This is just a quickie post to wish everyone a very MERRY CHRISTMAS. For this years Christmas post the most fashionable cake of the year definetly had to be in the picture. Unfortunately I don’t have the time to give you the recipe but it’s quite simple. Just take your favourite chocolate cake recipe add a pinch of cinammon and cardomam. Bake in cupcake forms and ice with a simple blend of icing sugar with freshly squeezed orange juice. If you have a great spiced chocolate cake recipe, please let me know.

Hope to see you in the New Year!

You say tomatoe (just imagine the yankee accent ) I say tomato (and a brit one here). The same could go for cupcakes or as us Brits call them fairy cakes. I was doing some research for my next cookery class. The theme is cupcakes which is all the rage in Paris and I found a few interesting titbits…

According to the “The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America”, cupcakes were originally just small cakes minus the icing, that came in the 1950s. The “cup” derived from two origins:
1. The switch from weighing to using cup measurements in the 19th century American households.
2. The practice of baking in small containers or cups. Large cakes were often burnt in the the hearth ovens.

Brits use the term “fairy cakes”, as you normally scoop out the top, fill that with buttercream and jam and then cut the top into two wings which you place on top. Hence them looking slightly fairy like. I would normally call those butterfly cakes and all the plain iced cakes, fairy cakes.

Anyway, at the end of the day they taste delicious and bring back memories of sticky little fingers at birthday parties (well, that is if you had an anglophone childhood).

By the way thanks a mil to all those who wished me luck for my muffin class. It went very well. We even had a waiting list for the class. Everyone seemed happy and went home with their little goody box of muffins and muffin secrets. If you’re on Facebook, you can check out the pictures on the La Cocotte group page.

Fairy cakes/cup cakes/small cake

recipe inspired by Donna Hay (my food styling hero )

125g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g caster sugar
3 eggs, beaten
200g self-raising flour
60ml milk
Preheat the oven to 180°c. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence. Beat in one egg at the time. Sift the flour into the mixture and then add the milk. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases and bake for 15 minutes or until the cakes bounce bake when touched or the skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire wrack.

Dulcheese frosting/icing

75g cream cheese
125g ricotta
200g dulce de leche

Sprinkles/decoration/chopped walnuts

Combine all the ingredients. Spoon into a piping bag. Pipe onto cupcake and sprinkle on decorations. Eat immediately or put in fridge (take out 10 minutes before consuming).

Here’s my pick of cupcake books: