Pink champagne marshmallows

These were another homemade gift this Christmas. Thankfully there were plenty left over as I love marshmallows and homemade ones are truly amazing.

The champagne flavour of these really comes through, giving an intensely fruity flavour.

Sorry for the lack of photos, it was very frantic making these on Christmas Eve. I urge you to give these a go should you be willing to spare a glass of you New Years prosecco or champagne!


Pink champagne marshmallows

3 sachets gelatine
250ml champagne/prosecco
340g caster sugar
325g golden syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch salt
Pink gel colouring
30g icing sugar
30g corn flour

Combine the icing sugar and corn flour in a bowl. Lightly oil a 13 by 9 inch pan (I used my brownie tin) and thoroughly coat in ~ 1/2 the icing sugar mix, reserving the rest.

Put the gelatine into the bowl of a free standing mixer. Add 125ml of the champagne and allow to soften.

Meanwhile put the sugar, golden syrup and remaining champagne into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Warm over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase the heat to medium/high and cook until the syrup reaches 240F on a candy thermometer.

Remove from the heat and immediately start the mixer on slow. Carefully pour the hot syrup down the side of the bowl onto the gelatine.

Increase the speed of the mixer and beat for 12 minutes. Add in the vanilla and a little colouring (a little goes a long way!) and beat for a further couple of minutes.

Scoop the sticky mass into the prepared pan, smooth over and sprinkle with the remaining icing sugar mix.  Leave for a least 4 hours or overnight then cut into squares.

These will keep for a couple of weeks in an airtight container.

Raspberry champagne cupcakes

Phew I have just finished a marathon 3 1/2 hour baking bonanza. I wanted to make cupcakes as a thank you to someone, and not knowing what they liked I went for 3 different types!

I decided on raspberry champagne, cookies and cream and a rather special vanilla coconut (more on that in a later post).

If you are lucky enough to live in Edinburgh you may have heard of the cuckoo bakery and there seemingly never ending range of cupcakes. Check them out on facebook or visit their website here. The raspberry champagne cupcake recipe is courtesy of them, you can find it here.

The cupcakes themselves are not hard to make, they just take a little longer as they are assembled in a few stages. First the cake is made and allowed to cool, it is then filled with a champagne raspberry jam mix and finally topped with a champagne buttercream frosting.

The recipe makes 12, so I halved it to get 6, my cakes rose a little too well, I reckon that I could actually get 7 from it. Besides the frosting covered the dome so it was no huge problem.

The cupcake is lovely, I can definitely taste the champagne in the frosting and it gives the raspberry jam such a lovely fizzy tang. I personally feel it does subtly flavour the sponge, though you may not be aware that the flavour is champagne.

Oh confession time, I did not use champagne (shock horror)  I chose instead a cava with a biscuity taste, similar to a champagne. If you wish to splash out go ahead, you could really elevate your cupcakes to the next level!