Browsing Tag

cupcakes

1st April 2015 // 3 Comments

Fun Wedding Cupcake Tower with Bride and Groom!

Cupcake towers grew to be quite the up and coming trend a few years ago and they’re still pretty popular choices right now. It’s a pretty stress-free solution to have lots of tempting individual portions of cupcakes or even mini cakes ready to be handed out! Plus we love how they instantly make any dessert table look like a taste bud tingling bakery counter! Last weekend we created this sweet and definitely fun wedding cupcake tower for a gold themed reception.

Every chocolate cupcake was drizzled with dark Belgian chocolate before being nestled with gold dusted edible fondant hearts which helped tie in the luxuriously elegant yet simple golden colour palette. For the Sicilian lemon cupcakes we drizzled each with Belgian couverture white chocolate and a sprinkling of tangy lemon sherbet crystals!

The cake itself was a crowd-pleasing strawberry and Madagascan vanilla flavour; soft vanilla cake filled with our own homemade strawberry preserve and whipped Madagascan vanilla buttercream and iced with fragrant marshmallow fondant. 

This wedding reception featured 100 of our delicious and fresh baked cupcakes all created using quality ingredients such as Sicilian lemon oil, couverture chocolates and Belgian cocoa powder, premium fondant and free range eggs. Each cupcake was baked within 24 hours of the event to ensure the best quality and taste!

One of the best features of this playful cupcake tower was of the sweet (and edible) bride and groom figures perched on top! We used custom tinted gum paste / modelling paste to create both characters which we hand-coloured ourselves. We took down details such as hair colour, suit and cravat colour and even the style of bouquet and boutonnière and then set to work.

The bride was created first as we had to consider the drape of the dress and the positioning of her arms due to her bouquet and the fact that we planned for the bridge and groom to hold hands. Afterwards she was set aside for us to concentrate on creating the groom and his voluminous gold cravat and dark suit. To create the cravat we began by testing the size and shape out with a few measurements (we even created actual miniature cravat shapes from real-life patterns) and some parchment paper to get the proportions and form correct. We also added a tiny fondant cravat pin to finish off the look!

To add a little extra pun and character to this cake we concentrated on the edible couple each having their own personality and reaction to their big day and their wedding cupcake tower! The bride is happily surveying the guests, venue and activities whilst the groom is sat feeling excited and proud!

After a busy couple of days whipping up gold royal icing, piping 100 cupcakes and assembling the edible figures we had to see the 4 large cupcake boxes and cake box leave us to be enjoyed. It was rewarding work and with so many different elements (from different cupcake flavours to decorations and then a cake and fondant toppers) it’s wonderful to see a wedding cupcake tower like this make its way to its new home (lots of stomachs).

5th March 2015 // 1 Comments

Baby Shower Carousel Cupcakes!

Sometimes a fabulous idea comes from something relatively simple and everyday… like retro style paper straws! We were recently asked to create some pink, white and gold carousel themed cupcakes for a sweet baby shower. Originally, the customer wanted some flat decorated cupcakes, but after testing out some ideas using pink and white striped party straws we proposed a rather cute carousel-inspired idea!

Each cupcake for the baby shower was our delightfully fragrant Strawberry Milkshake flavour - soft Madagascan vanilla cake topped with a soft pink swirl of Strawberry and vanilla infused buttercream! We sprinkled each with tiny sugar pearls before each treat was then transformed with pretty carousel horses!

As the horses and their pink and white striped poles were the main focus we decided to keep the actual cupcakes simple and relatively unfussy. We swapped our usual plain round piping tip for a closed star tip to create the pretty ruffled effect. This added a lovely element of texture and softness to each.

Each carousel cupcake featured a galloping merry-go-round horse attached to a striped pole tipped with a golden ball. We created the horses using modelling paste and once set they were attached to strong pink and white retro-style paper straws with white chocolate before being painted with edible gold and finished with a gold painted balls on top.

Once finished these carousel cupcakes were then boxed up in an extended cake box before making their way to be enjoyed at a wonderfully vintage themed baby shower in Anlaby!

3rd February 2015 // 1 Comments

Tutorial Tuesday: How To Make a Fondant Love Bug!

It’s Valentine’s Day around the corner and love certainly is in the air for our adorable little love bug! This fun and wonderfully cute tutorial is surprisingly pain-free so why not follow our step by step guide and create a heart-warming collection of Valentine cupcakes for your sweetheart?

Fondant love bug tutorial to fall head over heels for!

Materials needed:

Step 1:

Make a medium size ball of soft pink fondant / sugar paste with a small amount of tylo powder added… 1 teaspoon per 250g of paste).

Step 2:

Roll two tiny balls of black fondant. Indent where you want to place the eyes with the small ball tool and with a little edible glue attach the black fondant balls in place.

Step 3:

For the nose shape a tiny piece of white fondant into an oval shape and attach with edible glue.

Step 4: 

For the mouth take a round piping tip and carefully press half of it into the face. Accentuate the smile with a little pink petal dust.

Step 5:

To add some rosy cheeks dust a little pink petal dust at a time underneath and opposite the nose.

Step 6:

To create the body take some hot pink fondant mixed with some tylo powder and form into a teardrop shape. 

Step 7:

Take a stick of uncooked spaghetti and push into it’s centre leaving some protruding to hold the head of the bug on. Attach with some edible glue and by carefully pressing the head onto the body through the spaghetti.

Step 8:

Now it’s time to make your little love bug’s antennae! Roll out some hot pink fondant to a thickness of around 5mm and with a small heart shaped plunger cutter cut out two hearts.

Step 9:

Cut two pieces of floral wire around 2 inches long and curl around a thin paintbrush before sliding off and snipping down to around 1 inch in length.

