Gibby Bakes

When I say I think I've outdone myself with this one, I truly think I've outdone myself with this one! The ultimate indulgence, these cupcakes consist of chocolate fudge cake inspired sponge, a chocolate ganache filling, a chocolate whipped cream buttercream icing, and the whole thing is topped with a salted caramel brownie! As I was going along I forgot to take pictures of the individual stages, sorry in advance about that! I mean come on, just look at them! I've always shied away from making chocolate fudge cake, for no apparent reason. I guess I just always assumed it'd be quite hard. When I settled on my plan for these cupcakes though I just knew it had to be a chocolate fudge cake base.  Making the sponge was surprisingly easy though! To achieve that classic chocolate fudge cake texture, melted butter, vegetable oil, eggs, vanilla extract, caster sugar, and soft brown sugar are beaten together in a stand mixer for about five minutes. At the same time, cocoa powder ...

I'm back at it again with the original recipes! Strawberry, White Chocolate and Pistachio Cupcakes! These cupcakes comprise a strawberry cake sponge with added white chocolate chips and chopped pistachios, are filled with a homemade strawberry jam for an extra strawberry hit, and are topped with a white chocolate and pistachio buttercream! To finish, I topped the cupcakes with half a strawberry coated in white chocolate and sprinkled with chopped pistachios! Strawberry cake is a completely new concept to me, and is a little different to the sponge recipes I'm used to following. When I first heard about it on Instagram I didn't pay full attention to the recipe, as I assumed it would just be a plain sponge with strawberry puree mixed in... spoiler alert, it's not. I began with the concentrated strawberry puree, which I would add to the sponge batter when it was cool. The puree was very simple. All you have to do is core the strawberries, blitz them into a puree, and reduc...

At the minute I seem to be firing out bakes faster than I can write about them! After a pretty hectic weekend visiting the theatre and then a rage room, I'm taking some time to just sit, relax, and write about my recent masterpieces. One bake I'm particularly proud of is this gluten free Carrot Cake! My first time trying the semi-naked technique. Carrot Cake is up there with my absolute favourite cakes ever. I know it's a bit of a controversial one, but the flavours and textures of this cake are absolutely to die for!  And the best part, it's so easy! For the sponge, vegetable oil, soft brown sugar, and eggs are beaten lightly in a bowl until combined. Grated carrots, orange zest, and dried fruit (I used dried cranberries for a little sour kick) are then folded through, before gluten free self raising flour, mixed spiced, ground ginger, and ground cinnamon are sifted into the mixture along with the bicarbonate of soda! When the dried ingredients are fully incorporated, ...