Myriads of Cupcakes

Hello you all

I hope you are all well.

Today it is Monday and I am feeling better after a really 'feeling down' weekend. Just feeling purposeless, I still feel lost and  keep doing things to help me find a purpose in life but I don't know at all where I am going.

I must admit I often follow Facebook, one of the world's recent diseases. Some people totally reject Facebook, others are addict to it. I think Facebook is a very useful tool to find long lost friends and in my case, to see what is happening in my friend's lives across the world. I find it very dangerous that we live in a very agreeing world, nobody seems to debate, question or even verify the source of all the pearls of wisdom that are often published. I often caught many mistakes but am scared to tell as now everyone feels attacked if we try to discuss any of their ideas. We have the idea that Jewish people are always quarrelling but it is a way of thinking. They give more importance to the argument than to the conclusion, because arguing makes you think! Thinking is a little bit short in the world nowadays as to think you need to learn how to think. One good friend of mine said: 'At first they taught us how to think, then they taught us what to think and now they teach us not to think'. Sad times. To learn how to think we need to refer to those who once thought, as Greek philosophers or philosophers of all time. If you have the time to rear Aristotle, you will find that you need little else to understand human kind nowadays because if there is something that remains unchangeable throughout the centuries is human nature. I find it really funny when people criticise conservative people. I do admire people that think they can change the world but I do not believe we can change the world without changing human nature and all attempts to do that have miserably failed. Some men are greedy, racists, liars, cheats and they will always try to take advantage on the kind hearted well intentioned people. Nothing wrong about dreaming of a better world but we need to acknowledge the task is hard and some things will take too long to change. I also think some changes are for the better and others for the worse. Sometimes I think after changes upon changes we are more or less the same, as says the song.

You are probably asking yourself what does it have to do with cupcakes? Well, I cook when I get frustrated with the world. Building and decorating cupcake towers is one of the most rewarding bad day thing you could possibly cook. You make the batter, you pour it  into little decorated cases, they make all sorts of decorated cases: hearts, starts, rainbows, you name it. After that you see the little cupcakes grow, you take immense pleasure in decorating them with butter icing, whipped cream, sugar icing, you can put colours on them, you can pipe the icing out and finally, you can throw lots of different sprinkles. While you do all of that, your brain can wonder wherever it wants to go. This is the magic of cooking.

These are some of the cupcakes I baked recently, with or without help.

Have a peek!

Gisele

My niece Juliana 20th Birthday Cupcakes - Butter icing and sprinkles

Christmas 2010 cupcakes - Chocolate and butter icing

Manuella 2nd Birhday Cupcakes 2012 (helped by Juliana and Mariana)

Chocolate and sugar icing

My sister Anamaria Birthday July 2012 (chocolate and whipped cream)

Last batch with sugar icing

Cupcake recipes:

Chocolate cup cakes Recipe by: xmusic_loverx

(5) Saved by 179 cook(s) Easy  Ready in 1 hour 15 mins Picture by: xmusic_loverx A lovely cup cake recipe for all of the family. It makes delicious cupcakes that smell and look delicious!!! Ingredients Serves: 24 2 x 12 bun trays 24 x cupcake cases 1 x big bowl 250g softened butter 250g caster sugar 4 eggs 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 3 teaspoons vanilla extract 225g self-raising flour 5 or 6 tablespoons milk Preparation method Prep: 1 hour |Cook: 15 mins 1. Wash your hands and tie back your hair. Preheat the oven to 200 C / gas 6. Put the paper cases in the bun trays and leave to one side. 2. In a bowl mix together butter and sugar until it is smooth and creamy. Gradually add the eggs until they are all beaten in. Add the cocoa powder and vanilla. Then gradually add the flour until all of the flour is gone. Add the milk gradually until it makes a smooth paste. 3. Gradually put the cake mixture into the bun cases. Make the bun cases half-full. 4. Now add the cake trays to the oven with the bun cases filled with the cake mixture. Leave the cup cakes in the oven for 15- 20 minutes. 5. You can tell they are ready once they are a light brown or if you stick a knife or fork into one of the cup cake and none of the cake mixture sticks to the knife or folk. Or you can tap one of your fingers onto one of the cakes and if it bounces back then it means it is done. 6. Once the cakes are done take them out of the oven and place the trays on a wire rack to cool completely before icing with your favourite icing recipe.

Vanilla cupcakes

Ingredients

110g/4oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature 110g/4oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g/4oz self-raising flour 1-2 tbsp milk
For the buttercream icing
140g/5oz butter, softened 280g/10oz icing sugar
1-2 tbsp milk
a few drops food colouring

Preparation method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
   
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
   
3. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
   
4. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
   
5. For the buttercream icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
   
6. Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
   
7. Add the food colouring and mix until well combined.
   
8. Spoon the icing into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe the icing using a spiralling motio onto the cup cakes in a large swirl.
   

These easy vanilla cupcakes are so simple to make. Decorate with a swirl of delicious buttercream frosting. 

Happy Baking!!!