Easy pumpkin cupcake toppers

I've tried and failed at pumpkin cupcakes so many times this year! The last batch turned out pretty good but I forgot to write down my ingredients and now it's long forgotten!

However, one good thing that came out of having to decorate so many failed cupcakes is my quick and easy cupcake toppers!

 

What you will need (for 6 cupcake toppers):
200g Ready made royal icing
Black & green mini cake icers
Icing sugar
Orange food colouring (concentrated gels are the more effective)

Method:

1. Mix some orange food colouring into the royal icing, adding a little at a time until you get a nice bright orange.
2. Divide the royal icing into 6 even pieces. Roll each piece into a little ball, if the icing is a bit sticky you can dust your hands with icing sugar.
3. Squash each little ball slightly. With the blunt side of a clean, dry knife mark the little indents along the sides of each pumpkin.
4. Add a little blob of green icing on the top of each pumpkin. Allow to dry.
5. With the black icing draw little smiley faces on. Try and leave the pumpkins on their side for a while so the black dosn't drip while it's drying.
6. Once the black icing is dry the pumpkins are ready to use!! They look great on cupcakes, or stacked up on a bigger cake.

 

Dinos & Mustaches

A couple of weeks ago a customer asked me to paint her some Dinosaur Russian Dolls with mustaches on (pics of that still to come).

I thought this was an awesome idea. So I based an etsy treasury around it.

Here are my top Mustache and Dinosaur picks on etsy:

1. Dinosaur Hat (sizes newborn to adult) - $27.50 from Barefoot Tams
2. Mustache Vinyl Stickers - $12 from Quilted Polka Dot
3. Plush Stuffed Dinosaur $20 from Saint Angel
4. Sock Dinosaur - $20.99 from Super Sock Monkeys
5. Halloween Costume - $3800 from Glacier Milk
6. Mustache Baby Blanket - $46.35 from Little Hip Squeaks
7. Mustache Beer Markers - $6 from My Saucy Mustache
8. Photobooth Party Props - $65 from Mister Mustache
9. Mustache Cupcake Toppers - $5.50 from Cmooreof10

Vegan Berry Cupcakes

This recipe is a spin on Bob's red mill's strawberry cupcakes recipe. I've changed a few things around and added some yummy, tangy raspberry frosting instead! In this picture I made mini cupcakes but the recipe should make 9 large cupcakes or more normal sized ones.

Ingredients (cake mix):

• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup wholemeal flour
• 1tsp baking soda
• 1/2 cup natural cane sugar
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup soya/vegetable margarine
• 1 cup soy/rice milk
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 3/4 cup mashed strawberries
• 1tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350° (175C). Measure the flour, baking soda and salt into a bowl. 
2. In a seperate large bowl, cream together the margarine, agave and sugar until thoroughly mixed. 
3. Gradually add the soymilk, vinegar and vanilla extract while mixing.
4. Mix in the flour mixture and the mashed strawberries.
5. Pour into cupcake cases and bake for 12-15 mins. Cupcakes are ready when you can stick a fork in them and the fork comes out clean.
6. Leave to cool before frosting them.

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup soya margarine
• 1 3/4 cups icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup raspberry jam (seedless)
• Red food colouring (optional), if you can't find vegan food colouring try using beetroot paste.

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and add red food colouring to get the desired colour. If the mixture is too thin add more icing sugar. Put in the fridge for 10-30 before icing the cakes.

Yummy Cupcakes

Today I did some modelling for the very talented, and rather handsome photographer Kyle Chapman. The photo shoot was in a very interesting tattoo studio, it was lots of fun. I'll post the pictures when he's edited out my bingo wings ;)


As a thank you he gave me these scrummy cupcakes from Sugar Hit Cupcakes, they're absolutely delicious, I'm trying to save some for our PonyChops business meeting tomorrow but I doubt they will last that long!

New shoes!!

Just thought I'd show off some hand painted shoes I did for a customer. They're both sold but I have some very similar ones to the strawberries for sale here. I'm taking commissions so feel free to message me via my etsy to discuss any shoes you would like hand painting.

I had lots of fun painting them, I especially love the strawberry ones!

