Lekue Kit Cupcake Review

Lekue Kit Cupcake

Most of my Christmas presents this year were baking themed.

I was really intrigued by the Lekue Kit Cupcake set that I got from Jeff's mum and dad. It looks amazing. And I love gadgets, especially cooking ones. I decided to test it out on a baking day with the girls.

We made some Chocolate Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery Cupcake book, by Martha Swift. And I set the girls to work with fondant icing and my new heart shaped plungers, to make some "sprinkles" for the cakes.

I made a batch of buttercream icing and got to work:

It worked really well to start with when I had a full tub of butter icing in the Decomax. It was easier to put the icing into the Decomax than it usually is with a piping bag. And it was easy to switch between the nozzles, However, once I had iced about 4 cupcakes it became a struggle to do the rest. I had to really squeeze the decomax, which wasn't easy. I ended up with the icing coming out of the lid.

In the end I gave up and scraped the rest of the icing out and spread it onto the cupcakes. I had made exactly enough icing for all of the cupcakes. I think for this to have worked effectively I might have needed more icing in the Decomax. But then half of it would have gone to waste.

In researching the product I have seen reviews where people have said it works like a dream with things like whipped cream and batter for macarons, but that buttercream icing can be tricky. The books comes with a few icing recipes. I might give them a try and see if it works any better. For buttercream icing though, I think that a piping bag is definitely easier.

However, it did not spoil our tea party one bit! The cakes were delicious. We also had some sausage rolls, grapes, slushies and some pretend food too.

I will update when I try it with something else. It's such a lovely gadget, it would be a shame not to use it.

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas Tree

Over the past few years I've experimented with making baked gifts for people. It started when I was pregnant with Elizabeth and trying to save a bit of money, so I made Scottish Tablet and Macaroons for Jeff's family. And more recently it's been making gifts for the girl's teachers and childminder.

Last year I made gingerbread Christmas trees for Elizabeth's teachers. I decided to go one step further this year, and make 3D edible Christmas trees.

Gingerbread Ingredients - I got this recipe from the cookbook that came with my Andrew James food mixer

• 1 medium egg
• 305g plain flour
• 1tsp bicarb of soda
• 3tsp ground ginger
• 115g soft butter
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 4tbsp golden syrup

Method

• Preheat the oven to 165 (fan)
• Break the egg into a cup and lightly whisk it
• Add flour, bicarb, ginger to a bowl. Add the butter and mix it until it looks like breadcrumbs.
• Add the sugar and mix.
• Add the egg and syrup and mix. The recipe says to mix it until it becomes a soft dough, but I find it works better doing this part by hand.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of about 5mm. Cut out the shapes you need. I made my own template for the Christmas Trees.

• Lift onto a lightly oiled/greased baking sheet. I use a silicon sheet and I don't need to grease it, they come off really easily.
• Bake for about 12-15 minutes until pale golden brown.
• Leave them to cool for a minute or two on the baking sheet. Then transfer onto a wire rack to cool completely. When cold, decorate as you like.

• I had to do a bit of trimming because the mixture spread a little in the oven. When I did this when they were fresh, it was difficult to do, because they were crunchy and some parts just snapped off. When I completed the job the next day it was much easier as the biscuits had softened a little.

• The 3D trees were covered in green icing and I added small colourful sprinkles to look like Christmas lights. I then "potted" them in a chocolate cupcake and covered the cake in white chocolate buttercream icing.

Chocolate cupcakes ingredients - Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

• 115g dark chocolate (70% cocoa or more)
• 85g unsalted butter, at room temp
• 175g soft brown sugar
• 2 large eggs separated
• 185g plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp bicarb of soda
• Pinch of salt
• 250ml semi skimmed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

• Preheat the oven to 170 (fan) and line a muffin tray with cupcake cases
• Melt the chocolate - I do it in the microwave, 30 seconds at a time and stirring between. Leave it to cool slightly.
• In a large bowl cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth (a few minutes with an electric mixer).
• In a separate bowl beat the egg yolks until they are paler in colour and creamy. Add the eggs to the large bow and mix. Then add the melted chocolate and mix.
• Combine the flour, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a separate bowl.
• Put the milk in a jug and add the vanilla extract.
• Add one third of the flour to the chocolate mixture, mix. Pour in one third of the milk mixture and mix. Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.
• In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until soft peaks start to form.
• Carefully fold the egg whites into the batter using a metal spoon.
• Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two thirds full.
• Bake for about 20-25 minutes.
• To check they are cooked, insert  a skewer into the centre of one of the cakes - it should come out clean.
• Remove from the oven. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes. Then remove and place on a wire rack to cool.

White Chocolate Buttercream icing ingredients

• 55g unsalted butter at room temp
• 30ml semi-skimmed milk at room temp
• 1/2 tsp canilla extract
• 250g icing sugar
• 100g white chocolate melted
• 3tbsp double cream

Method

• In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, milk, vanilla and half of the icing sugar until smooth.
• Gradually aff the remainder of the icing sugar and beat until smooth and creamy.
• Add the cooled melted chocolate and cream to the buttercream mixture and beat until again smooth and creamy.

For the finishing touches I put the Christmas trees into small potting pots that I bought off amazon.

Quick and Easy Cupcakes

A quick and easy cupcake recipe. It's the sort of thing I always have the ingredients for if the girls want to do baking. This one was passed on to me, but I believe that it is Nigella's recipe:

Cake ingredients

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 125g SR flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2-3 tbsp milk

Method

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees (fan).
• Blitz all the ingredients until smooth, except the milk, with electric mixer or in a food processor.
• Add milk slowly until the mixture is a soft droopy consistency.
• Spoon into cupcake cases until they are a third full.
• Cook till risen, golden, bouncy and if you put a skewer in it comes out clean. (about 15 minutes)

Butter cream icing

• 150g icing sugar
• 75g creamed butter
• A little vanilla extract
• A little milk if it's too firm

Method

• Blitz all ingredients together with your food mixer until it's smooth.
• Add colouring if you like.
• Spread over your cakes.
• Add toppings etc.