Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes help

midnightraven3

there have been 2 prints of this book
the 1st one was riddled with mistakes, and so a 2nd print came about

trouble with buying frm sites like amazon, is you dont know if its 2nd hand, that its a 1st or 2nd copy, and if its new, you dont know the seller didnt get a batch of 1st copies cheap

but thats why the huge discrepancies in the reviews
some have old ones some have new

i wanted it but avoided it for this reason

miss_cupcake_2

In the past week I've baked the vanilla cupcakes, the carrot cake cupcakes and the chocolate layer cake (these were all given away to people, honestly!) from the Primrose Bakery book

I thought the carrot cake cupcakes were absolutely delicious, although the cream cheese icing recipe suggested to go with them contained far too much butter for my liking and produced almost triple the quantity required :eek: The vanilla cupcakes and the choc layer cake were also nice - but not overly special, if you know what I mean? I noticed some of the PB recipes contained way more butter/oil/fat than the equivalent recipes in the HB book which I found a bit odd, especially as it didn't seem to add anything extra taste-wise or texture-wise. Still, it's a nice book to own and contains some good ideas for flavour combinations. I'm still going to try different recipes from it and have planned lime and coconut cupcakes and a lemon layer cake for this weekend (again, these will be given away and NOT consumed by myself!) :cool:

miss_cupcake_2

midnightraven3 wrote: »

there have been 2 prints of this book
the 1st one was riddled with mistakes, and so a 2nd print came about

trouble with buying frm sites like amazon, is you dont know if its 2nd hand, that its a 1st or 2nd copy, and if its new, you dont know the seller didnt get a batch of 1st copies cheap

but thats why the huge discrepancies in the reviews
some have old ones some have new

i wanted it but avoided it for this reason

The mistakes from the first edition were rectified and published on the HB website (and still are, as far as I know) so I just printed this off and stuck it inside the cover of my book.

Hermia

miss_cupcake wrote: »

The mistakes from the first edition were rectified and published on the HB website (and still are, as far as I know) so I just printed this off and stuck it inside the cover of my book.

Thanks for that. I didn't know that existed so I have just printed a copy from the website.

I have just bought the Primrose Bakery book from my local bargain book shop and I love it more than the Hummingbird one.

radiohelen

I had problems with this book as well. I made the chocolate cupcakes and as an experienced baker I followed that recipe to the letter. If that batch makes 12 muffin sized cupcakes then my mum was Hitler's auntie. I got 9 at a push. They tasted good but I wouldn't trust that book as far as I could chuck it. The icing didn't taste that great either. For consistency I've found the Billy's bakery cupcakes (google "billy's vanilla vanilla cupcakes") are great and IMHO the icing tastes better.

DizzyK_2

2giraffes wrote: »

I got this book for Christmas and I'm not that impressed with the results! Definitely doesn't make enough for 12 cupcakes, I usually get 8 or 9 out of it. So far I've made cupcake recipes, one as a large cake, and they do taste ok, but I've definitely made better! If anyone else has any tips I'd be happy for some. Has anyone made the brownie with raspberry cream and cheesecake? That's next on my list!

Yes, DEEEEEELISH!!!!!:j
Red Velvets are also scrum and if you fancy something plain, the spiced pound cake is lovely

Clowance

bit worried now - was going to try the strawb cheesecakes today (but with frozen raspberrries as thats what I have), will post later if theres a problem with this recipe.

midnightraven3

DizzyK wrote: »

Yes, DEEEEEELISH!!!!!:j
Red Velvets are also scrum and if you fancy something plain, the spiced pound cake is lovely

that was the 2 recipies i wanted to buy the book for
but i am an inexperienced baker, and was hesitant, i can take a savoury recipe and see instantly what i would change/alter, and make up myself, but you cant do that with baking:(

miss_cupcake_2

Clowance wrote: »

bit worried now - was going to try the strawb cheesecakes today (but with frozen raspberrries as thats what I have), will post later if theres a problem with this recipe.

If you mean the strawb cheesecake cupcakes from the HB book then I can confirm that I've made these a few times and they are delicious! Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand why people have problems with the HB recipes, I never have.

angeltreats

I've just made the chocolate muffins from the Hummingbird Bakery book and they have turned out absolutely fantastic. Far better than I thought they would - really rich and very moist and fluffy. I used Lidl cocoa powder and plain chocolate, it's the first time I've used Lidl cocoa and I'll definitely keep buying it now rather than Bournville.