Recipe (My Additional Piece): Anatomy Organ Cupcakes

This is a very special post, it's not just for fun like my other posts, but this is part of my assignment for med. The faculty decided to give us a "fun" additional piece task that is pretty much anything we like, but somehow linked back to medicine. As my readers will already know, I love baking, even though I'm not a sweets fan (ironic right?), so I initially decided to make a brain cake, but heard that other people were doing the same, so I google imaged "organ cakes" and this image popped up.

Inspiration image

So off I went to the supermarkets, bought myself some fondant, but sadly no gum paste, ready to get my hands dirty while having some fun colouring and shaping these cupcake decorations. Now to stop myself blabbing here are my decorations and recipes for the variety of cupcakes I made :)

My version

Basic Cupcake Recipe: Makes 12

Ingredients:

• 2 cups self-raising flour, triple sifted
• 3/4 cup natural sweetener or caster sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 150g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180oC/160oC fan-forced and line a muffin tin with patty pans.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric beater, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla until it's pale yellow and fluffy.
3. Now add in 1 egg at a time, beating in between.
4. Make a well in the centre and add in half the milk and flour. Stir until combined, then add the rest.
5. For vanilla cupcakes skip to the last step.
6. For choc-banana cucpakes, add 1/4 cup pure cocoa/cacao and 2-3 medium-sized mash bananas. Stir until well combined.
7. To make strawberry cupcakes, ass 2 drops of red/pink food dye and 1 tsp of strawberry essence, or for a more natural taste, add in cut strawberries instead.
8. Spoon mixture into the muffin moulds until halfway. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until they bounce back when pressed or a skewer comes out clean.

 

Looks more pink here than it really is :/

Red Velvet Cupcake Recipe: (Makes 12)

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups self-raising flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa/cacao powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 cup natural sweetener or caster sugar
• 250ml (1 cup) buttermilk
• 200g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 large eggs, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-2 teaspoons red food colouring

 Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180oc/160oc fan-forced. Line muffin tray with patty pans.
2. In a bowl sift cocoa powder, flour and bicarbonate soda, then stir through sugar.
3. In a jug/large cup, whisk the buttermilk, butter, egg, vinegar and vanilla until combined.
4. Make a well in the flour mixture and add butter mixture, stirring until just combined.
5. Then add in the food colouring until desired colour is achieved.
6. Spoon mixture into moulds up to half-full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or test as above.

Cream Cheese Frosting:

Ingredients:

2 x 250g pkts cream cheese, at room temperature
2 cups pure icing sugar
120g butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. This ones easy, just cream all ingredients together until you get a smooth, pale, lighter mixture.
2. Then spread or pipe onto your cupcakes and enjoy :)

All creamed up...

The finished product =D

Recipes adapted from: 
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/26697/red+velvet+cupcakes 
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/7678/classic+cupcakes