Chocolate Oreo Nutella Cupcakes

Following on from the theme of finding a nice surprise hidden inside your cupcake I had the idea of integrating one of my favourite biscuits into a cupcake. I did a trawl of the Internet in search of inspiration and crossed a few of the recipes I found to create these filthy delights...

Oreo Nutella Cupcakes with a hidden secret...

First of all, I halved full sized Oreos, leaving the filling attached and reserved the other side of the biscuit for later (some of these halves were eaten along the way to check for consistency of the batch or something else equally as impressive and important sounding, it seemed very important at the time anyway as it had suddenly occurred to me as I was halving the Oreos that perhaps a hole had got in the pack somewhere and some of the Oreos had become stale without my knowledge?! I needn't have worried. All was well.

Oreo halves upturned in their cases waiting to be transformed into cakes!

 Those halves of biscuit that weren't consumed in this 'testing' process were whizzed up in my mini food processor into crumbs and stirred into the chocolate buttercream topping to give it an Oreo flavour!) I then put the Oreo halves with the filling still attached facing upwards into cupcake cases and poured over a nice gooey chocolate cupcake mixture so that the cases were two thirds full. Then they were baked...

The Oreo survives the baking process!

Once they had cooled and the whole kitchen smelt of warm chocolate cake (mmm... drool...) I used an apple corer to remove enough room in the middle of each cake to fill with a good teaspoon-full of nutella. I then proceeded to eat the removed cake bits (just to test the cakes would be alright- they were fine, I ate all of these cakey bits just to be sure). Then I topped with my Oreo buttercream and a mini Oreo!

The mixture of textures that you get all in one bite is lovely, the Oreo biscuit gives a firm base but not as firm as a normal Oreo half as it has been baked in cake mixture so its softer and a little like a chocolaty, soft cheesecake base. The Oreo filling has softened and amalgamated with the chocolate cake mixture which all oozes into the nutella and then Oreo buttercream. Nutella is quite creamy and nutty in comparison the the Oreo buttercream which has a darker kind of chocolate feel to it with the very sweet edge of buttercream. I chose to remove the little Oreo and dip into my tea before quaffing the rest! No need to decide between cake and biscuit. You can have both!

The Chocolate Oreo Nutella Cupcake revealing its gooey inside...

I took a couple of these to the mothers day picnic I went to with my family. Most of my relatives are currently on a diet (not my fault I promise) but I could rely on my cake tester of a nephew to indulge in one of these morsels and to give me an honest verdict. He is 5. He had consumed about half of his cake before my sister (his mum) said 'Can I have a bite Harry? Its mothers day!'. He thought about it for a moment and tipped his head to one side whilst continuing to devour the bite of cupcake currently still in his mouth. The statement was true, it was mothers day and yes he probably should let his mum have a bite, but there is always a risk with adults that a bite actually means 'the rest' so he remained silent on the matter and popped the other half of the cake into his mouth in one go and then proceeded to swallow it as one huge mouthful before there was any more time for the mothers day cake conundrum to be discussed further.

Very wise.

And then he giggled and smiled displaying chocolate buttercream and nutella covered teeth. Sometimes silence says more than words. A winning verdict from my little cake tester!

On the subject of mothers day, I acquired one of these mugs to give to my own mother as part of her Mothers Day present (the other half was in fact cake!)

Very deep words coming from me indeed. Perhaps one day Harry will buy one for his own mum. True love is sharing a very delicious chocolate cake, perhaps even one with a chocolate biscuit and some gooey nutella inside!

Cadburys mini Creme Egg filled cupcakes and other equally filthy Easter cakey delights!

The idea of Cadburys Creme Egg cupcakes was something I stumbled upon when looking for cake recipe inspiration on the internet. It sounded like utter cake filth. yum yum yum!

The problem was, I found pictures but I couldn't find a recipe. Was it possible? Then I stumbled upon the secret on a forum... freeze the mini eggs first before baking!

I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe, which is one of Mary Berry's. Partly picked as its a lovely moist cupcake (it has melted chocolate as well as cocoa in it much like brownies!) and partly as it required the least amount of cooking time of all the cupcake recipes I had. Around 15-18 minutes. The less time in the oven, the less likely the creme eggs would disintegrate into blobs of goo.

Chocolate Cupcake with Cadburys Mini Creme Egg baked into the centre! Magical!!

