Sunday 23 August 2015

School Coffee Morning

Hi All!

So let's talk coffee mornings. In particular the Macmillan Coffee Mornings. What a great idea because let's be honest who doesn't love cake, coffee (or tea, your preference) and a good chat with friends?! And if it's all for a good cause then why not? I mean you choose how much you want to give to this cause and then enjoy the coffee and the rest that comes with a coffee morning!

Well in our school's case we had a 'coffee morning' in which we baked/ bought in cakes for to be sold for a cake sale which in all fairness raised a lot of money for Macmillan and all enjoyed the array of cakes and fizzy drink on offer. I of course baked something to be sold as I thought a good cause like this deserved to be supported and so I made chocolate chip cupcakes. 

The cupcakes turned out a great success but to me I was super disappointed with the recipe that I used as it gave me a very thin cupcake layer and so I had pretty much too much icing to cake ratio which bothered me, obviously it did not bother anyone else as they went pretty quickly and everyone seemed satisfied with them!




As the recipe supplied a very small amount of batter I was only able to make around 6 cupcakes that were good enough to decorate and sell to people... annoying!! None the less I ploughed on with decorating them with a simple vanilla buttercream and some chocolate chips to finish off with. Even if I do say so myself, I think I have finally cracked the way to get the best vanilla buttercream that just tastes so good and is not runny, too thick or too sweet!! HALLELUJAH!!

Ok so I won't give you the recipe for the pathetic cupcakes that I followed but I will give you a simple recipe that I always refer back to when I want to experiment and add in different flavours or surprises.

Ingredients:
115g butter
115g caster sugar 
2 eggs
115g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Method: 
1. Preheat the oven to 180'C.
2. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
3. Beat the eggs in one at a time.
4. Sift the flour in and fold in.
5. Stir in the vanilla extract and milk.
6. Divide the mixture into paper cupcake cases and put in the oven for 18 minutes until risen and golden.

Now I would give you the recipe to my amazing icing but I'm not ready to share that yet so... find your own haha!! I mean you could literally do anything with this simple sponge recipe, for example I've made mini Victoria sandwiches with them, made the whole batter into one big cake for a big victoria sandwich (if you do this cook for a little longer around 20 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, if after this time it's still not clean cook it for 2 minute blasts taking it out and checking each time) or you could decorate with simple white icing (icing sugar and water) and sprinkles or even decorate with fondant icing... the possibilities are literally endless!! 

ENJOY, HAVE FUN and BE CREATIVE!! Maybe you could even make lots of different batches of these cupcake and then hold your own coffee morning for Macmillan? Well that's all from me. Hope you enjoyed reading and let me know what you thought!! See you next time.

Thanks for reading,
Caitlin xxx

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