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Monday 14 March 2011

Black Bottom Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Another one of The Hummingbird Bakery's recipes, a chocolate cupcake with cheesecake filling and a cheesecake frosting. I loved the idea, but not a great one for beginners as it requires a bit of skill and knowledge to get the cheesecake centre just right. I couldn't get the cheesecake filling to become firm enough which compromised the overall look and taste. I also used pure cocoa powder instead of drinking chocolate cocoa powder which left the mixture slightly bitter, I would recommend drinking chocolate powder to give it a sweeter flavour. The cupcakes were delicious and with a bit of tweaking I reckon I could be on to a winner. I loved the cream cheese frosting, not to sweet but it perfectly complimented these cupcakes.

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Recipe found in the Humming Bird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf - Ryland Peters & Small

Sunday 13 March 2011

Soft and Chewy White Choc Chip Cookies

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My husband was pleased I had taken up baking again and requested the soft and chewy cookies you get at places like Millie's Cookie's and after searching through many recipes I decided against one that used syrups, if not just to save the extra cleaning up from spillages! These cookies were a big hit, once cooled they had a lovely light brown glow and had a soft chewy centre.

Ingredients

220g Plain Flour
1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
125g butter
125g caster sugar
100g light brown soft sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp salt
150g chocolate buttons

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Cream butter and sugars then mix in the egg and vanilla.
3. Sift in the flour and salt, then stir in the chocolate buttons.
4. Roll into palm sized balls and gently flatten onto the sheet of baking paper.
5. Bake for 10 minutes until the edges start to brown.
6. Leave for a few minutes to cool before transfering to a wire cooling rack.

My take on The Hummingbird Bakery vanilla cupcakes

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I decided to try a simple cupcake to ease me back into baking, it has been almost 10 years since my last batch of oat bake cookies was hoovered up by hungry relatives. I chose The Hummingbird Bakery vanilla cupcakes and I was very pleased with the results. I did use muffin cases rather than cupcake cases which made 8 cupcakes and the frosting was a little too sweet and didn't make quite enough to follow the design they used. They were absolutely delicious, so light and fluffy that eating them didn't feel sinful and the rest of the family adored them too! I would highly recommend them topped with a buttercream icing and your choice of sprinkles.

Taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days by Tarek Malouf