Selfie cake, Castle cake, super pink cakes and lots of cupcakes

Hey!last week was a super busy week for baking it seems like everyone has a birthday in the same week sometimes as I go from having about one cake a week to do to having about 4 to 5 in the odd week as well as going to work too. So at the moment I'm a little tired and having a little break from baking (well three days).

I thought I'd take this time to show you some recent cakes I have made and decorated so here goes :

First of all I was asked to make a cake for a friends niece who loves One Direction, Mac makeup and taking selfies. My friend made some pictures of her, and one of Harry Styles look like Polaroids on the computer and we ordered these to be printed Polaroid size on icing sheets, they came out really well. I also made some makeup out of fondant, and even dusted the fondant make up brush with edible shimmer powder. Lastly I piped on music notes and One Direction lyrics.

Next up is another super pink girly cake, this one with a quilted effect, diamante studs and edible pearls:

Lastly in the super pink cake collection was a cake for a friends recent 30th Birthday. My friend really wants to be a princess so here is her cake:

I think the detail such as the edging round the doors really made this cake!

I have also still be getting lots of orders for cupcakes and have enjoyed making some look super summery now the weather is getting better, such as these with little home made fondant bees.

Lastly for today I also recently made some engagement cupcakes:

Any way that will do for today although I still have a whole file worth of things to add and also to tell you about my new favourite cake to make and eat all to myself. I'll be back with that soon though

Cupcake Kris xxx

Red Velvet Cake and another Wedding.

One of my best friends recently tied the knot and as well as being a bridesmaid I was also tasked with making her cake, this consisted of 130 vanilla cupcakes with both pink and white icing and butterfly decorations and then a top cake of Red Velvet cake filled with Cream Cheese frosting and covered in a white roll out fondant.
Jen and her Husband Chris both love superheroes so they also wanted to incorporate this into the topper on the cake as well as with other elements of the wedding such as the table names and the sweet cart. Any way Jen loves Harley Quinn from Batman and she saw a perfect topper idea on the Internet then found a lady who would replicate it in clay resin (I think that's what they're made of right?)

Any way here's the cake.

As you can see some small crafty fingers had already taken a couple of cakes.
And here's the topper:

As there were more cakes than the stand would hold the rest could be stored under the table to top up as guests helped themselves.

Any way as it's almost Valentines and I have have a few orders for red velvet cupcakes as well as a few people asking me about red velvet I thought I'd post the recipe I used for the top cake. As well as for this adorable cup cake (decorated with Red Velvet cake crumbs)

And here's how they're made: (Recipe via Hummingbird cake days)

Makes about 18 large cupcakes (can be easily halved)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

120g Unsalted Butter
300g Caster Sugar
2 large eggs
20g Cocoa Powder
40ml Red food colouring  Note: avoid natural red colourings as this will produce a duller and browner red. I use Silverspoon artificial Red food colour sold in sainsburys or Dr Oetker Red (not natural)
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
300g Plain Flour
1tsp salt
240ml Buttermilk
1tbsp White Wine Vinegar
1tsp Bicarbonate of Soda


Pre heat the oven to 190 degC.
Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition until thoroughly mixed.

In a separate bowl, stir together the cocoa powder, food colouring and vanilla to form a paste. Add the paste to the batter and mix until fully incorporated.

Sift together the flour and salt and then add this to the batter in  two batches, alternating with the buttermilk and mixing after each addition.

Finally in another bowl, mix together the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda and mix this into the cake batter.

Line a muffin tin with paper cases and fill. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed. allow to cool before frosting.

For the icing


100g Unsalted Butter, softened
600g Icing Sugar (I actually used a bit less for a softer icing, more like 400g)
250g Cream cheese (Again I used more like 200g)


Beat the butter and icing sugar with an electric whisk or mixer until you have a sandy consistency. Add the cream cheese and mix until everything is incorporated and the frosting is smooth and fluffy.

Decorate as desired.

For the big top tier of the wedding cake I used this recipe for each layer of the cake (The cake was 2 8" layers and quite deep, so for a smaller cake you may need to use less or divide between shallower tins) with a layer of cream cheese frosting in the centre. As this cake was in the oven for longer I double lined my cake tin both sides and bottom to ensure the sides didn't brown to much and stayed a nice red.

Any way that's all for now, I have quite a few of these cupcake for valentines day orders so I best start my shopping list for ingredients. Let me know if you make these for a loved one!

Bye for now

Cupcake Kris
xx

Chocolate Orange Shortbread and many cupcakes.

I've just downloaded the pictures of recent cakes Ive been baking and realised I'd totally forgotten to show you all the cupcakes I made for the Queens Diamond Jubilee for a friends bake sale in work.
so quite a bit late but oh well here they are:

I'm definitely going to be using the crown cutter I got to make some biscuits for a certain friend who thinks she is a princess.

I also made some vanilla cupcakes and chocolate orange cupcakes for another bake sale:

And some rude cupcakes for a hen party (avert your eyes children)

Any way in between all this I have found a little time to do some non cupcake baking in the form of chocolate orange dipped shortbread. I had half a chocolate orange left and I'd been meaning to make shortbread for a while so I thought I'd combine the two to make the shortbread extra naughty. Here it is:

and pre dipping:

I think I definitely prefer it with the chocolate. Shortbread is also a really simple recipe that doesn't require many ingredients unless you want to jazz it up with fillings such as cherry or chocolate to dip in. Here's how it's made:

Makes 8 wedges:

Chocolate Orange Shortbread 

175g Plain Flour
Pinch of salt
55g Caster Sugar (Plus extra for sprinkling)
115g Butter chopped into small pieces, (plus extra for greasing)
1/2 Chocolate orange (or any chocolate you wish to dip)

You could also add a grating of orange zest to the shortbread for that extra zing.

Pre heat the oven to 150deg C and grease an 8 inch tart tin. Mix together the flour salt and sugar then rub in the butter into the dry ingredients. Work in the butter until you have a soft dough however do not over work or the shortbread will be tough not crumbly. Add a tablespoon of water if needed.

Lightly press the dough into the tart tin or shape on a baking tray and pinch the edges.

Mark into 8 pieces and prick all over with a fork and bake in the oven for 45 - 50 mins until firm an lightly coloured
.
Sprinkle with sugar and leave to cool in the tin before cutting into wedges.

In a bowl over pan of simmering water melt the chocolate until fully melted, then dip half of each piece of shortbread in or spread or drizzle the chocolate over. Leave to set in the fridge on a plate covered in clingfilm or greaseproof paper.

Once the chocolate is set store in a biscuit tin, or as what happened with my batch hand them out to be eaten all at once.

Till next time

Cupcake Kris