Christmas Cupcakes
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Contents Introduction ....................................... 4 Christmas Friends
Christmas Cheer Snowflakes .....................................32
Father Christmas ................................ 6
White Christmas ............................. 34
Red-Nosed Reindeer .......................... 8
Coconut .........................................36
Gingerbread Man ............................10
Peppermint ......................................38
Snowman .......................................12 Christmas Decorations
Christmas Treats Chocolate ......................................40
Fairy Cakes ....................................14
Toffee ............................................42
Gifts ..............................................16
Cherry .......................................... 44
Holly .............................................18
Mixed Berries ................................. 46
Stars ..............................................20
Weights and Measures .......................48
Christmas Tree .................................22 Christmas Tastes Orange......................................... 24 Cranberry .......................................26 Ginger and Chocolate ......................28 Vanilla and Spices ............................30
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Introduction Christmas Cupcakes offers 21 recipes for fabulous, festive cupcakes that will delight people of all ages. These cupcakes make gorgeous gifts when you visit friends or relatives, and they can be clustered on a tiered stand as a cheerful centrepiece for your table at Christmas time. They are also fantastic when you need to bring a plate for a Christmas party, or just because you want to spoil family, friends or yourself in the lead-up to Christmas! Christmas Cupcakes is divided into five sections to make it easy for you to find the perfect treat for your Christmas celebrations. The adorable character cupcakes in ‘Christmas Friends’ will be popular with children and the young at heart. Choose a delicious, elegant cupcake recipe from ‘Christmas Decorations’ to match your table or tree decorations. Enjoy the traditional flavours of the festive season with the recipes in ‘Christmas Tastes’. Choose from orange, cranberry, ginger and chocolate, or vanilla and spices. Use the recipes in ‘Christmas Cheer’ to fit in with your Christmas party colour scheme and to brighten up Christmas Day for everyone. ‘Christmas Treats’ offers stylish and decadent cupcakes including chocolate, toffee, cherry and mixed berry.
Remember that you can mix and match: combine a Christmas cupcake base that takes your fancy with a different topping, and then decorate in yet another way! Experiment for yourself, but be conservative with your cake adjustments, and write down your ingredients and quantity changes. You can be a little freer when experimenting with toppings, and as loose and abstract as you like when decorating your festive creations. The cupcakes in this book cannot be frozen once made. In today’s market there are many speciality products available in the lead-up to Christmas. Most speciality stores for cake decorating stock sugar art decorations in Christmas themes. Premade pieces can be useful short cuts that can crown a homemade baking achievement for a minimal amount of effort with maximum effect. Stores can be found in most cities or online, and the decorations generally transport easily as they need no refrigeration. Merry Christmas and happy baking!
This book includes some basic and some more exotic cupcake bases, and offers some simple and some more complicated topping and decorating suggestions. Each recipe has been ranked according to its level of difficulty. Many are achievable by the novice, and others offer a range of ideas and flavour combinations to broaden the scope of the more experienced baker.
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Father Christmas MAKES
12 cupcakes
PREPARATION AND COOKING
1hr 15 mins
200 g | 7 oz | 2 cups plain (all-purpose) flour 2½ tsp baking powder 110 g | 4 oz | ½ cup white (granulated) sugar 180 ml | 6 fl oz | ¾ cup milk few drops almond extract 80 ml | 3 fl oz | 1⁄3 cup sunflower oil 1 egg 125 g | 4½ oz | ¾ cup chopped almonds Topping 350 g | 12 oz | 22 ⁄3 cups icing (confectioner’s) sugar 1 tbsp hot water Decorations 500 g | 18 oz red fondant (sugar paste) 110 g | 4 oz each of pink, white and green fondant 350 g | 12 oz | 3½ cups royal icing sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tsp hot water 24 round white sweets (candies) 24 black and 12 red jelly sweets
Topping 1 Sift the icing (confectioner’s) sugar and beat in the water until thick and smooth. Spread over the cakes and leave to set. Decorations 1 Mould red fondant (sugar paste) into 12 small rounds for bodies. Attach to the cakes with a little water. Mould 12 sacks, 12 hats and 12 arms and attach with a little water. 2 Roll out the pink fondant on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out 12 round faces. Attach with a little water. Roll the remaining pink fondant into 24 small balls. 3 Roll out the white fondant and cut out 24 small rounds. Attach to each sack and arm with a little water and attach a ball of pink fondant on each. 4 Roll out the green fondant and cut out holly leaves using a cutter or card template. 5 Beat the royal icing sugar and lemon juice until thick and smooth. Beat in a little water. 6 Spoon into a piping bag with a small shell nozzle. Pipe a swirl on each hat, a circle around each face, and a line across the base of each body. Pipe the beards.