Step 10:

Carefully straighten out a little bit at the end and with each tip dipped in some edible glue insert into the plunger cut hearts half way.

Step 11:

Carefully insert each antenna into the top of your bug’s head.

Step 12:

For the wings roll out some white fondant and cut out a medium sized heart using a cookie or pastry cutter.

Step 13:

With a small sharp knife slice the heart into half lengthwise and attach to the back of your bug with edible glue.

Step 14:

To add legs create two small rounded teardrop shapes from some hot pink fondant. Pinch and flatten the tapered ends together slightly. Attach and place your bug on top of the legs with a little edible glue.

Step 15:

Add some lovely heart details to your love bug with some heart shaped sprinkles!

We like to think that a cutie like this would indeed look rather fetching perched on top of cakes as well as cupcakes so have fun making a little fondant love bug for large or small treats! For gorgeous baby shower cakes a sweet little heart themed bug like this would be positively show stealing. We love the idea of a pastel hued love bug sat atop of fondant ABC building blooks as part of a fun cake design!

7th October 2014 // 1 Comments

Gruesome Zombie Finger Cupcakes!

With Halloween fast approaching we’ve been working on a super fun and rather fang-tastic collection of cake and cupcake tutorials (complete with delicious recipes)! For our first Halloween inspired tutorial we’re going to show you how to whip up some Gruesome Zombie Finger Cupcakes. These terrifying cupcakes are perfect for spook-tacular kids parties and shindigs!

Materials and tools needed:

Step 1:

Mix grey/green fondant or sugar paste with CMC/Tylo powder (approx. 1/2 teaspoon powder per 150g) and shape into a sausage shape around 5cm in length and 1 1/2-2cm in width. 

Step 2:

Work to make the sausage shape taper at one end. To create the ‘knobbly’ knuckle look use your index finger and thumb to squeeze slightly at both sides of where a knuckle would naturally occur.

Step 3:

Take a veining tool and scour lines along the knuckle and joint areas of the finger.

Step 4:

Carefully press a half oval shape into the tapered end to create a nail bed.

Step 5:

Mix a little CMC in the grey or beige, depending on preference for the nail, fondant/sugar paste and roll out.

Step 6:

With a blade tool or scalpel cut out small rectangles from the fondant.

Step 7:

With the veining tool scribe some rough ridges vertical-wise down the nail. Attach to the finger with a little edible glue.

Step 8:

For some extra detail lightly dust the knuckles, joints and the area below the nail bed with some black, brown or dark green blossom dust.

25th July 2014 // 0 Comments

Zesty Lemon Cupcake Recipe!

This fabulous lemon cupcake recipe is always a definite hit for us when in need of a little afternoon pick-me-up. We love the sweet yet tangy dimensions of taste found in these little gems and adore how they work so well against the soft and creamy textures of the cake and buttercream. They’re wonderful additions to get-togethers, parties or a quick treat during the warm summer months so why not follow our lemon cupcake recipe below for a crowd-pleasing batch treats!

Zesty Lemon Cupcakes Recipe (Makes approx. 12 cupcakes)

  • 226g self raising flour
  • 226 butter
  • 226g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • Lemon extract
  • Finely grated peel/zest of 1/2 a lemon

Step 1: Pre-heat your oven to Gas Mark 3 / 160C / 325F and line a cupcake pan with cupcake cases.

Step 2: Cream your butter and sugar first and when ready add your eggs, lemon zest and lemon extract (test your batter to make sure it’s as lemon-y as you’ve like it).

Step 3: Once combined add the flour, mix well and pour your batter into your cases.

Step 4: Bake for around 20-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean when tested.

If you’re throwing a grown-up party why not fancy this recipe up with a splash of King’s Ginger (one of our favourite liqueurs) in the buttercream, fill with a vodka and lemon curd preserve, or add a touch of class with reduced champagne in the buttercream and topple with curled lemon zest and fresh raspberries!

Lemon buttercream

  • 500g softened butter
  • 400g-500g icing sugar
  • Lemon oil or extract

Step 1: Cream your softened butter in a stand up mixer.

Step 2: Sift your icing sugar and this add to your butter. Cream together.

Step 3: Add in your lemon oil or extract to flavour your frosting. We add in around 2 teaspoons, but you should add in whatever amount tastes best for you!

Our top tip when it comes to baking gorgeous cupcakes is to fill your cases carefully. It doesn’t matter how busy we are and how insane our workload gets we make sure to never spill or drip batter onto the cases. Not only does this look rather unsightly and adds burnt cake to the outer edges of your cupcake cases, but it can even hinder your cakes baking evenly! A really handy method for filling your cases is to use a disposable piping bag and pipe batter into each cases.

We fully advocate baking and making buttercream completely from scratch so we’re perfectionists when it comes to getting super silky buttercream. Our advice is to experiment, modify and test like a mad scientist! Our baked creations, buttercreams and fillings are the result of stressful late nights in the kitchen timing how long butter was whipped for, which butter performs/looks/tastes/holds better, etc. When we found a recipe that didn’t work we took it apart and adjusted it, tried again and repeated until it was perfect for us!

Make sure to pipe each cupcake with a generous swirl of buttercream and decorate however you wish. Some fantastic decor ideas include sprinkling fun popping candy on top or a dash of lemon sherbet crystals, using sugar pearls for a more subtle look, jellied fruit inspired candies or some grated lemon peel.

If you’ve followed our lemon cupcake recipe you should be left with a deliciously sweet and zesty batch of lemon treats; perfect for relaxing with in the garden. We’d highly recommend pairing these tasty cakes with tangy lemonade or a soothing cup of fruit tea for a well-deserved rest!

Juniper Cakery
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