Halloween Special! ~trick or treat ~

When witches go riding,
and black cats are seen,
the moon laughs and whispers,
‘tis near Halloween.

-Author unknown

 Hello my dears!

Halloween is always a huge event for me, so I decided to make a little Halloween-"cakes of hell"-special. 
I don't really like lying cakes, when they are not supposed to be 2D, I like them to be 3D :) (except these round cakes with several layers)  A car-cake should stand on its wheels and not look like you used a giant cookie cutter. So I wanted to make it look 'real', and a gravestone seemed like the perfekt shape! 

It's a quite complicated recipe that it's 'just' a vanilla cake, but it tastes better than the normal/simple recipes. (otherwise it wouldn't be a *special* ^.^)
What you need for the cake:
200g butter
200g sugar
200g strong flour 
4 eggs
for the flavouring:
about 70g sugar 
seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
5 tablespoons water


You need to bring the water and sugar to the boil, and then you stir in the seeds.
Just mix the other ingredients together and add the flavouring after it's chilled. 

You're finished when it looks like this!

Paint oil in a 20cm Springform pan and then fill in the dough. Bake for 25-30 minutes on 180°C, until a fine skewer comes out clean. 


After the cake is chilled, remove it from the springform pan and then cut out a gravestone-like shape. Be careful when you lift it up!
Now cut off a bit of the sides, so it stands up straight ^.^

You're going to spread buttercream on all sides (except the bottom), so here's what you need for the buttercream:
125g butter
125g icing sugar
seeds from 1/2 vanilla pod
(pinch of salt)

Just mix it all together and spread it on the cake. 
I hate to roll out marzipan, so I bought a marzipan mat and cut out the shape of the cake. Place the marzipan on top of the buttercream and set aside for about 2 hours. 








What I used for the decoration:

I also added a bit icing sugar

I just spread in on top of the marzipan and painted R.I.P. with food colouring on the marble-like surface. Ooh, the cake is so frightening o.o! I'm sorry I couldn't make any better pictures of the whole cake, but the guests of my Halloween Party were already eating it :D ♥

how it looks inside

Bonus:
Me as a ghost bride on the Halloween Party. Sorry that it's so fuzzy!

With best regards,

Francine

Elegant Cookies

Hello my dears!

A while ago, I fell in love with the clothes from the japanese fashion brand Innocent World. Because the dresses are timeless elegant and inspire me very much I decided to jazz up some sugar cookies!

To make a bunch of quite large cookies you'll need:

200g butter

200g sugar

400g flour

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the shape of the cookies I used stencils and then cut out the dough with a knife. It works really well, because the dough is sticky, but be careful when you remove them from the oven, they break quickly!

Bake them for about 8 minutes on 180°C.

For the royal icing:

250g icing sugar

1 egg white

a bit of lemon juice (to create the right consistency)

during the frosting, the plain basic cookie

I love to experiment with food colours! :) Paste food colours are my favourite, because they are very concentrated and the jars look like you're doing potions in a Harry Potter style ♥

Enjoy the cookies! ^.^

With best regards,

Francine

Chocolatey, chocolatey cupcakes♥

 Hello my dears!

Warm, flowing light chocolate cupcakes taste the best when you eat them straight from the oven. The rich flavor of chocolate blends gently with the soft texture of the freshly baked dough... I love chocolate and I assume you do too! ^.^
For those who think chocolate is staple food, here is the recipe:

To make 12 adorable chocolate cupcakes, you'll need this:
1.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2teaspoon salt
1/2teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup lukewarm water
100g butter
1 cup sugar (you can use a little more sugar, if you like it to taste less bitter and less like coffee)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons instant coffee powder (it's the same as with the sugar ^.^)

Mix it all together, then bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes on 170°C.

You can eat them straight from the oven when it's still warm, or you can set aside to cool for 30 minutes and then add a delicious frosting.
As the topping I use good old buttercream! ♥ For 12 cupcakes you'll need:
4 cups icing sugar
100g butter
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using flash, so you can see that the buttercream is actually white!

 

I love buttercream, because it's so creamy and sweet so you just want to fall into a huge bowl of pastel blue buttercream! *____________* Well done, you've just created a completely yummy dozen of cupcakes. Enjoy your meal!

With best regards,

Francine

Fruit cupcakes for autumn

Autumn arrived a while ago, so it's time for some rich cupcakes to keep you warm.
For these occasions I love them to taste like fruit tartlets but I use dried berries instead of fresh fruit to create an autumn-like taste.

What you need for 12 Cupcakes:
125g butter
1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
150g sugar
2 eggs
150g dried berries (mixtures of berries taste much better than just cranberries, for example, but actually you can use any berry you like)
70g sliced almonds
100g flour
50g self-raising flour
60ml milk

Just mix it all together and fill into cupcake papers. Bake for about 35 minutes on 160 degree Celsius.

For the frosting:
30g butter
80g creme cheese
240g icing sugar

I spread some raspberries and blueberries on top, but you can also use dried berries. When you're finished sprinkle the whole cupcakes with icing sugar. You're done! ^.^ Enjoy your cupcakes ♥

Sweet and sour Cupcakes ♥ Lemon and elderberry

What's the best thing for cold days? - Sure, freshly baked Cupcakes!
But, what to do when the weather changes on and on?! - Sweet and sour Cupcakes give you the light feeling after the rain even when the thunder is still growling outside.

What you need for 12 cupcakes or 24 mini-cupcakes:
200g flour
225g sugar
45g almonds (ground or splintered doesn't matter)
2 eggs
90ml sunflower oil
250ml Greek yoghurt
1,5 tbsp lemon flavour (these small bottles with lemon essence are just as good as a zest or the flavour of a zest, but be careful with zests, they cause a bitter taste... very quick!)
Bake them for about 20-25 minutes.

For the icing, I just use icing sugar but I take elderberry wine instead of water :) You can also take liqueur or really sweet juice!

Are these silver cups super cool, or what? ;D

 As decoration I spread a bit blue sugar on top.

These are just really simple cupcakes, very quick but tasty! :) The only thing you can do wrong is to use too much or too less lemon flavour, but you can still bring it under control with the right dose of sweetness in the icing!

I hope you enjoy baking or eating or just reading this ^.^! Let me know how it workes out! 

Francine ♥

Introduction

My name is Francine C. Ellwood and I welcome thee, dear reader, to my blog! 
 If you like frilled, lacy, sparkling and elegant cupcakes, you’re on the right place!
Comments, suggestions and questions, I’ll read and answer pleasantly.
I hope that you’ll enjoy it!

Sincerely yours,
Francine ^.^