 I dolloped a tablespoon of cake mixture into each case and then hurriedly placed frozen mini creme eggs in the centre before covering with more cake mixture. I baked them in the oven for 13 minutes and then allowed them to cool. I even had the self restraint to wait until they had cooled completely then iced them, topping with a lindt milk chocolate mini egg before I sliced them in half to see if it had worked and it had! Hooray! Biting into one was wonderful. There was the lovely soft moist cake crumb and then a further delight, a yummy chocolate egg fondant centre! No need to decide if you want cake or a creme egg, have both!

I then tried Cadburys Caramel Mini Eggs and Hotel Chocolat Salted Caramel Egglets (these were by far the best and I will warn you, you almost have no control over how many of these moreish little chocolate salted caramel delights you will eat. I don't even think I remember having my last two, it was a blur of caramel chocolate gooeyness). The salted caramel in these egglets is quite runny and it stays in tact inside the cake. So you bite into the cake and then all of a sudden you hit a lovely dribbly salted caramel bubble which bursts in your mouth! Magical!

The best of the bunch! Hotel Chocolat Salted Caramel Egglet encased in a chocolate cupcake topped with caramel butter cream and a milk chocolate lindt mini egg. A burst of salted caramel gooeyness!

Chocolate cupcake with mini Cadburys Caramel Egg in the centre. Topped with caramel and chocolate butter cream and also with a Cadburys Caramel Nibblet and Caramel Hotel Chocolat buttons.

A word of warning though, I put choc chips into the cake mixture of one batch of these cakes and the Salted Caramel Egglets from Hotel Chocolat did not survive! They popped and left a hole in the cake. It was very sad to take these out of the oven, a little egg shaped hole in my cakey life where a Salted Caramel Egglet should have been. Not to worry, I made some salted caramel from tinned caramel and a sprinkling of freshly ground sea salt (I had learned from my banoffee pie cupcakes this time. No need to spend three hours boiling condensed milk to make caramel filling when it can be ready bought! I've warned you before but just in case you haven't read my previous post about the danger of this filling. Its very addictive! Please do not open on your own, have a supervising adult with you or you may simply drink the contents of the tin without a second thought to the little cakes waiting to be topped with caramely yummyness). I then filled the little pre-made Egglet holes in the cakes with this filling. Yum! As one friend who was lucky enough to sample one of these cakes (that I hadn't scoffed myself) said, 'its so caramely and chocolaty it makes you almost feel sick when you've finished but also like you could eat at least 4 more!' There's definitely something addictive in chocolate salted caramel!

Chocolate cupcake with salted caramel filling, caramel and chocolate butter cream topped with a Cadburys Caramel nibblet and Hotel Chocolat caramel chocolate buttons. I dare you to eat one and not feel a bit sick but also like you want another at the same time!

A salted caramel cupcake ready to be transported to its new home! The beautiful cake box is from the Lakeland Shop

National Pie Week- Lemon Meringue Pie Cupcakes and Banoffee Pie Cupcakes!

As one of my lovely cake appreciators pointed out, its national pie week! Much as I love a nice pie I am also a huge fan of the pie-turned-cake! Now, don't worry, I'm not suggesting a pork pie cupcake or Meat and Potato layer cake.

I wanted to share two of these pie-turned-cakes I made recently. The first is the Lemon Meringue cupcake. I made these because a good friend of mine was coming to stay and we were having a party. Exciting events in themselves but this meant I had a new array of willing cake testers!! (they just didn't know it yet) I must say, I was a tad disappointed when my friend told me his favourite type of cake was lemon with lemon icing. I'm the kind of girl who wants a big chocolate fudge brownie with a flake slammed on top rammed inside a mars bar cake topped with fudge and toffee sauce with chocolate ice cream (sort of thing- you get the idea, I'm greedy and I like chocolate cake). The idea of lemon cakes with lemon icing sounded so dull and unexciting I thought that if I attempted it I might fall asleep head first in the mixing bowl with boredom mid cake mix. So I began looking out for something a bit more exciting that had lemon in it.

I struggled.

Lemon was just so, well... lemony and it wasn't chocolate.

Then I happened upon a recipe for lemon meringue pie cakes, it was more complicated than anything I'd tried before, I'd never made meringue, or lemon curd or the both of these in cupcake form. Nevertheless I gave it a go (and made a back up chocolate cake for emergencies lest the worst should occur). The lemony sponge was dolloped into cases and baked.

