365 23.03.13

bringing ronnies ideas to life

ronnie : mummy let’s make cakes for easter bunny club

HPMcQ : what type of cake would you like to make? cupcakes or maybe nests with eggs

ronnie : i know mummy, i have an idea. let’s make nests and put them on top of the cup cakes, that’s a good idea.

HPMcQ : that’s a marvelous idea ronnie, let’s go to sainsbury’s (there are other supermarkets available this just happens to be the closest to where we live)

tah dah

and this is how we did it

nests

100g dark chocolate

4 shredded wheat

bag of mini chocolate eggs

24 fluffy chicks

1. we melted the chocolate in the microwave in a chocolate melting pot, which i bought from lakeland and is pretty good.

2. we crumbled all the shredded wheat into a bowl and then poured the chocolate all over the top and then mixed it all together until all the shredded wheat was completely covered.

3. we then popped a small amount into the bottom of some silicone cupcake cases, enough to cover the bottom and then prod the centre to make a small scoop for your eggs to sit in.

4. we then popped them in the fridge to set. the silicone cases means that once they have set you can pop them out really easily.

cupcakes makes 24

110g unsalted butter

225g golden caster sugar

2 large eggs

150g self-raising flour

125g plain flour

120ml semi skimmed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. preheat your oven to 180 centigrade/gas mark 4 and pop your cases into your trays.

2. cream the butter and the sugar together with an electric hand mixture for around 3 minutes. add in the eggs one at a time and then mix for a couple of minutes after each one.

3. mix the two flours together in a separate bowl, add the milk to a jug and add the vanilla extract to the milk.

4. sift one-third of the flour into the creamed mixture together with a third of the milk & vanilla. fold in and then beat well. repeat for another third. and then again for the final third.

5. carefully spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases. and pop in the oven for around 15-20 minutes.

6. remove from the oven and leave to stand for 10 minutes before placing onto a wire rack to cool.

once they were cool we then pipped a small amount of buttercream icing on the top to stick the nests too.

buttercream icing 

175g 70% dark chocolate

225g unsalted butter

1 tablespoon semi skimmed milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extrace

250g icing sugar

1. we melted the chocolate in the chocolate pot as above.

2. in a mixing bowl with beat together the butter, milk, vanilla and the sifted icing sugar with an electric hand mixer until really lovely and smooth.

3. we poured in the melted chocolate and then beat again until it was all mixed in.

once the cupcakes had the icing pipped onto the top we squished down onto the top the nests. we then pipped a small amount of icing into the centre of the nests, and popped a chocolate egg or two into the nest and then nestled the little chicks in behind them.

all done