Did Someone Say Salted Caramel?!

Hello lovely readers! Yes, you did hear us right, this week we’ve been baking salted caramel cupcakes! The hype over salted caramel has somewhat erupted recently in everything from ice cream to bath bombs but honestly we believe you never can have too much of this lush combination!

The inspiration behind this recipe comes from an amazing recipe book: Celebrations by Primrose Bakery (if you don’t have it you should definitely add this to the Christmas list!). As a house we frequently fantasize over the yummy things we want to bake. However when this recipe cropped up… well needs must and all that, we just had no choice but to whip out the cooking aprons and get started!

As beautiful as this recipe is, we’ve adapted it to better suit our cooking methods- as students we don’t have copious amounts of spare time OR money so saving the pennies where we can really does make a difference. But fear not! This does not make them any less worthy of sitting on the golden throne to rule the salted caramel phenomenon. But we’ll leave that decision up too you, so here it is. Enjoy!

Ingredients (Makes 16 Cupcakes)

For the cake:

85g (3oz) Butter

85g (3oz) Sugar

3 Eggs

1tsp Vanilla Extract

85g (3oz) Self-Raising Flour

8 Squares of Caramel Chocolate

For the Buttercream:

110g Sugar

3tbsp Water

125ml Double Cream

1tsp Seasalt (plus a little extra to decorate)

100g Butter

200g Icing Sugar

Method:

For the cakes, first preheat the oven to 180 degrees c and in a bowl beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat well after each is added (if you have a hand held whisk this may speed it up however it is not essential!). Mix in the vanilla and then slowly fold in the flour with a metal spoon until everything is mixed together. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases (so each is about 2/3 full). Chop each of the chocolate caramel squares in half and push a piece into the centre of each filled case. Bake these for about 20 minutes.

The buttercream comes in two parts, the sauce and the icing. For the salted caramel sauce heat the sugar and water in a pan on a medium heat and let the sugar slowly dissolve. It is important not to stir this mixture with a spoon, swirl the pan gently if required. Once the sugar is dissolved turn the heat up to let the mixture boil until it turns a golden amber colour, then take off the heat. Meanwhile gently heat the cream with the seasalt in a pan but do not let it boil. Now for the fun bit, pour the cream in bit by bit to the sugar stirring it constantly (don’t worry it’s supposed to bubble) until it’s all mixed. Allow to cool.

When cooled, beat 200g of caramel sauce with the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Top each cake generously with the icing and eat before your housemates do!  

Tips and Tricks:
No butter? Margarine can substitute this but ONLY FOR THE CAKE MIX!
Seasalt is sort of essential (sorry but its a good general buy anyway!)
No caramel chocolate? The cakes will still taste just as good without them

Love the Cup & Tail Girls 

xxxx

Sunshine in a glass

Hello lovely readers! For those of you who are reading from the UK you are (hopefully) enjoying your long May Bank holiday weekend. Whatever your plans and whatever the weather (since its the United Kingdom chances of sunshine are slim), this passion fruit collins is sure to brighten your day!

Ingredients
2 shots gin
2 shots lemon juice (or lime)
1 shot sugar syrup
2 Passion fruits (halved)
Ice
Soda Water
Lemon (or lime) slices to garnish

Method
Scoop out pulp and seeds of passion fruits and combine with gin, lemon juice and sugar syrup into a cocktail shaker. Mix together and pour over ice into chosen glass. Top up with soda water, mix and garnish with a lemon slice.

Tip and Tricks
Don't buy sugar syrup! Save money and make your own; slowly heat water and sugar together until its all dissolved.
Too sour? Add more sugar syrup if it suits you
Sugar Alternative: Tesco suggest a squeeze of honey works just as well as sugar syrup
Don't like gin? We are confident that many other types of spirits will also work, try experimenting!

May is a really busy month for us due to exams however we look forward to freedom of summer and blogging to our hearts content. We can't take the credit for this little pick-me-up, the original recipe can be found here (thanks Tesco!).

Love the Cup & Tail Girls 

xxxx

A little dessert never hurt no one...

Hello lovely readers! Everyone knows the classic Sticky Toffee Pudding but did you ever imagine it in cupcake form!? Neither did we until we discovered it on Great British Chefs website. This seems like an extremely lengthy post but the method isn't as tricky as it seems and is ttooottaaallllyyy worth it! Have we ever been wrong before...the correct answer is no.

Remember our first Instagram post?

Sticky Toffee Cupcakes
Ingredients
400g dates (stoned)
2 mugs of fairly weak black tea
200g light muscovado sugar
50g dark muscovado sugar
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
4 eggs
200g unsalted butter (melted)
3 teaspoons of mixed spice
Splash of vanilla extract
350g self raising flour
2 teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt

Method
Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Roughly chop dates and add to pan with tea. Simmer gently for a few minutes, then blitz until a smooth paste in blender. In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, sugar and syrup until combined, gradually add melted butter. Stir in date paste and vanilla and mix well. Fold in all the dry ingredients and spoon into your cupcake cases. Bake for 15 minutes or until an inserted knife comes out clean. Whilst these are cooking, make the toffee sauce as below. Once the cakes are out the oven, prick each with a fork and pour a little sauce over each cupcake.

Sticky Toffee Sauce
Ingredients
100g light muscovado sugar
50g dark muscovado sugar
30g butter
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
Splash of vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
125ml condensed milk

Method
To a pan add both sugars, butter, syrup, vanilla and salt. Melt together until combined and bring to a gentle boil. Take off heat then stir in the condensed milk. Half is to be drizzled onto the hot cakes and the other is left to cool to flavour the buttercream.

Buttercream
Ingredients 
200g unsalted butter (softened)
400g icing sugar
Half the cold Sticky Toffee Sauce (see recipe above)

Method
Whisk butter until light then slowly add icing sugar until combined. Add the rest of the cooled toffee sauce, keeping a little aside to drizzle on top as decoration, and whisk in. Layer generously on top of cupcakes and drizzle with remaining sauce. Enjoy!

Tips and Tricks
No blender on hand? No need to blend the dates and tea, it will still taste great just with a different consistency.
Buttercream too stiff? Add a little milk
No dark muscovado sugar? Its only for added colour so isn't essential. Just add 50g more of light muscovado sugar.

Makes approximately 20 cupcakes however we created a large sandwich cake with this recipe as we were celebrating another birthday (we just can't get enough of them!). We made these awhile ago however after finishing this blog post we may do some midnight baking, although thats nothing out of the ordinary for us Cup & Tail Girls. We know you'll enjoy them as much as we do. Recipe was originally found here.

Happy 20th Divya (housemate and Cup & Tail girl to be)!

Love the Cup & Tail Girls 

xxxx