Sooty's cupcakery

Hidden away on Castlegate in York is Sooty's cupcakery. As far as I am aware this is the first cupcakery that York has. As much as I love Yorkshire baking treats (curd tart, yum) there is always room for more, so hurrah for Sootys.

When I went in it was very quiet, its possibly as it was lunchtime and most people perhaps do not consider a cupcake as lunch food. 

There were a number of different variety's of cupcake on display along with a few homemade biscuits too (these were HUGE). Flavours of cupcake today included vanilla, chocolate, raspberry, lemon curd, mint crunch, hazelnut mocha, baileys and a divine looking one with an oreo on top! 

Having selected the lemon curd one along with a cup of tea I was very pleasantly surprised at the grand total of £2.48. Its a decent sized cake and decent mug of tea, I would not get a coffee in many chains for that.

Once seated I had a better nosey at their price board. £1.49 for the cupcakes, £0.99 for a variety of tea, £1.80 for cappuccino's and mocha's. Not sure how much an americano was but you can bet your bottom dollar that it is highly reasonable too. 

There is some seating inside, enough for 8 people I think, and as it was quiet and kind of drizzling outside, I stayed in to enjoy my cupcake.

The cake itself was lovely and moist with a nice flavour and had a generous dollop of lemon curd baked into the centre. The frosting was luscious and smooth, and subtly vanilla flavoured. There was another dollop of lemon curd on the top too. 

All in all I very much enjoyed my cake and would definitely go back (the oreo one is calling to me!). I urge any yorkies or people visiting York to hunt it out and enjoy a lovely piece of homebaking without breaking the bank.

   

Easter mini egg cupcakes

I know, I know Easter has been and gone. In my defence I have not been lazy and posted days late, I have only just made these and I have stockpiled mini eggs so I could!

The premise for them is very easy.

Pick your favourite vanilla cupcake recipe, and pick your favourite chocolate cupcake recipe.  Admittedly I am still striving to find my favourites of these. Frosting is nearly there but the chocolate cupcake could do with work.  

Bash up some of your mini eggs, making sure you reserve enough for the tops!

That’s the last picture until the end I wanted to take more but many disasters hampered my efforts. Firstly I had forgotten to take the butter out, I ran out of eggs, my little electric mixer broke, (poor mark was dispatched for new replacements on both theses occasions!). This meant a total rush with barely enough time for cupcakes let alone pictures!

Make your batter for both the chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

Once the batter is made, scoop 1 spoonful into each bun case.

Stir the bashed up eggs into the remaining batter of each cupcake mix and finish filling up the cases. I fill them this way as a preventative measure, I was trying to prevent my bits of egg sinking and sticking, which could make the cases hard to remove.

Cook your cupcakes and allow to cool.

Top your vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate frosting and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting.

On go the reserved mini eggs and voila, easter nest cupcakes.  

I like my vanilla cupcake recipe but I think that I need to keep looking for that perfect chocolate cupcake recipe.

Stirring a bar of melted and cooled green and blacks 85% chocolate into the chocolate frosting prevents it from being too sweet and makes it lovely and chocolatey.

Make sure you add plenty of vanilla to your vanilla frosting, I personally like vanilla paste or pods, nobody wants to taste pure butter and icing sugar.

Cinnamon buns

So I promised you another American themed post and here it is.

 I cannot explain why I had such a cinnamon bun craving but I did, cinnamon is not even my favourite spice, mind you it has gone up in my estimation since I made these.

I found this recipe on happyhomebaking, the author had adapted it from a recipe posted by ‘Kitchenmage’ who had adapted it from ‘The pioneer women’, and I myself have tweaked it just a little. That’s the best thing about baking, it’s the little tweaks that make it personal.

There are only two of us, myself and the 'live in chief taster' (M) but the recipe below is easily doubled if you have a family to feed.

Warning you will need to start this recipe the day BEFORE you want your cinnamon buns for breakfast.

Cinnamon buns

For the dough:

125ml skimmed or semi skimmed milk
25g light brown sugar

30ml vegetable oil (I used ground nut oil)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
125g + 15g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
pinch salt

for the filling:

1/2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
25g light brown sugar

25g unsalted butter

30g currants


Method:

Mix milk, sugar and vegetable oil in a pan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar, then leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Place 125g plain flour and instant yeast in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the above mixture. Stir with a spatula until the mixture comes together to form a thick batter. Cover and let the batter sit for at least 1 hour.

