A Weekend of Baking - Cupcakes and Sausage Rolls

Along with the sugar flower for my own birthday cake, I made cupcakes and sausage rolls to take into work for my team. I decided to make 99' cupcakes (cakes that look like 99' ice creams not 99 of them!) and some caramelised red onion sausage rolls. 

The cupcakes have some ground almonds in the cake mix, which give a lovely sweet flavour but also a slightly closer texture which is very nice, you feel like you're getting a bigger mouthful!

To get the best sized cakes I used a soup spoon to make a ball, and that seemed to give the best size with no overspill.

Be careful not to overfill the cases as the filling will spill out and don't have the over temperature too high, or you'll end up with large peaks.

I love a good buttercream (Secret: Only use good quality slightly salted butter, blend in a blender for about a minute and then pipe!) I used a star nozzle to pipe swirls onto the cupcakes to make them look like '99 cupcakes.

I bought mini flakes to go onto the cupcakes but they were still too long, so I ended up cutting them in half with a sharp knife. Tip: to stop the flake crumbling too much, keep them in a fairly warm place then they wont fall apart so much when you cut into them.

The Finished Cupcakes: I was very pleased with the way they turned out. The little flakes stuck in the side were the perfect addition, and the hundreds and thousands gave a cute and childlike feel.

Sausage Rolls: This is a Delia recipe from her christmas book, and it makes the best sausage rolls I (and many others!) have ever tasted. Top Tip again, use the best quality butchers sausage meat for extra yumminess and always use red onion. It will make you cry more but it's worth it!

Dice the onion finely, season the sausagemeat and then mix it all together with your hands, don't be afraid to get messy! I made a quantity and a half of the recipe and it made about 60 bitesize sausage rolls, perfect for feeding a crowd. They are never better than when they are fresh out of the oven, but they will last in an airtight container. However once you taste them, they're not going to be around for long!