Tuesday 28 April 2015

HOPE: PERFECT CUPCAKES!

Reader Hope shares her recipe for gorgeous cupcakes… with a neat Chocolate Box Girls twist!

Hope says:
I love to bake… anything, any shape or size, cookies, cake, pie, anything! I'd like to share a pretty-much foolproof recipe of delicious cupcakes… the recipe makes around sixteen, so there'll be plenty for everyone!

You will need:
125g self raising flour
125g caster sugar
125g softened butter
1 tsp baking powder
2 free range eggs, beaten
You can use any flavourings you like… I am a personal fan of honey!

To make:
- This is an all-in-one mix so all you have to do is to sift the flour and sugar into a bowl, then add the rest in and mix it all together!
- Lay out sixteen cupcake cases into a baking tray and use a teaspoon to spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases.
- Preheat the oven to Gas mark four and bake for about twenty minutes, until golden brown.
- When the cakes are done, leave them to cool on a wire rack.

To decorate:
This is the fun bit!
To make buttercream, mix softened butter, icing sugar and a dash of water to loosen. I suggest having a play with your quantities - you want the buttercream icing to be firm but spreadable. You can add a few drops of food colouring to create a coloured buttercream… or add flavourings… the possibilities are endless!

I iced my cakes with designs inspired by the Chocolate Box Girls series. For CHERRY CRUSH, I cut up strawberries to create the cherry shapes and piped on icing to create leaves and stems. For MARSHMALLOW SKYE I iced moon shapes onto the cakes, and for SUMMER'S DREAM I piped on daisies and added halved strawberries onto the cakes. COCO CARAMEL called for a piped-on horseshoe shape and SWEET HONEY was a bee! Some of the designs were quite tricky, so it's a good idea to practice icing your shapes onto the counter top before you try the design out on an actual cake! You don't have to choose the same designs as me… making up your own motif is half the fun! Enjoy!

Cathy says:
Yum! These cupcakes look fab and the recipe is easy enough even for me! I love the individual designs… so cute! Do YOU like to bake? COMMENT BELOW to share your best sweet treat ideas!

2 comments:

  1. These look so delicious! It's a shame that I can't have them because I'm allergic to egg!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love baking but I suggest when making cupcakes add some vanilla extract to the the mixture and a little to the buttercream icing as well. Great designs Hope! Happy Baking!!

    ReplyDelete

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