I am of the opinion, and surely I'm not alone in this, that it's hard to beat a classic cupcake. With the vintage revival that's taking culture by storm at the moment, cupcakes have established themselves as a tea party essential. More than this though, with some neat decorations, you can transform your simple cupcakes into real showstoppers.
For me, the event was my boyfriend's mum's birthday. While I wanted to do something really special for her, whatever I baked had to make the perilous journey from Bristol to East London so cupcakes were the obvious solution.
First things first, whip up a simple vanilla cake mix. I have tried so many variations from more cookbooks than I care to count but the BBC Good Food recipe has always given me the best results. I chose to double up the mixture which made twelve large cupcakes. If you use bun rather than muffin cases, your mixture will go further as they are much shallower. Fill each case to about 2/3 to get that lovely dome over the top.
While your cakes are baking, make a batch of buttercream icing. I always use a 2:1 ratio for sugar to butter and if, like me, electric whisks are beyond you; add a capful of milk to the mixture to get the right consistency much faster.
With all of this prepped, we move on to the real showstopper element. The fondant icing roses.
What I love about these is that they look really impressive but they are actually so simple to make. I am attaching a youtube tutorial here which offers step by step instructions and am going to give a quick breakdown as well:
1) Cut a small sheet of baking paper and fold it in half. Pull a piece of fondant off the block and roll it into a ball between your palms. It should be about the size of a pea but it doesn't need to be exact.
2) Unfold the sheet and place the ball of fondant on one side of paper. Fold the baking sheet back across, covering the fondant, and press it into a flat disk with your thumb.
3) Fold back the top sheet of baking paper and gently roll the disk in on itself so it forms a tube with a spiral centre. This will be the middle of your rose (see the image above)
4) Make another fondant ball, similar in size to the first. Again flatten it between the sheets of baking paper, unfold the top sheet and then gently remove from the paper. Fold it round one side of the spiral centred bud you already made and press gently allowing the top of the petal to fan out.
Continue with this process until the roses are the size you want. It is quite fiddly and takes a bit of practice but persevere and I promise you will be able to create gorgeous centre pieces for your cakes.
All that's left to do is to put everything together! I use a piping bag to ice as it gives an even finish but you can just spoon your buttercream onto your cakes. Place a dollop in the middle and then use the back of a metal spoon to get an even spread. Hold the icing roses below the petals and then gently place into the centre of your cupcake. The butter icing will hold them in place and give you a gorgeous finish.
And there you have it: classic cupcakes with a twist that's sure to impress. My boyfriend's mum loved them and it gave me an excuse to spend an evening gorging on cake mix, what could be better? Do you have any baking suggestions? Any other simple ways to give your classic cupcake a revamp? I'd love to hear about them in comments!
With love,
Kati
No comments:
Post a Comment