1 Heat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan | 400°F | gas 6). Place paper cases in a 12-hole muffin tin.
7 Use icing (frosting) to attach white sweets for feet, black sweets for eyes and a red sweet for each nose.
2 Mix the flour, baking powder and sugar.
8 Attach the holly leaves with icing and leave to set.
3 Mix the milk, almond extract, oil and egg. Stir into the dry ingredients with the almonds. Stir until just combined. 4 Spoon into the cases and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and risen. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes then cool completely on a wire rack.
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Christmas Friends
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Gifts MAKES
12 cupcakes
PREPARATION AND COOKING
55 mins
85 g | 3 oz | 1⁄2 cup finely chopped almonds 150 g | 5 oz | 2⁄3 cup caster (superfine) sugar 150 g | 5 oz | 2⁄3 cup butter, softened 2 eggs 1 ⁄2 tsp almond extract 150 g | 5 oz | 11⁄3 cups self-raising flour 5 tbsp milk Decorations 500 g | 18 oz white marzipan icing (confectioner’s) sugar food colouring – red, green, orange, blue, yellow, purple 3–4 tbsp apricot jam (jelly), warmed 1–2 tubes white piping icing (frosting)
1 Heat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan | 325°F | gas 3). Place paper cases in a 12-hole muffin tin. 2 Beat together all the cupcake ingredients in a mixing bowl until smooth.
Decorations 1 Divide the marzipan into 7 portions. Using a different colour for 6 of the portions (leaving 1 portion white) knead in a few drops of food colouring until each of the 6 portions are evenly coloured. 2 Roll out the green marzipan thinly on a surface lightly dusted with icing (confectioner’s) sugar and cut out 12 leaf shapes using a cookie cutter or a card template. Mark in the leaf details with a cocktail stick or sharp knife. 3 Roll out the white portion and half of the red into thin strips. Shape the white strips like candy canes and twist a red strip around each one. 4 Roll out 1–2 portions of another colour and cut out stocking shapes using a cookie cutter or a card template. 5 Roll out the remaining coloured marzipan thickly and cut into cubes for the parcels. 6 Brush the cakes with the warmed jam (jelly) and attach the decorations. Pipe the decorative details with white piping icing (frosting) and leave to set.
3 Spoon into the paper cases and bake for 20–25 minutes until golden and springy to the touch. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
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Christmas Decorations
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Christmas Tree MAKES
12 cupcakes
PREPARATION AND COOKING
225 g | 8 oz | 2 cups self-raising flour 175 g | 6 oz | 3⁄4 cup caster (superfine) sugar finely grated zest of 1 lemon 3 eggs 100 g | 31⁄2 oz | 7 tbsp plain yoghurt 175 g | 6 oz | 3⁄4 cup butter, melted Topping 250 g | 9 oz | 2 cups icing (confectioner’s) sugar 1 tbsp lemon juice 1–2 tbsp water green sparkling sugar sprinkles Decorations 500 g | 18 oz white marzipan icing (confectioner’s) sugar food colouring – red and green 12 red and white sweets (candies)
1 Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan | 350°F | gas 4). Place paper cases in a 12-hole muffin tin. 2 Mix the flour, sugar and lemon zest together in a mixing bowl. 3 Beat the eggs with the yoghurt, then pour into the dry ingredients with the melted butter. Mix together until just combined. The mixture will be slightly lumpy.
