Here at Silver Mushroom, we are thrilled to be welcoming on board trainee chef and budding baker, Kate Moss. Kate has been keen on baking and cooking since a very early age and it has long been her passion to bake professionally and share her recipes and creative ideas with others. For a while now, she has been trusted to try and test our baking products and report back to us on the best (and worst) of the bunch, and is now keen to move to the next level and start sharing her baking with us, and ultimately with you.
Kate’s introductory recipe for you is this fantastic chocolate butterfly cupcakes recipe. These heavenly butterfly cupcakes look and taste divine, and are relatively easy to make, if you have the right tools and a steady hand. Kate’s signature chocolate cake recipe is to die for and can be adapted to a variety of cupcake designs for all occasions or even larger cakes. All we can say is we wish you luck getting past eating all the cake mix before it’s cooked! We struggled….
For the cake:
4oz plain flour
4oz caster sugar
3/4oz cocoa powder
½ tsp cream of tartar
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
4floz milk
2 1/2 oz soft margarine
1 egg
For the buttercream:
150g butter
350g icing sugar
1 tbsp milk
2 drops vanilla extract
2 drops green food colouring
For the chocolate butterflies:
100g dark chocolate
150g white chocolate
Food colouring of your choice
Kate’s method:
“Okay, first, we need to begin with the cupcakes….
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C and grease a 12 hole cupcake pan. We used a Kitchencraft Masterclass fluted cupcake pan in these pictures, which offers fabulous non-stick properties, so there is no need to use bun cases or grease proof paper.
2. Sieve the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt and mix together.
3. Add the milk and margarine and mix well with a wooden spoon, or if you’re lucky enough to have one, an electric mixer.
4. Add an egg and mix for another minute or so until the mixture goes lighter in colour.
5. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake pan then place in the middle of the pre heated oven for 15-20 minutes, until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Next onto the buttercream….
1. Soften the butter and sieve in the icing sugar a little at a time, mixing as you go along. If you decide to do this with an electric mixer, be sure to take it slowly and use a mixing bowl guard if you have one, because trust me, icing sugar gets everywhere!
2. Add a little milk until your buttercream is of a smooth consistency that will be easy to pipe.
3. Next add the vanilla extract and the green food colouring and mix well until all your fluffy buttercream is a lovely grass green colour.
4. Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag with a star shaped nozzle, and pipe in blobs onto the top of the cakes, making a grass effect.
And now for the really creative bit….
1. Draw 12 pairs of butterfly wing templates onto grease proof paper. If you aren’t as handy as Kate with a pencil, we do have the Mason Cash Chocolate Decorating Kit, which features templates of gorgeous butterfly wings that you can simply trace onto grease proof/tracing paper.
2. Melt the dark chocolate in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, ensuring the bowl does not touch the water. If you want to shortcut and do this in the microwave, then that is fine, but make sure you melt a little at a time and keep stopping to stir the chocolate so it does not burn and stick to the bottom of the bowl.
3. Once melted, spoon the chocolate into a piping bag with a very fine round nozzle, and pipe around the edges of the butterfly wings.
4. Melt the white chocolate in the same way as before, and add a few drops of food colouring until you have reached the desired colour. We have done some with pink and some with blue, but any colour of your choice is fine.
5. Pipe the white chocolate in the middle of the wing templates to fill in the wings.
6. Use a skewer or even a fork prong or toothpick, to pull in the edges of the darker chocolate to make the lines inside the wings as seen in the picture.
7. Chill the wings in the fridge, making sure they are laid flat.
Assembly:
Angle the chilled wings in the buttercream, pushing down until they stand up on their own. Pipe some dark chocolate down the middle between the wings to create the body of the butterfly.”
We hope you have enjoyed Kate’s first recipe. Keep your eyes peeled for more treats from our favourite new baker!
