27th March 2014 // 0 Comments

Mother’s Day Tutorial: Daffodil & Rose Adorned Cupcakes!

Instead of a bouquet of flowers for Mother’s Day (March 30th in the UK) why not give our recipe and tutorial a try and create a gorgeous floral collection of delectable cupcakes? We’ve created some ever so sweet daffodil and rose cupcakes for you to re-create at home! Perhaps the only thing better than a lovely bundle of flowers is a batch of floral decorated cupcakes?

How to create sugar daffodil flowers and roses…

To create an abundant bouquet feel we clustered a few daffodils together atop of each delicious cupcake! Instead you can mix roses and daffodils together or keep it simple with a single flower nestled into the buttercream of each cake.

Why not add adorable fondant ladybugs, caterpillars or butterflies nestled in between your sugar blossoms for a fun collection of garden themed cupcakes?

How to make sugar daffodil cupcake toppers…

You will need…

Fondant rolling pin
Mexican flower foam pad
Icing sugar to dust
Flower foam pad
Ball tool
Veining tool
Plain stamens
Tylo powder
Yellow fondant /sugarpaste
Darker yellow/orange fondant / sugarpaste
Edible glue
Tapered 6 point star tool
Blade tool
Cocktail stick

Step one: Using a Mexican flower foampad create a hat-like shape from yellow fondant / sugarpaste. To do this roll out a ball of fondant over the largest hole in your mexican flower foam pad. When you carefully tease this out you should be left with a flat rolled out fondant… but with a tapered or tube-like shape on one end.

Step two: On the completely flat side use the 6 point side of your tapered star tool to indent a 6 point star in the centre of the fondant. This will mark where each of your six petals will separate.

Step three: With the blade tool carefully cut the fondant with the cuts matching up to the points of the indentation made with your 6 point tapered star tool. These will become your petals.

Step four: Add detail by using the veining tool to draw lines on the petals. Shape, thin and ruffle each petal tip using your ball tool and flower foam pad. Then pinch the tip of each petal to create shape. Use a little edible glue to secure each pinched tip if needed. Set aside.

Step five: To create the ruffled centre roll out some darker yellow / orange fondant into a oblong shape. Thin and ruffle the edges using your ball tool and flower foam pad.

Step six: Loosely roll up the oblong shaped fondant and pinch one end. Cut some of the pinched of section if necessary. Take your taper star tool and indent the middle of the base of the ruffled section just made. Dab a little edible glue on the indentation inside the ruffled piece.

Step seven: Take some stamens, fold them and using a cocktail stick push them into the indentation inside the ruffled section.

Step eight: Add a little edible glue onto the middle of the petal section that had been set aside and attach the ruffled middle. Hold until set.

How to make sugar rose cupcake toppers…

You will need…

Fondant rolling pin
Flower foam pad
Ball tool
Lavender coloured fondant / sugarpaste
Olive green coloured fondant / sugarpaste
Icing sugar to dust
Rose petal cutters
Cocktail stick
Tylo powder
Edible glue
Rose leaf plunger cutter

Step one: The night before you begin your roses you need to prepare your buds! Take a small amount of fondant / sugarpaste mixed with tylo powder and form into a ball then taper into a bud shape. Take a cocktail stick and add edible glue to one end. Push the edible glue covered end into the base of the cocktail stick (just past half way) and leave to harden overnight.

Step two: Roll out your fondant / sugarpaste thinly on a surface dusted with icing sugar. Using the largest rose petal cutter cut out a petal from the fondant. Using your ball tool and flower foam pad thin and ruffle out the edges of the petal.

Step three: Dab some edible glue onto the bud. Attach the petal with the tip of the petal over the top of the bud. Carefully wrap the petal around the bud forming a peak at the top and ensure your bud overlaps down one side.

Step four: Next cut two petals using a petal cutter a little longer than the bud. Thin and ruffle out the edges of the petal. Attach around the bud of your rose whilst carefully curving and shaping the edges of the two petals.

Step five: Now cut three petals using the same petal cutter used in step four. Using edible glue arrange these around your growing rose. Remember to overlap each petal slightly and place alternatively to the layer before. Carefully curve and shape the edges of the three petals.

