Spring Cupcakes (Eastern)

Hello my dears!

And again... I'm sorry, that I didn't post for so long! Now I just have a quick Chocolate-Cupcake recipe with a simple icing/decoration but it looks really cute! ^.^

Did you notice the little flowers growing out of the earth? This looks so much like spring, so I tried to bake something look-alike. So the cake is the ground, that's why it has to be a chocolatey dough!

First, here's the recipe:

For 24 Cupcakes or 48 Mini-Cupcakes

100g cocoa powder

400g flour

450ml boiling water

3-4 teaspoons baking powder

300g butter

400g sugar

4 eggs

4 teaspoons vanilla extract

Just mix it all together and bake it on 180°C for about 15-20 minutes!

For the icing I just used regular icing with egg white so it dries and it's much more applicable with a piping bag! ^.^

Add green and yellow food colouring (seperate, for sure!) and use a leaf pipe for the leaves. It should look like this: 

If you want, I can make a little tutorial how to make leaves or even how to handle a piping bag! :) Just leave a message and I'll try to explain it as easy as possible!

For the petals you use a petal pipe! :D Petals are even more difficult than leaves, I think, because you have to wait to make it look perfect, so it can dry. 

I also created a few nests and put some chocolate eggs inside!

With best regards,

Francine

Christmas Special: Baked Apples

Hello my dears!

First: I wish you all a happy new year! *~ ^.^

It was very stressy, again, but I hope I'll find the time to make something extravagant soon!

So here is my 'not so special' - Special. These are just apples, but really delicious and quite rich... :) And I tried to make some nice photos, but... the apples just don't look so great. I did the best I could, and maybe you'll try these, because they are easy and tasty!

Here is what you need for 6 people:
6 large apples à ca 160g
80g butter
80g sugar
80-120g ground nuts (It depends on the size and you can use whatever you want. I used ground hazelnuts and almonds.)
3 cinnamon sticks
5 star anise
runny honey :)

First, you cut the cores out of the apples and melt the butter. (And wash the apples before you core them :)!)
Mix together the sugar the the ground nuts on a flat plate. Place the melted butter on an other flat plate.
Roll the apples in the butter and then in the sugar-nuts mixture and place them in a baking dish.
Break the cinnamon sticks into two halves and place one half in each apple. Sprinkle the star anise on top and then pour honey over all. (Well, don't use too much honey, just make about two or three circles on each apple.)
Bake them for 45-50 minutes on 200°C. You can serve them with vanilla ice cream ^.^ !

With best regards,

Francine