Testing a bold claim - Pioneer Woman's best ever chocolate sheet cake

I know it is really hard to believe but in the week that was my husband's birthday we had our fill of peanut butter and chocolate baked goods.  Well and truly.  No more.  We had one party to go and I had planned a peanut butter pie with Oreo crust but there was no way that either of us were interested in consuming such a thing.  I am certain that it will be in my future, but for now I needed a plan B.

I flicked through a few of my favourite baking blogs to find some inspiration.  One of my favourite baking bloggers, Bakerella, had written a post after testing out a chocolate sheet cake (also known as a slab cake) that is claimed by some, Pioneer Woman starting this trend, to be the best sheet cake ever.  It's called Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake, and there was something about the photos of this cake that made me want to dive in.   So dive in I did.

I didn't trust this recipe.  There were a few things I was sceptical about.  Adding hot mixtures to flour mixtures.  No need to grease the pan.  Jelly roll pan? What the hell is that?  I decided to trust Bakerella. She had never let me down before.

To start the cake melt butter in a saucepan, then, with the heat still on, add four heaped tablespoons of cocoa.

Combine thoroughly, then add boiling water.  Boil the mixture for 30 seconds before taking it off the heat.  Combine flour, sugar and salt.  Here comes the first part that freaked me out.  Pour the hot, yes hot, mixture over the flour mixture and stir slightly to cool.

Now this cake has buttermilk.  Any cake with buttermilk is sure to be a good cake.

Add eggs and vanilla to the buttermilk before adding the baking soda.  Don't forget this.  I did.  It made for an interesting 'cake' that we actually enjoyed immensely, but it was not the best. ever. chocolate sheet cake.  It was more like a brownie.  A great thing about forgetting the baking soda is that I felt compelled to make the cake again.

Anyway, add the buttermilk mixture to the chocolate mixture, stir together with not a mixer but a spoon.  Another sticking point.  Really? I don't need my beloved Kitchenaid? How will I ever justify its purchase if fabulous cakes can be made without it? I did get to lick the back of said spoon and it was good.  Very good.

Pour the mixture in to an ungreased pan.  This scared me.  Surely it would stick? I decided again to trust in the baking big guns.  I didn't grease.  I poured.  I baked.  Twenty minutes? You've got to be kidding me!  A great cake that is this easy to prepare and takes twenty minutes?  If all of these claims are true I can see this cake being made often in my house.  Easy.  Quick.  Full of pantry staples.  Tick tick tick. If only it were healthy.   Surely then it would have to win some sort of a prize.

Back to the pan.  The recipe called for a jelly roll pan.  I had no idea what that was and after good old Google assisted in increasing my knowledge base I ascertained that a lamington pan should do the trick.

Now for the frosting.  A similar process.  Melt butter, add cocoa, boil for thirty seconds, then add milk and vanilla.  Lastly add 400g of icing sugar.  Stuff sifting it.  Not required.  Stir, add nuts, and here comes the good part.  Pour it over the hot cake as soon as it comes out of the oven.  Eat a bit if you must, and you must.  Pour it evenly and let it spread to the edges.

Wait for the cake to cool and dig in.

So...the verdict is in.

As you can see by this empty container, the cake was very much enjoyed by all, both soda free and with soda!!!! It didn't stick.  My lamington pan worked just fine.  I can't really say if it is the best chocolate sheet cake ever, because I have never had a chocolate sheet cake before, but it is good.  Damn good.  If you are looking for an simple, incredibly tasty cake that can be easily shared then look no further.  I will be making this cake again, I know that for a fact.  I might just make it tomorrow...

Susie xx

{Texas chocolate sheet cake}

Cake

2 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 heaped tablespoons cocoa
225 grams unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, or any other nut that takes your fancy
200 grams unsalted butter
4 heaped tablespoons cocoa
6 tablespoons full cream milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
400 grams icing sugar

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius.

Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Set aside.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add the cocoa and stir to combine.  Add the boiling water and allow the mixture to bubble for 30 seconds before removing from heat.

Pour hot mixture over flour mixture and stir slightly to cool.

Combine buttermilk, eggs, baking power and vanilla, then add to the flour and cocoa mixture.  Stir until thoroughly combined.

Pour in to an ungreased lamington pan and bake for approximately twenty minutes.

