Cupcake challenge!

In a previous entry I mentioned that I was going to do something stupid and exciting? Well I have entered the Emerald Street Cupcake Challenge  that is in association with the Hummingbird Bakery. Mostly because it will be fun and a fantastic opportunity to make some sweet American style cupcakes with masses of sugary frosting! Plus its a great excuse to practise making my own recipes and trying out some ideas. Also I am terrible at decorating cakes, so maybe aiming for the competition will help so my cakes look pretty...and edible! Also the prizes are awesome... so its worth a try!

The basic rules to enter include baking a cupcake that fits with the Hummingbird style, to be an original recipe with frosting and that the ingredients be available. So I came up with a couple of ideas and although some of the entries are amazing and my kitchen in my miniature studio flat is too small for the stand mixer prize I am going to enter for fun anyway! I was going to make three and ask anyone who reads my blog to help decide which one, but I had no time to make all three last week and had to go with what I thought and entered the competition before it was too late. I may make the other cupcakes anyway soon as I have the ingredients and I really enjoyed making something that was my own recipe. This is what I made.

New York Cupcake

Makes 12 Cakes

Ingredients:

160g Golden Caster Sugar
160g Unsalted Butter
2 Eggs
1 Tspn Vanilla Extract
160g Self Raising Flour
1 Vanilla pod

Frosting:
100g Full Fat Philadelphia
50g Unsalted Butter
500g Icing Sugar
1 tspn Vanilla Extract

Plain Digestive biscuits crumbled to decorate. Or if being true to the American cheese cake then use Graham Crackers.

The idea behind these New York Cupcakes was to be the flavours of a New York cheese cake but in a dainty, fun cupcake form. I tried to make the recipe appeal to the Hummingbirds American style. I baked  them in white cases and applied the frosting using a palette knife to fit with the look of their cupcakes. They are a vanilla sponge with a cream cheese vanilla frosting and sprinkled with biscuit. This is the first bake that is my own and I hope you like it! And if anyone tries this recipe let me know how it went! Also if anyone else entered this competition then good luck!