Has anyone noticed the price of butter lately? If you haven't have you been living under a rock?

I love cake. A lot. But the price of butter is really putting a dampener on making it. It's not that I wouldn't pay the price, but sometimes I just can't justify the price.

Well, how would you feel if I told you that you can still have chocolate cake without using butter! That's right, this chocolate cake is made with OIL instead of butter, which makes it a great alternative for all our non-dairy friends out there!

I was skeptical at first, the only cakes I'd ever used oil in were carrot cakes, but this one surprised me, and I have to say, I think it's my new favourite.


The oil in this recipe produces a cake that is deliciously rich, and so moist that it just melts in the mouth. The addition of coffee brings out the chocolate flavour, making it just that much more tasty. Served with ice cream or just a bit of whipped cream on the side, it doesn't need much at all to compliment it, it really does shine on its own.


Ingredients
2/3 cup oil (I used canola)
50g cocoa powder
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp instant coffee
125g flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sugar
3 Eggs

Mix together the cocoa, water, and coffee and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, combine the oil, sugar, and eggs until light and fluffy. Add in the cocoa mixture and beat until combined.

Add in the sifted flour and baking soda slowly, mixing until just incorporated.

Scrape down the bowl to make sure everything is mixed in before transferring to a lined cake pan.

Bake at 170°C for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Let cool and then dust with icing sugar. Serve on its own or with cream, ice cream, or plain yoghurt.

I've officially started up my cake business, and the website for that can be found at Caked From Scratch, and with this I have started to explore a lot of different flavours with cakes and cupcakes, with one of the latest creations being a s'mores cupcake!


 If there's one thing that I really love, it's a s'more. I don't have them often, but I used to love making them as a kid, especially when it Girl Guide biscuit time! The chocolate covered ones are the best for s'mores!

These cupcakes are everything that a s'more would be if it took on a cupcake form. With a crunch biscuit base, a chocolate cupcake that has mini marshmallows and chocolate chips mixed through, and then topped with a fluffy marshmallowy icing that is crisped up just like a s'more... there really is nothing better. And the best thing is that they are delicious!

So, I'll get to the recipe, but hey! If you know anyone in Blenheim that needs a cake, send them over to my website!



S'mores Cupcakes

For the base:
1-2 cups of crushed biscuits/cookies
75g butter - melted

For the cake:
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp hot water
1 tsp coffee powder/granules
 
1 cup sugar
150g butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup water

1 cup mini marshmallows
1/2 cup chocolate chips

For the icing:
4 egg whites
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla


To start, crush the biscuits and then mix them with the melted butter. Put a spoonful into the cupcake liners and use a glass to squish them down so they are flat. Put these in the fridge to chill while you make the batter.

To make the batter, start off by putting your coffee into your first measure of water and mixing it, setting it aside. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and cream it together until it is light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly, scraping the bowl down after each egg. Once the eggs are combined, add the coffee mixture and vanilla essence and stir.

Sift all of the dry ingredients into a bowl so they can be added at the same time and get your second measure of water ready. Alternate the two into the butter mixture, making sure to start and end with the dry ingredients, mix until just combined and then add the marshmallows and chocolate chips.

Get the biscuit bases out of the fridge and scoop some of the batter onto each base, making sure you are only filling them three quarters full. Once all the liners are full, put these into the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes.

When the cupcakes are cooling, get your frosting ready.


To make the frosting, in the bowl of your mixer, which the egg whites, sugar, 1/4 cup water, cream of tartar, and salt. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk until the sugar is dissolved. To test this, rub some of the mixture between your fingers, if it's not gritty, it is ready to take off of the heat. Remove the bowl from the heat and place onto your mixer with a whisk attachment. Beat until frosting is stiff and cooled, about 5-7 minutes. Beat in vanilla.
 
 Put the icing into a piping bag with a tip of your choice, or use a spoon to spoon it on top of the cupcakes. Frost them to your liking and then use some mini marshmallows and chocolate chips to decorate.

If you have a brulee torch, you can use this to brown the frosting. If not, put the cupcakes onto a tray and put them in the oven on grill for a couple of minutes, just so the frosting gets a little brown.

And now the best part! Eat and ENJOY!

Wow, where does the time go? It was just yesterday that he turned 7, I swear.

Today my little boy turns 8. We had his party yesterday, and he had a huge amount of fun with all his friends.

I even made him an Avengers cake as was requested.

Lately I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, and I wish I could say it's because I've been eating lots, but in reality it's that I've been making lots.

I've had a few cake orders these past couple of weeks, which has been great, and I've been spending a lot of time working on perfecting some skills when it comes to cake decorating.



In other exciting news that is to do with cake - I'm finally taking the steps and sorting out a business to sell them properly! I'm so excited about this.

My future is looking great.

We celebrated 7 a couple of weeks ago, and what 7 year old... or you know, any age... doesn't like Lego?

What's that? Everyone loves Lego? Yeah, that's what I thought too.

Anywho, L is obsessed with Lego and so for his birthday I made him a Lego cake. I'm going to let the pictures do the talking.

If only it was a treasure chest full of gold that I had found, wouldn't that be nice. Shoot for the price of gold at the moment it would be freakin' excellent.

Unfortunately for me it is just a cake that looks like a treasure chest full of gold, although it's still good, it's not quite as good as real gold.

My sons birthday is tomorrow, and he is having a pirate birthday. I was going to do individual cupcakes, but I thought a treasure chest cake would be so much more awesome than that. I had ideas in my head on how I was going to do it, but after baking the cakes I realised it wouldn't work, I would have needed heaps more cake to make it.
So being me, I changed my plan at the last minute, thankfully my cakes I had baked were all big rectangular slabs. I started with 4, and cut them in half so that I had 8 smaller rectangles. I then went about layering the cut cakes.
First I layered 5 pieces of cake, using Chocolate swiss butter-cream filling. I then layered the final three separately.




From the pictures you can see that I have cut a wedge off the 3 layer piece. I then seperated a layer away and used that to help wedge the lid (3 layer bit) open.


After all that (which didn't take long at all really), I went about icing the rest of it in chocolate to have a wood colour. and then coloured the leftover icing black and put in some chest details. I really hope he likes it!








Well until next time, happy baking.

Tammy xx