Red Velvet Cupcakes for World Baking Day

I never bake for myself. If I bake, it's for a reason; to spoil a friend, to share with colleagues or to (hopefully) inspire someone on this page to create something delicious to share with their friends or families - like a ripple effect of baking love! So when I discovered that this year's theme for World Baking Day on Sunday 18 May is #PledgetoBake for someone special, I decided to do what I usually do and bake with love, but this time, it's for the person who inspired my love for sweetness and baking, the sweetest person I know - my mom (who, by the way, is probably the only person who can take down a tin of condensed milk faster than I can - I know, hard to believe isn't it?!). 

It was a mini baking set I received for Christmas at 6 years old that sparked my passion for whipping and whisking but it actually began way before that, with me poking my nose over the kitchen counter and watching my mom and grandmother baking up all sorts of delights. My mother would bake fresh bread each morning and churn butter from the cream skimmed off the top of the milk that came from our cows on the farm. Homemade strawberry jam was also a regular thing in our kitchen. Despite insisting she isn't a talented baker, we still got the most beautiful, creative birthday cakes each year, made in the dead of night. Wishing wells, Humpty Dumpty's and Garden walls crawling with sweetie insects were the cakes I could only dream of. But didn't have to. 

So when I started hosting my own cooking shows in our family kitchen, with every single ingredient neatly measured out in a gazillion little prep bowls (a la Delia Smith-style), my mom never complained about the mountain of washing up (despite it driving her nuts inside!). The older I got, the more challenging the recipes I attempted became. I never stuck to the simple stuff; having once seen spun sugar in a food magazine, I attempted to make it myself, only to leave my mother chiseling molten sugar off her kitchen floor and walls for weeks afterwards! Yet still, she was always encouraging of my dream. 

 Mom, this recipe and post is for you. You've always supported and encouraged me; from your kind words after little flops on national television to sending me countless recipes from your cookbooks and the many, many dishes you've washed during my endless photoshoots. But most of all, it's a little thank you for the passion and love you gave me for food. 

These pretty red velvets remind me of my mom. Graceful and elegant; I've always thought of the red velvet cupcake as the lady of all the cupcakes. It's bright and cheerful and sweet as can be. But who will you be baking for on World Baking Day, which by the way, is this Sunday (18 May 2014)? Let me know in the comments below and also, WHAT you'll be baking for them! 

Don't forget to make your pledge official here - it puts your #pledgetobake into a cute little card that you can share on social media and also allows you to tag the lucky person you're baking for so that the world knows how awesome they are! 

Happy World Baking Day!

Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting

Recipe by Stork Bake

Makes 12

180g Stork Bake

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp salt

400g (2 1/2 cups) cake flour

315g (1 1/2 cups) castor sugar

Red food colouring (I used the gel variety)

2 tbsp cocoa powder

250 ml (1 cup) buttermilk or natural yoghurt

3 tsp baking powder

Frosting

55g Stork Bake

300g Icing sugar, sifted

125g smooth full fat cream cheese

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases. 

Cream the Stork Bake and sugar until light and fluffy. 

Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. 

In a separate bowl, combine the cocoa, food colouring and 2 tbsp water then beat into the mixture. 

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt and add into the mixture gradually, alternating with the buttermilk and beating on a low speed. 

Spoon the batter into the cupcake cases, filling them 3/4 full. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until springy to the touch, or a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Cool on a cake rack, before frosting. 

For the frosting, cream the Stork Bake until light and fluffy then add the icing sugar and beat well. Once very light and fluffy, add the cream cheese. 

Remember to hop on over to Facebook and like my page for recipes and sweet stuff. I also tweet about some cool things every now and then and Instagram my bakes (if I remember to snap them before I devour them!)

Spiced sweet potato cake with Muscovado frosting

What's the best way to make sure you eat your 5-a-day? Stick them in a cake! Hidden vegetable cakes are big this year so whether you're tucking bright pink beetroot into a red velvet cake, grating courgettes into a carrot cake, adding mashed potato to chocolate cake (this is apparently a thing) or opting for sweet potato like my recipe below, the results are always deliciously moist and healthy (well, sort of!). 

