I'm finally back with a new blog post! Lately it just seems a lot of juggling with blogging, full time work and life in general, I've also struggled to have some inspiration for different, original content.
The inspiration for making more baking blog posts is my blogging friend Sophie at The Frosting Fairy you need to go and take a look at her magical creations.
Through this heatwave we are having here in England, which I might add, none of us are used to this intense, everyday heat. I think ice cream must be the most popular dessert/snack currently, to keep everyone cool, but it's such a yummy treat!
I remember the heatwaves through summer when I was little, neapolitan ice cream was such a ice cream treat, with all three decadent flavours chocolate, vanilla and strawberry!
I wanted to put this ice cream treat into a yummy cupcake form!
For my batter mixture I actually used was Mary Berry's All In One Victoria Sponge recipe, I always find Mary's recipe's are perfection, she can do no wrong. I know you may be thinking it's a big mixture for cupcakes, but to make the two tone with vanilla and chocolate it's always best to have lots of mixture.
The ingredients for the batter -
- 4 free-range eggs
- 225g/8oz caster sugar
- 225g/8oz self-raising flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 tablespoons of vanilla extract
- 225g/8oz butter at room temperature
- 3 teaspoons of cocoa powder
1- Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line your muffin tin with the cases of your choice, for this I chose plain white ones to emphasise the chocolate and vanilla difference.
2- Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugar, flour, baking powder, butter and vanilla extract. Mix together until well combined with an electric hand mixer (you can also use a wooden spoon), but be careful not to over mix.
3- Split half of your mixture into another bowl.
4- In a teacup place 3 teaspoons of cocoa powder, add a dash of boiling hot water from the kettle and mix that into a runny paste, then place in one bowl of mixture and combine.
5- Bring your lined muffin tin over to your two batter bowls, place half of your chocolate mixture to make a base in each case, then on top of the chocolate base place the same amount of vanilla mixture, to start the neapolitan look.
6- Place your tray of cupcakes into the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes, then once they are cooked, leave on a cooling rack, before icing them.
The ingredients for the strawberry buttercream icing -
600g of Icing sugar
300g softened unsalted butter
2 teaspoons of Strawberry flavouring
2 teaspoons of pink food colouring
1- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl your butter, then gradually beat together, until it becomes a nice fluffy mixture.
2- Then swirl in your strawberry flavouring and pink food colouring to fully create the strawberry topping for the cupcake.
3- Place your strawberry frosting into a piping bag with a basic tip, (Now before you all judge my piping skills, this was my first attempt at icing with a piping bag and I'm pretty proud of it, but practise makes perfect.) and I just done a one level swirl.
This summer creation went down so well with my family, everyone loved them, they're perfect for bbq's and party's.
Have a great weekend and happy baking!
Kellie Jo xxx
4- In a teacup place 3 teaspoons of cocoa powder, add a dash of boiling hot water from the kettle and mix that into a runny paste, then place in one bowl of mixture and combine.
5- Bring your lined muffin tin over to your two batter bowls, place half of your chocolate mixture to make a base in each case, then on top of the chocolate base place the same amount of vanilla mixture, to start the neapolitan look.
6- Place your tray of cupcakes into the pre-heated oven for 25-30 minutes, then once they are cooked, leave on a cooling rack, before icing them.
The ingredients for the strawberry buttercream icing -
600g of Icing sugar
300g softened unsalted butter
2 teaspoons of Strawberry flavouring
2 teaspoons of pink food colouring
1- Sift the icing sugar into a bowl your butter, then gradually beat together, until it becomes a nice fluffy mixture.
2- Then swirl in your strawberry flavouring and pink food colouring to fully create the strawberry topping for the cupcake.
3- Place your strawberry frosting into a piping bag with a basic tip, (Now before you all judge my piping skills, this was my first attempt at icing with a piping bag and I'm pretty proud of it, but practise makes perfect.) and I just done a one level swirl.
This summer creation went down so well with my family, everyone loved them, they're perfect for bbq's and party's.
Have a great weekend and happy baking!
Kellie Jo xxx
