I am Back and It's Minion time !

Well hey there food lovers , been a while since I've written a post as to be honest I have given up . But as once Julia Child said “...no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.”  and so I decided I shall keep on trying and not give up on something I love to do . So here we are couple months later not giving up . 



So for you today I have this cute minion Cake that looks amazing and tastes even better but most importantly easy to do  . It's  a great cake for a children's party ( or in some cases adults as well , as I won't complain if I got one on my birthday)

What you'll need 

• 1 cup Sugar
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Butter
• 1.5 cups Flour 
• 1 & 3/4 Tsp Baking powder
• 2 Eggs
• 2 tsp Vanilla extract 
• Food colouring 

For Decoration 

• Black Fondant 
• Yellow Fondant 
• Brown Fondant 
• White Fondant 
• 1 cup softened butter
• 3.5 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 tsp milk 
• 1 tsp Vanilla extract
• pinch of salt  

1. Preheat the oven at 170 degrees c
2. In a large bowl mix together the butter and sugar until getting a sand like consistency
3. Add in the vanilla and eggs and cream together 
4. Combine the flour and baking powder adding in slowly the milk until getting a smooth mixture 
5. Now comes the fun part pick a colour of your choice , I picked Blue and Red as I baked two Cakes to stack . Mix in the food colouring adding in few drops at a time , remember you can go darker but can't go lighter 
6. Pour the mixture in a greased pan and bake for 35 minutes , or until a toothpick comes out clean 
7. Once it's ready let it cool down 

Butter Cream 

1. Mix together the softened butter and Confectioners's Sugar until getting a smooth mixture 
2. add in the milk , Vanilla and salt and mix well together until all is creamed 

Now let's get Decorating ! 

1. Once your cakes are cooled we are going to stack them , by placing a dollop of butter cream in on one cake and spreading it evenly in a thin layer and stack the second cake on top 
2. Now we need to crumb coat our cakes , a crumb coat is the first thin layer of butter cream to hold in all the crumbs . Once the cake is crumb coated chill for 10 - 15 minutes
3.  Now it's time to second coat your cake with butter cream trying to get it as smooth as possible and once this is done put the cake in the fridge
4. While the cake is in the fridge so that the butter creams firms up , we start by rolling out our yellow fondant and for my cake I used 400g of fondant. While rolling the fondant always check that it isn't sticking to your surface and if it is put some confectioners' sugar on to your surface 
5. Get the cake out of the fridge 
6. Once rolled out , start from one end slowly and lightly rolling the fondant onto the the rolling pin and transfer it onto the cake ( you can find a link down below of my all time favourite Youtube Channel How to Cake it , and you can see how it's done, she's amazing ) 
7. Once the cake is covered you start from the top using a smoother , smoothing the top working your way downward slowly to remove any creases ( remember practice makes perfect)
8. now we are going to start the minions eyes , using a circle cookie cutter , cut to white circles out of fondant , and using a smaller cutter cut two brown circles , this will make the pupils of the eyes and by using an even smaller one cut two black circles to complete the eyes and stick them to the cake using a small brush and some water.
9. Now for the goggles , combine a small amount of black and white fondant a mix them well together until you get the desired grey colour. Roll the fondant into a thin cylinder shape and wrap around the eyes 
10. For the goggle straps you need a piece of thinly rolled out black fondant  cut into a strip measuring that is enough to cover from the edge of the goggles till the ends of the cake 
11. With the remaining black fondant , you need to roll it int a cylinder to for the hair and the minion smile 
12. I then cut out some letters and stars to stick around the cake to right out the birthday boy's name
13. That's it you got a lovely minion cake . 

Bon appetit & never give up 

Courtney 

XX

How to Cake it Youtube Channel 

Hot Cross Buns & Rainy Days

Hey food lovers ,

So this week it has been all about rain , as for a weather I personally hate it especially if I had plans of going out or doing something, but when I have a free day I must admit that I don't hate it
as much , as it's  a great excuse to bake or cook and for this weeks post I had the pleasure to do so with my sister and nephew and enjoyed it so much.