While the cake is baking, make the icing.

Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan.  Add cocoa and stir to combine.  Take the saucepan off the heat and add the milk, vanilla and icing sugar.  Stir to combine, then add the nuts.

When the cake is taken from the oven, pour the icing mixture over the cake while it is still warm.  Allow to cool.  Or not.  Then eat it.  I defy you to stop at only one square.  ;-)

Chocolate and peanut butter biscuit cake {recipe}

I have a confession to make.  I am not very good at following instructions when it comes to baking requests.  Every time I ask my husband what type of cake he would like he requests what I like to call boring old chocolate cake (let's call it BOCC for the rest of this post shall we?).  He loves BOCC.  No bells and whistles.  The recipe for this cake comes from the Women's Weekly kid's birthday cake book.  Plain chocolate cake made with cocoa, and his favourite icing to have with said BOCC is boring old chocolate buttercream.  Not a fabulous icing made with fabulous chocolate, melted and whipped with love.  Just boring old buttercream made with boring old cocoa.  

I always end up denying him of his dream and making something much more interesting, and yet he still continues to request BOCC.  This year he asked for BOCC with peanut butter icing.  A slightly more interesting take, and I decided to honour his request.  Sort of.  I WAS only going to make one modification.  I knew that peanut butter chocolate chips existed and decided to take a trip to USA Foods to buy some.  Alas they didn't have any in stock.  I spied some Nutter Butters.  

Nutter Butters are peanut butter sandwich cookies from the US.  Hmmmm.  Crushed up cookies in the BOCC was a great idea!  Cookies were bought and preparations were made to bake this BOCC with a twist.  

Incidentally, if you are looking for a good BOCC, look no further than the Women's Weekly recipe.  It is dead easy to make so it's a good one for baking with the kids, it's not delicate and it is good for carving in to shapes.  It is nice and moist and isn't too dense.  I actually quite like it!  

You basically just throw flour, cocoa, butter, vanilla, caster sugar, eggs and water into a bowl.  

Oh.  I remember.  I cheated again.  I decided to use premium cocoa instead of boring old cocoa.  Look at this stuff.  How could you not want to use it in every recipe that calls for cocoa?

It has such a beautiful colour and the aroma is to die for.  I get off on shoving my nose in the bag.  The one I am using at the moment is from The Essential Ingredient.  

It is $15 for 500g and I think it is well worth the cost.  It really takes the chocolate flavour of cakes to the next level.  Heaven!  

Anyway, back to the BOCC.  Once everything is in the bowl of your mixer, beat it on medium speed until is is well combined and paler in colour, about three minutes.  Prepare the pan of your choice (we used an eight inch round pan) by greasing and lining it with baking paper.  Here is my eager baking assistant preparing our pan.  

Before pouring the mixture into the pan we broke up six Nutter Butters and put them in the base of the pan.

We also broke up six more Nutter Butters and folded them in to the cake mixture, just for good measure.

Pour the mixture into the pan and bake in a moderate oven until cake is cooked, which in our case was 40 minutes.  

As you can see in the photo, our cake cracked on the surface.  This happens when the oven is too hot and the surface of the cake cooks before the mixture has had a chance to rise.  I kinda like how it looks with this cake though!  It reminds me of a big brownie. Normally I would take the top off the cake to make it level but this looked so appealing that I decided to keep it.  Imagine peanut butter frosting falling in to those crevices - yum!    

Now on to the icing.  You might remember the peanut butter filling from my dark chocolate peanut butter cake.  We halved that recipe and used it to top this BOCC with a twist, and it suddenly ceased to be BOCC but a very appealing looking cake.  It was a bit late in the day when we made our cake and it hadn't had a chance to cool properly before we iced it and ate it, but you know what? Warm cake with peanut butter icing, melting in to those fabulous looking cracks? Don't mind if I do!  

You can't see it, but the icing was bordering on melting on top of the still warm cake.  Yum!

Of course Elloy needed help blowing out his candles.  :-)

Not bad at all for a BOCC.  :-)

{Rich Chocolate Cake}

recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly

1 1/3 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup cocoa

125g unsalted butter, softened

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups caster sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2/3 cup water

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.  Grease and line your chosen pan.  

