'Ice Cream' cupcakes

My daughter loves to bake cupcakes, and when she was invited to her friend's 21st birthday party recently she had the urge to bake something nice for the girls at the pre-party get-together. She had seen a picture of these 'ice cream' cupcakes and decided to give them a go.

She baked cupcakes in flat based wafer ice cream cups. When they were cool she piped pink tinted buttercream over the tops and added jumbo sprinkles and half a flake so they looked just like ice cream cones! Needless to say...they didn't last very long!


Ingredients:
Wafer Ice Cream Cups
Basic cupcake recipe
200g Icing Sugar
100g Butter - room temperature
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pink food colouring
Jumbo sprinkles
Chocolate Flakes

Place the ice cream cups into a muffin tin and 3/4 fill each with cake batter. Bake at 140deg for approx 35 mins until risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Cream together the butter and icing sugar in a mixer on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and pink colouring and beat well. Place the buttercream icing into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and swirl the icing like an ice cream cone to cover the sponge on the top of the ice cream cup. Place jumbo sprinkles into the icing and insert 1/2 a chocolate flake.

Joseph Joseph

We are delighted to have instore (and online) a new range of funky kitchenware from Joseph Joseph. These bright and original kitchen items are designed by twin brothers Anthony and Richard Joseph. The cleverness of their designs may been seen in their easy-store kitchenware and they have very clever fold-flat colanders and graters, and stacking bowls and measuring cup sets.

The Index chopping board set is their best selling item and it is easy to see why. It looks so stylish in a kitchen and yet it is compact and functional. The chop2pot is a design classic and along with the originality of the Smasher and the Twisk, we can see these being very popular with our customers. View our Joseph Joseph range here

Le Creuset Tagine

If you are a fan of morrocan cuisine you will love the Le Creuset Tagine. This has been recently redesigned giving a deeper base increasing the capacity to 2 litres and a shorter funnel to make it easier to store and fit into an oven.

The base of this cooking dish is made from cast iron with a flat bottom. It can be used on any heat source, or on it's own as a baking dish in the oven. The "coolie" style lid is made from earthenware so it still offers the same cooking features as the original. Steam is re-condensed into water droplets on it's cool walls and falls back into the ingredients keeping it moist. Suitable for slow cooking of meat and vegetables with small amounts of liquid, this tagine is also freezer and dishwasher safe. Suitable for all hobs: Ceramic, halogen, induction, gas, oil/wood

We are pleased to offer this tagine at a special price of only €119.95 (the normal rrp is €146) Available in cerise only we expect this tagine will sell out quickly.

New Cake Decorating and Baking Supplies

There is great excitement in the shop this week with the arrival of the latest order from Wilton. New shaped cake pans, sugarcraft accessories, icing colours and all manner of baking and decorating equipment has been appearing from the stores. Of particular interest to most are the gorgeous paper baking cases - even the plainest bun looks special in these.

Starting at only €2.95 they wont break the bank and they might brighten someone's day!

Half Price Anolon Offer

In these recessionary times we are encouraged to do more home cooking and baking. Therefore we are delighted to have this amazing offer of HALF PRICE Meyer Anolon Cookware, Bakeware, Tools, Gadgets and Knives! Offer runs from Thursday 26th March to Sunday 5th April (or as long as the stock lasts!) so hurry and put in your order today.

Banana Loaf

There is nothing appetising about entering the kitchen to the look and smell of blackened bananas! They are however an essential ingredient for a Banana Loaf. They need to be at the point of collapsing ripeness so that the merest hint of pressure from a fork delivers a pile of fragrant mush. This loaf is the ideal way to use up bananas that are otherwise destined for the compost bin. The addition of walnuts or pecan nuts to the loaf are an optional but heavenly combination.

Recipe: Banana Loaf

• 225g Plain Flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1 teaspoon Mixed Spice or Ground Cinnamon
• 100g Castor Sugar
• 1 Beaten Egg
• 75g Softened Butter
• 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 75g Chopped Pecan Nuts or Walnuts
• 4 Medium Bananas
• Few Whole Pecans/Walnuts to decorate
• Icing Sugar

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a food mixer. Add the sugar, spice, egg, vanilla extract and soft butter then beat together at a slow speed until well mixed. Add in the nuts and the mashed bananas and mix again to combine. Pour mixture into a lined 2lb Loaf Tin (for handiness use a parchment liner) and top with a few whole pecans or walnuts. Place in the oven and bake for about 50 minutes until golden brown. Leave to cool on a wire rack then dust with sifted icing sugar when cooled.

Cupcakes or Buns?

I read so much on the web and in magazines about cupcakes. We always called them buns! Is there a difference? Is it that a bun is plain and a cupcake has a fancy icing? Or is Cupcake the american name for buns?
Sometimes the simplest things are the tastiest and they dont come much simpler than these buns. I usually throw in a batch of buns when the oven is hot as they only take 20mins from start to finish. Then you can leave them plain dusted with icing sugar, or decorate them with glacé icing, buttercream or fresh cream as below.

Basic Bun recipe

• 225g self raising flour
• 225g castor sugar
• 225g soft margarine
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

Place all the above ingredients into a food mixer (or large bowl and use a hand mixer) and mix until smooth. If the mixture seems a little thick you can add a few drops of milk.
Line a bun tray with paper liners and place a spoonful of the mixture into each case (roughly half filling each case). There will be enough mixture to fill 2x12 hole bun trays or you can bake them one immediately after the other. Bake at 175C for about 12-15 mins until light golden and set. Then remove from the bun trays and cool on a wire cake rack.
Decorating: Once cool you can simply dust the buns with icing sugar or decorate anyway you please. As a special treat I like to make butterfly buns with fresh cream.

Butterly buns
Take a small sharp knife and cut the top off each bun, angling the knife downwards to cut a hollow. Keep the piece you have cut off. Place a small blob of raspberry jam in the hollow and then top with some whipped sweetened cream (you can pipe it if you want it to look fancy). Take the top that you cut off and cut it in half then place the two halves into the cream like butterfly wings. Dust with icing sugar to finish.

Equipment List

• Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
• Bun Tray
• Paper bun case liners
• Spatula
• Mixing Bowl