We baked two goodies for this week, hot cross buns that came out delicious ,but without the cross on the top as the icing wasn't opaque enough and some coconut balls that are more kid friendly cooking as it requires only few ingredients and no baking so they are great to do with kids on rainy days  as when it's pouring  rain and super cold you can't really go anywhere so you're practically stuck at home and baking will surely help time goes by and on the bright side  you will end up with some scrumptious treats in the end.

 It may take longer if your baking with kids but its worth I had so much fun doing so with my 2 year old nephew and he looked as if he did so as well, as he helped me till the very end. He even helped out with the picture taking of the final products , so for this week I can say that I had the cutest little assistant helping me out.

Hot Cross Buns 

ingredients: 

• 450g flour 
• 250ml milk 
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp all spice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 150g dried fruit 
• 7g yeast
• 1 orange , zest only 
• 150g sugar 
• 50g butter 

1. In a mixing bowl add the flour, yeast, allspice , dried fruit , orange and the sugar and mix well.
2. In a saucepan melt the butter and add the milk once the butter is melted remove from the heat and mix in 1 egg and vanilla 
3. Fold in the Butter mixture into the flour to form a dough 
4. Knead the dough until smooth 
5. Split the dough in 12 pieces and set aside until the dough has doubled in size or for 1-2 hrs 
6. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees 
7. Line a baking tray  with baking paper and brush the buns with a beaten egg. Bake for 20-25 minutes
8. For the cross mix icing sugar with little bit of water and drizzle it in a form of a cross. 

And for the Junior Chefs.. 

Coconut Balls 

ingredients:

• 1 pkt plain biscuits
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder
• 1 can condensed milk 
• 1 cup desiccated coconut 

1. Crash the biscuits until they are small crumbs and pour in a mixing bowl 
2. Pour in the rest of ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix everything well 
3. Pour some desiccated coconut in a plate 
4. Start forming the mixture in balls and rolling them in the coconut 
5. Let them set in the refrigerator for 45min to 1 hour to firm up  

Enjoy 

xxx 

Pretty in Pink

Hey Food lovers ,
Hope you had a wonderful week ... So after a busy week now it's time to relax and bake some goodies. For this week I have for you all some scrumptious sweet vanilla cupcakes with the cutest pink frosting to go with.

This week was so hectic and busy that I was so super looking forward to get to the point when I can just bake and get to write this blog post for you but on the bright side this weekend I have a family get away finally getting a break from the everyday hectic routine, in fact as I am writing this post I am looking and enjoying a splendid sea view and eating some delicious food that they serve here , its so beautiful and calm its as if I am no longer in Malta, and went some place else. You can check out instagram @numnumblog for photos of the views and food from this weekend

So first I had in mind to do black and white themed cupcakes as my sister bought me some black and white cupcake liner but then I went with some cute bright and fun pink frosted cupcakes as I finally found rose pink food dye , its so pretty and made the frosting look like cotton candy. Since the frosting is super sweet I did a plain vanilla cupcake to go with and they paired perfectly with the sweetness of the frosting and the subtle taste of vanilla.

For the Vanilla cupcakes it's an easy recipe that will get you a fluffy vanilla cupcakes ;
Ingredients: 

• Self Rising Flour (2cups) 
• Caster sugar (1/2 cup)
• Baking powder (1&1/2 tsp) 
• Melted Butter (1/3 cup)
• 3 egg whites 
• Milks (1/2 cup)
• Vanilla extract (1&1/2t tsp)

1. Mix the flour , sugar and the baking powder in a large mixing bowl.
2. preheat the oven to 250 degrees. 
3. Melt the Butter on low heat and add it to the mixture 
4. Add the egg whites, Milk and vanilla extract .
5. Mix well 
6. line the cupcake liners and fill them half way 
7. and bake for 15 to 20 minutes 

And for the Pretty pink Frosting;

• 1 cup white sugar 
• 1/3 cup water 
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar 
• 1 tsp vanilla 
• 2 egg whites 
• confectioners sugar  

1. Beat the egg whites and vanilla until fluffy and can hold a small peak. 
2. In a small saucepan mix in the white sugar , cream of tartar and the water until the sugar is all melted 
3. while whisking the egg and vanilla mixture gradually add the sugar mixture and mix. 
4. Once whisked add confectioners sugar as for you consistency liking how thick you want your frosting to be. 

Bon Apetit, 
xx