Christmas cupcakes

sarahb5, Dec 10, 4:08am
I have a recipe for gingerbread cupcakes which I'm going to make instead of Christmas cake which no-one eats but, being limited for decorating time, does anyone know where you can get some sort of Christmas sprinkle to go on top!I've seen them somewhere - red and green Christmas trees or bits of holly - just can't remember where .

monkey_room, Dec 10, 4:27am
These are very christmasy.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
Ingredients
Makes: 20 little cakes
• 125g butter
• 1 1/4 cups (250g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup (250ml) buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon (20ml) red food colouring
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1/2 teaspoon bi-carb soda
• 2 cups (250g) self-raising flour
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1/3 cup (40g) cocoa

Preparation method
Prep: 3 minutes
1.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Grease two 12 cup muffin tins or line with 20 muffin cases or patty pans.

2.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food colouring and vanilla. Stir in the bi-carb and vinegar.

3.
Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

4.
Bake in the preheated oven until the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the tins on wire racks. Ice when completely cool.

Buttermilk
If you dont have buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to a cup of milk. You can also use plain milk in this recipe.
I iced with a White chocolate and cream cheese icing. The recipe I used for this was out of whack totally and I had to remove a lot of the liquid.You can find another one on the net and experimentand my advice is to be very stingy with the cream cheese as it goes very liquid. These are Divine and just need a little bit of green on top to make a feature of,

pam.delilah, Dec 10, 4:28am

elliehen, Dec 10, 4:32am
Like this online!.might well be on supermarket shelves too where the 100s & 1000s are.

http://www.cakestuff.co.nz/zencart/index.php!main_page=product_info&cPath=31_74&products_id=451

sarahb5, Dec 10, 4:37am
Yeah that sort of thing pam and ellie - I suppose I just need to go around every supermarket until I find them, so annoying when you know you've seen exactly what you want and can't remember where!

I'm sure the red velvet cupcakes are delicious but gingerbread got the vote here

rchelley, Dec 10, 6:03am
This site has candy cane, confetti, gingerbread men & holly sprinkles.
http://www.thecakeshop.co.nz/afawcs0118131/SUBID=25/page=1/Shaped-Sprinkles.html

Hope this helps!

pam.delilah, Dec 10, 7:57am
buy them on line. Save the shoe leather

wazzon, Dec 10, 8:41am
sarahb5 go down to the new cake shop on devon st west they sell all the things that you would want, i was impressed going back next week, so much neat stuff i couldnt make up my mind lol .its across the road from the drycleaners by the bowling place

baalamb, Dec 10, 8:47am
.maybe Stevens!

sarahb5, Dec 11, 12:04am
I didn't know there was such a place - will give them a try next weekend because Spotlight were pretty hopeless - hope they're open Saturdays

rosiemoodle, Dec 11, 12:12am
they have them at Countdown in CHCH Maybe try your local one

sjc72, Dec 11, 12:23am
The cake stuff website and kiwi cakes are both great for buying online and the stuff comes so fast. Can't imagine why you would even chase around the shops.

sarahb5, Dec 11, 1:16am
Because I'm fussy and I want to see them before I buy them

wazzon, Dec 11, 6:35am
open sat morning had a great range of decorations when i went in can check them out on www.allaboutcakes.co.nz ,i wouldnt even bother with online or supermarkets after seeing what they got ,let me no what u think

sarahb5, Dec 11, 9:17am
That looks awesome - will call in next weekend - thanks!

sarahb5, Dec 17, 1:11am
That shop was amazing - called in this morning and got the sparkly stuff to sprinkle over the top that will look like snow and some little stars to use on my meringue Christmas trees and the guy (Paul) is great, very friendly and helpful - thanks so much wazzon

charlieb2, Dec 17, 1:20am
Sarah. would you share your recipe, love the idea of gingerbread cupcakes

sarahb5, Dec 17, 2:17am
Sure - will be back shortly and post it then but don't blame me if you eat the rest of the crystallized ginger!

charlieb2, Dec 17, 2:26am
lol. thanks sarah!

elliehen, Dec 17, 2:31am
Me too please!Christmas and ginger are soul mates.

charlieb2, Dec 17, 2:55am
None of us like traditional christmas cake here. well, mr does, but it would go mouldy before he got thru it! lol. so ginger cupcakes sound like a plan

sarahb5, Dec 17, 3:22am
Gingerbread Cupcakes

300g high grade flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
4tsp ground ginger
1tsp cinnamon
225g light brown sugar
2 eggs
115ml honey
115g unsalted butter, melted
175ml milk
2 Tbsp roughly chopped crystallised ginger

Preheat the oven to 175°C.Place 12 paper baking cases in a muffin tin.Sieve the flour, baking powder, ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl.In a medium bowl combine the remaining ingredients and beat with an electric whisk until smooth, about 2 - 3 minutes.Stir into the dry ingredients.Spoon the batter into the cases.

Bake for 20 minutes.Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes.Remove cupcakes and cool on a rack.

(You're supposed to put a lemon drizzle over the top but they're for Christmas so I'm doing butter cream with a white chocolate decoration and some of the sparkly sprinkle over the top)

Enjoy!

elliehen, Dec 17, 3:32am
Thanks!A ginger/Christmas combination I have bought and enjoyed, but not yet made is the Pfeffernüsse (German - pepper nuts).

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pfeffernusse-2/

Of course, I cannot vouch that this is the ORIGINAL Pfeffernüsse recipe, but it's a start ;)

sarahb5, Dec 17, 3:36am
They do sound good but I don't think I find room in the menu for anything else!Miss 20 keeps finding stuff she wants to bake as well - reindeer cookies, Yule log, Christmas cookies, raspberry tarts, meringue Christmas trees - lucky our table is strong!