Foody Fridays: Carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese icing

I wanted to bake something different this week that I like but have never even thought about attempting and I decided to go with a carrot cake I was going to make a whole cake but as I'm the only one in my house that eats it and me and Ethan had already made cupcakes on Wednesday so we have a tray full of sprinkle filled butterfly buns to get through! I decided to opt for cupcakes instead as I could make less so they wouldn't get wasted and I could give some away. I used enough ingredients for 12 cupcakes but will put the ingredients down below for 24 and if you want to make less just half the measurements.

Ingredients you will need
125g Flour
1tsp Ground cinnamon
200g Caster sugar
175g vegetable oil
175g Carrots
120g Chopped walnuts
24 Whole walnuts
115g Cream cheese
55g Butter
225g Icing sugar
1tsp Vanilla extract

Utensils you will need
Bowls
Whisk
Spoons
Piping bag
24 Cupcake cases
Cupcake tin
Grater

Oven on 180c and 15-20 minutes to cook.

To start off I put the cupcake cases in my tin ready for when the batter was ready. and pre-heated the oven to 180c.

 In a large mixing bowl I added the flour, sugar and cinnamon and gave it a little stir with a spoon until it was all combined.

Then once the dry ingredients were combined I added the oil and eggs and then whisking it on a medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.

Next taking the carrots I finely grated them and then added them to the whisked batter along with the chopped walnuts and whisked again on a high speed for 3 minutes or until all the ingredients were all combined.

Once the batter was made I spooned a table spoon of mixture into each case and put in the middle of the oven for 15 minutes.

 

Whilst my cupcakes were cooking I made the cream cheese icing. I creamed the butter and the cream cheese together with a whisk on a low speed and then poured in the icing sugar and the teaspoon of vanilla extract and whisked on a medium speed for a further 2 minutes.

 

 

Once my cakes were cooked I took them out of the oven and put them on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes, I made sure they were completely cool so the icing didn't melt and run when applied. 

I prepared my piping bag by popping it in a glass and folding over the top so it was stable to pour the icing into, Once the icing was in the piping bag I twisted the top so the icing wouldn't squeeze out of the top then piped the icing on top of the cooled cupcakes and decorated with a whole walnut on each cake.

And the cakes were ready to eat straight away!
 

 
I was so happy with these cupcakes, I wasn't to sure how they were going to taste but I was pleasantly surprised as they were lovely and I will definitely be making more carrot cake creations in the future and the cream cheese icing is my new favourite icing it was delicious and went really well with the carrot cake!

I hope you have fun making these yummy carrot cake cupcakes if you decide to give it a go I would love to see your creations so tweet me @hannahnicolab or Instagram me a picture using #hannahnhearts

Also if you have any requests for next weeks Foody Friday leave me a comment and let me know.

Thanks for reading
Hannah
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Foody fridays : chocolate macaroons

This weeks foody Friday I'm going to be making chocolate macaroons, I have wanted to make them for so long but always thought they were really hard to make and take a lot of time but after looking up the ingredients and how to make them it actually looks quite easy so I decided to give it a go!

 

Ingredients you will need:

100g Icing sugar

1tbsp Coco powder

100g Ground almonds

2 Medium free range egg whites

Small pinch of salt

55g Caster sugar

55g Milk chocolate

2 tsp Double cream slightly warm

 
Equitment you will need:
Piping bag

Parchment paper

Baking tray

 Bowls

 Spoons

2 Sheets of paper

Sticky tape

Pen

Scissors

A round shape to draw round about 2.5 inches (I used a tea light candle)

 

Oven 180 degrees  Cooking time 15-20 minutes

 

 

 

First I made my template of how big the macaroons should be on the tray, I just simply drew round my circle shape in my case I used a tea light then cut round the sheets of paper so they would fit in my tray next taking the parchment paper I cut it to shape and placed it over my paper guide. on the back I of each paper guide I taped a strip of paper on each so when it came to taking them out before cooking it was easy to pull each piece out without making the mixture run all over the parchment paper. 

 

 

This is how my tray looked.

 

 

To make the mixture I sieved the icing sugar, coco powder and ground almonds into a large bowl and mixed until it was all combined.

 

 

 

Now taking another bowl and adding the two egg whites I whisked them until they formed soft peaks, then adding the caster sugar until the mixture was thick and shinny.

 

 

 

I then gradually added the icing sugar, coco powder and almond mixture and gently folded it in until it was all combined.

