Christmas Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Meringue Toffee Frosting Recipe

These cupcakes are a great little treat. They keep well in the fridge and make excellent thank you gifts at this time of year. Our little miss took some to her swimming teachers, some to riding school on the last day, and some to Santa at Ballantynes. The toffee frosting is a lovely light alternative to buttercream. We added strawberries and blueberries to give them a nice cheerful Christmas theme. The cupcakes can easily be made gluten free by using Bakels gluten free flour instead of wheaten flour. 

Chocolate Mud Cupcakes with Meringue Toffee Frosting. 

1/2 cup vegetable oil
250ml cream
50ml espresso
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 and 3/4 cups flour


Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C. Put out 35 small, free-standing cupcake cases onto a baking tray.

Sift the flour and cocoa together and set aside. 
In a large bowl, whisk together the oil, cream, espresso, boiling water, vanilla essence, lightly beaten eggs, brown sugar, salt, and lastly the baking soda. 



Add the flour to the liquid and gradually whisk the mixture to combine it. 

Place the mixture into a jug to make it easier to pour into the cupcake cases.








The cupcakes rise quite a lot, so only half fill each case with mixture.  











Bake for 25 minutes until well risen. The tops should bounce back when pressed. Allow to cool completely before decorating with the toffee frosting.  

Meringue Toffee Frosting

175g granulated sugar

1 tablepoon liquid glucose

40ml water

3 egg whites. 

Separate the eggs. Reserve the egg yolks for another recipe. Beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Not so much as the whites start to look dry, just stiff enough to stand up when the beater head is raised out of the mixture. 

Put the sugar, glucose and water into a small pot over a medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then stop stirring and boil until the toffee reaches 145deg. C on the sweet thermometer or until it's a light brown colour. 

With the beater running, dribble the toffee into the beaten egg whites a little at a time. The egg whites will start to look glossy, then turn a nice thick toffee colour. Be very careful with the hot toffee! 

Working quickly before the frosting sets, use a piping bag and star nozzle to pipe rosettes onto each cupcake. If you don't have a bag and nozzle, just use a knife to spread a generous amount onto each one. 

Top each cupcake with a quarter of strawberry and a couple of blueberries. Any summer fruit will do. 

Store the frosted cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge. 

I got a super cute and practical cupcake holder box from a $2 store in the mall - definitely worth getting for easy transportation.  

Happy baking everyone, and a very merry holiday season to you all xxx 

Birthday Cake

It's no secret that birthday cake decorating is not my favourite thing. There is nothing quite like the stress of putting together a themed, cake based construction at the last minute before the guests arrive. This year I got a bit more organised and made this creation the night before. Thankfully our Little Miss 6 was more than happy with it when she woke up on birthday morning.

We were more than happy with her Sheriff Callie birthday theme, but it did present a few challenges on the cake design front. Cat cake? Maybe, but I had visions of it looking more like a dog. Hat cake? Too fiddly. Cactus cake? Too much green colouring. So we settled on a desert scene. I made the icing props a couple of days ahead. LM6's current obsession with brightly coloured dessert items meant the inside had to be in contrasting layers. The cake is layered with butter cream on the inside and the outside is Meringue Toffee Frosting. The cake recipe is adapted from a Chelsea Sugar promo handout. The sour cream gives it a nice moist, soft texture. 

Sour Cream Sheriff Callie Desert Scene Cake 


This quantity is enough to make one layer. I made 3 times this for my cake by making one double mixture and halving it before adding the colour, and then making another single mixture. Three times the mixture is generally too much for a domestic mixer! 

125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup sour cream

I used pink colour and raspberry flavouring on the pink layer, plain cake and vanilla for the yellow and green and lemon zest for the last layer. 

Preheat the oven to 160deg. C. 

Line a baking tin with baking paper. I used a 32 x 25cm rectangular tin for each layer.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well between each addition. Having the eggs at room temperature will help to prevent the mixture from curdling, but don't get too worried if it does. 







Sift the flour and baking powder together. 

Whisk the sour cream to remove any lumps. 

Fold a third of the flour, followed by a third of the sour cream alternatively into the butter mixture until all the ingredients are combined. Lastly add your choice of colour and flavour. Remember that the colours dull during baking. 

Place the mixture into the lined baking dish and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes depending on the depth of the cake. The cake will spring back when pressed once its cooked and a skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. 

Because I used free range eggs, I didn't need to add colour to make the yellow layer.

Once cold I cut the cakes into an irregular 'island' shape and layered them together with butter cream. I added the raised sand dunes using off cuts. 





Butter Cream
200g softened butter
1 cup icing sugar
4 tablespoons boiling water 
the juice and zest from half a lemon

Beat the softened butter and icing sugar together until pale and fluffy. With the beater running, add the boiling water a little at a time. Beat until it forms a nice emulsion. Lastly add the lemon zest and juice and beat again. 

Meringue Toffee Frosting

I often use this on cakes as it's lighter than butter cream frosting. Here's a great Chocolate Mud Cake that uses the same frosting. I doubled this recipe to cover this birthday cake.
Once this frosting is made you need to move fast to get it on the cake before it sets.

175 g sugar
1 tablespoon liquid glucose
40ml water
3 egg whites

Beat the egg whites to soft peaks. At the same time, place the sugar, glucose and water into a small heavy based pan and bring to the boil. Don't stir it once all the sugar has dissolved or the mixture will crystallise. Use a sweet thermometer to boil the sugar to 145deg. C or until it has turned a pale golden colour. 
With the beater running, slowly dribble the sugar into the beaten egg whites. The mixture will become smooth and shiny. Once all the sugar is added beat for a few more minutes before moving quickly to spread it on the cake. 

