Busy Bee Cafe

After falling off the swing and being stung by nettle in the garden, I decided that Little Bee shall have some indoor activity today. She wanted to bake and these were what she made

I got the recipe off here. I… excuse me… Little Bee followed the recipe to the t so you could just click on the link if you’d like to try it out. Seriously easy! Oh… we used red colouring instead. Little Bee loves sprinkling the decorations… and eating them… and with sugar overload, it took a while to settle her to sleep this evening. *sigh*

Tomorrow, we’ll go back to the garden as I’ve pulled out most of the nettle… plus we have some broadbeans to repot.

I spent the evening baking. I spent the morning decorating. And Little Bee and her Busy Bee friends at the Nursery had a wonderful little party.

Ingredients:

CUPCAKE
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
190g unrefined granulated sugar
6 eggs
2tsp vanilla essence
Zest from 2 lemons
390g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
120ml milk

ICING
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
370g unrefined icing sugar
2tsp vanilla essence
2tbsp milk
Food colouring

1. Preheat the oven at 180C or gas mark 4.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat them well into the mixture. Beat in the vanilla essence and lemon zest.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt into the wet mixture, a bit at a time, alternating with the milk and mix gently.
4. This mixture will make 24 ordinary size cupcakes and about 72 mini cupcakes. Line the cupcake tray with paper liner and evenly fill each cup half full. Put them in the middle of the oven and bake for about 17 minutes for normal size cupcakes or 12 minutes for mini cupcakes; or the skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
6. For the icing, cream the butter and vanilla essence. Gradually beat the sugar in. Add the milk and continue beating for about 3 minutes until the mixture is nice and fluffy. Tint the frosting with desired food colouring. I divided the mixture into two so I could use two different colours.
7. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and add other edible decorations to your heart’s content!

Each time Hubby takes Bubba Bee to Cafe Nero, they will share a slice of carrot cake. I’m not too keen on it as the carrot cake there, as at most places, has raisins in it.

I’ve never made carrot cake before as most of the recipes has raisins in it plus grating the carrots just seem to be a lot of hard work to me. What changed my mind? Bubba Bee will be two in a few months time and I want to make something nice for her to bring to Nursery and share with her friends… and as we were invited to Ivy’s second picnic birthday party yesterday, I thought it was a good time to experiment.

So Bubba Bee and I started on our mission.

Before I list down the ingredients, you might have noticed that I’ve put this under baby/toddler safe. It is safe for your baby after six months… as I used baby led weaning with Bubba Bee and nut allergy doesn’t seem to run in both mind and Hubby’s families… at least I haven’t heard of any. It’s just a warning as this recipe does contain walnuts… but then I guess you could omit that if you want the way I omitted raisins!

Oh! By the way… you can get the recipe for carrot cake from Joy of Baking and I altered it to suit Bubba Bee and me.

Ingredients:

CARROT CUPCAKES
4 large eggs
150g unrefined granulated sugar
240ml corn oil
2 tsps vanilla extract
260g plain flour
1 1/2 tsps baking soda
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsps ground cinnamon
340g finely grated raw carrots
55g walnuts, lightly roasted and coarsely chopped

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
110g unsalted butter at room temperature
225g soft cheese at room temperature
150g unrefined icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
lemon zest from 1 lemon

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 180C or gas mark 4.

In a large bowl, wish the eggs, sugar,oil and vanilla extract until slightly thicken. Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground cinnamon into the wet mixture and mix well. Fold in the grated carrots and chopped walnuts.

Divide the mixture evenly into 24 muffin cups and place them on the middle rack in the preheated oven. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the centre of a cupcake comes out clean.

Cool them completely on a wire rack.

In another bowl, beat the butter and soft cheese until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar and continue to mix until smooth. Beat in the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

Pipe or with a knife spread the cream cheese frosting on top of each cupcake. Cover and refrigerate until serving time.