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Home Sweet Home Bakealong 64: Grasshopper Cupcakes
Homes Sweet Home does tend to repeat itsself a bit. With multiple marshmallows and the same breads twice there’s a few times when I’ve thought they were being a bit cheeky. This bake is a twist on a twist though. Having made Grasshopper Slices before they’ve now taken Grasshopper Pie and turned it into a cupcake.
The icing is a custard icing which makes it much less sweet. It tastes great but when you take solidified custard, try to whip it up and then fold it into whipped cream it’s hard to make it look anything less than…er… lumpy. I decided to colour it purple to make it look slightly less unsavoury!
Aside from that, the normal chocolate cupcake recipe and the minty filling are pretty good. For once, I think the icing quantities were almost right. Weird.
Grashopper Cupcakes from Home Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
Makes 13-16 cupcakes
For the sponge:
70g butter
170g plain flour
250g caster sugar
50g cocoa powder
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210ml milk
2 large eggs
For the filling:
60ml double cream
60g white chocolate chips
drop peppermint essence
drop green food colouring
For the custard:
330ml milk
3 large egg yolks
60g caster sugar
20g plain flour
20g cornflour
150ml double cream
For decoration
60g smashed up oreos
Make the cupcakes and leave to cool
Make the custard, pour into a tray and cover with clingfilm straight away and leave to cool.
Heat the cream and pour over the white chocolate, stirring until melted. Add colour and peppermint and leave to cool in the fridge.
Beat the mint filling to whip it up a bit.
Cut little hollows in each cupcake and fill with a tsp of the mint filling.
Whip up the double cream.
Beat the cold custard until smooth and fold into the whipped cream.
Ice the cake with the mixture and top with crumbled cookies.
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: I thin it’s cookies and cream cake.
Home Sweet Home Bakealong 63: Marshmallows
This is my second attempt at marshmallows. After number 47’s failed attempt at Coconut marshmallows it was time to try again. I invested in a sugar thermometer and lots of vege gel (couldn’t find the normal gelatine crystals) and set to work.
I even made a jelly with the same quantities of liquid to gelatine to check that it was going to set correctly. The jelly set. The marshmallow didn’t So, yet again I’m left with a jar of great tasting but very slumpy marshmallow fluff.
And then I forgot to transfer the photos before they got deleted so you’ll have to take my word for it.
Actually… I could just tell you that I made brilliant marshmallows and they worked perfectly. Yes, that’s what happened.
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: Grasshoppercupcakes.
Home Sweet Home Bakealong 62: Shoofly Pie
Below is what Wikipedia has to say about Shoo-Fly-Pie. It sounds to me like the “two versions” are a cunning plan by people who’ve baked it with varying results to justify themselves. Which I’m more than happy to get onboard with. Mine’s erring on the wet-bottom side. It’s very easy to make and like Beckie I found that there was plenty of pastry and filling for a 10inch pie dish. It looks good, it’s very sweet but not overly heavy and you can do it in stages if you want to so it’s quite a good one to fit around a busy weekend. The pie itself is a mystery – how does that filling work with only one egg and some bicarb? Who knows, but it does.
Shoofly pie (or shoo-fly pie) is a molasses pie considered traditional among the Pennsylvania Dutch.
The pie may get its name because the sweet molasses odor attracts flies that must be “shooed” away.[3][4]
The shoofly pie’s origins may come from the treacle tart with the primary difference being the use of molasses rather than golden syrup.[5] A Montgomery pie is similar to a shoofly pie, except lemon juice is usually added to the bottom layer and buttermilk to the topping. A chess pie is also similar, but it is unlayered.
Shoofly pie also comes in two different versions – wet bottom and dry bottom. The dry bottom version is baked until fully set and results in a more cake-like consistency throughout. The wet bottom version is set like cake at the top where it has mixed in with the crumbs, but the very bottom is a stickier, gooier custard-like consistency.
Shoofly Pie
from Home Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
Serves 8-10
For the crust:
110g butter
225g plain flour
80g caster sugar
1 large egg
For the crumbs:
150g plain flour
110g soft dark brown sugar
30g butter
salt
For the filling:
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
190ml boiling water
110g treacle
110g golden syrup
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
10inch pie dish
Make the pastry and leave to cool in the fridge. Roll out and fill flan dish, chill again. Bake blind at 170c
Rub together the crumb mixture.
