Made With Pink Turns 1

One of the very first cupcakes I posted on Made With Pink

It seems like only yesterday that I decided to start a blog.  I was just sitting on the sofa one night and thought it might be fun to share my baking creations with other people around the world who might happen to stumble upon my blog one day.  Well, that was exactly a year ago, and I have to say it’s been a fabulous year!  I’ve been fortunate enough to attend some really fun events over the past year, and I’ve also met a lot of really great people along the way.  

I just wanted to thank everyone who stopped by Made With Pink over the past year to read my blog, leave me a comment, bake one of my recipes or send me an email.  Thank You!


I look forward to another great year of baking and blogging, and hope you’ll share it with me!


xx Andrea

Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

I love peanut butter.  I really do.  In fact most North Americans love it, but the British - well let's just say they've got mixed feelings about it.  I'll eat anything with peanut butter in it. Granola bars, sandwiches, ice cream, cookies, soups, noodles, chicken satay, anything - I love it all.  For me, peanut butter and chocolate is the ultimate combination, but this isn't the case for a lot of my friends in the UK.  Upon moving here I discovered that peanut butter is more commonly associated with savoury dishes such as Pad Thai, and not with sweet things like it is in North America.  About a year ago I remember trying to convince a friend to try one of my peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes, but they wouldn't even try one because they found the flavour combination far to strange and repulsive.  Well - if anyone reading this finds peanut butter and chocolate a repulsive combination (and if you weren't already turned off by my previous post) I'm warning you - STOP reading this right now. There. I've warned you.

To show you how crazy Americans are about peanut butter, I took the first picture below at a Target store in Texas.  The second picture is of the peanut butter selection in a UK Tesco store. In America it's all about variety.  I've found that American companies don't usually remove items from their product lines, instead they'll just add to them.  In the UK they're more likely to remove a product and replace it with another one.  Unless that product is tea. If it's tea, they'll just go ahead and add another 10 flavours to the product line. 

American peanut butter selection: Smooth, crunchy, extra crunchy, honey roasted, reduced fat, natural, organic, omega 3, peanut butter & jam swirl, peanut butter & white chocolate, peanut butter & dark chocolate and peanut butter & banana.

  

UK peanut butter selection:  Smooth & crunchy.  If your lucky you'll find natural, and maybe even organic. The store pictured above is a big one, so it stocks all varieties.  Chocolate and hazelnut spreads are more popular here.

When I lived in Canada Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were my favourite chocolate bar (even though they're not really a chocolate bar at all).  Every time I passed the candy section of a store here in the UK I'd be on the look out for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  My search went on for over a year without any luck, so I just figured they weren't available.  I was pleased to discover that I was wrong, and that they did actually exist.  I was just looking in the wrong place.  Well - actually I think I was looking in the right place, but some strange person in charge of super market planning decided to put them in the wrong place!  For some reason Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are kept in the cookie (biscuit) aisle at the grocery store.  Why?  I have no idea! These are not cookies.  I mean really? Who thinks they're cookies?  Thankfully, my mind is now at ease knowing that I am able to indulge in a peanut butter cup whenever I want, and I no longer have to wait until I go back home to stock up on them.  I've even found a local shop that stocks Reese's Pieces.  I doubt I'll ever find one of my favourite North American cereals here in the UK though - Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cereal.  Yes, that's right!  North Americans put their candy bars in cereal form.  There's no better way to start the day!  Good thing I still have a box of Reese's cereal from my last trip to the US.  And look at the top right corner, the box even says it's good for you!  "Nutritional Highlights" - it's got vitamins and everything!  Ha!  Yeah right...