Sift flour and cocoa into a medium bowl (I've recently quit sifting but go right ahead if you must!).

Add remaining ingredients and beat on low until combined.  Increase the speed to medium and beat until well combined and paler in colour, approximately three minutes (less if you are using a Kitchenaid). 

If you are going to add biscuits to your cake, now is the time to do it.  We chose to put some on the base of the pan and mix some more in to the batter.   

Put mixture in to a pan and use a palette knife to spread to the sides. 

Bake until cooked.  Stand in the pan for ten minutes before turning out to cool.  

If you want to top the cake with peanut butter frosting you can get the recipe here.

Susie xx

Out of this freaking world peanut butter chocolate chip cookies {recipe}

Stop whatever you are doing.  Stop now.  Get thee to a supermarket, buy the ingredients for these cookies, go home and make them.  It is a must.  They are simply that good.  I know there are a few very strange people out there who claim that they dislike the combo of peanut butter and chocolate.  They are weird and I am going to pretend for the rest of this post that they don't exist.

As most of you will know my husband is a freak for peanut butter.  He adores it, as do my children.  We go through two jars of the stuff a week.  Peanut butter on toast, peanut butter on crumpets, peanut butter on fruit toast, peanut butter on a spoon, the list goes on and on and on.  I like the it, but it is not my be all and end all.  Unless of course you combine it with chocolate, and then it is my place to be.

So you can imagine my glee when my husband requested peanut butter and chocolate baked goods to celebrate what he calls his birthday week.  I scoured the internet looking for inspiration, and inspiration I found in the form of cookies.  There were so many recipes to choose from, but the ones by How Sweet It Is ticked all of the right boxes for me.  Everyone has their cookie criteria.  Thin or thick.  Soft, hard or chewy.  Full of choc chips or just a smattering.  I am a thick, soft, full kinda girl.  I do like a chewy cookie too, but I think of Anzacs when I think chewy.  Choc chip cookies say soft to me.  These said thick, soft, full to me.  And they had peanut butter within their thick, soft, fullness.  Ingredients were bought, and then Will and I set to work.

We melted the peanut butter and butter together and set it aside to cool.  We combined the flour and the bicarb soda.  We added the sugar to the butter mixture, and then added the eggs to this mixture.  We gradually added the flour to this lovely brown combination, and then stirred in the choc chips.  Small balls of the dough were placed on a baking sheet, and they were cooked for ten minutes.

When they came out of the oven I was quite confident that we had discovered greatness.  They looked like hero cookies.  The recipe called for a period of cooling.  Will and I struggled to comply with this direction.  We felt compelled to try one while it was still warm and oozing chocolate from its inner core.  And my oh my were we glad that we did.  My boxes had indeed been ticked.

Suffice is to say that these cookies will be made again in this house.  And again.  And again.  And again.

{Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies}
adapted from How Sweet It Is
Makes 24+ cookies


2 cups plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
115g salted butter
85g smooth peanut butter
1 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg and 1 egg yolk, room temperature and lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 - 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 165 degrees C.  Line two baking sheets with baking paper.

Melt the butter and peanut butter together in the microwave in fifteen second bursts until it is combined.  Set aside to completely cool.

Combine flour and bicarb soda.

Once butter mixture is completely cool, add sugars and combine.  Add eggs and vanilla to this mixture.  Once combined, gradually add flour to form a dough.  Add chocolate chips to the dough and combine.

Place small balls of dough on a baking sheet, far enough apart to let them spread while baking, and place them in the oven for 10-12 minutes.  They should come out of the oven when they are ever so slightly brown.  They will still be quite soft at this point but will firm up upon cooling.

Cool, then eat!  Or maybe you could skip the cooling part and go straight to the eating part.  Your choice!

A few notes about this recipe ~

I know I always bang on about it, but your cookies will be drastically improved if you can get your hands on some good quality vanilla extract.  Don't use essence.  It just doesn't cut it.

It is really important that you let the butter mixture cool properly or the biscuits won't be the successful pillows of goodness that they should.  Shove it in the fridge to speed up the process if you must, but make sure you don't then let it chill.

I did try to get my hands on some American peanut butter for this recipe but was unsuccessful, so good old Kraft it was.  I would like to try it with the American stuff some time soon.  I'll keep you posted as to how they turn out.  We used smooth PB for our cookies, but I think crunchy would be great too.  Give it a try!

