days ago I became an Auntie once again to a gorgeous little nephew, although due them living 125 miles away the first opportunity we have had to meet him was yesterday. With the husband working nights this week, he was up all Friday night which meant I was left to drive (long distance driving is usually something I would avoid!!). So with him snoozing against a pillow in the passenger seat we set off and the journey wasn’t too bad, the sun was shining and the children were amused by the various things I pointed out along the way… until we hit the M5 and hit a standstill!! There I was in the outside lane with the handbrake on, the children starting to get fidgety, the sun was blazing through the boot which was full of the baby blue cupcakes that I had stayed up baking the night before and there was nothing I could do except crawl along the odd ten feet as and when the car in front moved.

About half an hour later we started moving again and before we knew it we arrived to meet the new member of our family. Miss M was in awe of such a tiny baby, not really remembering how tiny Mister B was when he was first born. She was keen for a cuddle and looked so proud to hold him.

After lunch we all took a walk down the road to the local fete on the village common. There was a little play park next door which immediately caught Miss M’s eye so we let them have a run around to stretch their legs before the inevitable 125 mile journey home a bit later on.

We returned to my brother’s house for a glass of Champagne and one of my cupcakes to celebrate the birth of his new son. It was lovely afternoon spent catching up with family, my parents had travelled there as well who I don’t see for months at a time so being altogether is one of those special moments we get to enjoy just several times throughout the year.

We decided to get on the road home before it got too late and before we’d even reached the motorway I turned around to find two sleeping little beauties exhausted from their busy day meeting their new cousin and playing with his big sister.

All in all a tiring but exciting and fun day!

Chocolate cupcakes with Miss M – easy recipe using drinking chocolate

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Miss M loves baking so with an excess of eggs in the house I decided to let her make some cupcakes this weekend. We were also short on cocoa powder but having loads of drinking chocolate in the house we decided to substitute that in our recipe instead of cocoa powder.

For 12 small cupcakes we used:

4oz self raising flour
4oz castor sugar
4oz margarine or butter
1 heaped tablespoon drinking chocolate
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of milk

Icing sugar, food colouring and decorations to finish

1. Cream margarine and sugar in a bowl
2. Add eggs slowly with flour/drinking chocolate and milk until all combined
3. Put in oven at 180 degrees for approx 20-30 mins
4. For icing mix icing sugar with boiling water and add relevant colourings.
5. Decorate to your hearts content!

Miss M loves baking and got completely stuck in mixing the ingredients, cracking the eggs and pouring in the flour. Mister B sat on the sideline eagerly awaiting the finished result! They had barely been out of the oven for 5 minutes when Miss M wanted to ice them but we let them cool down a little more before I made her up two bowls of icing, one pink and one blue (on her request of course!). I gave her full creative control about the designs and left her to come up with her iced masterpieces!!

As you can see Mister B remained chilled out while his sister did all the hard work. They both couldn’t wait to pick a cake and tuck in although poor Mister B was under strict instruction from big sister as to which cake he was allowed to choose. These cakes did have a moist hot chocolatey taste them and my two described them as “Mmmm yummy”!!

A very busy but fun Xmas & New Year!!

Posted on January 6, 2013 by Fiona Martin

Wow – it feels like so long since I blogged, I took an unintended long break over the festive period due to being just so busy!! The run up to Christmas was crazy with so much going on and so many things to do and Miss M and I both felt a little poorly during the week before.

It was so exciting to see Miss M in her first school nativity, where she chose to play a shepherd. I was slightly annoyed though when the show started and proud Mister B couldn’t help himself and called out to his big sister upon seeing her a number of times and the mother sitting in front of me turned round and told me to leave unless he kept quiet!!

My parents arrived a few days before Xmas which was nice and gave me some time to wrap presents – how many? – I wish I had counted but my arms were aching and fingers sore by the time they were all done. But the fireplace didn’t disappoint on Christmas morning when Santa had done his deliveries. Miss M and Mister B were so excited and didn’t know where to begin.

We had a lovely Christmas day although I have to say by far the most exhausting for me – I don’t think I got to sit down other than to eat Christmas dinner!!

After Christmas was over we had a few days to relax before preparing for Miss M’s birthday party on New Year’s Eve. I cheated this year and decided to hold it at the local leisure centre with a bouncy castle and despite costing double the amount that I spent on a party last year for the same number of children I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the overall way it ran and will definitely go back to doing a party myself again next year. I also cheated on the birthday cake!!! The first year I haven’t made my children a homemade cake but I did make it up slightly by baking some yummy chocolate cupcakes, iced in buttercream and finished with a personalised pink M&M!!

On New Year’s Day my gorgeous little Miss M officially became 5 years old!! Where have the last five years gone? We had a lovely day, which started sunny so ventured down to the park on Miss M’s new bike and Mister B’s new scooter. We then enjoyed a birthday lunch with family before opening birthday presents and relaxing for the rest of the day.