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New House! Perfected Cakes (or as good as they will get)!
August 27, 2008
Hello internet! I feel awful for neglecting my blog and also neglecting to read everyone else's, I wonder if I will ever be less busy enough to join in properly ever again?
We are in our new house now, and it is fantastic to finally have a place which is properly our own. We are used to living in a small flat, so it's all a bit weird having space! We have painted the mustard yellow dining room, so it is now a lovely sky blue, and are currently hurrying to finish the living room before our sofas arrive - to be honest we are sick of painting.
I made yet another batch of raspberry, ricotta and almond cupcakes with raspberry mousse frosting this week, and finally we are totally happy with both how they taste and how they look. This has taken more practice and trial and error than I anticipated!
I am so pleased with them! They look all proper! They taste EVEN BETTER than they look!
So, I'll just sum up how they are made:
The recipe for the cakes comes from here. Although, in converting the ingredients to grams from cups, I made a mistake and only used half the quantity of butter. The cupcakes came out fine and I didn't want to mess with a good thing, so I have made them like that every time.
I'm not a fan of the frosting in that recipe though, and decided raspberry mousse might suit us better. All the recipes I found had gelatine in, which we don't eat, so I made up a vegetarian mousse recipe:
Vegetarian Raspberry Mousse
Ingredients: 275g fresh raspberries, 50g caster suger, 1tsp agar agar powder, 500ml double cream
Cook the raspberries with the caster suger until they are pulpy, and then push through a seive - throw away the pips.
Return to the pan and add the agar agar powder (if using flakes you'll need about twice the volume). Bring to the boil and then simmer for 5 minutes. Take it off the heat.
Now let the raspberry mixture cool, and check every few minutes to see if it is setting. It will set at room temperature, and very firm, so you need to keep your eye on it.
While the raspberry mixture is cooling, whip the double cream until it is standing in peaks.
As soon as the raspberry mixture starts to set, pour it into the cream and give it a quick whip or stir to mix it all in.
Now put the lot in the fridge until it is properly cool. You can then pipe this onto the cooled cupcakes.
Maybe I will bore you with my sudden interest in gardening next time! Or maybe I will try another cupcake recipe - next one has green tea frosting and white chocolate in it!
Posted by jen at August 27, 2008 08:05 PM
Comments
Such pretty cakes! They look really yummy.
Posted by: pinkphish at August 27, 2008 10:02 PM
The cupcakes look delish, very nicely done and I love the way your frosting turned out. The colour is absolutely beautiful!
Posted by: Katy at August 27, 2008 10:39 PM
They look fantastic! Good luck with the rest of the wedding preparations, and the gardening.
Posted by: Sian at August 28, 2008 12:00 AM
Those look nice.
Posted by: the Lady at August 28, 2008 06:40 AM
Oh they look delicious! I was thinking of making another batch of cupcakes for our film night on Saturday, so maybe I'll try those. Veggie raspberry mousse - sounds almost too good to be true :)
Glad the move went well and worked out alright. It's always stressful, no matter how well you prepare...
Do you have a craft corner in your new place, or a yarn cupboard?
Posted by: Kristin at August 28, 2008 09:55 AM
Cakes look super-lush! For the actual wedding, how will you deal with looking after the cakes so the frosting doesn't get squished?? I can see you in your wedding frock with a pinny on and piping bag in hand! lol :D
Posted by: Sarah at August 28, 2008 02:19 PM
They look lovely! I thought that the last ones looked fine but these prove that it was well worth the extra effort to perfect the recipe. I may just try making them myself!
Posted by: Jackie at August 28, 2008 07:02 PM
They look fabulous!
Posted by: raker at August 28, 2008 10:18 PM
Gardening? I would love to hear about it! I bet the green tea frosting and the raspberry mousse would compliment each other nicely sitting side by side.
Posted by: Emily at September 3, 2008 06:03 AM
those look SO GOOD. Yum. I would totally love to hear about gardening!!
Posted by: Lauren at September 4, 2008 06:32 PM
jen, those look and sound FANTASTIC! congrats on all your trial & error: totally worth it!!! :)
Posted by: carolyn at September 17, 2008 12:40 AM