I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I think one and a half cups of choc chips was a little excessive.  Next time we make them we will go for one cup.  If your preference is for an overload of choc chips then one and half cups it is.

Susie xx

DIY cake stands, Ikea style

I love Ikea.  I could go there every day.  I was so happy when a new Ikea appeared around the corner from my home.  Finally I could go there without having to pack a lunch.  Luckily for me my kids love it too.  They love to test out the furniture, and to help me to find things in the self-serve area, and the anticipation of a shopping trip that ends in a $1 hot dog means that they, and my husband, are happy to go there any time.

The last few times I have been to Ikea I have remembered online tutorials I have seen about how to make your own cake stand with a candlestick and a plate.  Check out this one here by The Sweet Adventures of Sugarbelle for a great example of what I mean. 

Today when I visited the blue and gold Springvale landmark I had planned on acquiring some of these candlesticks and plates to make some cake stands of my own.  We have been renovating and I have some more cupboard space now.  What should I fill these cupboards with? Cake paraphernalia of course!!!

Upon entering the Market Hall I spied some really beautiful and really cheap coloured glasses and wondered whether they would work as a base for a cake stand.

I had a play around with some matching plates and decided to give it a whirl.  I love the combination of teal, pink and off white.  It took me a while, but I decided on these colours for my stands.

Making the cake stands is really quite simple.  After you have selected your plates and glasses you need to plug in your hot glue gun, or in my case you need to plug in Ang's hot glue gun.  Writing this post has reminded me that I borrowed her gun months ago and haven't returned it.  Sorry Ang!

While you are waiting for the glue gun to heat up, get yourself a piece of sandpaper and rough up the parts of the glasses and plates that will be touching to create a rough surface area for the glue to bond with.  We all love a bonding session don't we?

Place the plate that matches your glass upside down on a flat surface.  Now that your glue gun is hot, quickly run a bead of glue around the edge of the underside of the glass, where you have sanded it back.  Let's all pause now to check out my lame action shot.

You need to work quickly when doing this as the glue doesn't take very long to set.  I mean with lightning speed.  As soon as you have put on your glue, turn the glass upside down (which is really the right way up.  Confusing, no?) and stick it on the plate, being extra careful to have it centred.  There are no second chances with this so make sure you are confident!  

Now leave the cake stand to dry for a while.  It doesn't take long at all, in fact I was really impatient and turned them around pretty much immediately with no problems.

I just love my cake stands, and now that I have started I feel like the possibilities are endless!

The best part about these cake stands - they cost me a combined total of $22!  

Susie xx

Healthy(ish) Muesli Slice {recipe}

Today we had a day at home as my husband stayed at home from work sick and my youngest kidlet, Ollie, was also under the weather.  What to do during a morning at home? Bake of course! I am very conscious of being a good role model for the kids and I don't like them eating much junk food so I decided that Will and I would make something healthier than cakes and biscuits.  We came up with a muesli slice that turned out really well so I thought I would share the recipe.  There are loads of different muesli slice recipes out there, and this one is our interpretation.  There are endless combinations, so feel free to substitute different ingredients.  In the future I am going to experiment with making the slice with less butter and see how it holds together.  I'll keep you posted!

My little helper.  :-)

{Muesli Slice Recipe}

Ingredients
1 cup rolled oats
3 cups rice bubbles
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/3 cup currants
1/3 cup dried cranberries, chopped (we use the unsweetened ones that can be purchased at good nut shops)
1/3 cup dried apricots, chopped
4 tablespoons honey (we used yellow box honey)
4 tablespoons peanut butter (we used a smooth no added sugar no added salt variety)
125g unsalted butter, chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar

Line a 20x30cm lamington pan with baking paper.

In a large bowl combine the oats, rice bubbles, coconut, seeds, currants, cranberries, and apricots.

Put the honey, peanut butter, butter and sugar in a medium bowl and melt it in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until it is well combined and slightly thickened.  Add to the dry ingredients and stir until combined, taking care as the mixture will be very hot.  Press the mixture into the prepared pan, pushing it down with the back of the spoon so that it holds its shape once set.  Put in the fridge for a minimum of an hour before cutting. Store the slice in the fridge.

