Japan Candy Box Video *Giveaway Closed*

Who doesn't love sweets and candies? The blog was created with a love of sweet treats in mind! So when I was approached by Japan Candy Box to do a review of the latest box, I was delighted too!

They sent me the August 2015 box which arrived beautifully wrapped in some very kawaii purple paper! I have a list of the candies that was sent to me:

1.Kracie Tsunagete DIY Chain Candy-

Orange and bubblegum flavoured chain sweets, which were delightfully chewy. Also, they are fun to put together but I prefer to just to eat them. 

2.Kracie Neru Neru Nerune DIY Candy-

Yikes, I hated this! The texture of the drink of terrible, the flavour wasn't too bad however. It was fun to make but I wouldn't get this one again!

3.Rilakkuma Cookie Sticks-

These are so sweetly packaged. The cookies taste more like rich tea biscuits rather than cookies but they are so more-ish! Definitely one of my favourites in the box.

4.Puccho Watermelon Chewy Candy- 

Chewy, yet gummy and fruity. They truly taste like watermelon.  

5.Shigekix Super Sour Grape Gummies-

Wow! Talk about sour! These were so tasty but very strong. If you love sour sweets, you'll fall in love with these!

6.Yaokin Sour Grape Paper Candy- 

This 'paper candy' was leathery and way too chewy for my palette. However, the sour and grape flavour are spot on. 

7. Meiji Yan Yan Biscuit Sticks- 

I've had a similar product before and I do like this sweet too. The strawberry, for me, need to be stronger in flavour. Its still very enjoyable to moonch on!

8.Bourbon Petit Choco Filled Cookies-

These are so addictive! The vanilla and chocolate really complement each other.

9.Tohato Anpanman Caramel Corn- 

These have the texture of crisps but have a toffee flavoured sweetness. 

10. Moominvalley Biscuits-

I really like these chocolate biscuits and the design is quite detailed on each biscuit. 

Overall the candy box was really enjoyable. I loved most of the sweets, with a few exceptions. I would like to say a big thank you to Japan Candy Box for sponsoring the post. Do you like the look of the Candy Box? Well you can win one yourself by entering the competition link below. 

A Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck! and Happy Baking!

*This post was sponsored by Japan Candy Box. They sent a candy box to me for free and are giving away a candy box to my readers!* 

Candied Bacon Cupcakes (The first sweet and savory cupcake on this blog)

I'm a firm believer in sweet cupcakes, the clue is in the name. CUPCAKE. It's a cake. Cakes are sweet!

So this is why I felt at one point, that savoury cupcakes just don't work. But there is a growing trend in savoury cupcakes, with strange and wonderful ingredients. 
Often there, were times when I have to stand up and shout: "NO! I do traditional sweet cakes! Not crazy sushi tuna with wasbi buttercream! No! What ever happened to a good quality chocolate cupcake?! NO! DON'T RUIN CUPCAKES OK?"
....
As the years have gone by my opinion is slowly beginning to change. I do believe in experimenting. Thinking about it from a chef-y point of view, it can lead to some amazing discoveries. Like peanut butter and jelly (jam to us in the UK), who would have thought to combine the two? I mean maybe a sushi cupcake is a little over the top (if you find a sushi cupcake or happen to make one please post the link underneath and it will be something to laugh about later on). In any case, here's my take on the sweet and savory cupcake, cant beat bacon and chocolate so together there a match made in food goodness.  

Candied Bacon (recipe adapted from The Three Kitcheneers  )

·       450g thick cut bacon (about 12 slices)

·       150g dark brown sugar

·       1 tsp cinnamon

·       A  pinch of cayenne pepper 

For the Cupcakes (recipe adapted from Cupcake Heaven Magazine):

·       150g unsalted butter, room temperature

·       150g caster sugar

·       ½ tsp vanilla extract

·       3 large eggs

·       150g self raising flour

·       ½ of the candied bacon, chopped

Dark Chocolate frosting (recipe adapted from Cupcake Heaven Magazine):

·       150g unsalted butter, room temperature

·       285g icing sugar, sieved

·       25g cocoa powder, sieved

·       1 teaspoon vanilla extract

·       1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, sieved

Equipment:

·       Wire rack x 2

·       A sheet of spare baking sheet

·       Baking sheet or baking tray covered with foil

·       Electric hand whisk

·       Chopping board

·       Sharp knife

·       Bowl 1x small, 1x big

·       Sieve

·       12 holed muffin tray lined with 10 cupcake papers

·       Measuring jug

·       Fork

·       Metal spoon

·       Piping bag or palette knife

1.    Preheat oven to Gas Mark4/ 180c/350f . Line a 12 holed muffin tray with cupcake papers. Line a baking sheet with foil.

