Boozy Barefoot Cupcakes

Increasingly I am being approached by companies to receive samples of their products, I have to admit it gives me a touch of the warm & fuzzies that someone has read my blog & wants me to try out their stuff! That said I am quite fussy & have probably said thanks but no thanks to more offers than I have accepted. (One day I might build up the courage to share the most random offer I have ever received!) If it's an exciting new product or a brand with a unique point of view, then I will usually say yes. What I promise to you is that I'll always be honest when I have received a product to try & I will always give you my honest opinion. Policy statement over :-)

It seems one of the big baking trends at the moment is using alcohol in recipes, so when Barefoot Wines sent me a cupcake recipe using their new Moscato, I thought I'd see what the fuss was all about? I had to convert the recipe to metric from cups & sticks, but the quantities seemed to work out ok.

For the cakes
120g butter
225g caster sugar
2 eggs
60ml milk
60ml Barefoot Moscato
1tsp baking powder
200g plain flour
Pinch of salt

For the frosting
250g mascarpone
500g icing sugar
2 tbsps Barefoot Moscato
1tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate sprinkles for decoration

1. Cream together the butter & sugar until light & fluffy, gradually beat in the eggs then the wine & milk until you have a lovely smooth & creamy batter.

2. Sift in the flour, salt & baking powder & mix until all combined. Line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases & divide the mixture evenly. Bake in the oven at 190c/GM5 for 14-18 minutes until well risen & just turned golden on top.

3. To make the frosting, beat together all the ingredients until smooth. I found chilling it in the fridge until ready to use made it a little easier to handle. When the cakes are completely cooled, top with frosting & some chocolate sprinkles.

The result is a lovely fluffy, buttery cake, I can't honestly say I can taste the wine, but it certainly adds a certain something to the flavour. Enjoy with a delicious chilled glass of the left over Moscato, well you can't let it go to waste can you? If you're inspired to try out cooking with wine, have a look at the Barefoot recipe archive.

Before I go I just wanted to share one other thing with you. Barefoot Wines began in California in 1965, their ethos 'there's no point in doing well if you're not doing any good' is evident in the number of community projects they are involved in. I was especially interested in their Barefoot Friendly Beach Rescue Tour. I grew up on the beautiful North East coast line & cannot imagine why people would want to spoil it by dumping rubbish on it. The reality is they do, so Barefoot have teamed up with Surfers Against Sewage to encourage volunteers to come along to beach clean up events. Click here for more details of this great initiative.

Till next time, Rebecca x

Tynemouth Sands - Barefoot Friendly Beach Rescue Tour visits on 26th August

Forever Nigella #2 - Chocolate Love Buns

I'm not normally one to get swept away with the whole Valentines Day hype, but this year I've decided to jump on the bandwagon & create a Valentines Day treat for the second round of the Forever Nigella blogging challenge hosted by Maison Cupcake

This months theme is Seduced by Chocolate & I did wonder if I could resubmit last months recipe. In case you missed it, it was Devils Food Cake & was about as chocolaty you could get! But that would be cheating & instead I made a variation on a recipe that was featured in Nigella's Feast book (my favourite!)

Love Buns seemed quite apt for Valentines Day, I've adapted them into Chocolate Love Buns, topping them with pink frosting & a dusting of shimmer!

Click here to view Nigella's original recipe. For my variation I simply added 25g cocoa powder to the cake mix & a few drop of natural red food colouring to the frosting along with the vanilla essence. I love these & trust me they're not half as sweet as they look. The cake is deliciously soft & the frosting is so fluffy & light it could almost float off the top of the cake!

Hope you enjoy my Love Buns (makes me giggle like a 8 year old every time!) & maybe even make some for your Love Bunny this Valentines Day, beats shop bought any day!

