22nd wedding anniversary cake!

It was our 22nd anniversary the other week. I wasn't feeling terrific that week. Some seriously pulled muscles. I wasn't sure I could even be bothered making a cake for us this year.

In the end I decided to go for a really simple cake. A flourless chocolate cake. I've never done one before but it was really simple. Again, you can google it and find loads of recipes.

The only thing difficult about this cake is waiting for it to refrigerate. There may be over 400 calories per slice in it, but you didn't hear it from me!

Recipe

Ingredients
For the cake:
350g dark chocolate
170g butter (plus a little extra for greasing)
5 large eggs
200g sugar
60g cocoa powder, sifted
1.5tsp vanilla extract
1/4tsp salt
2tbsp cooled espresso

For the ganache:
100g dark chocolate
100ml cream

Instructions
The cake:
Lightly butter bottom and sides of a 24cm-round  5cm-deep cake tin and line with baking paper. Dust with cocoa powder.
Put the chocolate and butter in a bowl over simmering water until melted and smooth. Set aside and cool slightly.
In a stand mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and the espresso until pale, frothy and doubled in volume.
When the butter/chocolate mixture is cool enough, reduce the speed on the mixer to the lowest setting and gradually add to it the egg mixture until fully incorporated.
Remove the bowl from the mixer, sift the cocoa into the mixture and fold in with a large spoon or spatula.
Transfer to the cake tin you prepared earlier and bake in a preheated oven on 150 degrees for 40 -45 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out sticky with small sticky clumps. DO NOT OVERCOOK.
Let it cool in the tin for 30 minutes and then invert onto a cooling rack (running a knife around the edges if necessary) and remove the baking paper.
Cool completely, transfer to a cake plate,  cover and chill for 6 hours or overnight.

The ganache:
Heat the cream and chocolate in a bowl over simmering water until smooth and shiny. Pour over the cake. Leave to set.

To cut the cake, heat the knife by putting it in a cup of boiling water for a few seconds and wipe dry before cutting.

21st wedding anniversary cake!

It's that time of year again and this time I decided to make a super-duper cake. Not that we never get to eat cake or anything. I've been reading Gesine's blog for a long time now. I love the cakes and other goodies she makes. You can tell that so much love goes into them.

It took me a while to decide which cake I was going to be inspired by, well, if you've seen her blog you'll know why; so much deliciousness. I say inspired because I decided to follow the concept more than the actual recipe. Also, if I just say inspired then I can only blame myself if my brilliant ideas for change were not that brilliant. Which turned out to be the case.

Have a look at Gesine's.

I used my own recipes for the different elements. A simple fat-free sponge for the base and top and the chocolate spiral. I used ganache, cream and buttercream, like Gesine does in her recipe. My cake turned out a lot smaller, 6 inches, but that's fine. Just about right for the four of us to have a slice each.


I also cheated a little with the hearts on the side. I used my chocolate mold for those and finally I got Alex to write “Love” on top. I can't write neatly with a pencil never mind frosting!


When we cut the cake it was immediately obvious that 1) I should have put a thicker layer of cream on the rolled up cake, to get a more defined look; after all, the sensational thing about the cake was the upright ‘layers’ and 2) the sponge recipe I used was so spongy, it was difficult to get a clean cut. So, really, if you want it to turn out like Gesine's... follow her recipe!


We had some funny moments where the words ‘cake’ and ‘wrecks’ were mentioned, especially when HE was writing “Love” on the top and then, after I cut it, it didn't have the sharp effect I'd hoped for. Anyway, it was delicious and there's still half a bowl of ganache to eat later on!

Happy anniversary to us!


Liz Cupcakes

One year!

On the 31st of December we celebrated one whole year since we opened doors! Of course those of you who have been following the blog all along know that we actually started planning the whole thing at the end of 2008 and blogging about it at the beginning of 2009.


It took a whole one more month to actually blog about it, but here it is: We'd like to say a HUGE thanks to all of our customers and those who may not have been able to visit in person but have been supporting us all along! You know who you are :) Goes without saying we couldn't keep it up without the continued support from our families. They support us in every way.

This first year has been a true roller-coaster and, even though there were clouds of recession on the horizon when we opened, we didn't know how bad things were going to get for the economy. When we opened, there were so many things we didn't know. We've learned a lot over the last year. We couldn't have opened at a more difficult time but we're so happy to say that we must be doing something right because we're still here.


I could describe this year as exhausting, depressing, worrying, stressful, challenging and nerve-wracking. All of that would be true, but I can also describe it as exciting, exhilarating, fun, and satisfying. I suppose I should just sum it up by saying it has been extremely hard work, but also worthwhile.


I won't deny that it has been a hard year on the kids. It was extremely hard for them to get used to our new routine but now,
even though they get bored from time to time, they really love that we have our cupcake shop and can't wait until they get old enough to help out (apart from shouting 'CU•STO•MERS' as someone walks through the door and also assigning themselves as watchmen who wave at the passengers on the local tourist train that drives by in order to attract their attention, both of which they are doing already...).


In 2012 we want to keep on growing our customer base. We're listening to your cries for us to open in Athens and we're trying to find a way for you to be able to get your cupcakes if you can't get to us. One of the biggest lessons this year was patience. Lots of it!

Thanks again!

Liz Cupcakes

Anniversary ‘cake’ & Open Cupcake!

Since we're around cake so much these days I didn't particularly feel like having cake for our anniversary. I can't deny that I'm very tired.

We had a busy weekend ahead of us so I decided to just make a little something tasty for us to tuck into while we were at the café.


I settled on cheesecake brownie. I cut it into heart shapes, and layered it with fresh strawberries and chocolate & strawberry sauce. It was just right. Chocolate and strawberries together are delicious.


