summer in a cupcake...Daisy cakes

Shock horror...summer is upon us.

Long days, summer sunshine and those elusive strolls through daisy filled gardens have finally arrived.

And to celebrate such a drastic climate change here in England, what better way than to bake a batch of summer themed cupcakes?

This didn't take a lot of thought on my part...all my answers were with this angel sent from heaven:

TADAH, BRILLIANCE IN A NOZZLE:

How anyone can live without a nozzle with the capability to pipe out grassy fields is beyond me, and i am thoroughly OVERJOYED with the fact i impulsively bought such a baking gem.

But anyway more on the cupcakes...

The house was barren when it came to ingredients with only a slightly disheveled bag of dark brown sugar in the cupboard...

And, as I always say, If in doubt...add ginger...                 

And it was with this in mind that I decided to make a CLASSIC ginger cupcake (rest assured not without an equally fitting buttercream).

My frosting of choice to ice these fiery sponges, was a toffee buttercream, which was a great pairing that complemented the sharp note of the ginger.

AND NOW FOR THE PIPING. After a sufficient amount of green dye, a few burst sandwich bags (and a large quantity of mess) my cupcakes were transformed into patches of grass!


The addition of daisies, and voila, summer in a cupcake.

May your days be filled with summer & cupcakes...

Vanilla birthday cake

For a perfectionist, something as simple as making a vanilla cake can be a complicated procedure.

The texture most be perfect, light, fluffy, springy, and the flavor must be delicately scented with vanilla, without overpowering the cake. The buttercream must be thick to hold the cake together, but light enough to pair well with the texture of the sponge.

Needless to say, although this is a very complex procedure (for me anyway) it doesn't affect the fact that a plain vanilla cake can end up looking, well.. plain.

I have seen SO many wedding cakes and occasion cakes with this classic shell border, which somehow, transforms the cake, making it appear a great deal more fancy" than before.

I decided to give this a go, going for the whole girls pink birthday party theme (regardless of the fact that a) don't actually have anyone who has a birthday anytime soon b) don't even have a baby sister that this would be appropriate for). When I say pink, i mean very pink-

  

Normally i wouldn't use sprinkles (I have a thing against them) but I thought glitter and sprinkles would be a good final touch to make the cake seem girly enough.

The overall outcome was a cake that was really, really pink, and screamed birthday. I will definitely be using shell borders again, as they literally transform a plain cake into something that would do for a birthday cake, or any type of occasion for that matter.

                                                           

Testing for our menu

The testing for our cupcake menu began today and it's no exaggeration to say that we baked all day. However after carrying out the rather laborious processes of creating enough batter for about what felt like 100 cupcakes, we discovered we had created four fantastic tasting cupcake flavors to put on our menu, so the amount of time was well spent!

We decided to opt for a white cake sponge, which involved whisking enough eggs to feed the whole of America, but nonetheless produced the most gorgeously, light, moist and fluffy cupcakes.  To this batter (which was tripled, and practically overflowing out of the bowl) we added flavorings  to create our four different batters used to create our four different cupcakes.

Icing the cupcakes was a highly anticipated moment, as we had recently ordered nozzles from 'The Sugar Shack' and were eager to try them out. We ended up using the Wilton 2A to produce the classic rounded swirl, and the Wilton 2D to produce a gorgeous rose swirl effect. Both nozzles produced a topping which was contemporary, pretty, and overall a great success! Needless to say, these cupcakes will, without a doubt, be a feature on our menu!

From the left, custard cream cupcake (2A), millionaires shortbread cupcake (2D)

Oreo marble cupcake (2D)

Apple crumble cupcakes (2D)