This is hands-down one of the most delicious cakes I've ever made. It's gently spiced, buttery, light, not too sweet and the sweet potato gives it a lovely moist texture. You could swop out the sweet potato with pumpkin or mashed butternut - I think that would be equally delish. 

The brown sugar frosting is something a little different, using Muscovado sugar, which is caramelly and rich, imparts a crazy-good molasses flavour.  

It's quite a looker this cake, and I wanted it sky-high with four layers for these photos but have adjusted the recipe below to make it three, as four is just impractical and results in HUGE slices of cake (now, depending on what kind of person you are, you may agree or disagree with this statement!). But I want to share a little secret when it comes to assembling layer cakes; freeze the cake layers. Wrap each cake in wax paper and cling wrap then freeze the night before. Make sure your frosting is at room temperature and then go about assembling your cake using the frozen layers. The cake will be rigid so it will be easy to spread (no crumbs!), the layers won't break and as you work, the frosting will set and you won't be left with a leaning tower of Pisa. Once you're done, allow the cake to return to room temperature before cutting and serving. Voila! You're welcome.

Spiced carrot and sweet potato cake with brown sugar frosting

Serves 10-12

210g butter, softened

270g Demerara sugar

3 eggs

180ml cooked and mashed sweet potato

1 tsp vanilla extract

200g self-raising flour, sifted

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

120g finely grated carrots, squeezed well

1/2 cup sultanas (optional)

75g flaked almonds

Frosting

200g butter, softened

2-3 tbsp boiling hot water

75g Muscovado sugar

300g icing sugar, sifted

250g smooth full fat cream cheese

Toasted flaked almonds, to decorate (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line 3 x 20cm sandwich cake tins.

Cream the butter and sugar until very light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating well in between each addition.

Beat in the sweet potato and vanilla.

Combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices and stir into the cake batter.

Stir in the carrots, sultanas and flaked almonds then divide between the 3 tins and bake for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes, comes out clean.

Allow the cakes to cool, upside down, completely then remove from the tin.

For the frosting, cream the butter until light and fluffy.

Pour the boiling water over the muscovado sugar to dissolve (pop in the microwave for a few seconds if needed) then allow to cool.

Add the cooled muscovado syrup to the butter with the icing sugar and beat until combined. Mix in the cream cheese.

Sandwich the cakes together with the frosting, leaving enough to cover the top.

Decorate with nuts, if desired.

TIP This cake batter would make fantastic cupcakes! Just fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake until golden. Then top with the frosting. 

Blueberry (cheesecake) muffins

They say muffins are just cupcakes without make-up on and if that's the case then my blueberry cheesecake version doesn't technically classify as a muffin... But muffins are a perfectly acceptable breakfast item which means you can safely get away with tucking into these before 11am without a guilty conscience. And the blueberries? Well, they're a superfood I'll have you know!

The muffins in question are made using a recipe by Stork Bake margarine and the fab people from their I love Baking SA page asked me to give it a test drive. I, of course, had to put my own decadent spin on it - you know, just to show how versatile it is. So of course, extra sugar and cream cheese were involved. The original recipe however is perfect for a kid-friendly lunchbox snack (considering we're still in the back-to-school swing of things). But smear the leftovers with creamy frosting and you have a moms-only version perfect for tea time!

The Lunchbox Blueberry Muffin 

(that is, if there are still some left for lunchboxes and they haven't all been eaten still hot out the oven!)

This recipe is so dead easy, you need to be seriously skilled to make a flop of it, but just incase I've added a few of my own baking notes and comments in to help.

Blueberry Muffins

Serves 8 (I got 18 regular-sized muffins from my batch)

125g fresh or frozen blueberries (I used frozen as they tend to have a better texture once baked. I also tossed the blueberries with a little flour to stop them all sinking to the bottom of the muffin) 
120g Stork Bake margarine (the recipe doesn't specify so I melted the Stork Bake) 
275g plain flour 
250ml skimmed milk 
100g sugar 
1 egg 
2 tsp vanilla essence 
1 tbsp baking powder

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place paper cases into a muffin tin. 