Happy Valentines Day, Rebecca x

Week 46 - Red Velvet Cupcakes

Pinch & a punch for the first of the month, it's December so the Christmas countdown starts today! The tree will be going up at the weekend & I'm really looking forward to the party season. We're starting early with our work do tomorrow evening, outfit is sorted, nails are done, just need to work out how exactly you use a velcro roller & I'm ready to go. I bought a gorgeous new pair of heels which are pretty much sky scrapers, even by my standards. I've been off work today so thought I'd better try them out, you should have seen me, teetering round the house in my jammies & a pair of 4 inch heels, actually it's probably best you didn't see me! They're remarkably comfy, but I think as back up I should try & get a pair of those fold able ballet pumps to stick in my handbag...I have a feeling I might have to abandon the stilts at some point!

So entries to my second giveaway closed yesterday & thanks to the random number generator I'm happy to announce the Kel of Writings, Ramblings & Reviews is my lucky winner! Well done Kel, I hope you like the mugs, given the Arctic conditions I hope you enjoy using them to warm up with a nice hot brew? With only 6 weeks left to go in my baking challenge, I'm hoping I can bring you a finale giveaway soon...watch this space.

This weeks recipe is something that I've wanted to try for quite some time & comes from the very beautiful Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. The red velvet is created by mixing together red food colouring with cocoa powder & vanilla essence to form a paste. Word of advice, do not mistake this as melted chocolate & lick the spoon...eh Mum? I baked this week at my Mum's house & before I could stop her she did exactly that, looked like she'd gone all vampire like & had to spend 20 minutes brushing her teeth!

For the cakes
60g butter
150g caster sugar
1 egg
10g cocoa powder
20ml red food colouring
1/2tsp vanilla essence
120ml whole milk
150g plain flour
1/2tsp salt
1/2tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 1/2tsps white wine vinegar

For the frosting
300g icing sugar
50g butter
125g cream cheese

1. Beat together the butter & sugar until light & fluffy, then beat in the egg. Mix together the cocoa powder, food colouring & vanilla until you have a smooth paste. Add this to the butter mixture & beat well until all combined.

2. With the mixer on a slow speed, beat in half the milk, then half the flour. Repeat with the remaining ingredients until you have a lovely smooth mixture. Finally add the salt, bicarb & vinegar, then turn up the mixer & beat well for a couple of minutes.

3. Line a 12 whole bun tin with paper cases & fill each about 3/4 full with mixture. Bake in the oven at 170c/GM3 for around 20-25 minutes until well risen & springy to the touch. Leave to cool in the tin.

4. To make the frosting, beat the icing sugar & butter together, then add the cream cheese & beat for around 5 minutes until fluffy, spread this frosting all over the top of the cakes when cool.

These are really delicious & as the name suggests, have a lovely velvety texture! Have a good week, I'm giving my Christmas cake it's final drink of brandy before tackling the decorations! See ya, Rebecca x

Week 35 - Mars Bar Cupcakes

Evening! I'm back from Belgium just long enough to rustle up this weeks recipe. I also bring good news! You may remember a while back I created a recipe for Malteser Cookies for a competition that was being run by MyDish. Well sadly I didn't win, so no shiny new Kitchen Aid mixer for me, but I was a runner up! That means I have a parcel of chocolate goodies heading my way...as if I didn't have enough calories to deal with every week :-) Here's the link to the original post, it's a dead simple recipe to make, so why not have a go yourself?


You may have noticed that this week is National Cupcake Week (it's also Scottish Food Fortnight & Organic Food Fortnight!), so it only seemed right to make some sort of cupcake. Sweeties have often been a source of inspiration for recipes so this week I'm paying homage to the good old Mars Bar. I found them great to bake with, the nougat bit stays soft, but the caramel turns into lovely chewy toffee. Yum!


For the cakes
60g butter
100g caster sugar
1 egg
Few drops of vanilla essence
300g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
100-150ml milk
2 Mars Bar Duo's chopped into small chunks

For the topping
80g plain chocolate
2tbsp icing sugar
Dash of milk
1 bag Mars Planets

1. Melt the butter, stir in the sugar, then beat in the egg. Fold in the flour, then add the milk a little at a time until you get a dropping consistency. Finally stir in the chopped up Mars Bars.

2. Line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases & spoon in the mixture. I made 18 cakes, so had to bake 2 batches. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM5 for around 10-12 minutes. Lift out, leave to cool for a minute, then transfer to a rack.

