CupcakeCamp Ireland

Recently we’ve been having a very very cool relationship with almost every aspect of the media. Much credit goes to Davy Sims and Bob Miller for that. We got a recent article featured on the BBC News website and since that everything has snowballed. As well as that I was interviewed today by Carolyn Stewart on her U105 programme Lunchtime Bistro. So here it is, thanks to James (@jtoal) for recording!

U105 Interview

As of yesterday, and it’s really my fault my lazyness won out over doing this blog post then, but we’ve released 30 exclusive tickets and 5 even more exclusiver baker tickets. So get your butts in gear and tell everyone you know!

Now it’s time for all you bakers to get your thinking caps on! There are going to be three competitions at Cupcake Camp:

1. Best Overall

2. Best Decorated

3. Theme: ‘Summer’

In all of these competitions, we will be looking at the following: taste, aesthetics, thought process, use of seasonal ingredients, special dietary requirement allowances (vegan, coeliac, etc…). Indulge us! Excite our senses! Make it easy on the eyes!
We would love for everyone to participate in these competitions- it will be great fun to see what you all come up with!

We did it, we actually sold out of attendee tickets for CupcakeCamp. It’s been a rough journey but now seeing it for what it is now has made it all worth it. Just a note here to say that now the only way you’re getting into CupcakeCamp is by baking some cupcakes. We need plenty of bakers to do plenty of cakes for us!

Baker tickets can be gotten at http://cupcakecampni.eventbrite.com

We really really need you!!

We want you! We need you to bake for CupcakeCamp and get yourself registered to do so. Because we do this Barcamp style we need to know how many of your delectable treats we’re dealing with and how we’re going to get them to your appreciative public.
Make it an event for yourself, bake with your friends, family or whoever! Do it the night before with a glass of champagne and have a fun night in. Do whatever you want with it, it’s awesome fun. Just get your ingredients and go!

We’ll be putting plenty of recipes up here on the site to get your creative juices flowing.

Hit the Bake With Us tab to get going. Or here if you want.

The Marshmallow Grove (the bakers of some of Belfast’s yummiest American-style cupcakes) are having their first baking demonstration on July 6th from 7PM to 9PM!  If you don’t know who they are, take a look at the website: www.marshmallowgrove.com <– they’re one of our CupcakeHeroes who’ll be attending CupcakeCamp. It’ll be taking place at another one of our CupcakeHeroes, Blick Studios. Fast becoming the cupcake hub of Belfast.

They’ll will be whipping up some delicious Red Velvet cake, one of their most popular cupcake flavors, and lots of delicious Cream Cheese frosting.  They’ll show you some of their favorite piping techniques, like making gorgeous multi-colored frosting, doing the Magnolia Bakery ‘swirl’, blow-torching marshmallow frosting, and more.  There will be freshly-made cupcakes and refreshments served, and you’ll get a handy recipe card to take home.

If you’ve ever been interested in American baking, or just want to learn some new cake decorating tricks, this will be a great opportunity to ask them all your questions!  If you need any baking supplies (such as concentrated colors, edible sparkles, piping tips, piping bags, etc) they’ll have a professional range available to buy.  But you should book in advance, limited spaces!!

Cost? £20.00 per person. Please make your cheque payable to ‘The Marshmallow Grove’, and pop it in the post.

The address is: The Marshmallow Grove, 32 Stranmillis Wharf, Lockview Road, Belfast BT9 5GN.

Please include your name, and telephone number or e-mail address. They’ll confirm your spot as soon as they receive this.

So get going you lot! A great opportunity to learn the trade before you come to CupcakeCamp.

By the end of this post, I can imagine I will have used a lot of superlatives. We now have our sponsors!! – The brilliant Bean and Gone Artisan Coffee who had already offered their coffee wizardry for the event and wonderful friend and cupcake enthusiast Jessica Odell. They’re putting up the financial backing to help us make this the most memorable food event this year. Words can not describe quite how appreciative we are. They’re awesome!

We here on the CupcakeCamp team have been doing our best to come up with ideas on how to get you guys baking your own cupcakes and eventually making some to bring to cupcake camp. So, I owe it to Sarah for finding this brilliant kit on Firebox for all you beginners out there.

Let there be Cupcakes!

Here’s how we’re going to help: the Cupcake Kit. It comes with all you need to get the oven set to 180 and get baking immediately: 14 recipes for every mouth-watering style you could think of, 250 cute cupcake liners that will have your admirers cooing, even a pastry bag and piping nozzles to create one-off effects in your icing that would make a sculptor wheeze with envy. And all for a measley 11 quid. Wonderful!

So here’s the link for all of you! Get baking!! –> LINK!!!

This is where it gets serious and businesslike. We need somebody, we need a sponsor(s). You could be a true cupcake hero by offering to bankroll us a bit so we can bring the biggest American phenomenon since the cupcake itself to Belfast. We’re ready to be the first Camp to take place in Europe and that’s special right? Be a part of it!

Contact us at cupcakecampni@gmail.com and I’ll be back to you at a moment’s notice.

Please help us be awesome!

Hello everyone!
Ciarán and I thought it was about time that we caught everyone up to speed with their baking skills. We want as many people to participate in Cupcake Camp, whether you are a novice or professional! So lets start off with a basic vanilla cupcake recipe. I have always used this recipe and I never have found a fault in it. These cupcakes are brilliantly light and scrumptious- just what I look for in a bun. Taken from Nigella.com.

125g self-raising flour
125g caster sugar
125g soft unsalted butter
2 eggs
Half a teaspoon real vanilla extract
Approximately 2 tablespoons milk
1 x 12-bun muffin tin
12 muffin papers
Serving Size : Makes 12

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line the tin with the muffin cases.
2. It couldn’t be simpler to make cup cakes: just put all the ingredients except for the milk in the processor and then blitz till smooth.
3. Pulse while adding milk, to make for a soft, dropping consistency, down the funnel. Or using a bowl and wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour.
4. Then add the vanilla extract and fold in the rest of the flour, adding the milk to get the dropping consistency as before.
5. I know it looks as if you’ll never make this scant mixture fit 12 bun cases, but you will. I promise you this mixture is exactly right to make the 12 cup cakes, so just spoon and scrape the stuff in, trying to fill each case equally, judging by eye only of course.
6. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cup cakes are cooked and golden on top. As soon as bearable, take the cup cakes in their cases out of the tin and let cool, right way up, on a wire rack.

Then, the world is your oyster (or some terrible baking reference that I could make)! Whether you prefer your cupcakes iced, loaded with butter cream, or just plain, decorate as you wish. I am quite partial to some of this chocolate fudge frosting, also by Nigella though…

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