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1hr 20 mins 4 Spoon into the paper cases and bake for 20–25 mins until risen and firm to the touch; the cakes will be quite pale on top. Cool for 5 minutes in the tins, then place on a wire rack to cool completely. Topping 1 Sift the icing (confectioner’s) sugar into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice. Beat in just enough water to give a thick coating consistency. 2 Spread the icing (frosting) on top of the cupcakes and sprinkle with the green sugar sprinkles. Decorations 1 Divide the marzipan into 2 equal portions. Knead a few drops of red food colouring into one half and green into the other half of each portion until evenly coloured. 2 Roll out the green marzipan very thinly on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out leaf shapes using a cookie cutter or a card template. 3 Roll the red marzipan into small and tiny balls for the berries. 4 Pile up the leaves in the centre of each cake, curving them slightly, and dot with the red berries. Attach a red and white sweet (candy) to the top of the leaves and leave to set.
Christmas Decorations
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Weights and Measures LIQUID MEASUREMENTS METRIC
CUP & SPOON (USED IN THIS BOOK)
IMPERIAL
5 ml
1 teaspoon
1
15 ml
1 tablespoon
1
30 ml
1
60 ml
1
125 ml
1
⁄6 fl oz ⁄2 fl oz
⁄8 cup
1 fl oz
⁄4 cup
2 fl oz
⁄2 cup
42⁄5 fl oz
250 ml
1 cup
84⁄5 fl oz
500 ml
2 cups
2
1 litre
4 cups
7
⁄5 quart
⁄8 quart
OVEN TEMPERATURES HEAT Very low Low
Medium
Hot
Very hot
CELSIUS
FAHRENHEIT GAS MARK
70°C
150°F
Gas 1⁄6
100°C
200°F
Gas 1⁄4
120°C
250°F
Gas 1⁄2
140°C
280°F
Gas 1
Published by Hinkler Books Pty Ltd 45–55 Fairchild Street Heatherton Victoria 3202 Australia www.hinkler.com.au Design and layout © Hinkler Books Pty Ltd 2012 Recipe development © StockFood, The Food Media Agency 2012
150°C
300°F
Gas 2
160°C
325°F
Gas 3
180°C
350°F
Gas 4
Food photography © StockFood.com and the following photographers: Father Christmas © Foodfolio – Chris Knaggs – Top Floor; Red-Nosed Reindeer © Foodfolio – Chris Knaggs – Top Floor; Gingerbread Man © Foodcollection; Snowman © King, Dave; Fairy Cakes © Fisher, Tara; Gifts © Shooter, Howard; Holly © Alack, Chris; Stars © Shooter, Howard; Christmas Tree © Foodcollection; Orange © FoodPhotogr. Eising; Cranberry © Great Stock!; Ginger and Chocolate © Leatart, Brian; Vanilla and Spices © Jakusz, Tomasz/FC; Snowflakes © Hildebrandt, Esther/FC; White Christmas © King, Dave; Coconut © Ngoc Minh & Julian Wass; Peppermint © Grand, Michael; Chocolate © Morgans, Gareth; Toffee © Brachat, Oliver; Cherry © Cato- Symonds, Shaun; Mixed Berries © Brachat, Oliver. Images © Shutterstock.com: Holly and snowflakes pattern © mcherevan; Snowflakes pattern © Eliks.
190°C
375°F
Gas 5
200°C
400°F
Gas 6
220°C
430°F
Gas 7
230°C
450°F
Gas 8
240°C
470°F
Gas 9
260°C
500°F
Gas 10
Design: Hinkler Design Studio Typesetting: MPS Limited Prepress: Graphic Print Group All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Hinkler Books Pty Ltd. ISBN: 978 1 7430 8371 0 Printed and bound in China
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