Red Wine Cupcakes with Chocolate & Red Wine Frosting

We’re hosting wine tasting club tonight and I thought, as a little gimmick, I’d like to make some wine food that was a bit different than you’d expect.

So, I made these (sorry the recipe’s a bit of a jumble between weights and cups but I always find it easier using cups for liquids & the evil that is icing sugar):

Red Wine Cupcakes
190g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.25 tsp salt
200g sugar
1/2 cup veg oil
2 eggs
0.5 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup milk
red food colouring (I use paste)

1. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt.
2. Mix together the sugar, oil and eggs until smooth (I do this in the food processor so I don’t have to wash the mixer bowl for doing the frosting!). Add the vanilla extract and mix again.
3. Add alternating dry and wet ingredients to the processor – first 1/3 of the dry mixture, then the milk, then dry, then the wine, then last of the dry. Then add food colouring to get the colour you want.  The mix is very runny.
4. Split between 16 cases (2 and a bit tbspns each case) and bake for 20-25 mins.

Chocolate & Red Wine Frosting
2.75 cups icing sugar
6 tbspns cocoa
125g butter
5 tbspns red wine
1tsp vanilla extract

1. Sift the sugar and cocoa and set aside.
2. Cream the butter until smooth and gradually beat in the sugar alternated with a tablespoon of wine.
3. Beat in the vanilla.

Frost the cupcakes and decorate.  I used some very pale pink glimmer and half a red grape dusted with gold powder.

Thanks for looking,

Lisa xoxo

Choco-mint Cupcakes

I originally posted this yonks ago on my old blog, but thought I’d share it here too (plus I need to make some next week and it’ll save me hunting for the recipe.

The first time I made these cupcakes was for a friend’s birthday.   I think these would work with any other chocolate cake, but as I’m normally not that keen on chocolate cake I make mine with cocoa instead of real chocolate.   Measurements seem a bit higgledy piggledy, but I’ve used cups & spoons instead of actual weights where possible as it is much quicker (don’t know why we don’t use them more in the UK).

ChocoMint Cupcakes (makes 16)

Chocolate Cupcake
1.5 cups plain flour
1 cup cocoa powder (not hot choc mix)
2 cups caster sugar
1.25 tsps baking powder
1.25 tsps bicarb of soda
1 tsp salt
0.75 cup hot water
0.75 cup milk
2 large eggs
0.5 cup veg oil
1.5 tsps vanilla extract

ChocoMint Frosting
1 x 150g bar white chocolate
half a small tub of soft cheese (I used light, but full fat or extra light would prob work too)
4 x tbsps butter (unsalted)
Icing sugar (approx 3 cups)
1.5 tsps peppermint extract
Green food colouring (I used a tiny bit of holly green paste)

Make the Cakes
Sieve the flour, sugar, cocoa, salt, baking powder and bicarb into food processor/mixer bowl.
Turn on and whilst processing add water, milk eggs, oil and vanilla. Mix until mixture is smooth (it will be runny).
Half fill paper cases (brown ones look best) in muffin tray and bake at 165 degrees for 15-20 minutes (I use a fan oven, so times/temps may have to be slightly increased).
Leave to cool once done.

Make the Frosting
Melt the chocolate in the microwave until just melted then stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly.
Mix the butter and cheese together (I use a food processer). Once combined add the chocolate and peppermint essence and mix again.
Add the icing sugar (I do this half a cup at a time until almost the right consistency, then quarter of a cup at a time until it is just right).
Once the frosting is the right consistency add the food colouring and mix well.
Spoon a generous desertspoonful onto each cake and use the back of the spoon to swirl.

Store and serve from the fridge – adds to the mint choc chip icecream taste if they are cold.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do if you decide to make them.

Thanks for looking,

Lisa xoxo

Fruits of the Forest

My beaded berry bracelet is finally finished.  Definitely not one you could rustle up in an afternoon to wear out on the town that night, but well worth the hours I put in.

It’s made using a kit from The Bead Merchant and mainly uses herringbone stitch.  The kit itself was fab, although after I put the toggle clasp on, I decided it didn’t quite look right, so made a berry toggle instead.  My only other issue was that I ran out of thread with quite a bit of the project to go, so if I was purchasing again, I’d make sure I had a spare thread, as would have been gutted to get so far and then grind to a halt if I hadn’t had a suitable colour in my stash.

Here’s how it looks when it’s fastened (I really need to get a bracelet cone for photographing things!

I think I will wear it with this skirt from Monsoon tomorrow.

Off to find a new project!