 

 

Once the two mixtures where combined I transferred it into my piping bag and piped mixture onto the tray making sure It stayed in the outline of the guide I place underneath the parchment paper.

 

 

 What my tray looked like after I had piped all the mixture onto it.

I placed the tray in the oven for 15 minutes, opening the oven door a couple of times to let any steam out. 

 

 

 Once the macaroons had cooked I slid the parchment paper with the macaroons on off the tray and let them cool whilst I made the filling.

 

 

To make the filling I melted the chocolate in a bowl over a sauce pan of simmering hot water, once it had melted I transferred the chocolate to another small bowl and added the cream and stirred until it was smooth and thick enough to spread. 

 

 

Once the macaroons where cool I paired two of similar sizes together so it was easier to just pick two up and add the filling.

 

 

 I placed the filling on the bottom on one of the macaroons in the pair not spreading it all the way to the edge as when the other one went on top it pushed it out to the edges.

I continued to do this to all the macaroons and then placed them in the fridge for an hour for the filling to cool down and the two sides to stick together.

 

 

 

 

 

 I was shocked at how quick and easy these were to make and how delicious they were I will definitely be making more of these in the future and maybe even braving to experiment in different flavours! 

 

 

Someone else seemed to enjoy them his words were "mummy these are delicious"

 

If you decide to try and make these delicious macaroons I would love to see tweet me your pictures to @hannahnicolab or Instagram me a picture using #hannahnhearts

 

Thanks for reading

Hannah

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Foody Fridays: Lemon and white chocolate cheesecake

I've been wanting to do a series of blog posts in February so I've been trying to think of something fun and that you can do at home too! And as I don't usually get my DIY head on until the weather warms up mainly because if things need painting I like to do it outside as I am not the most careful of painters. I have decided on a food series that I'm going to do every Friday and I'm calling it...Wait for it!....Foody Fridays! Not the best series title you've ever seen but I have been racking my brain for a quirky title but nothing seemed to come to me, do give me some credit though as I am baking and making all the food myself! Haha!

 

So here's my first Foody Friday It is a lemon and white chocolate cheesecake with a ginger biscuit base. I was inspired by a recipe I saw on This Morning it was a lemon curd cheese cake By Mary Berry, But have adapted it to my own taste and to make it more suitable for a tasty valentines treat.

 

Enjoy!

 

 

You will need:

200g of ginger biscuits

500g of mascarpone cheese

400g of lemon curd

50g of butter

juice of 1 lemon

 

150g of white chocolate

Strawberries for decorating

Icing sugar for decorating

I have blueberries in the picture but I decided to not use them.

Rolling pin

2 plastic food bags

inc cake tin with a removable bottom

spoons and mixing bowls

 

 

First I put the ginger biscuits in one of the food bags squeezed out all the air and tied a knot in the end and then placed it inside the other bag, I done this as if the first bag split it would still be held in the second and not spill every where. Now to crush the biscuits, I broke them up by hitting them with the rolling pin, I tried to get the biscuits as fine as possible so it was easier to cut the base once it was made. Once all the biscuits were crushed I poured them into a bowl.

 

 

Next I melted the butter in a saucepan and added it to the crushed biscuits and stirred it in until all the crumbs were covered in the butter.

 

 

 

Taking the greased tin I poured in the biscuit and butter mixture packed it all down evenly and then put in the fridge to set for 2 hours.

 

 

While the biscuit base was setting in the fridge I made the topping. First I melted the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Then into a bowl I put the mascarpone and lemon curd and mixed it until it was all combined together, next adding the chocolate and again stirring until its was all combined and lastly I added the lemon juice and stirred it all in until it started to thicken.

 

 

Once the base had set I poured on the topping mixture and spread it on top to make an even surface, Then placed it in the fridge to set over night.

 

 

 

 

After leaving the cheesecake to set over night I took it out of the fridge and removed it from the tin. To remove it I placed the tin on a glass and pushed down on the two top sides until the cheesecake was out of the tin, Keeping the cheesecake on the bottom of the tray I placed it on a serving plate.

 

 

 

 

 

To decorate the cheesecake I washed the strawberries, cut the tops off them and then cut them in half, Once they were in half to make them into hearts I cut out a small triangle from the top of each one.

 

 

 

 

 

I placed the strawberries round the edge of the cheesecake and one in the middle then dusted with a little bit of icing sugar and it was ready to devour!

 

  

I hope this has inspired you to make a stir in the kitchen.

And if you make this cheesecake you find it as delicious as me and my family did!

 

 

           Thanks for reading

            Hannah

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