Susie xx

A long time between drinks ~ {chocolate orange mud cake and whipped chocolate orange ganache recipe}

It has been a LONG time in between posts for me.  I apologise for that.  You see, I have been on a quest to lose weight and increase my fitness.  Losing weight + experimental baking = epic fail, hence I haven't been doing much experimental baking!  I have, however, found the need to bake a few bits and pieces of interest over the past few months that I thought I would share with you.

I had a request from a customer for a chocolate orange mud cake which is a flavour that I haven't made before.  I would never give a customer a cake that I hadn't first tested myself so I decided to whip one up for Mothers' Day and can I just say, it was absolutely fabulous!  So fabulous that you all need to know the recipe for this marvellous taste sensation!

After doing a lot of research I decided to adapt a favourite mud cake recipe that I always use, the Planet Cake recipe.  I have recently converted to this as my go to mud cake recipe after trying a lot of others out. It is robust and predictable, it carves easily, and has a lovely in between type of chocolatiness (my own special word!) that will suit most tastes.  I did once prefer a more chocolatey recipe but found that a lot of people prefer something less nausea inducing, and so I have rested upon this recipe.

When it came to frosting the cake I wanted something a bit different to what I would usually use.  When I decorate a cake with fondant I cover it with ganache to make it super smooth and flat.  I wanted to still use ganache as I needed to test the orange flavour, but I didn't really want to use a hard ganache like I would normally, so I decided to change the chocolate to cream ratio and whip it.  My goodness.  The result was an amazingly tasty, mousse like ganache that was sublime.

The ganache was the usual combination of hot cream poured over good quality dark couverture chocolate.  I added orange zest to the cream while heating it so that the orange flavour would infuse the cream.  After the chocolate and cream are combined you wait until the mixture is at room temperature before whipping it until it thickens to stiff peaks and becomes paler in colour.  It is really important that you wait until it has cooled properly, and that you do not over beat the mixture, or it may split.  Believe me, you will know if it splits!

There are two ways that you can fix ganache if it does split.  Try this first - add a tablespoon of cold cream and vigorously stir it in to the mixture with a wooden spoon.  If it comes together this way you are in business.  If not, start the whole process again by gently reheating the mixture until it is combined.

I had planned to fill and cover my cake, however my husband is always telling me off for putting too much frosting on cakes so I decided to just cover it.  He was right.  This is a very, very rich frosting and should be used with caution!!!  I went for a rustic look which I think is fabulous with ganache.  Rustic is my way of saying slap it on and spread it around! This was achieved by spooning a generous amount of ganache on to the centre of the cake and gently, using a circular motion, easing the ganache to the sides of the cake.

All who ate the cake were impressed, but most importantly I, who haven't eaten a slice of cake since Christmas, was in heaven!  The orange flavour was perfect and cut through the sweetness of the chocolate  to produce a beautiful balance of flavours.  I sound like I should be on Masterchef!

This is what the cake looks like when smeared all over the face of an approving one year old!

If you are an orange chocolate fan then this recipe is certainly worth trying.  Let me know what you think!

{Chocolate Orange Mud Cake Recipe}

Adapted from Planet Cake


This recipe is enough for a tall eight inch cake, which is the standard cake tin size.

Ingredients

220g unsalted butter
220g dark couverture chocolate, or baking chocolate from the supermarket
25g instant coffee
160ml freshly squeezed orange juice
Zest of two oranges
125g self raising flour
125g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarb soda
480g caster sugar
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
7 teaspoons vegetable oil
100ml buttermilk at room temperature

~ Preheat your oven to 160 degrees celcius (140 if using a fan forced oven).
~ This cake has a very long baking time.  Placing a small dish of water in the base of the oven will prevent the surface of the cake from drying out.
~ Grease and line an eight inch round tin so that the baking paper sticks out of the top of the tin by about 2cm
~ Place the butter, chocolate, coffee, orange juice and zest in a medium saucepan.  Melt over low heat until combined.  Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
~ Sift the flours, cocoa and bicarb into a large bowl.  Add the sugar to combine and make a well in the centre.
~ Combine the eggs, oil and buttermilk in a small bowl, and then add to the flour mixture.
~ Add the chocolate mixture.  Stir gently until loosely combined, and then mix using a paddle attachment on low for 30 seconds.
~ Leave the mixture to settle slightly before pouring in to the prepared tin.
~ Bake for 50 minutes, cover with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent the surface of the cake from burning, and then bake for a further 50 minutes.
~ Completely cool the cake in the tin before removing.
~ If you do decide that you would like to fill and cover the cake it is best cut while chilled so refrigerate overnight before cutting.