Step six: Now cut five petals using a larger petal cutter than the one used in step four. Using edible glue arrange these around your growing rose. Remember to overlap each petal slightly and place alternatively to the layer before. Carefully curve and shape the edges of the five petals.

Step seven: For the rose leaf roll out some olive green fondant thinly and use a medium rose leaf plunger cutter to cut out a leaf.

After piping your cupcakes with buttercream nestle your blossoms atop each one and enjoy!

8th October 2013 // 7 Comments

Halloween Recipe and Tutorial: Haunted Black Forest Cupcakes!

We always get excited when the Halloween festivities come creeping around the corner. We love planning (and eating up) fun ghoulish tutorials and recipes, carving out pumpkins, buying in spook-tacular baking supplies and of course over using the pun ‘spook-tacular’. With all this in mind here is a fun recipe and tutorial so you can create these ghostly Haunted Black Forest Cupcakes at home! These spooky cupcakes are our non-alcoholic spin (great for the kids!) on the traditional Black Forest Gâteau cake. They’re soft dark chocolate cupcakes swirled with delicious cherry buttercream finished with floating fondant ghosts; perfect for petrifying parties or spooky soirées!

Basic Dark Chocolate Recipe (makes approx. 12 cupcakes)

226g self raising flour
226g butter
226g caster sugar
6 eggs
2 heaped tablespoons of cocoa powder
100g of melted dark chocolate buttons, callets or broken pieces
12 cupcake cases

Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C.

Cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the eggs for around one minute. Once half of the eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes. Add in your melted dark chocolate and cocoa powder. Mix.

Fill your cupcake cases until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf. Bake for around 20/25 minutes.

Cherry Buttercream Recipe

250g butter
300-350g icing sugar / confectioner’s sugar
6-12 drops of cherry essence
Cherry Pink gel paste food colour
Piping Tip (We used the Ateco 858 tip that we stock)

Add half of the butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add in your cherry essence. Finally add some pink gel paste food colour with black gel paste food colour until you get your desired dark cherry colour.

What you need to make your spooky ghosts:

Black Edible Ink Pen
White fondant / sugarpaste
Kebab sticks
Large plain circle cutter
Tylo powder
White candy melts
Fondant rolling pin

Assembling your cupcakes and creating your fondant ghosts…

Step one: Pipe your cupcakes with swirls of your delicious cherry buttercream.

Step two: Cut down three kebab stick to about 4 to 5 inches in height (though you should compare this alongside your cupcakes).

Step three: Mix some tylo powder in with some white sugarpaste fondant and form into spherical balls about the diameter of a 10 pence piece (or a quarter if you’re US bound).

Step four: Melt some candy melts. (Tip: We pop some in a disposable piping bag, melt them in the microwave and then snip the bag.) Apply a little to the top of the kebab sticks and carefully slide the sugarpaste balls on.

Step five: Leave these to dry and harden. You can stand your sticks upright by pushing them into a cake dummy or a thick cardboard box… or by even leaving them to stand in a high and narrow container (e.g. a coffee pot).

Step six: When the balls are a little firmer push these into the centre of your piped cupcakes.

Step seven: Roll out some white sugar paste to around 2mm thick and cut out as many circles as there are cupcakes using a plain circle cutter.

Step eight: Carefully lay your circles out over the kebab stick and fondant ball ‘lollipops’ in your cupcakes and arrange the bottoms of them to look like flowing ghostly shapes. This takes a steady hand as you can end up smearing the buttercream underneath!

Step nine: For the finishing touch carefully draw some creepy (or funny) faces on your little ghosts!

Hurrah! Finally you have a little army of ghosts ready to celebrate the Halloween season!

20th September 2013 // 1 Comments

National Cupcake Week: Cherry Bakewell Cupcake Recipe!

Here is our second ‘Classic British Dessert’ recipe re-created in cupcake form; the almighty Cherry Bakewell! An afternoon tea favourite of pretty much everyone’s nan this countryside treat combines cherries and almonds perfectly. Our cupcake recipe consists of a light almond cupcake filled with home made cherry conserve, frosted with silky almond buttercream and topped with a glacé cherry. Try our recipe below and enjoy this cupcake with a large cup of tea and an hour to spare!

