Archive for March, 2011

March 27th, 2011

Rose Cupcakes for Mother’s Day


Flowers are the classic Mother’s Day gift, but how about tweaking this to be more personal, and more edible? There are a million different ways to do flowers with cupcakes, so for this blog post, I’m just going to limit it to Roses.

I’ll start with the easiest design, the rose buttercream swirl. This is a beautifuly simple technique – example by Sandi4tpc on Cake Central
Use a large rose piping nozzle or swirl nozzle like the Wilton 1M. Simply start in the middle of the cupcake and spiral the buttercream (frosting) outwards until the whole cupcake is covered.
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You can use this technique  to do a smaller rose on a buttercream base. Have a look at this design by Claire at Little Bird Bakery
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Real rose petals can also be used on top of cupcakes. Take one washed rose petal, brush in egg white and dust in granulated sugar. Once dry, this is the perfect addition to a simple cupcake. An added bonus would be to flavour the cupcake sponge and frosting with rose water. Here are some that jensteele on Flickr made:
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Beyond buttercream and actual rose petals, roses can be made out of sugarpaste or cocoform.  They are a bit more fiddly to create, but very effective.
There are rose moulds you can buy, in which you press the sugarpaste or cocoform into, and out comes a perfect rose shape time after time. Here is an example by De Leukstet Taarten Shop
singleroseexample Rose Cupcakes for Mothers Day

If you don’t have a mould, you can easily form them by hand, the simplest way is to swirl strips around each other like Gems Cottage has done.
rose cupcakes Rose Cupcakes for Mothers Day

However, the more practiced you become, the more intricate you can make your roses, like this single white rose by ejcorns on Flickr
5487983597 8197657389 Rose Cupcakes for Mothers Day


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March 20th, 2011

Princess Cupcake Ideas

Just as Superhero parties are popular with little boys, princess parties are popular with little girls.
The most simple and effective symbol to incorporate into princess cupcakes is the crown. Even without a vast amount of sugarcraft experience, crowns can be made with little more than a bit of patience. Have a look at these simple but beautiful cupcakes by hollyz1 at Cake Central

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Or these piped crowns by Sprinkles Dinkles

5542050377 fe1c81436d Princess Cupcake Ideas

It seems when you want to advance from crowns, your designs may have to become a little more intricate and complicated. However, if you are confident to try, see if you can get any inspiration with this great collection of Cinderella cupcakes by Girlie Bubble

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Or these cute chunky designs by CuteCupcakes

5542050559 74365a65d9 Princess Cupcake Ideas

And if you want to go to whole hog, maybe have a go at actual princesses on cupcakes, these are by Crazy Beautiful Cakes

5542050649 af74c68e0a Princess Cupcake Ideas

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March 13th, 2011

Comic Book Superhero Cupcakes

I’ve made cakes and cupcakes for kids, and I have to say – cupcakes are MUCH easier.  However I’ve found some little boys don’t want cupcakes for their birthday, as cupcakes “are for girls”. Well we all know that’s not true, so how do we convince them to agree to cupcakes? Make them superhero cupcakes, it works every time.

Here is a collection of some of the designs out there you may want to try yourself:

Superman:
There is no straight forward way to do this, the logo is always going to be tricky, however this is a great attempt by cakecentral.com
 Comic Book Superhero Cupcakes

Spiderman:
I can’t find out who made these, so if you know, please tell me. They are a great collection, and if you don’t feel confident with the sugar craft heads you could just stick to doing the piped webs.
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Batman:
Once again, a bit of a tricky logo, but I love the way these cupcakes have incorporated themes of the Joker from the Dark Knight movie.
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Photo by alicia rae on flikr

Green Lantern:
A much easier symbol to achieve with sugar paste or piping, however – check out this alternate idea of how to approach a superhero cupcake.
5207758969 5ea32f9953 Comic Book Superhero Cupcakes
Go here for the rest of the superhero collection by jennyvier on flikr

Generic Comic Book:
Still not confident about piping or sugar craft? How about just keeping the icing bright and adding cut out colour print-outs stuck to toothpicks, like in this photo by mychiclife.com
IMG 0938 Comic Book Superhero Cupcakes

 


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March 8th, 2011

Getting Ready For St Patrick’s Day

As we are moving towards St Patricks Day (March 17th), lets take a look at some of the ideas out there that you can try yourselves at home:
 
This cupcake is simple but beautiful to look at, however all the real effort has gone into the ingredients rather than the design. The sponge is made with Guinness Stout, and the frosting is made with Baileys. I have already decided to try this one out myself this weekend.

426713439 37f15c4619 Getting Ready For St Patricks Day

For a full review of this cake, and more great photos, read Chris Blakeley’s Flikr entry here

If you are confident with making the basic sponge, and the basic buttercream, but not much else (or just don’t have too much time spare) why not try this effective idea by Martha Stewart:

shamrock cupcake l Getting Ready For St Patricks Day

 
Now on the complete other end of the scale, check out these designs by Sweetie Pie’s Boutique Bakery (n.b if you want to try doing these for yourself, you might want to get started now to have them done by the 17th!)

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and

3362766683 3c1f1ec877 Getting Ready For St Patricks Day

 
And finally, for a final burst of inspiration, *kimmie* on Flikr has put together this great montage:

3337780089 cebbab63fb Getting Ready For St Patricks Day

 
the best of Irish luck to you all. x

 

         

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