Deadly Desserts

Scott Hove (the genius responsible for Cakeland) is displaying some of his new works in the Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco starting this weekend. I am gutted this isn't in england!!!

Here's a reminder of how awesome Cakeland is! I wan't to live there!!

Sticky Toffee Teddy Cupcakes!!!

I've wanted to make some teddy bear themed cupcakes for a while. So when I had a day off work I got baking! Here's my recipe for sticky toffee teddy cupcakes (adapted from this recipe.) These cupcakes are light, moist and mouth watering. Seriously, they are probably my favourite cakes I've ever eaten, and I've eaten A LOT!:

Ingredients (makes 12 large cupcakes or 16 smaller ones):
For the cakes:

• 3 medium carrots (peeled and finely grated, for a more airy cupcake use 4)
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 120g unsalted butter (I like to use pure soya spread instead for a lighter cupcake)
• 150g light muscovado sugar
• 180g self raising flour
• 2 medium eggs (beaten)

For the Buttercream and decorations:

• 180g sea salted butter (just normal salted will do if you can't find this)
• 200g icing sugar
• 4 tablespoons dulche-de-leche or canned caramel
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Large chocolate buttons
• Pink dotted balls/large sprinkles
• Turquoise balls for the eyes
• White chocolate
• Paint Brush

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 170 for fan ovens
• Cream together softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until thoroughly mixed.
• Sift the flour and the bicarbonate of soda in a separate bowl.
• Add the beaten eggs to the sugar/butter mixture, add a tbsp flour while mixing. Add the rest of the flour/bicarbonate mixture and the grated carrots. Mix it all thoroughly.
• Spoon into cupcake cases, bake for 15-20 mins, the cakes should spring back up when pressed with a finger when they are done.

For the butter cream:

•  Soften the salted butter, mix with dulche de leche and the salt. Gradually sift in the icing sugar while stirring. 

To decorate:

• Melt some white chocolate. Lay out the large buttons on a tray with greaseproof paper on. You will need 2 buttons for each teddy cake, 1 for the ear and 1 for the nose.
• For the noses, paint the melted white chocolate on the back of your pink sprinkle and place in the top half/centre of your button.
• For the ears, paint the melted white chocolate as a circle in the centre of the ear. Once the chocolate has set, cut the ears in half with a sharp knife.
• Frost your cupcakes, add the ears, nose and eyes (unless of course you want your teddies to be blind) then SCOFF THEM. om nom nom

My dog decided I was paying FAR too much attention to baking and not enough time paying attention to her. So she spent most of my baking session posed like this expecting tummy rubs:

Poor Effy didn't even get to sample any cupcakes! :(

Butternut squash honey cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!!

I figured because of the healthiness of the butternut squash in these cupcakes it's probably ok to overload them with yummy cream cheese frosting om nom nom nommm. I adapted my recipe from Tooth Fairy Recipes. They taste like little mini carrot cakes and are a great way to enjoy eating veg. If you're struggling to know how exactly to react when you try this cake, refer to 0.45 of this video.

Here's what you need for the basic cakes:

• 230g butternut squash
• 2 free range eggs
• 100g unsalted butter, melted
• 50g natural caster sugar 
• 50g brown sugar
• 80g honey
• 100g self raising flour
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• Orange zest (optional)

For the icing:

• 125g unsalted butter at room temperature
• 50g icing sugar
• 250g low fat cream cheese

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 200c (gas mark 6)
• Peel the squash and cut it into chunks and place in a microwaveable bowl with boiling water. If you life your cakes a little bit more textured like carrot cake then zest a bit of the skin into the bowl too. Cook in the microwave on high power for 10 mins. Drain the excess water and mash up the squash as finely as possible.
• Whisk the eggs and then mix them with the sugar, honey and butter.
• In a separate mixing bowl, mix the flour with baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg (and orange zest if using it). Add the egg mixture and the butternut squash and mix together thoroughly. 
• Place some cupcake liners on a cupcake tray. Fill with the mixture and bake for 20 mins (possibly less in fan ovens).
• For the frosting mix the unsalted butter with the icing sugar until even and then add the cream cheese.
• Wait until the cupcakes are cool to add the icing you duh brain. Add a candied orange on top if desired.