Talia’s Cupcake Dream + Vanilla Cupcakes with Whipped Cream and Blueberry Drizzle

Get your hands on Talia’s Cupcake Dream

It’s 2014 and I am totally excited to share a project that I started late last year, my very first e-book – woohoo! It’s a collaboration project with a kick-ass babe, (literally, she is a 2nd Dan Black Belt holder in Taekwondo), named Talia. I met Talz at a leadership course and she would bake cupcakes for us to get through the long days. The girl’s got skills – totally rad icing skills. She loves a classic vanilla buttercream cupcake and practically bakes every weekend for friends events and parties. I’ll often ask what she is up to over the weekend, and her reply is usually, ‘Oh just baking off a half dozen cupcakes for this and that’.

She gets absolute joy from people trying her delicious creations, seeing the satisfaction on their faces and in their smiles. It is such a pleasure for her that her dream is to start up her own cupcake business.  She has the passion, the drive, the recipes, the flavours, the flare, but what she is missing is a kitchen she can operate a business from. Requirements of starting up a business where food is involved are pretty strict, as they ought to be, and this is the major hurdle between Talia sharing her creations with the masses of cupcake fans out there.

Talia and I would often have conversations over text messages about how we could get around this hurdle and that’s when we decided to come up with a e-book about her cupcake dream – Talia’s Cupcake Dream. By sharing 5 of Talia’s loved cupcakes, we are spreading the word about Talia’s cupcakes and starting up a ‘Talia’s cupcake fund’. Filled with gorgeous photography from yours truly, ( I am usually more modest ), and Talia’s deliciously wicked cupcakes, half of all the proceeds from the book are going directly into this fund for Talia to overcome this major hurdle and allow her to share her baking dream with the world.

Get your hands on Talia’s Cupcake Dream, help make her dream come true and satisfy your cupcake craving with: caramel beer cupcakes; classic red velvet cupcakes, double chocolate cupcakes and vanilla buttercream cupcakes; and her dreaming in the clouds cupcake – white chocolate and whipped cream.

Whilst we were toying with the idea of a dream cupcake and what would make a good cover photo, Talia made up some cupcakes with whipped cream icing and we loved the idea of having blueberry syrup drizzling down the rustic lumps of cream. Although, it didn’t make it into the book, it is just too good not to share. If  you make this cupcake and totally love it, I urge you to get the book; you really are helping to make her dream come  true!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Whipped Cream and Blueberry Drizzle

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcake

1 ½ cups self-raising flour
125g (4.4oz) unsalted butter, softened and chopped
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs, room temperature
½ cup milk

Icing

300ml (10oz) thickened cream
2-3 tablespoons caster sugar
Blueberries (fresh or tinned) and blueberry syrup (from tinned blueberries) 

Directions

Preheat oven to 180°C (375°F). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with 12 cupcake liners.

Place butter, caster sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla essence into a mixing bowl, then sift in the flour. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until pale and smooth.

Spoon mixture evenly into the cupcake liners, about 2/3 full. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly golden and the cupcake is spongy and bounces back when touched. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.

Once cupcakes are cool and closer to their serving time, place the thickened cream into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium until the cream begins to thicken. Increase the speed to high and slowly add the caster sugar. Continue to beat on high on combined.

When ready to serve, generously dollop the cream onto the cupcake, dress with some blueberries and drizzle blueberry syrup over the cream.