 

I was so ecstatic about my recent peanut butter cup discovery that they inspired my next cupcake.  A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cupcake!  A rich chocolate cupcake with fluffy whipped peanut butter frosting and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup tucked inside.  Delicious!  I had originally intended on making these cupcakes for July's Iron Cupcake London competition, but it was cancelled.  Luckily one of my fellow Iron Cupcake bakers decided that it would be nice to have a cupcake get together anyway.  Due to some last minute cancellations it was a small gathering, but very enjoyable none the less.  Kelly made some delicious coconut cupcakes that were dipped in pink and milk chocolate, Gem made some really good snickers cupcakes topped with rocky road, and Tamara made some yummy lemon and lime cupcakes.   I had a really nice time chatting about cupcakes with the girls, and at the end of the night we all swapped cupcakes.  We each went home with a nice selection, and since I was on the verge of a cupcake overdose I brought them all into work with me the next day where they were quickly gobbled up with rave reviews.   

Below are my Reese's Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup cupcakes.  I topped them off with peanut butter frosting and a chocolate peanut butter crunch. These are probably one of my favourite cupcakes, and they're so easy to make.  

 

 Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Cupcakes

1 1/8 cups (255g) all-purpose flour
1/4 cup (55g) Cocoa
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup (110g) packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup (100g) granulated white sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) milk, plus2 tbs milk
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbs brewed coffee
1/2 cup (125ml) melted butter
12 Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (not the mini ones)

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC)
2.  Line a cupcake pan with 12 paper liners, and place a Reece's Peanut Butter Cup in the bottom of each paper liner.
3. In one bowl sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a separate bowl, mix together the egg, brown sugar, and white sugar. Then whisk in the milk, coffee, and melted butter.
5. Add in the dry ingredients until well mixed.
6.Divide the batter evenly among 12 cupcake molds. Fill about three-quarters full.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the middle of the cupcakes comes out clean.

For the frosting simply whip in some smooth (not natural) peanut butter into your regular buttercream icing and pipe on top of your cooled cupcakes.  The result is a moist and delicious chocolate cupcake with a peanut butter surprise at the bottom and a nice creamy peanut butter frosting on top.

Time to Celebrate - Part II

What I didn't tell you in my post below was that I made 2 cupcakes for the Iron Cupcake competition. I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to make, so I just made both.  My second entry (which was almost my only entry) is one of my favorite cakes.  I just call it birthday cake.  It's basically a regular vanilla cake with a hint of almond flavoring, but I LOVE it.  As I mentioned below, I came home and sketched out this cupcake immediately after returning home from last month's Iron Cupcake Challenge.  For me, this cupcake was all about decorating and experimenting with new techniques.  I'm always looking for new excuses to decorate cupcakes and try out new ideas.  I purchased some fun confetti sprinkles during a recent visit to the US, so I knew I was going to use them on my cupcakes but they needed something else to really tie in with the celebration theme.  I had originally planned on making edible birthday candles out of twisted fondant, but luckily I  came across some pink candy sticks in a bulk candy store and thought they would be the perfect substitute.  They were, and they saved me a lot of time as well! In order to make the candles a little more real looking I added a sugar paste twist and topped each of them off with an edible orange glitter flame.  And in case confetti and a birthday candle didn't give off the "Happy Birthday" vibe enough, I decided I'd make an edible sign that said so. You know, just in case someone who had been living in an underground bunker without any human contact and interaction decided to show up to the Iron Cupcake event.  Surely, I should spell it out for them to make sure I got my point across!  So off I went, and made little sugar paste plaques with "Happy Birthday" written on them using my new edible marker pen.  When I was done making all of my plaques I had a few little bits of sugar paste left, so I decided to take my decorations one final step further.  I added a bit of coloring to the sugar paste, and began twisting the long flattened bits around a pen.  Ta da!  Instant party streamers!  After that I decided to quite while I was ahead, and left the decorations at that.  After all, there's only so much "party" the top of a cupcake can take.  Luckily for me, a few days before the competition, and after I had already made all of my decorations, an additional prize for the best decorated cupcake was announced.

So here are my 2 cupcake entries all ready to go in my cupcake caddy.  I love this thing!  The cupcake caddy can safely hold up to 36 cupcakes at once - perfect for my rush hour train journey into London.  A journey that I don't recommend anyone make unless absolutely necessary.  If you've ever been on the London tube at 5:30pm on a weekday then you know what I mean!  It was really funny to hear the comments and see people's eyes bulging out of their heads as I walked through the station with my cupcakes.  "OMG, look at those!", "Where did she get all of those cupcakes?", "She's even got her own special carrier". The looks on people's faces were priceless!  Especially on the tube - there were a lot of subtly downward drifting eyes as they oogled my cupcake carrier that was sat on the floor beside me.  

