On Monday I along with eleven other bloggers spent most of the day in the Unilever Kitchen.
First thing was we had the opportunity to learn some interesting facts about tea; this session was presented by the lovely Jane Pettigrew. Afterwards we met Marco Pierre White who shared with us his hints and tips on cooking (I will write about this part at a later date). And finally we did some baking with Sue Batty, a Stork expert baker.
The whole day was fantastic but the baking part was the most fun, just simply because it was free form baking. We were all supposed to bake cupcakes but specifically their flavourings and decorations were totally up to us.
We were provided with some recipe sheets but I don’t think anyone used them; everyone was just running wild with their flavour combinations and choices of icing.
I believe all the cupcakes were based on this basic recipe, which will make 12.
- 115g Stork tub
- 115g caster sugar
- 140g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs; medium size
The rest is up to you 🙂
I decided on chocolate and orange cupcakes but as I have never used orange blossom water before I erred on the side of caution and so didn’t put enough in my mix so my cupcakes ended up being chocolate with only a slight hint of orange.
I had to change the basic recipe as stated above to be suitable for my creation. I’ve used:
- 115g Stork tub
- 115g caster sugar
- 115g self-raising flour
- 3 eggs; medium size
- 2tbs of good quality cocoa powder
- 50g of crushed dark chocolate
- 5ml of orange blossom water
+ Decorations
- 50g of melted dark chocolate and 50g of melted milk chocolate
To make this recipe work even better Sue suggested some small changes – add 1/2tsp of baking powder, this will help with the raising as the cocoa powder makes them quite heavy and then add an additional 5ml of orange blossom water, to achieve a more orangey flavour. The zest of an orange added to the mix would have also elevated them to the next level.
Method:
Place all cupcake ingredients except for the crushed chocolate into a mixing bowl and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is just combined. Add the crushed chocolate and spoon the finished mixture into 12 paper muffin cases.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 15-20 minutes or until soft and firm to the touch.
Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack.
Melt 100g of chocolate and slowly pour over your cupcakes.
Easy peasy lemon squeezy… as they say.
And if you are wondering what the other bloggers baked here is a selection of some of their lovely cupcakes baked on the day.
Lime & Dark Chocolate Cupcakes baked by Kirsty from Hijacked By Twins
Turkish Delight & White Chocolate Cupcake baked by Rose from Freycob
Lime & White Chocolate Cupcakes baked by Lucy from Supergolden Bakes
Oreo & Malteser Cupcakes baked by Amy from She Cooks She Eats
Strawberry & Chocolate Chip with Lime Cream cheese Frosting Cupcakes baked by Leyla from Motherhood Diaries
Still waiting to be claimed
Still waiting to be claimed
hmm I wonder who baked these ones… 🙂
I didn’t manage to ninja a sample of all cupcakes nor did I manage in the hussle an bussle of the day to take photos of everyone’s creations, so I do apologise if I missed yours.
Also I would like to send a big thank you to Rose @Freycob who investigated which cupcake belongs to which blogger.
Thank you for the great day guys!
It was a pleasure to meet you all!
Bark Time = everything and nothing 