The Sugarbomb Signature cupcakes Pt 1

We've covered my dislike of vanilla before but it really does go into practically everything. Most people I know would go for a plain old vanilla cupcake. As much as I don't like them it seems that vanilla is almost universally loved.
I'd like to present the plain Jane or rather Not So Plain Jane. It's a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting decoarted with a sugarpaste heart or flower with a dusting of matching glitter.
Actually it's named after my mum who is definitely not a plain Jane even though she thinks she is.
She'll kill me for posting this picture of her!

Vanilla Blue Velvet

A few months ago my sister had a baby shower for a boy and asked for a blue themed cake. I didn't want to go with a generic blue cake so I went with this:

No t very blue I know but just wait until you cut into it.

It's a blue velvet cake with a middle tier od vanilla sponge all sandwiched with black cherry conserve and vanilla butter cream. All covered in a thick layer of vanilla buttercream. This isn't the actual one from the baby shower, that one was a lot bigger. This cake is turning out to be very popular and I have made it a coupole of times now. I thought the blue colour would be completetly off putting but it seems to have gone done very well.

For anyone unsure of blue velvet cake, it's a colour change take on a American classic Red Velvet cake. It's a very soft buttermilk cake flavoured with cocoa and vanilla. It's traditionally topped with cream cheese frosting.

By the way, the professional cake pictures were taken by Dan Stone at his studio (more on that later). See http://danstoneimages.co.uk/ for details.

National Cupcake week 2010

National cupcake week is next week, I hadn't even realised until I was doing a clean out and saw an order form from last year. Gosh this last year has just flown by.

I've kicked it off this year with a competition.

If you were a cupcake what would you be and why?

There is a prize for the competition but it's only open to people living in Manchester UK, sorry about that! Please leave a comment or email me. The competition closes on Sunday the 12th September.

For the next two weeks regular sized cupcakes will be one pound each. Please contact me at beks@sugarbombbakery.co.uk to place an order.

Whoops! or Mrs G and PB part 3 or 4 or 5...

Firstly apologies for the long absence. Intermittant internet connections and real life have got in the way of blogging in the last couple of months. I also haven't baked much either. The weather has just been much too hot and the last thing i wanted to do was spend time in a boiling hot kitchen. I promise to try and update more regularly from now on but we'll see how long that resolution lasts.

Secondly: Whoopie Pies!

Take a gander at my BFF's blog

http://bakingwithmrsg.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-whoopie-week.html

She's so right, Whoopie Pies have been everywhere and I have been waiting to bake them for months, I've just been really rubbish about getting round to it. I'd seen recipes on some of my favourite blogs and it wasn't until last week when Bakerella posted a Whoopie Pie competition that I got my ass in gear.

I have heard a lot of chatter about these little treats being the new cupcake. They were really nice but I think that there is room for cupcakes and Whoopie Pies.

Knowing that I was making these for Mrs G I decided to make them chocolate with a sweet peanut butter frosting filling. I used the recipe from Bakerella's blog

http://www.bakerella.com/whoopie-pies/

It was actually really easy and I just whipped up a batch of my famous peanut butter frosting to sandwich them together with. I think Mrs G was impressed. I will definitely be making these again. If you look at the pictures you'll see that a few are sandwiched with vanilla and chocolate frosting.

Sorry, I liked this picture so much, I used it twice. (Pictures taken at Mr's G's house.)

twitter

Just a quick one of some adorable twitter cookies.


www.twitter.com/beks78

And some twitter related stories:
http://www.techxav.com/2009/07/10/lets-activate-the-way-back-machine-the-history-of-twitter-in-pictures/

http://www.bakerella.com/follow-me-to-the-ranch/

http://laughingsquid.com/twitter-cookies/

Return Of The Reverend.... Sort Of...

These cupcakes in liquid form go quite well with CocaCola. I usually make this chocolate velvet cake with Jack Daniel's. This time I made them with Jim Beam instead. I made these before way back in March 2009.

Apparently Jack Daniel's is "the reverend". So it was suggested that I name the Jack Daniels chocolate velvet cupcakes; Reverend's Choice. It sounds like a drink of some sort to me. I did look it up and couldn't find a drink with that name but I did find some interesting cocktails containing Jack Daniel's and Jim Beam. I actually prefer both with ginger beer and a slice of lime. Pop over to the Jack Daniel's website to learn more.

The Jim Beam chocolate velvet cake tastes stronger than the Jack Daniel's one. I omit pecans from the cake mixture but top the frosted cake with one instead. I'll have to look into a cola flavoured frosting and top it with a slice of lemon.

Mrs G Has A Blog!

My bestest mate and baking partner in crime has a baking blog. It's adorable! Pop on over to http://bakingwithmrsg.blogspot.com/ and check it out.

Nadia is definitely the more creative person out of the two of us. She has infinite patience when it come to decorating cupcakes. You can tell that Nadia has a great love of baking and making it all pretty. I'm looking forward to reading her baking adventures over the coming months.