Almond Cupcake Recipe (Makes Approx. 12)

226g self raising flour
226g butter
226g caster sugar
4 eggs
6 – 12 drops of almond extract

Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C.

Cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the eggs for around one minute. Add your almond extract to taste. Once half of the eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes.

Fill your cupcake cases until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf. Bake for around 20/25 minutes.

Cherry Conserve Filling

150g chopped cherries
1 lemon (juice of)
150g Pectin / Jam Sugar

In a saucepan on medium heat simmer your cherries with the juice of one lemon and the pectin / jam sugar until a good thickness. Pour into clean airtight jars and leave to cool before using!

Once cooled core your cupcakes with a good cupcake corer and generously fill with your cherry conserve. Try not to eat too much jam before you’ve finished making these cupcakes though.

Cherry Bakewell Cupcake Recipe

Almond Buttercream Recipe

250g butter
400g icing sugar
6 – 12 drops of almond extract
70-100g white chocolate buttons or callets
Glacé cherries to garnish

Add half of the butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Melt your white chocolate buttons or callets in a bowl sat in hot water. Once melted add to your buttercream and gently mix. Finally, add the almond extract to taste.

Cherry Bakewell Cupcake Recipe

To finished up your batch of delicious Cherry Bakewell cupcakes swirl with your smooth almond buttercream and nestle a rubescent glacé cherry atop just like the original dessert! Enjoy!

12th June 2013 // 6 Comments

Recipe: Cherry Cola Cupcake

This tasty little cupcake pays homage to one half of Juniper Cakery’s past addiction to cans of cherry cola. Don’t worry, she’s OK now, but those were dark days fuelled by cherry laced soda. These days she is strictly tea-total and we deemed this cupcake a safer way for her to enjoy her favourite fizzy treat! It’s still pretty addictive, so be careful re-creating the recipe below…

This Cherry Cola cupcake is a subtle cherry flavoured cake swirled with two toned and dual flavoured Cherry and Cola buttercream then finished with bright pink sugar crystals! It’s perfect for the summer; but we think it’d go down a treat at an 80s themed party or shindig! If anyone does this please send us a picture so we can live vicariously through you; we love the idea of a kitsch ‘The Breakfast Club’ themed do!

Makes approximately 12 cupcakes

For the cupcakes…

226g self raising flour
226g butter
226g caster sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon Cherry Essence

Step one: Preheat your oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C

Step two: Cream the butter with sugar and once well mixed add in the Cherry Essence, flour and then the eggs.

Step three: Set out twelve cupcake cases in your pan and fill each case 2/3 full.

Step four: Bake from around 12-18 minutes or until a golden brown on top and leave to cool on a counter.

For the buttercream…

We make our buttercream using our own intuition. We’ve tried countless recipes; all of which failed to pass our test (and stability) tests. It’s best that you begin to develop and ‘eye’, ‘feel’ and ‘taste’ so that you know when your frosting is perfect for you. For starters though, the recipe below is a rough guide…

250g butter
250-350g icing sugar
Bright pink sugar crystals
2-3 drops of LorAnn Oil Cola Flavouring
1-2 teaspoons of Cherry Essence
Dark Pink Food Gel Colour Paste
Liqourice Black Food Gel Colour Paste
855 piping tip/nozzle
Piping bags

Step one: Cut your butter into small cubes and cream your butter until soft. Gradually add icing sugar until a good consistency.

Step two: Separate your buttercream into two halves. Add some LorAnn Oil Cola Flavouring with Liqourice Black Food Gel Colour Paste to one half. To the other add Cherry Essence with some Dark Pink Food Gel Colour Paste.

Step three: To get a fun two toned/dual flavoured effect scoop your cola buttercream down one half of a piping bag fitted with an 855 piping tip/nozzle (this tip/nozzle creates lovely ruffled buttercream). After doing so the other half of your bag should be free for you to add your cherry buttercream.

Step four: Now you can pipe lots of generous and tasty swirls of buttercream on top of your cupcakes once they have cooled down and sprinkle liberally with sugar crystals.

You should be left with cake stand filled with tempting cherry cola cupcakes! It’s up to you if you want to share them with anyone else… but we wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t!