Put all the filling mix in on bowl, whisk and then str in 2/3rds of the crumb mix. Pour into the pastry case and top with the rest of the crumbs. Bake at 140c for about 40mins or until set. Leave to cool completely before serving.
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: Marshmallows. Wish me luck.
Beckie and I seem to back in sync for this now, despite her taking a month off the do the whole 30 (which sounds like it was a lot more enjoyable that expected). I’ve been a bit slack.
Anyway, you can find her cookies here. Mine came out a bit flatter. You can’t beat a bit of PB and chocolate. They’re aasy to make and there are no ingredients that require extra supermarket shops, which is a thumbs up from me. I suppose you could also freeze them at the dough-ball stage.
Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cookies
from Homes Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
Makes 20-30
170g plain flour
40g cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
115g butter
120g crunchy peanut butter
120g caster sugar
90g soft light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream all the creamy type stuff. Add the egg. Add the dry stuff. Roll into balls. Coat in sugar. Make for 15mins at 170c
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: Marshmallows. Wish me luck.
When I see a three layer cake next in the book I immediately assume that this is going to be an all-day bake. Rather surprisingly and pleasingly this was a lot easier than I expected and, if I do say so myself, was pretty darn good.
I didn’t want to buy jam just for the cake so I sprinkled defrosted frozen berries in between each layer. It might not look as perfect but I think it offset the sweetness really well.
Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
from Home Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
Sponge:
110g unsalted butter
380g caster sugar
320g plain flour
4 tsp baking powder
320ml buttermilk (I used milk mixed with a 4 tbsp yoghurt)
zest of 2 lemons
3 large eggs
80g raspberry jam (I used a handfull of of raspberries broken into pieces and some defrosted berries)
For the frosting: (I recommend halving this)
900g icing sugar
zest of 1 1/2 lemons (keep this the same)
150g butter
375g full fat cream cheese
extra raspberries and lemon zest to decorate
3 8in tins
Make the sponge by blending the butter, sugar, flour and BP together until dusty.
Mix the liquids and zest and add that in.
Bake.
Make the icing by doing the icing sugar and butter first and the cream cheese last.
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: Peanut Butter and chocolate cookies. Heck. Yes.
Home Sweet Home Bakealong 59: Vanilla Fudge
I’ve tried this twice and both times it came out more like a crumbly toffee but both times it tasted great anyway (I say that – I’ve had a nibble of each, it’s a bit sweet for me). I am definitely going to have to invest in a sugar thermometer. The second time I made it using skimmed milk because that was all we had. It needed more sugar to make it set but the Mr reckons it was the best of the two attempts. I was surprised it was made with milk rather than cream.
Vanilla Fudge
from Home Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
300ml whole milk
350g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
Bring all ingredients except vanilla to the boil and keep it there until is reaches soft ball stage. Remove, cool for a few mins then stir in the vanilla. Beat and pour into a tray to set
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: I think it’s Lemon Cake with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
Home Sweet Home Bakealong 58: Cinder Toffee Cupcakes
The best thing about these is how easy it is to make home-made Crunchie. Sugar and golden syrup + bicarb. I say easy, I failed the first time but not looking at the packet and using cream of tartar. Not pleasant. Anyway, these will be heading to our church’s street party in honour of HMQ’s 90th tomorrow.
As with all the HSH cupcake recipes the main body of the cake is easy and works well. I don’t think I’d ever make them another way now. There’s too much icing but you can freeze it. The cinder toffee is a case of guilding the lily but it’s an easy and quite impressive looking addition. You’ll have loads left over but you can drizzle chocolate over it and make your own crunchie bites.
Cinder Toffee Cupcakes
from Home Sweet Home by the Hummingbird Bakery
Makes 12-16
Sponge:
70g unsalted butter
170g plain flour
250g caster sugar
50g cocoa
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
210ml milk
2 large eggs
Cinder Toffee:
75g golden syrup
170g caster sugar
30ml water
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Frosting:
450g icing sugar
60g cocoa powder
160g buttter
60ml milk
Join Beckie and me in our Epic 100 part bakealong. Next: Vanilla Fudge (should have been before this.. I’m putting it off!)
