Jubilee Mini Cupcakes

I bought some Petit Four cases ages ago and have never got round to using them,  I thought they would be perfect for making some mini Jubilee Cupcakes.

Quite a difference from a normal cake case!

I had a go the other weekend as I am hoping to take some to a party one of our neighbours is having.

To start with I used my usual recipe for making the cakes halved:

50g Self Raising Flour
50g Golden Caster Sugar
50g Stork Margarine
1 Eggs
1/2 Tsp Vanilla Essence

Put everything in a food processor and blitz until smooth consistency, put about a teaspoon into the mini cake cases and cook for about 10 minutes!

Once they have cooled I iced with buttercream (I have my own secret recipe but if you need one this one on Baking Mad is really good) which I had split into three, added red to one and blue to another leaving one white.

Top Tip: If you are using a piping bag then a really useful tip is to put it in a tall glass and fold over the sides, you can then spoon the mixture in using both hands if necessary and it stops accidents!

Fold the bag over the top of a tall glass!

Using a Wilton 22 small star nozzle I piped little swirls onto the cupcakes in the three different colours, I decided they look like those mini gems you got when you were a kid. If you don't like too much cake then these are perfect, as well as for the kids!

Although they aren't bright red and blue I love them, if it's possible I think they look a little vintage!

Birthday Cupcakes

It is my daughters first birthday in a few weeks and I all I have ready is the church hall we are having it in.

So at the weekend I gave making some birthday cupcakes a go, they came out looking pretty good! Not as good as a professional by any stretch of the imagination but still for an amateur I think they look OK.

The recipes I used to make these masterpieces are:

For the cakes I use the basic Be-Ro Victoria Sponge recipe, super simple and usually works every time. I use the all in one method of just bunging everything in the food mixer.

For the icing I used a simple buttercream recipe, it needs to be a good piping consistency, too dry and it will crack too wet and it won't pipe and just run!

I then used a Wilton 1M nozzle and pipe to make a swirl, starting from the outside and working inwards, a demo of this can be found on the Wilton website.

I have found some sprinkles on a few websites but have been looking for some that don't contain any E numbers, last thing I need is loads of hyperactive children running about!

Anyway the result is this...