In a first bowl, mix the egg with the Stork Bake margarine, sugar and vanilla essence. In another bowl, mix the flour with the milk and the baking powder. Add the egg/margarine mixture in the flour mixture and stir in well. (I used the standard method of making muffins and combined all my dry ingredients together then all my wet ingredients and added the wet to the dry, mixing until the batter was just combined.Careful not to overstir or you'll get tough muffins. Nobody likes a tough muffin.)

Finally stir in the blueberries and pour the preparation in the prepared muffin tin. Bake the muffins for around 25 minutes or until the tops are springy to the touch.

Blueberry cheesecake muffins

(ie. blueberry muffins with make-up on)

The pimped-up version of the lunchbox muffin with a gooey blueberry centre and cream cheese frosting. Yum.

Blueberry cheesecake muffins

Makes 18

1 batch blueberry muffin batter (follow recipe above to just before the blueberries are added)

125g frozen blueberries

1/4 cup blueberry jam

Cheesecake frosting

100g Stork Bake margarine, softened

400g icing sugar

250g smooth full fat cream cheese

zest and juice of 1 small lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

Extra blueberries, to garnish (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200°C and place paper cases into a muffin tin. Pour the plain muffin batter in the prepared muffin tin, filling the cups halfway. Combine the blueberries with the blueberry jam then drop a small spoonful of blueberry mixture in the middle of each muffin before adding in the remaining batter. Only fill the cases ¾ full. Bake the muffins for around 25 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch. To make the frosting, cream the Stork and icing sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the cream cheese, zest, juice and extract. Frost the muffins with the icing and decorate with the fresh blueberries. 

Remember to hop on over to Facebook and like my page for recipes and sweet stuff. I also tweet about some cool things every now and then and Instagram my bakes (if I remember to snap them before I devour them!) 

Caramel latte loaf cake

Caramel is the new vanilla. The food world has fallen in love with the flavour and though it will never be better, caramel is rather like chocolate's sexy cousin. It's headily sweet and totally decadent. Add a pinch of salt to the mix and you have an earth-shattering combination that is basically the crack cocaine of the culinary world. The reason for this? Consuming fat, sugar and salt all together is a serious sensory overdrive for our brains - it releases dopamine and adrenaline and totally gets our neurons fired up. Exactly the way drugs do.

 And before you feel guilty about shovelling another spoonful of caramel straight out the jar, don't, because genetically we're supposed to be attracted to foods with this tantalising trifector. It's a matter of survival people. We need salt because we can't produce our own. We need fat for energy and our sugar cravings are linked to being able to tell which foods are edible. So, make this caramel latte loaf cake and then enjoy every morsel guilt-free, because you can't fight genetics. 

Caramel latte loaf cake

Makes 2

230g Stork Bake margarine, softened

230g sugar

4 eggs

250g cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

½ cup tinned caramel

2 tsp corn flour

30ml espresso

Caramel cream cheese frosting

240g cream cheese

4 tbsp Stork Bake margarine, softened

½ cup tinned caramel

1 tsp vanilla

3 ½ cups icing sugar

pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 2 standard loaf tins.

Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs slowly, one at a time until completely incorporated. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt then stir into the margarine mixture. Divide the batter in two and mix the caramel, cornflour and espresso into one batch. Spoon alternate types of batter into the loaf tins to create a blotchy affect. Then, using a skewer, gently swirl it around in the batter to marble the cake. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

To make the icing, cream the cream cheese and margarine together until light and fluffy. Then add the caramel, vanilla, icing sugar and salt. Use to ice the cooled cake.

Can't get enough of caramel? Try this Sticky caramel pudding, or classic creme caramel or how about some caramelised chocolate?

Visit my Facebook page, The Kate Tin, or follow me on Twitter and Pinterest to get all the updates on new posts, recipes and other sweet ramblings.