On Saturday we were pleased (but somewhat dismayed) that the seating area furniture turned up 5 minutes before we were due to hand out the 200 mini cupcakes! We quickly unpacked the things as fast as we could and disposed of the packaging. The delivery firm only delivered the table tops and not their legs!!! (which finally arrived last Wednesday, a whole 4 days later...)


Open Cupcake went really well! Thanks for everyone who made it. Special thanks to those who came all the way from Athens for cupcakes :D I had to keep baking most of the afternoon because the counter was emptying quickly.

It was an exhausting day. The poor kids were worn out, even though they were very excited by the whole thing. Or maybe it was just the helium balloons we got that were so exciting! We went to bed after midnight and I had to be up again at 7 the next morning to be on my feet again for most of Sunday. My feet are still not very happy with this running a cupcakery thing.

We're at the end of another holiday weekend. The town was busy. The weather did improve ever so slightly yesterday and the day before, with skies that allowed the sun to poke through just this little bit.

Up until the end of March we have a colouring competition for children who are under 12 (those who go to Demotikó). At the end of the month we'll choose a winner who will receive 12 cupcakes. Any under 12s are welcome to take part.


You can download the PDF file, colour and return it in the post (or just scan and email it to us)! Of course, should you win, you have to be able to come to Nafplio to pick up your prize!

Liz Cupcakes

Our anniversary & café open house!

It's that time of year again although we've hardly had time to notice since we've been so busy with the café!

Remember last year? Our 19th anniversary cookie?


And the cake?



Yes, last year was our 19th and I wrote this: ''Happy Anniversary to us! Next year it's the big 20! Should I start planning the celebrations from now?''

Hmm. Well. I wouldn't have thought that our anniversary would have come so soon after the opening of the café! To celebrate we're going to have an open-house on the 26th. We'll be giving away 200 mini cupcakes! We were waiting for our seating area to be ready to do a Grand Opening and there is a chance that the furniture will be delivered by the 26th, but whether it is or not, we're going to be celebrating our 20th Anniversary with our friends and customers!

Perhaps some of you might be planning a day trip to Nafplio and if you are, we'd love to see you!

Liz Cupcakes

It's our blogiversary!

We started this blog last year in March, after coming to the decision to leave Athens and move to Nafplio with our children to give them a simpler life. We're in the what-sometimes-seems-never-ending-process of opening a cupcake shop in the town. We decided to keep a record of the process for ourselves and future customers! Here are a few pictures from the past year!

We started with the search for a new place to live and lots of recipe testing!

In June we found a new place to live and in July we did a small leaving party for the kids.

By September we were settling in and enjoying the kindness of neighbours and friends.


October brought with it the wedding of Alex's youngest brother and the ensuing challenge of making over 700 hundred cupcakes to treat their guests.





At the end of November we were very excited to be featured in the national daily newspaper TA NÉA.

The last few months I've been finalizing products and recipes and we've been striving to take better photos, that involved all sorts of yumminess.







We've been blogging 'The making of cupcakes.gr' for over a year now! Where does the time go? I've had a personal blog since 2005, but I can't help but feel a sense of accomplishment with this blog, especially now we are getting closer and closer to our goal of opening our shop and actually getting cupcakes 'from our kitchen to your coffee table'! Thanks everyone for coming along with us and reading about our experience.

Liz & Alex

Winner and the OTHER anniversary cake

Thanks for all the entries into the give-away. It was enlightening. It seems like coffee was the run away winner of that one! Maybe it has to do with the slight bitterness of coffee together with the sweetness of cake.

By the way, I drink water with cake and Alex likes black coffee, no sugar!

So we had lots of comments on both sides again but the winner of the heart shaped baking tin is...no. 14!



Congratulations Kiki! The tin will be in the post on Monday morning.

On Tuesday I made another cake.


It's a recipe I've been meaning to try for a while and since it had enormous quantities of chocolate, butter and cream, it needed a special occasion!




Thanks again to everyone who entered. There will be another give-away coming up soon. Don't forget to answer the question in your comments in order to be entered into the give-away :)

Liz

Wedding anniversary - Giveaway

Today Alex and I have our wedding anniversary! 19 years! Most of the time I wonder how it can be possible that 19 years have passed, but when I actually take time to think of all the things we've done, places we've been and the places we've lived then I realise it really is 19 years. The time started flying by even faster after the addition of our son, seven years ago, and our daughter, in 2006.

To celebrate I made this:


I got the idea from the fabulous Bakerella. I made a few little alterations. Some because I wanted to and others because I had no choice. First of all, I made mine into a millionaire's shortbread, adding caramel on top of the cookie base instead of butterscotch chips.



I also had to free style with my M&M design since my tin was a little smaller than the one Bakerella used. Also because in the states you can buy M&Ms by the colour, which we can't do here in Greece. I tried my best by sorting out two enormous packets into colours and then fiddled around with a piece of paper working out a design. Next time I might try and work with those little 'treat size' smarties packages, although I don't know whether I could face sorting out the colours again :)



I didn't manage to achieve the neon sign look that Bakerella did, but, overall, I think it looks OK. To be perfectly honest, millionaire's shortbread certainly doesn't need any extra embellishing with M&Ms but it was a fun way to write a little message.


Just in case anyone would like to try and recreate this giant cookie, I'm giving away one of these heart-shaped tins! I found it worked really well for the cookie and it came out easily. It's also deep enough to make a cake or some other sort of sweet or savoury tart.


If you'd like the opportunity to own this tin, just leave a comment below and tell me what your favourite drink is when you are having cake? Tea, coffee, champagne? You have until Saturday evening to comment and we'll pick the winner on Sunday.

Happy Anniversary to us! Next year it's the big 20! Should I start planning the celebrations from now?

Liz