This bit was dull.

Sponge, in a paper cake case, baked (yawn) done.

THEN came the home-made lemon curd bit. I was so excited I had managed to do this without making lemony scrambled eggs that I wanted to ring people I hadn't spoken to in ages and didn't even like just to let them know what I had achieved!! I had made home made lemon curd and it had worked and did not taste or look like sick!!! Yes!!! Sad, I know. I did a little dance around the kitchen, long enough for the lemon curd to cool, calmed down a bit and then tackled the next step... The Meringue. Lord knows how but I managed to pipe this onto the cakes that now had little holes cut in and were filled with lemon curd and pop them in the oven long enough not to burn them. Hoorah!! Lemon curd cupcakes!! not one was left!..

The Banoffee Pie cupcakes were inspired by the fact that I was having two very good friends to visit who both go by the name of Betty. I don't know many people who like banoffee pie but Betty and Betty love it so this was the perfect chance to try another experiment.

I boiled a can of unopened condensed milk for 3 hours to make the toffee sauce and felt very smug indeed (then I felt a bit stupid when I realised you could buy this ready made in a tin- oh well). WARNING this stuff is seriously addictive, I had to make myself throw it in the bin once I'd used it for the recipe. The toffee and banana cupcakes were baked, cooled and a little hole was made in the middle of each one to put the caramel/toffee sauce in. Now, whenever I buy the stuff, I always ensure I am supervised once the tin is opened to make sure I don't shove my face in the tin and eat the lot without even the aid of a spoon. Once that was done I topped with freshly whipped whipping cream and little fudge pieces. The Bettys loved them, my nephew however did not. He took one bite and looked like he might cry. Every time he visits his auntie he gets chocolate cake, he just didn't understand. Where was the chocolate?! Luckily I had some chocolate biscuits to hand to resolve the situation. 'The thing is' he said in between a mouthful of chocolate biscuit, 'I just like chocolate' then he gave a casual little shrug with all the charm of a five year old telling you something in the same manner you might expect of an old man. 'I know Harry, I know'. I reassured him, and I can honestly say that I do!

Reece's Mini Peanutbutter Cup Chocolate Cupcakes

I recently decided, after many cake experiments, to look for inspiration outside of my own cookbooks and own personal cakey preferences. I'd tried so many ideas and combinations that I lacked direction. But I thought that if I was making a cake creation for a friend, perhaps that would give me focus. So, I asked two of my cake loving friends to give me a list of 5 of their favourites chocolates and/or chocolate bars and a 5 of their favourite cakes and/or desserts. From this I would create something.

I'm going to share with you just one these creations. The Reece's mini Peanutbutter cup and chocolate cupcake with hidden baked in the middle mini Reece's Peanutbutter cup topped with swirls of both peanutbutter and chocolate buttercream, a further Reece's Peanutbutter cup and Reece's Pieces.

Serve with a large cup of tea and a healthy appetite. YUM!

Your Captain
x

Welcome Cake Maniacs!

Hello fellow Cake Maniacs!

I would use the phrase cake 'lover' or 'enthusiast' but I think cake maniac is an apt description for what I've become.

At the point where your work colleagues and family tell you that they both love you and hate you at the same time (''amazing cakes and what a wonderful idea and oh isnt it lovely how that gooey bit in the middle is such a surprise and all the chocolate mmmmm.....'' accompanied by ''are you trying to make me fat? I really shouldn't. Are you working for a slimming club trying to 'create' new recruits?!'') this is when you realise you have actually entered into another realm and have become a cake maniac. That and the point in time where you find yourself waking in the night with the new idea of baking your favourite quality street/roses chocolate (the big purple one) inside a cake, then you cant get back to sleep as you are excitedly thinking about how to make this new fantastical idea a reality.

This blog is here for the cake lover through to the fully blown cake maniac. The purpose is to document my cake experiments, which I normally carry out weekly, in search of the perfect cake. Of course, what makes a perfect cake is different from one person to the next so my quest is never ending! (Hurrah!) The purpose of the blog is also to give my facebook friends a break from my weekly cake photos. OK, so mainly those facebook friends who are on diets and do not wish to see such mouthwateringly gooey delights on a weekly basis!

Yours truly

Captain EggCupcake