I Never Look Back, Darling! It Distracts from the Now.

Disney/Pixar # 6 - The Incredibles

OK, so strictly speaking I broke the rules with this one. I had said at the beginning that I would only be baking cupcakes for the Disney Pixar Collection, but you can probably tell from the photos above that I actually ended up baking muffins this time. But, there is a very good reason for this. You see, a cupcake would have been to small to contain the really INCREDIBLE stuff inside...

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TA DA!!

I don't really know where or how I came up with this idea, but it was very tricky to execute and I'm not entirely pleased with how they turned out. Still, they were suitably impressive, and tasted very,very good! The premise is that the cakes would look normal from the outside, like The Incredibles. But just like The Incredibles, they'd be completely SUPER on the inside.

Jack-Jack approves.

One further comment I'd like to make is that with this recipe you'll have a lot of cake scraps left over. Seriously, A LOT!! Don't throw these away - just pop them in a sealed container and into the freezer and use them to make cake pops in the future!

Prep time: 45 minutes
Cook time: 50 minutes (total)
Makes 6 muffins

Ingredients:

For The Incredibles logo (for the inside)
100g margarine
100g caster sugar
1 medium egg
100g self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 heaped teaspoons cocoa powder
yellow and red food colouring
1tbsp mixed fruit jam

For the red velvet muffins:

60g unsalted butter

150g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

red food colouring

1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

120 ml buttermilk

150g plain flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 1/2 tsp white vinegar

6 white chocolate chips

For the frosting:
75g cream cheese
50g shortening
250g icing sugar
1 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5, and line a bun tray with cupcake cases
2. Start by beating together the margarine and caster sugar until smooth and creamy, then beat in the egg. Sift in the flour and fold into the mixture, adding a drop or two of vanilla essence, to taste. 
3. Pour half of the mixture into a separate bowl, and add the cocoa powder to this. Pour this into 6 of the prepared cupcake cases. 
4. Going back to the remaining vanilla cake mixture, add a few drops of yellow food colouring until the desired shade is reached. Spoon yellow batter into three of the prepared cupcake cases. Add a drop of red food colouring to the remaining batter to turn it orange, and use this to fill the final three cupcake cases. Bake all 12 cupcakes for 15-28 minutes, until springy to touch. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Turn these cakes out of their cases. Cut an oval shape out of the chocolate cupcakes, around 1cm thick, then cut these in half. Cut the yellow cupcakes into 1cm strips, then cut the orange cupcakes into really thin strips. (See the images below for a much clearer illustration of what I'm on about here!) Stick the brown, yellow and orange bits together with a little jam to form six "incredibles" logos.

6. Put the "logos" to one side whilst you make the red velvet muffin batter. Preheat the oven to gas mark 4, and line a muffin tray with paper cases. 

7. Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg.

8.  In a separate bowl, mix the cocoa, red food colouring and vanilla extract to make a thick paste. Add this to the butter mixture and mix thoroughly until combined. Stir in half of the buttermilk, followed by half of the flour, then repeat with the remaining buttermilk and flour until both are fully incorporated. add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar and beat until you have a smooth, even batter.

9. Place a teaspoon of batter into each muffin case, then push a logo down into this. Cover the logos with the remaining batter and smooth the top with the back of a spoon. Place a single chocolate chip on the side of each muffin to help you remember which way the logo faces once baked! Put these in the oven for 25-30 minutes until deep red and firm to touch.

10. Once the muffins are completely cool, prepare the frosting. Beat all of the ingredients together until smooth and creamy (and tasty) then pipe onto the muffins. Serve and enjoy!

Next time it's Cars!

Happy Thoughts
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