This is the first official food blog of the year (definitely worth the month's preparations beforehand)!! Making a new website was quite an impulsive decision made a few months into starting University. The concept of the new blog arose as I wanted to make more effort with my bakes this year. Thanks to my flatmate Despina, for not only helping the website come about, but also designing my dream logo.
As this is my first bake for the blog, I wanted it to be personal and celebrate this new beginning. So what did I do? I made simple cupcakes with my new and improved logo on. Coming back to University has taken some getting used to, but I've really enjoyed the return of the baking in the flat. I'm beyond surprised by the fact that, before the Christmas Holidays, my 'baking cupboard' was full enough as it is, but since coming back, I've still managed to bring another box full of baking additions to try and jam into the, already full, cupboard. Even then, I still can't help myself from ordering new stuff for my bakes, which is proven by my recent order of cupcake cases and some gold leaf to try.
For this bake, I decided to make Rhubarb and Custard Cupcakes. This is a very popular
flavour among my family, this was until the rhubarb flavouring was discontinued. Luckily, during my trip to the International Cake show last year, I managed to get a variety of flavourings, even including the infamous rhubarb and custard. I thought this classic combination was perfect to start this new blog off with because it’s really simple, but at the same time there's a little twist. I flavoured the cake mixture custard and the buttercream rhubarb; I'll leave the link to the website where these flavourings can be be purchased at the bottom of the page...
For the cake mixture I added 175g of butter, caster sugar and self raising flour into a bowl. I added 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and then a couple of drops of custard flavouring. I had already pre-heated the oven to around 175 degrees. As I said above, I ordered a new 300 pack of cupcake cases with silver, gold and rose gold coloured ones. I chose to use the silver ones on this occasion as they complemented my logo. I made 12 cupcakes with a little mixture left over. After the cakes baked for 14-15minutes, instead of making more cupcakes I decided to try something new. In my doughnut tin that I have I added the remaining cupcake mix into 3 of the moulds just to see whether they would work. Surprisingly the cake doughnuts actually came out really well and could potentially be something that I try again in the coming weeks. I let the cupcakes cool for around half an hour.
Before I started baking I took the butter out the fridge so it was soft enough to use when it came to making the buttercream. A really simple way I remember the measurements of butter and icing sugar to add to buttercream is it’s a 1:2 ratio. I therefore used 250g of unsalted butter and 500g of icing sugar. I cubed the butter and used a wooden spoon to stir it so it was softened. I gradually added the icing sugar and added a dash of milk as well; this helped achieve a really smooth consistency. I added some pink food colouring and a couple of drops of rhubarb flavouring. I wanted to make a light pink colour. I’d messaged my mam a week earlier to arrange to get my logo printed on wafer paper. I filled my piping bag and used a star nozzle and piped from the middle outwards on the cupcake. I added the cut out logos in the middle of the cakes and on one cupcake I added an assortment of sprinkles. For the test doughnut, I used a different star-like nozzle and it actually looked pretty good, but that’s a blog for another day. I actually love that I have so much choice with decoration even at uni and I’m not limited with what I can do so far away from home.
When it came to taking the photo of them, I used one of my new backdrops because it tied in with the logo. I always love baking different things but I think one thing I will always hate is the washing up. I thought this was the perfect bake to start with because, for me, it represents new beginnings. Speaking of new beginnings, as promised, I will reveal how much it costs to recreate this bake. Altogether, these Rhubarb and Custard Cupcakes cost £4.20, so if a University student can afford to make them, you can too! It always makes me happy when my bakes don’t last very long in the flat because they go down so well. I always look forward to messages from my family saying they can’t wait for me to be home to bake them cakes again. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading the first proper blog and make sure to subscribe for the next blog.
Lots of Love,
Hannah x
For anyone wanting to purchase the flavourings mentioned in the blog... Click the image below and you'll be taken straight to the website!!
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