Upon arriving at the event more oogling occurred - partly by myself and a friend who came with me.  There were so many yummy looking cupcakes!  Last month I forgot to bring my camera because I was in a rush to get out of the house and catch my train to the competition.  This month I remembered my camera, but neglected to ensure the batteries were charged before leaving.  They weren't.  So I don't have any pictures of the other cupcakes, but trust me there were some really nice ones there.  Some of my favorites were a lime margarita cupcake with a cute little paper umbrella topper, Gem's brownie cupcakes and her sister Tamara's hazelnut praline cupcakes.  I also really liked the creme de menthe cupcakes and the apricot rice pudding cupcakes. 

After everyone had stuffed their faces, and we were all about to collapse due to a sugar coma it came time to announce the winners.  The winner for best decorated cupcake was announced first, and guess what - it was me!  My Happy Birthday cupcake had won!  All my hard work had paid off - well ok, I don't think of it as hard work but they did take a lot of time.  The prize was a smaller version of the Iron Cupcake prize bag, and a few other lovely goodies that were tucked inside.   Then it was time to announce the overall winners.  The runner up was an Ice Cream Cone with Chocolate Flake cupcake - very similar to the ones I made in April.  And then to my complete surprise my Pink Champagne Cupcake was announced as the amature winner!!  And to think I wasn't even going to bring them to the competition!  So lesson learned, even if you think it's a complete disaster, it's worth a try!

Above is my winning cupcake ribbon, and below are the fabulous prizes I won. The best decorated cupcake prize:  small Iron Cupcake bag, cupcake lipgloss, cupcake pot holder and a cupcake candle.  Overall winning cupcake prize: large Iron Cupcake bag, cupcake display tower, cupcake lipgloss and the cutest little cupcake eraser!  I'm a happy girl!

On a much less celebratory note, I was saddened today to hear that the Iron Cupcake London challenge has been put on hold for the foreseeable future due to some attendees not behaving themselves and basically offending the bakers.  It takes a lot of hard work and effort by both the organizers of the event and the bakers to put on the Iron Cupcake London challenge, and I'm really hoping that the issues can be resolved soon so we can all get back to what we do best - baking and eating cupcakes!

I already had my next 2 Iron Cupcake entries planned for next month ,so I will likely still go ahead and bake them and post the results here in a few weeks for you all to see.

Time to Celebrate - Part I

This month we saw Iron Cupcake London celebrate it's 1st birthday.  Of course there was no better theme to choose for this month than "Celebration".  As soon as I found out what this month's theme was, Pink Champagne and Birthday Cake immediately popped into my head.  I had a vision!  (I get those a lot.)  Immediately upon returning home from May's Iron Cupcake challenge I began drawing out my entries for June.  I can't draw nearly as well as I can bake, but I knew if my cupcakes looked as good as they did on paper the final product would look and taste amazing. The inspiration behind my pink champagne cupcakes was the elegant and luxurious Charbonnel et Walker Pink Marc de Champagne truffles that have unfortunately become one of my new obsessions.  Unfortunately, because a meager 3 truffles packaged in a pretty little pink heart box will set you back almost £5 (US $7.30).  