3. To make the topping melt the chocolate, then stir in the icing sugar adding a little milk to make it smooth. Drizzle over the top of each cake, then top it off with a Mars Planet sweet.

Hope you enjoy what's left of National Cupcake Week, it's a good excuse to eat cake I guess! I'm off to Holland again next week & will be on a mission to get a traditional recipe for Dutch Apple Cake from one of my colleagues. Till next week, Happy Baking, Rebecca x

Week 26 - Giant Cupcake

Well here we are cakes fans...we've hit the half way point in my baking challenge & I'm happy to share with you my 26th recipe!
It's been a bit of a challenging week this week, my fridge broke down last Monday & as yet has not been fixed (got to love landlords!) Not ideal given we've probably had the hottest weather of the year & I had people over on Friday for tea! But we muddled through & with a bit of help from my mum & a large quantity of ice...we pulled it off! It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon, everyone ate cake, drank Pimms & generally had a lovely time, thanks to everyone who came along.

It seems my kitchen is revolting against me though, not only has the fridge broken down, but the toaster has started throwing blue sparks & the kettle is leaking. I also learnt a valuable lesson when using baking paper in the oven...don't let it touch the top of the oven. I managed to set fire to a batch of brownies, the flames were fairly impressive so in my panic I threw it into the washing up water! Needless to say they were beyond rescue :-( For my own personal safety can anyone recommend a no cook, no fridge needed recipe for next week?!

So, after lusting after a giant cupcake pan for I don't know how long (yes...I do realise how sad that sounds!!), I finally bit the bullet & bought one. I'm dead chuffed with the result, although I think I could do with a little more practise on getting cooking times & mixture quantities spot on. I love the fact that you'd never have to make the same cake twice, there are so many different variations you could choose. I used smarties to decorate the top, but I'm on the lookout for a good site where I can buy other assorted cake bling, can anyone recommend one?

For the cake
220g plain flour
220g self raising flour
350g butter
350g golden caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
6 eggs
2-4 tbsp milk

For the icing
175g icing sugar
75g butter
Dash of milk

1. Cream together the butter, sugar & vanilla. Beat in the eggs a little at a time until you have a light fluffy mixture.

2. Fold in the flour, adding a little dash of milk to make a smooth mixture that should easily drop of the spoon.

3. Divide the mixture between the 2 sections of the cupcake pan allowing room for each to rise. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM4 for 50-60 minutes, until a skewer comes out of the centre of the cake clean. I found I had to take the top part out a little early to avoid over browning, you just need to keep an eye on it.

4. To make the icing, cream together the butter & icing sugar, adding a little milk if it's a bit too stiff to spread. Level off the top & bottom sections of the cake with a sharp knife, then use a few blobs of the icing to sandwich them together. Spread the icing all over the top of the cupcake, then decorate with sweets of your choice!

This really did look impressive on my tea table & I've already had a request to make one for a forthcoming birthday! If you don't have a giant cupcake pan, you could try making a regular Madeira cake, just half the quantities for the mixture. See you next week, when I hope calm will have been restored to my kitchen! Rebecca x

Week 22 - Cafe au Lait Cupcakes

Good news! I didn't drown myself surfing so I'm back to bake another week! I had a great time in Cornwall, I can really see how people get the surfing bug. Lets face it, I was fairly pants, but I did manage to catch a few waves & although I didn't actually get on my feet, I managed to get about half way up which was far better than I expected. It sounds ridiculous but the most challenging part of the weekend was getting into the wetsuit. It wasn't easy, especially on the 2nd day when I felt muscles I didn't even know I had, aching in my arms! Thank you to Oakley for a fab prize & to the guys at Big Friday for organising a great weekend.

Back to the cakes & this weeks recipe is another request. In a shameless plug for the brand I work for, I made this using Douwe Egberts Pure Indulgence coffee (I'm a slave to the brand I know!) I find you need to use quite a strong coffee to make sure it gives a rich enough flavour to the cake. I came across a recipe for an American Frosting in a Good Housekeeping cookbook from the 70's, so I thought I'd have a crack at that instead of traditional butter cream for the topping. It's given them a lovely glossy finish, but if I'm honest I think I prefer butter cream, the frosting tastes nice, but it's got a different texture, but different is good sometimes, right?

