more giant cupcake action

...this time for a friend's sister's birthday! tried something different too: swirly rose icing! Enjoy :)

Update! Various more recent cakes/cupcakes

Haven't updated this in forever and I'd quite like to get back into making more birthday cakes or maybe Mothers Day boxes of cupcakes this month :) here's some pictures!

birthday boxes of caramel cupcakes:

birthday giant cupcake (definitely not my best work - did this at like 1am in a rush!)

children's birthday cakes - this was for Izak's 2nd birthday: Ra Ra the lion!

Birthday giant cupcake

Hi everyone, apologies as I'm not very good at remembering to take pictures of my creations after I've made them  - oops! Haven't been particularly busy recently but have experimented with cookies which...must admit I'm not brilliant, they were either too dry or too soggy :( Did make my famous white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for friends in work which went down well as always!

It was the beautiful Phoebe from work's birthday last weekend so I decided to start a little cake fund for her and make a special birthday giant cupcake as a surprise for her :) So off I went to hobbycraft and got some pink colouring, sugarpaste flowers, glittery shimmery dust (that ended up not actually being edible) and some candy melts and heart moulds (that I didn't even use :p)

The recipe for the cake is just copious amounts of a basic sponge recipe with less baking powder than I'd normally use and plenty of cocoa powder to make it look and taste super chocolatey :)

I used a really small amount of pink paste colouring on the tip of a knife in the vanilla fondant icing then piped it with the largest star nozzle I had for the piping bag. This is the first time I've ever piped a giant cupcake so rather proud of myself!

I decorated it with the sugarpaste flowers, I will try and make my own this time...didn't have time on this occasion. I was going to use the candy heart melts sandwiched between florist wire to place in the top of the cake, but they were too heavy for the wire and ended up being super droopy...plan aborted! So I kept it simple and decorated the cake stand a little with pretty pearly hearts from the wedding decorating section! Finished off with Phoebe's name piped with white writing icing and some matching mini (or normal sized) cupcakes!

and here is the finished product...

Been busy :)

Soo I haven't been on here in a while so going to do a post with a few seperate pictures of things I've baked :)!

Carrot cupcakes - I made these for work and everyone loved them! Just a traditional recipe with oil instead of butter, grated carrot, eggs, dark muscovado, cinnamon, nutmeg and walnuts. Very simple just all mixed together with a cream cheese topping and a decorative walnut!!

Next up is my extra chocolately chocolate chip cookies! They are soo rich and yummy but I had lots of compliments about them! Made by creaming together butter and light brown sugar, adding melted dark chocolate. Add in one egg, beat in flour and cocoa powder and some vanilla extract.I then added big chunks of white chocolate (Milkybar!!) and milk choc chips...yummy!!

Finally we have my very experimental Oreo cupcakes....I took this from an American recipe I found online as I couldn't find any with UK measurements. I then used an online coverter to convert the 'cups' into grams. I had to tweak little bits too as some of the ingredients can't be found in the UK!

I started by lining a cupcake tray with the cases and put an oreo half with cream side up into the bottom of the case. I then began the mix by melting plain chocolate and cocoa powder by pouring over a cup of strong black coffee. I left this to cool completely before adding in caster sugar, 2 eggs, some vegetable oil, vanilla extract, white vinegar and flour.

The frosting was made using whipped cream, icing sugar and crushed oreo crumbs. Finished with half an oreo as decoration! I didn't have one of these as I don't like coffee but everyone else absolutely loved them!!

Hope you enjoy guys :)

xx



Royal wedding cupcakes!

So I decided to jump on the bandwagon with the whole royal wedding thing. I took these into work and everyone loved them :) They were red velvet cakes but I couldn't find Dr.Oetker red colouring which is the recommended one,so they were more purpley pink than red...woops! The frosting was a mix of cream cheese, sugar and cream with some added appropriate decorations :D!

Strawberry and white chocolate cake

Hey everyone, I was recently asked to make a 21st birthday cake for a friend and got given the words 'strawberry or vanilla'...so here's what I made! It's my vanilla sponge (3 layers) sandwiched with fresh cream, strawberries and seived strawberry jam.

The chocolate straws or 'cigarellos' were made using small squares of acetate. I spread a thin layer or melted white or dark chocolate over the acetate and folded it into a straw shape and secured with cellotape. These then went into the freezer until I was ready to use them at the last minute (they cannot be handled for very long!) They are quite thick and as you can see I didn't quite have enough to cover the entire cake with no gaps :( but they still look great!

I finished it off with white chocolate ganache (heated cream, then stirred in white chocolate and allowed it to set slightly in the fridge until it was the right consistencey to spread) and some fresh strawberries and chocoate stars.

Really proud of this one, and got great comments from the buyer too...wohooo! This one will set you back £20 and is huge aswell so really worth it! I am still practicing and obviously no professional which is why my cakes are cheap :)

xx

Perfecting my frosting skills!

Hi everyone, have been practicing my cupcakes recently and bought some lovely cases from Hobbycraft - some pink gingham ones and polka dot brown ones :) I was bored and making a sponge yesterday so decided to use the leftover mix to make some cupcakes. I bought a new piping bag with a bigger star nozzle which is perfect for icing! I made some pink vanilla frosting and some chocolate fudge (the chocolate ones also have hidden craters of nutella :D)...

Think I am getting better now and I'd love to try and make a huge batch of them with lots of colourful frosting for someones birthday or any other occasion so if anyone wants cupcakes.....!!

Here is a quick picture of the sponge I made too....the cupcakes and sponge were made using my foolproof sponge recipe posted below :)

The sponge was filled with seived strawberry jam (I hate seeds!) and fresh double cream..yum yum :)

p.s....Tomorrow I am making a 21st birthday cake for a friend and I'm trying out some new chocolate decorations which will hopefully look great!! Keep your eyes peeled :)

xxx