2.    Mix together brown sugar, cinnamon and cayenne in a small bowl.

3.    Place bacon on a wire rack over an aluminium covered baking sheet and sprinkle the sugar mix on top of the bacon. Patting down as you go.

4.     Place the bacon in the oven to bake for 30 minutes. (Bake longer if needed, as not all bacon is the same thickness) Once caramelised, let cool on another wire rack for about 30 minutes. (Don’t be tempted to start eating the bacon goodness, there’s a serious burn risk with hot sugar )

5.     Chop the bacon up as thinly as you can.

 

6.    To start the cupcakes, place the butter, sugar and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat the mixture with an electric hand whisk until it becomes light and fluffy.

7.    Lightly, beat the eggs in a jug then slowly add to the mixture whilst on medium speed, beating well after each addition.

8.    Sift the flour into the cake mix and add ½ of the chopped bacon, and fold in using a metal spoon until just combined.

9.    Spoon the mixture into the paper cases, until 2/3 full. Bake for 18-20 mins.

10. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack until completely cool.

11.For the buttercream: Place the butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, cayenne pepper and vanilla into a bowl and using a hand-held whisk beat slowly. Once the ingredients are beginning to combine, turn up the speed of the electric whisk and beat the frosting until light and fluffy.

12.  Pipe or spread the cooled cupcakes with the buttercream and garnish with ½ of the chopped candied bacon.

So that's my first attempt at sweet and savory cupcake. 
Have an excellent weekend

Anti Valentines Gluten-Free Zombie Cookies

It's a little late in February for a Valentines post but I don't like Valentines so there you go. I like the idea to dress up in red and eatting chocolates and sweets but thats it. I don't fancy overpaying for a meal that costs less any other day, but because its Valentines day its £60 for a sub-par 3 course meal and a cheap glass of plonk wine... Yeah no thanks... 

But I appreciate that people think its a real holiday and people really go above and beyond to celebrate. I made my feelings about Valentines clear last year in this post. 

Yet last year, I still fell into the trap of making treats for Valentines day. I caved into the pressure!! Damn you Valentines! Actually the truffles and biscuits were very tasty and it was nice to have the boyfriend around to fight over them with as well. 

So what happened this year? The weekend before Valentines I spent with my boyfriend because I have too many university deadlines and we don't really do Valentines. We prefer to make anytime we spend together special rather then just the one day. 

I had spent Valentines weekend alone eating chocolates and baking of course! This year I decided to channel my distaste for Valentines with these horrors:

They want your heart and your brains!!! 

Using the dough recipe and icing recipe on last years Valentine heart biscuits by using Fred biscuit cutters (which I got as an epic Christmas present. Thanks Ben and Lucy!) I was able to create some yummy biscuit creations, however they became really wet. At first I thought: Must have made the icing wrong. But I found out that one of my family members had stored the biscuits in a moist environment (it was stored in very cold conservatory). So that's why the biscuits ran but they just look more horrific, which is the look that is really on trend, well it is for zombies. 

My advice when you start these biscuits:

• Bake your biscuits and make sure they are cold or your icing will warp.
• While your biscuits are baking draw how you would like to decorate your biscuits. I really went to town with my doodles.
• Stick with 3-4 colours for your zombies. I used 5 colours and it got fiddley and annoying as I wanted it done by colour 3. 
• Do one colour at a time, one zombie at a time. I tried to fill in all the greens on all the zombies. That doesn't work and it will cause a mess. This is why 2 batches were made so you had the outlines icing and the filling icing

Recipe: Makes 20 biscuits

•     125g unsalted butter
•     125g caster sugar
•     1 medium egg
•     1 tsp vanilla extract
•     250g Doves Farm plain flour, sieved plus a little extra to flour your work surface.

