This week is National Cupcake Week and although I’ve been incredibly busy I couldn’t let the week pass without making a few cupcakes. Recently I was lucky enough to win a copy of the gorgeous ‘Sweet Bitesize Bakes’ by Sarah Trivuncic- one of the ‘bake me I’m yours’ series. This little book is right up my street as I love vintage china and the pretty mini bakes suit my cake stands perfectly. I tried Sarah’s madaleines a couple of weeks ago and they were perfect so I decided to try her cupcake recipe.

I  decided to make some coffee and walnut cupcakes and then had what I thought was a brilliant idea to make coffee cupcakes and then make mini walnut cookies to go on top. I made cupcakes using Sarah’s vanilla cupcake  recipe but sustituting 1 teaspoon of dissolved coffee rather than vanilla and topped them with coffee buttercream. I have a mini cupcake shape cutter  and used Sarah’s gingerbread cookie recipe but substituted the ginger with 60g chopped walnuts. The cookies were absolutely delicious and were just a perfect bite size to go with the coffee flavoured cupcake!

My coffee cupcakes and walnut cookies may not look very pretty but they didn’t really hang about long enough to be photographed properly! They were absolutely yummy. The basic cupcake  recipe will be used many times and I have to say the cookies were some of the best I’ve eaten in a very long time. Sarah’s book of tiny treats has quickly become one of my favourites and I’m looking forward to making lot’s more bite size bakes as there are some lovely projects too.

Here is some more about the book 
http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/sweet-bitesize-bakes-launch/

Calendar Cakes

This month’s Calendar Cakes Challenge is being hosted by Laura at Laura Loves Cakes and the theme is Cupcakes inspired by National Cupcake Week. I’m entering my cupcakes and I’m looking forward to seeing all the other cupcake ideas. Calendar Cakes is hosted alternately by  Dolly Bakes and Laura Loves Cakes.