Each truffle has a lightly dusted pink strawberry flavored chocolate shell and a milk chocolate center infused with marc de champagne.  I could just stare at these truffles all day long - they are that pretty!  I still have the box from the pink champagne bar (also by Charbonnel et Walker) that my mom and I shared when she was here 3 months ago.  I can't bare to throw it away.  I'd made a test batch of the champagne cupcakes a few weeks ago, and they turned out great.  I topped them off with a whipped strawberry white chocolate ganache and pretty shimmery pink sugar bits.  The batch I made for Iron Cupcake didn't turn out quite so perfect.  In fact, they started out as a bit of a disaster. As I opened my nice bottle of pink cava (Italian champagne) that I purchased from Marks & Spencer, it immediately began spraying everywhere!  And I mean everywhere.  All over my counter, my wall, my fridge, the floor, inside my toaster and all down the front of my shirt.  Once I had cleaned up the mess and made the cupcakes which were safely in my oven, I began to whip the white chocolate ganache I had made the night before.  I whipped it, and then I whipped it some more but it just wasn't getting stiff enough to pipe into pretty swirls as it had done the time before.  It turns out the good quality Swiss patisserie white chocolate that I'd splurged on wasn't behaving the way the other white chocolate did that I used previously.  I'm thinking this was because this chocolate wasn't tempered, and the brand I used before was.  By now panic had start to set in - what was I going to do with my un-usable white chocolate ganache?  I had naked cupcakes, and there's nothing worse than a naked cupcake.  By now it was 3:00 and I had a train to catch at 4:40, so I told my husband that I wouldn't be bringing them to the competition.  Then my voice of reason set in, and I decided I couldn't let the cupcakes go to waste.  I'd spent too much money and effort on them to turn back now.  I quickly made up a batch up strawberry buttercream icing, replacing the milk with some left over pink champagne to create a pink champagne and strawberry buttercream, and then used the white chocolate ganache as a filling in the cupcakes.  I had done it.  I had salvaged the cupcakes, and made them look quite presentable at the same time!  I managed to take a few pictures of the cupcakes before I left the house.

The pink champagne I used - half of which ended up all over me and my counter top.

And here it is!  My Pink Champagne & Strawberry cupcake in all it's glory.  I think this is one of the prettiest cupcakes I've ever made.  Simple, but elegant.

A cross section of the cupcake.  Notice the white chocolate ganache filling!

Come back tomorrow to find out how my cupcakes went down at the competition!

My First Iron Cupcake Challenge

A couple of months ago I came across something called the Iron Cupcake Challenge, and I just knew I had to participate in the next contest which happened to be at the beginning of May. 

 
The Iron Cupcake Challenge began in Milwaukee USA in 2008, and has since spread to a total of 15 different locations throughout the USA, Canada and the UK.  Each city's Iron Cupcake Challenge operates independently from the others, and therefore will have a different flavour theme.  The theme for May's Iron Cupcake London Challenge was fruit, and I immediately knew that I wanted to do a cinnamon and peach combination.  When I was younger and living in Canada one of my favorite ways to eat fresh fruit was to cut up fresh peaches and sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar.  The flavour combination was amazing, and I often enjoyed them on top of vanilla ice cream, and even waffles. Back home in North America cinnamon and peach is a very common combination and can be found in cobblers, pies, tarts, etc, but here in the UK the flavor combination is virtually unheard of.  I'd never made a peach cupcake before, so I tried out 5 different recipes until I found the perfect combination - a cinnamon and peach flavoured cake,  filled with a cinnamon and peach compote, and then topped off with a cinnamon cream cheese icing.  To participate in the Iron Cupcake Challenge each baker can enter as many different cupcake flavors as they'd like, providing that they bake a minimum of 18 cupcakes of each flavor.  The Cupcake Challenge starts off with all the bakers laying out their cupcakes so everyone can get a good look at the entries.  When "eating time" comes along bakers and eaters (yes, you can enter as an eater for £5)  get to eat as many cupcakes  as they 'd like, and then vote for the winner.  Sitting with a group of friends  works best so that you can take one of each cupcake, and then divide them into several pieces so they can be shared amongst everyone at the table.  Doing this allows you to  every flavor of cupcake without stuffing yourself so full that you never want to see another one again.  When it came time to announce the winners, I was pretty sure my name wouldn't be called since I had found out that cinnamon peach wasn't a flavor combination that was popular here in the UK.  To my surprise my name was called first, meaning that I had come runner up out of 25 entries in the amateur competition!  Not bad for my first time entering a cupcake competition. 

Above picture courtesy of Iron Cupcake London's Dave Shipman

The theme for June's challenge is "Celebration" and I'm already busy planning my next entry, so check back the week of June 7th to see what I whipped up and how I did!