3rd June 2013 // 1 Comments

Cherry Blossom Entwined Birdcage Cake with The Happy Egg Co.

It’s time for our fifth cake, recipe & cake decorating tutorial in partnership with The Happy Egg Co.! This month we took inspiration from the soft and beautiful cherry blossoms that flourished not too long ago. Unfortunately, those flowers never last for long but at least you can enjoy edible blossoms in cake form! As well as picking out cherry blossoms for the design we also looked at fun and summery cherry laced flavours! We soon scaled our recipe ideas down to a simple cherry cola and pistachio cake. Why not have a look at our design and development blog post to see our ideas and research.

As well as this month’s flavour we thought we’d show you how to create an elegant and simple birdcage cake. These are definitely on trend at the moment due to the summer months, but also with wedding season upon us they’re popping up everywhere! The romantic colour scheme is perfect for afternoon teas, spring and summer birthdays, engagement parties and weddings.

We added further detail by creating a quilted cake board studded with edible sugar pearls that also found themselves nestled into the cage-work of the cake.

Cake recipe

To create this cake (including the dome layer and 4 circle layers) you will need the following…

7-8 free range eggs by The Happy Egg Co. depending on egg size
453g self raising flour
453g caster sugar
453g butter
6 inch circle cake pan
6 inch ball pan

Cream your butter in a mixer then add the caster sugar. Add in the flour along with half of the happy eggs for around one minute. Once half of the happy eggs are combined add the remaining and mix for about 5 minutes.

Pour into a greased circle cake pan until 2/3 full and place on the top shelf of a pre-heated oven at Gas Mark 3/325F/170C. Bake for around 30 minutes. Repeat this step four times for each circle layer.

For the dome layer pour the remaining batter into one half of your ball pan and bake for 35-45 minutes in an over pre-heated to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C.

Cherry, cola & pistachio buttercream recipe

For the buttercream you will need…

500g butter (don’t use margarine as the water content is higher and not suitable for buttercream)
500g - 600g icing sugar (choose your own consistency and taste)
Cherry essence
Cola flavouring
Pistachio essence
Pink gel paste food colouring
Brown gel paste food colouring
Green gel paste food colouring

Add half of the of butter diced into pieces. Cream the butter in a mixer. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes). Once the buttercream is of a smooth consistency separate into three and flavour / colour to taste.

How to assemble your cakes into a birdcage shape!

To create a birdcage shape you need to put together a bullet shaped cake using from four to six layers of circle cake (around 3-4cm in height). You then simply create the dome section by using a ball cake pan. For a cake like this which consists of a fair few layers of cake we’d recommend the use of a a good plastic dowling / dowel rod through the centre for stability.

How to make fondant cherry blossoms!

Now let’s show you how to make your own edible cherry blossom flowers from a ball of modelling paste. This is a fun way to create these blossoms without specific petal cutters and it means that you can make them any size you like; from tiny blossoms to extra large flowers!

You will need…

Coloured flower / modelling paste
Lustre Dust
Scissors
Cone modelling tool
Tapered star modelling tool (with five points)
Paintbrush
Non-edible flower stamens

Step one: Form your modelling paste into a cone shape with a ball shape at one end.

Step two: Using the tapered star tool press a star into the rounded end of your modelling paste cone. This marks where your petals need to be shaped from.

Step three: Using some scissors cut into your paste using the points of the ‘star’ as markers.

Step four: Flatten and press the petals out using your fingers. Now you should begin to see your blossom form!

Step five: Using the cone tool press lightly into the petals to ruffle them.

Step six: Now pinch the ends of your blossom’s petals to add shape.

Step seven: Cut some stamens to around 1.5cm in length and push them into the centre of your flower.

Step eight: Now add some shimmer and extra colour to your blossom by dusting on some lustre dust with your paintbrush.

Now you should have a gorgeous cherry blossom perfect for sitting on top of your own homemade birdcage cake! Try creating them in white, ivory or different tones of pink to suit your colour scheme. To secure them in place upon your finished birdcage melt down some white chocolate and hold for a few seconds. Chocolate dries quickly and is a great way for holding heavier objects in place on a cake.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this recipe and tutorial on how to create an elegant birdcage cake combined with some fun summer inspired flavours.

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