“Fairtrade”, “organic” not always words that you expect to see on essences or on edible cake decorations but having now tried them for myself I can say that theses are great products that are full of flavour and make you feel good knowing that they are ethically sourced. Steenbergs Organic offer a range of organic spices, cooking ingredients and much more.
I decided to bake a batch of vanilla cupcakes with the assistance of my two little girls. I used the organic fairtrade vanilla extract, the first to be available in the UK and in Europe. As there is no added sugar it means that the cupcake is not very sweet unless you want it to be.
To top the cupcakes a gorgeous vanilla buttercream using Steenbergs organic vanilla paste. Packed full of flavour this paste is easy to use and made the buttercream taste fantastic!
And to decorate, organic fairtrade (dairy free) chocolate drops. These tasted absolutely fantastic and you would never know that they were dairy free.
For the cupcakes I used:
110g Butter
110g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon of Steenbergs Vanilla Extract
1 Teaspoon of Steenbergs Vanilla Extract
110g Self Raising flour (sifted)
Method
1. Cream the butter and sugar then add the vanilla extract.
2. Beat in the eggs adding a tablespoon of sugar each time.
3. Fold in the remaining flour.
4. Evenly distribute between 12 cupcake cases and bake in the oven for 13-15 minutes at 180 degrees (fan oven), 190 or 200 degrees normal oven.
5. When cupcakes are ready they should spring back up when touched. Leave to cool.
I have a confession to make, if you look at the pictures you will see two different cupcake cake colours and the children in two different sets of clothes. After the first batch (pink cases) were made, we ate them! Batch two was swiftly put aside once out of the oven and allowed to cool, ready for decorating.
For the Buttercream:
225g Icing Sugar
100g Softened Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Paste
1-2 Teaspoons Milk
Method
1. Sift the icing into a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl cream the butter, you know it’s ready when it starts to lighten in colour.
3. Combine the two then add the vanilla paste and milk.
4. Pipe or spoon onto cooled cupcakes.
Add your decorations and enjoy
As you can see the girls and a lovely time both making and decorating the cupcakes and we would like to thank Steenbergs Organics for sending the items to try and review (honest opinions as always)
You might also like my Lemon Biscuit recipe “here”.
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They had a great time and it’s good to know that you are giving your kids / who ever gets to eat them something that isn’t full of chemicals as well as helping the farmers they buy from 😉
Awwww bless em…..looks like they had great fun. Will definitely try these if I see them in the shops… I love the packaging, very modern
Maria Molly Taylor
Great therapy baking with children, so rewarding and they love it. This is a gorgeous recipe simple and basic really popular with children.