Equipment:

•     Electric whisk
•     Bowl
•     Sieve
•     Undead Fread Cookie cutters
•     Speech Bubble cookie cutter (I don't have one so I used a paper template)
•     Whisk
•     Cling-film
•     Baking sheet lined with parchment
•     Rolling pin

   1.    In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy.

   2.    Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix together.

3.    Sift half the flour into the bowl and mix in, then sift in the other half and mix again.

   4.    Knead the dough until smooth, then wrap in cling-film and let it rest in the freezer for an hour at least. 

   5.    Pre-heat your oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4.

   6.    Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to around 4mm thick and cut out into zombie shapes.

   7.    Place on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly golden brown. Allow to cool before decorating.

Recipe: Stiff peak royal icing

•     1kg icing sugar/confectioners’ sugar
•     4 medium egg whites
•     2 tsp lemon juice
•     Green, blue, black and red food colouring paste (you can leave a little icing white if you prefer)

Equipment:

•     Electric whisk
•     Bowl x 5
•     Sieve
•     10 disposable piping bags
•     Scissors
•     Forks x 5
•     Toothpick
•     Tissue
•     Tablespoons x 5
•     Zombie decorating sheet

1.    Sift the icing sugar into a bowl.

2.    Add the egg whites and the lemon juice to the icing sugar and mix together for about 5 minutes.

3.    The mix should look smooth and shiny. If it looks a little dry then add one drop of lemon juice and mix for a minute.

4.Once your icing makes a stiff peak put it in 4 clean bowls (5 if you keeping a little white icing).

5. Colour the different bowls different colours using the food colouring. (Leave one of the icing bowls coloured white)

6. Quarter fill, 4 (or 5) of the piping bags with each colour. Snip a small hole in the top of each bag.

7. Take a biscuit and starting from the top centre, pipe an different coloured outlines around the inside edge of the biscuit to the tip of the zombie. 

8.    Make sure there are no holes or missing gaps in the zombies, if there are fill them in with the correct colour.

9.    Once all the zombies have been outlined, add a teaspoon of water to each of the colours until the consistency of each icing is runny. Keep adding water, carefully, until it reaches running consistency but not watery.

10.  Fill each 4 (or 5) more disposable piping bags and cut small holes in the ends.

11.  Flood the inside of the biscuit starting at the edge and zigzagging up and down until completely flooded.

12. Once your speech bubbles are completely dry (AND ONLY WHEN COMPLETELY DRY!!) write your beloved a message.

Messages such as:

I love you for your brains

I fancy a bie... out of you...

Want dinner...want you!! BRAINS!

You can be very creative with this of course.

Happy Valentines!

Vanilla and Blueberry Swirl Cupcakes

I know it's been a while since I've published a post but it's been a long old couple of weeks. To sum it up:

• I've been baking (Duh). The recipe for vanilla and blueberry swirl cupcakes is below, of course. 
• Visiting my lovely friend Lauren for coffee and Japanese food. (After a coffee we had a mini dessert. It was so freaking adorable) 

  

  How cute is this? Little chocolate fudge cake with a cappuccino 

• Working at my amazing job with my crazy colleagues. We're starting our own inside jokes, which means I'm making progress-work wise.
• My boyfriend came over for a flying weekend visit. In fact, I managed to purchase a mortar board made out of chocolate! How epic cool is that?! He graduated about 2 weeks ago and I thought what better way to show my love than in chocolate form?  
  
  
  
  
  

He did share a little with me, but it didn't last very long. It lasted about 20 minutes. Yes it's been a wild couple of days. So lets get right down to these cupcakes:

These cupcakes are made with whole blueberries baked into the cupcake. It has a muffin-like texture, but the sweetness of the buttercream brings it back to its cupcake form. Also worth noting that the buttercream is made with blueberry juice. Not extract, not flavouring but the real blueberry juice. The good stuff. (Well as good as it gets in a cupcake form) Sometimes it's best to use the natural stuff. 