For the cupcakes
125g butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
Few drops vanilla essence
125ml milk
4 tsps instant coffee dissolved in a little water
200g plain flour
2 tsps baking powder

For the frosting
175g brown sugar
1 egg white
Pinch of salt
Pinch of cream of tartar
30ml water

1. Cream together the butter & sugar, beat in the eggs then add the rest of the liquids & beat well until light & fluffy. Sift in the flour & baking powder & fold together. Line a 12 hole bun tin with paper cases & divide the mixture evenly between them. Bake in the oven at 180c/GM5 for 20 minutes, leave to rest for 5 minutes in the tin, then lift out onto a rack to cool.

2. To make the frosting, put all the ingredients into a bowl & whisk until combined. Place the bowl over a pan of simmering water & continue to whisk until it thickens & the mixture forms soft peaks. Now I started with an egg whisk, but realised I was getting nowhere fast! (Especially with achy surfy arms!) So I switched to my electric whisk & it thickened in no time.

3. Leave the frosting to cool for a few minutes so it's not quite as runny, then coat the top of each cupcake. I finished them off with a white chocolate coated coffee bean!

I called these Cafe au Lait as the milk in the recipe gives it that lovely creamy taste. The brown sugar in the frosting gives a complimentary caramel flavour. If I was to make them again, I'd make a vanilla butter cream instead. I guess you could also turn them into Mocha Cupcakes by adding around 75g of cocoa powder to the cake mix...mmm, might just try that!

So I've taken on blogging, marathon walking & surfing so far this year...I need to give some thought to my next challenge. Have a good week, enjoy the sunshine, Rebecca x

Week 9 - Butterfly Cakes

How are we all this week? Hope you were all nice to your Mummies on Sunday, did anyone bake a cake? I decided to create a Greek inspired feast from the April issue of Olive magazine for my Mum. It started with a halloumi & fennel salad, with roast lamb, spinach, potatoes & butter beans for main course. Dessert was a orangey doughnut type thing with Greek yogurt, slices of orange, honey & walnuts. It was a big success, although there was enough garlic in it to ward off a pack of vampires! I'd recommend checking it out, especially if you are entertaining over Easter? The same issue of Olive magazine also inspired me to start writing my manifesto for cake, but more about that next week!

So, I promised a retro treat this week & here they are, Butterfly cakes! They remind me of parties I used to go to when I was a kid in the 80's, so I have to say I felt a little nostalgic making these, I had a strange urge to create a cheese & pineapple hedgehog to go with them. These are dead simple to make but look so pretty & make the perfect treat for afternoon tea.

100g butter
100g caster sugar
2 eggs
Few drops vanilla essence
100g self raising flour

For the filling
85g icing sugar
35g butter
Dash of milk
Strawberry jam

1. Cream together the butter & sugar until fluffy, then beat in the egg & vanilla essence. Finally fold in the flour

2. Place 8 paper cases into a bun tin & divide the mixture evenly between them. Bake in the oven at 190c/GM5 for around 15-20 minutes until well risen & just turning golden brown

3. To make the butter cream filling cream together the butter & icing sugar, add a dash of milk to help it combine

4. When the cakes are cooled, take a sharp knife & cut a circle out of the top of the cake. Use the knife on an angle so you cut out a cone shape, cut this piece in half & place to one side.

5. Fill the hole with a small scoop of jam, then a dollop of butter cream. Finally arrange the pieces on top to make the wings. Finish them off with a dusting of icing sugar.

For the full 80's experience I think butterfly cakes are best enjoyed with some retro fizzy pop, cherryade is my particular favourite! Now I'm off to dig out my NOW tapes, 'I should be so lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky...' Till next week...Rebecca

p.s. Rebecca Bakes Cakes now has a Facebook fan page, just search Rebecca Bakes Cakes!