That's our big birthday day over for the year. Wonder what next year's theme will be? 
Happy baking my friends. 

Chocolate Banana Mud Cake for Brenna's Birthday

Last weekend we were lucky enough to help Brenna celebrate her big three zero birthday. Unfortunately for me 30 is but a distant memory, but a memory all the same, and worth a celebration. Being her normal rushed-off-her-feet self, Charmaine commissioned me to make a cake. Only instructions: she likes bananas, and she liked the look of that mud cake. The solution was simple:

Chocolate Banana Mud Cake with Toffee Frosting

Preheat the oven to 170deg. C and line a line a 22cm loose bottom dish with as much foil as it takes to make it batter tight. The mixture is quite liquid, so I put a length of foil over the round base, then slid the base into the collar, therefore making it watertight.

1/2 cup vegetable oil
250ml cream
50ml espresso
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs, beaten
3 bananas - mashed
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups flour

Sift the flour and cocoa together. Mash the banana.
Place oil in a large mixing bowl and with a whisk stir in the following ingredients one at a time: cream, espresso, water vanilla, eggs, sugar, salt and lastly baking powder. Mix in the banana.

Add the sifted flour and cocoa to the wet mixture and mix well until combined.
Pour into the lined tin. 

Bake for 1 and a half hours, then check by inserting a skewer into the cake to see if it comes out clean. 
Mine required an additional 10 minutes. Cool the cake in the tin. 

Remove the cake from the tin and put onto a serving plate before starting to make the frosting.

Toffee Frosting - a toffee sugar style Italian meringue frosting

175g sugar
1 tablespoon liquid glucose
40ml water
3 egg whites

Separate the eggs. Reserve the egg yolks for another recipe. Beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Not so much as the whites start to look dry, just stiff enough to stand up when the beater head is raised out of the mixture.

Place sugar, glucose and water into a small saucepan and heat until it reaches 135deg. C. on the sweet thermometer. Don't stir it once it starts to boil or the syrup will turn grainy. It should look a golden toffee colour. 









With the beater motor running, add the toffee to the egg whites a drop at a time. The eggs will form a smooth glossy toffee coloured frosting. The heat cooks the egg whites so no further cooking is needed.
Don't worry if little toffee bits stay in the frosting. It just adds to the affect.

Mum's trusty and very old - like 40 years - Kenwood mixer didn't miss a beat.

With no time to waste, spread the frosting onto the cake before it sets. The recipe makes plenty so you can afford to be generous. 

We didn't have 30 candles, so settled for bananas instead. I tossed them in lemon juice so they wouldn't go brown. 

Brenna getting extra help with her birthday candles.

Happy birthday Brenna. Thanks for sharing your birthday with us. Happy days up at the farm!

The best Chocolate Mud Cake with Toffee Frosting

I'm literally not sure where this recipe came from; I found it scribbled out on a piece of paper in my recipe folder; written down who knows when, just waiting to be rediscovered.
Anyway, on the prowl for a new and delicious recipe to make for my lovely faculty's shared lunch, it surfaced from the paper clippings and popped into my hand. It is literally the best chocolate mud cake I have made to date. Be prepared for the very long cooking time; note to self, do not start baking this at 9pm unless you can arrange a sleep in the next day. 

Chocolate Mud Cake with Toffee Frosting

Preheat the oven to 170deg. C and line a line a 22cm loose bottom dish with as much foil as it takes to make it batter tight. The mixture is quite liquid, so I put a length of foil over the round base, then slid the base into the collar, therefore making it watertight.

1/2 cup vegetable oil
250ml cream
50ml espresso
1 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 3/4 cups flour

Sift the flour and cocoa together.
Place oil in a large mixing bowl and with a whisk stir in the following ingredients one at a time: cream, espresso, water vanilla, eggs, sugar, salt and lastly baking powder.

Add the sifted flour and cocoa to the wet mixture and mix well until combined.

Pour into the lined tin. 

Bake for 1 and a half hours, then check by inserting a skewer into the cake to see if it comes out clean. 

Mine required an additional 10 minutes. Cool the cake in the tin. 

I left mine to cool overnight. 

Remove the cake from the tin and put onto a serving plate before starting to make the frosting.

Toffee Frosting - a toffee sugar style Italian meringue frosting

175g sugar
1 tablespoon liquid glucose
40ml water
3 egg whites

Separate the eggs. Reserve the egg yolks for another recipe. Beat the egg whites until firm peaks form. Not so much as the whites start to look dry, just stiff enough to stand up when the beater head is raised out of the mixture.

Place sugar, glucose and water into a small saucepan and heat until it reaches 135deg. C. on the sweet thermometer. Don't stir it once it starts to boil or the syrup will turn grainy. It should look a golden toffee colour.

With the beater running, very slowly add the toffee to the egg whites a few drops at a time. 

The eggs will form a smooth glossy toffee coloured frosting. The heat cooks the egg whites so no further cooking is needed.
Don't worry if little toffee bits stay in the frosting. It just adds to the affect.

Immediately cover the cake in the frosting. 

The meringue will set in no time so needs to be spread on the cake straight away.

I piped some chocolate run-outs to decorate the cake top. 

Make a piping bag by folding over a triangle of baking paper as shown, then fold the other side around the cone and tuck the points inside to stop it unfurling. 

Pipe the melted chocolate onto baking paper and leave to set before gently sitting on the cake.

Happy days! And the perfect antidote to the busy conclusion to the school year.