Makes 12 Cupcakes-For the cake you will need: Recipe adapted from Cupcake Heaven Magazine

·        225g plain flour

·        2 tsp baking powder

·        110g caster sugar

·        2 eggs

·        110ml sunflower oil

·        225ml milk

·        70g blueberries

For the Buttercream you will need:

·        55g unsalted butter

·        110ml double cream

·        ½ tsp vanilla extract

·        350g icing sugar

·        55g blueberries

·        Blue sugar to decorate

1.     Preheat oven to Gas Mark 6/200c/400f, and line 12 paper cases into the muffin tin. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the sugar.

2.     Whisk together the eggs and oil in a separate bowl until frothy, slowly whisk in the milk. Stir in the dry ingredients until just combined. Gently stir in blueberries.

3.     Spoon the mixture into papercases and bake for 20 minutes until risen and springy. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool.

4.     To make the frosting, beat the butter, then beat in the cream and vanilla with a wooden spoon. Sift the icing sugar and beat again. Put half of the frosting into another bowl.

5.     Press the blueberries into through a sieve to extract the juice.

6.     Add a little of the blueberry juice into half of the icing sugar. Only a little as the frosting can go sloppy.

7.     Spoon the two buttercreams into the fitted piping bag. Pipe a swirl onto each cupcake and decorate with coloured sugar. 

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend! Also don't forget it's Bake it Yourself Day on Monday!

Matcha and Chocolate Cupcakes for Matcha May!

As mentioned in my previous posts I have been keeping a Matcha Diary and I promised to incorporate some teapigs matcha into a cupcake for Matcha May.

I feel that this combo really works, as the matcha is really understated. So if your a little unsure about matcha in a cupcake, the dark chocolate balances it out. These make a great snack to moonch on whilst at work, which I thought were really de-lish!  

Recipe: Makes 12 cupcakes (Recipe adapted from Making Cupcakes with Lola)

·       150g plain flour, sifted

·       2 ½ tablespoons of cocoa powder, sifted

·       1/4 teaspoon matcha powder

·       1 teaspoon baking powder

·       A pinch of salt

·       150g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       265g caster sugar

·       120g dark chocolate, chopped

·       1 egg

·       150ml water

Buttercream

·       125g unsalted butter, at room temperature

·       1 tablespoon single cream, plus a little more if needed

·       ½ teaspoon matcha powder

·       500g icing sugar, sifted

Equipment:

·       Large saucepan

·       Bowl

·       Chopping board

·       Knife

·       Measuring Jug

·       Sieve

·       Tablespoon

·       Muffin tray lined with cupcake cases x 2

·       Whisk

·       Piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle or a palette knife to spread the buttercream

     1.  Pre-heat the oven to 180c/350f/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tray with cupcake cases.

     2. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, matcha powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

     3. Put the butter, sugar and chocolate in a medium saucepan over a low heat. Heat until pale and smooth.

     4. Add 150ml water and whisk until combined let cool for a few minutes.

     5. Add the egg to the saucepan and whisk in.

     6. Finally, whisk in the sifted dry ingredients and whisk in well.

     7. Carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, filling them to about two-thirds full. Bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until slightly raised. To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cakes-it should come out clean.

     8. Remove from the oven and leave the cakes in their tins for about 10 minutes before carefully placing on a wire rack to cool. Once they are completely cool, you can ice the cupcakes.

     9.  To make the buttercream, mix the cream and matcha powder to make a paste.

    10. Put the butter into a bowl and microwave for 20 seconds until soft. Sift half the sugar into the bowl, beating until incorporated.

    11. Add the second half of the icing sugar and beat on a low speed using an electric whisk.

    12.  Add the matcha and cream paste and mix really well. If the mixture is a little thick add a tablespoon of cream and then beat again until loose. 

    13.   Spread or pipe the buttercream on the cooled cakes.

    14.  To finish off dust the top of the cupcakes with cocoa powder.

These really hit the spot when it you need a little sweet pick me up. In the buttercream alone is one daily serving of matcha, and I've heard that dark chocolate is good for you in moderation. So what's not to love?

Bake On!