Add in the remaining 15g flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until the mixture comes together.

Cover and leave to chill in fridge for at least four hours. (Note: dough will be more firm and easier to work with if left to chill in fridge).

When ready to make the rolls, melt the butter sugar and cinnamon together in a pan.

Dust the work surface with flour, dust the dough with flour too. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape. Then roll out as thin as possible. Dust the dough and work surface with flour when necessary.

Brush the rolled out dough with melted butter mix. I used a pastry brush, even a palette knife was too rough with this very delicate and soft dough. Sprinkle the currants evenly over the surface.

Start from the opposite end of the dough, roll the dough neatly in a line towards you. Roll as tightly as possible. Dust fingers with flour if the dough feels sticky. Pinch the seams to seal.

Cut into 1 inch thick slices and arrange on baking pan (I used my brownie tray) greased with a little butter. Place the rolls close together but not touching.

Cover and leave to rise overnight in the fridge. The next morning, if rolls have doubled in size, bake them right away. Otherwise leave to sit on counter until double in size before baking

Bake in preheated oven at 180^oC for 20mins until golden brown.

For me this made 8 smallish buns, you could easily cut into 6 bigger ones. I also cooked all 8 at once, not all were eaten that morning, so some got reheated the next day. They were fine like this but definitely better fresh. Next time I may leave 4 in the fridge till the next morning and have fresh baked buns the next day too!

Chocolate peanut chip cookies

A little bit of an American theme for the next couple of posts.

On a recent trip to Florida I brought back a HUGE bag of Reese’s peanut butter chips. 

They look exactly like chocolate chips but, you’ve guessed it, they are made with peanuts. By themselves they are lovely and creamy, I challenge you to not eat them straight from the bag!

For my first lot of baking with them I decided to add them to a staple favourite of mine, the chocolate chip cookie. The verdict? They are delicious. I am now plotting more fates for these lovely chips, and, as I can buy them online, I need not book another trip to Florida to get more, mind you it’s not the worst idea…

Chocolate peanut chip cookies (Adapted from Hugh Fearnly Wittingstall)

Recipe makes  15

Butter 125g

Caster sugar 100g

Light brown sugar 75g (dark will do if that’s whats in your cupboard)

1 egg

½ teaspoon vanilla paste (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)

Plain flour 150g

½ tsp baking powder

50g milk chocolate chopped (I like to use dairy milk)

30g Reese’s peanut butter chips.

Preheat you oven to 190^oC/170^OC fan. Grease and flour two baking sheets.

Melt the butter over a low heat. Add the sugars to a bowl and stir in the butter. Add the egg and vanilla and mix till combined.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix until almost combined. Add both the chocolate and peanut chips and mix until thoroughly combined.

Drop spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets and bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until golden around the edges.

Leave to cool on the sheets for a minute or two and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

Lemon and Cardamom cookies

I was very excited to receive the Hairy Bikers Bakation book for my birthday, and only one chapter in I wanted to make everything!

Waiting around for our internet engineer to arrive seemed an excellent opportunity to start baking from this great book.

Now it has to be said these may not be the prettiest cookies to look at but they taste divine. The bikers suggest you could use a cookie press to make them prettier, however I do not have one (but it has been added to my mental list of kitchen stuff I want!).

Lemon and Cardamom cookies (from Hairy Bikers Bakation)

Recipe makes 24

225g butter

150g butter

Zest of one lemon

250g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 tsp of ground cardamom seeds (this is approximately the seeds of 10 pods ground with a pestle and mortar.

First line two baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 190^oC/fan170^OC

Grind up the seeds of the cardamom pods and set aside.

Cream together the butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.

Add the flour, almonds and ground cardamom, beat on slow to combine until the dough comes together. You may need to use your hands to get the dough completely together.

Roll into 24 balls and place onto the prepared sheets. Either stamp with a cookie stamp or flatten with a glass.

Bake for 12-14 mins until golden around the edges. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes on the sheet and then transfer to a cooling rack. They will crisp up as they cool.

So as I said maybe not the prettiest, I am going with the very rustic homemade look. But no matter as they are the perfect thing to have with a cup of tea.