{Whipped Chocolate Orange Ganache Recipe}

There are a multitude of recipes for ganache with different ratios.  This recipe is simply the ratio I used.

Ingredients

270g dark couverture chocolate or baking chocolate from the supermarket
400ml pure cream (do not use thickened cream!!!)
Zest of one orange

~ Place broken chocolate into a heat proof bowl
~ Place the cream and zest in a small saucepan over low heat until just boiled
~ Pour the cream over the chocolate and leave to sit for 10 minutes
~ Gently stir the mixture until well combined and then cool to room temperature
~ Using the whisk attachment of your mixer, whisk until the mixture pales in colour and forms stiff peaks.  Do not over whisk or the mixture will split.  See above tip if it does!

Slather your cake with this lovely frosting and enjoy!

Susie xx

Very easy chocolate cupcakes and pistachio cupcakes.

What a neglected blog!!!!!!!!!!
Shame shame shame.

I must explain. I am pregnant. And I am not one of those fabulous, glowing, liberated, at-one-with-my body pregnant women. I liken my pregnant self with something a little more akin to how Keith Richards would feel after a busy week.

So, more recently, the cloud has lifted and I am suddenly not feeling sick (well, not too sick), and I am finally thinking clearly. Clearly enough to make sentences. I'm not too sure about the quality of these sentences, but they are somewhat better than the many ridiculous drafts I did during the first 25 weeks of pregnancy.

So I sit here surrounded in mess. Surrounded by all of the things I should be doing, like cleaning, washing the banana out of my hair, etc. and I do something far more important. I write about cakes (and, by the looks of things so far, myself).

I have been baking, although not as much as I would like, and I recently did a wedding cake for a lovely couple. They asked for bride and groom cakepops, 3 different varieties of cupcakes and a red velvet cutting cake.

This blog is about the cupcakes. We have a fabulous red velvet cake recipe from the amazing Bakerella, so that was easy. Then I thought I would like all the cakes to be the same texture and consistency, so I adjusted the red velvet recipe to make a chocolate cake recipe and a pistachio cake recipe.

It took some time to get the pistachio recipe correct. I won't go into details other than to say it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Here is a montage to summarize:

Photographic evidence of my Keith Richardness.

Hmmm, this was funnier in my head.

I know, I'll add a picture of the baby helping. This will up the cheese factor.

Back to his hideously tired mother.

Note: fabulous new oven!

Here are some recipes:

Chocolate cupcakes:

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs - lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Method:
1. Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. In a seperate bowl, mix wet ingredients together.
3. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk on high for about a minute.

How easy was that!

4. Now divide the mixture between your cupcakes. Only fill the cups about half way, you should get about 45 cakes out of this recipe.
5. Bake in the middle shelf of your oven at 190 degrees celcius for about 15 minutes, or until a scewer inserted into them comes out clean.
6. Allow to sit for 10 minutes in the tin before transfering them to a wrack to cool.


Pistachio cupcakes:

2 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt

2 eggs - lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups oil
1 cup buttermilk
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon of almond essence.

1 cup pistachio nuts - roasted and chopped.

Method:
1. Whisk the first 4 ingredients together.
2. In a seperate bowl, whisk wet ingredients together.
3. Add wet mixture to dry ingredients, mix on high for one minute.
4. Fold pistachio nuts into mixture.
5. Now divide the mixture between your cupcakes. Only fill the cups about half way, you should get about 45 cakes out of this recipe.
6. Bake in the middle shelf of your oven at 190 degrees celcius for about 15 minutes, or until a scewer inserted into them comes out clean.
7. Allow to sit for 10 minutes in the tin before transfering them to a wrack to cool.

I iced all of the cakes with the insanely yummy white chocolate cream cheese frosting which Susie has blogged about before. It is in our recipe index here

Here are some photos!!!

Oh my! How did that get there!? HANDSOME!!

Katy.xx