One of the perks of our job is that when either one of our birthdays makes its way around we end up creating a hell of a cake for ourselves! This Honey, Vanilla and Lavender Beehive Macaron Cake is by no means an exception. To celebrate Krystle’s (the Welsh half of Juniper Cakery) 28th birthday we set to work designing, baking and decorating this impressive beehive inspired macaron tower.
The cake itself is vanilla filled and iced with a wildflower honey buttercream whilst the macarons that adorn it are honey, vanilla and lavender flavoured. The bottom tier is covered with gold painted fondant ‘sequins’.
Being Welsh, an outdoors-y woman and harbouring a life-long fascination with bees this was an obvious cake for Krystle. We took inspiration from beehives, botanical illustrations, anything and everything golden and glamorous and full bouquets of seasonal blossoms to design this cake.
After affixing the honey, vanilla and lavender macarons to the cake tower we embellished them with handmade ivory sugar gum paste roses and leaves, gold painted fondant bees and soft lavender hydrangea blossoms.
The ‘sequin’ tier took an excruciating amount of work and time to create! For a while we kept spotting fondant sequin cakes doing the rounds on various blogs and online magazines from across the pond and we had been itching to re-create this! It took the both of us over 10 hours to make!
The cake board was fun to decorate too! The large hexagon shaped board was covered with a cream fondant then embossed with a honeycomb pattern, brushed with gold lustre dust and dotted with gold painted fondant bees!
The top of the macaron cake tower was finished with a gum paste finial that was then hand painted gold. The design was influenced by pollen, floral petals, the abdomen of a honey bee and by the finials that perch atop historical buildings.
We added a little bit of fun by attaching some gold painted fondant bees onto a few blossoms as well as clustered onto the macarons.
This cake took so much time and effort to create, but it was worth it! This cake is the perfect combination of both of our personal styles. It incorporates our love of nature, food (of course!) and even architecture.
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?
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.
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!
On St. Patrick’s Day it’s tradition to knock back a bit of a tipple (or hundred) and who are we to break with tradition. To celebrate we decided to share our recipe for our lovely Black Velvet Cupcake; a baked treat that takes it’s name and flavour from the Guinness based cocktail! It was invented in London in 1861, but it utilises that deliciously famous Irish stout from the Emerald Isle so we thought this would be a recipe befitting any St. Patrick’s Day shindig. Our infamous Black Velvet Cupcake is a lovely dark chocolate cake infused with Guinness before being swirled with a creamy champagne buttercream; two boozy elements in one recipe!
We adorned our Black Velvet Cupcakes with emerald coloured white chocolate piped into sugar sand sprinkled shamrocks. Why not topple gold wrapped chocolate coins on top, swirl a little green buttercream atop or simply dust with cocoa for a wonderful treat.
Whatever you plan on doing for St. Patrick’s Day (whether celebrating or not) we hope you enjoy a wonderful time!
This week we’ve put together a wonderfully adorable fondant / sugarpaste tutorial on how to create some bright shooting stars. These are perfect for baby showers, kids’ parties, birthdays or themed events. We’ve also included a recipe for deliciously sweet and tangy lemonade cupcakes which are sure to be a hit with all ages!
Step one: Roll out some yellow fondant to a thickness of approx. 7mm and sandwich this between two pieces of cling film before cutting out your star shape. The cling film on top helps create clean, rounded edges whilst the cling film under the fondant prevents the shape sticking to the surface.
Step two: Carefully shape the star into a chunkier shape by rounded the tips with your fingers.
Step three: Add cute facial details with a ball tool and scallop tool. At this stage you can add eyes with springs, sugar pearls, balls of fondant etc.
Step four: Create the shooting star’s tail by rolling out ‘ropes’ of fondant that taper off.
Step five: Create three ‘ropes’ to form the tail and arrange. Glue these together with either water or melted white chocolate. Once dry attach the tail to the back of the star with melted white chocolate. Then you can add edible glitter, lustre dust, sprinkles etc!
To assemble your Shooting Star Cupcakes pipe your lemon cupcakes with the freshly made lemonade buttercream (we used a disposable piping bag fitted with an 828 piping tip) then carefully nestle a shooting star atop each once set. Place on a tiered cupcake stand amidst star shaped confetti for a playful and tempting display!
Here’s a lovely and bright cosmetics bag cake with a vintage twist that we created for a friend’s daughter! We were asked to design and make a polka dot make-up bag cake fit for an 18th birthday with a slight vintage feel, a tassel and a fresh colour palette. We were, otherwise, given creative license so with the previous requests we settled upon a cream, turquoise, gold and coral pink colour scheme paired with hand made roses, pearl jewellery, a quilted and sugar pearl studded board and vintage inspired cosmetic pieces.
Above is a close-up of some of the details of the cake including the gold fondant tassel, pearl necklace (complete with an ornate clasp), nail polish bottle, pearl ring, brooch, small parfum bottle and a lipstick inspired by the Estée Lauder Signature lip-colour in ‘Portofino Coral’.
The cake itself is a lovely soft and moist chocolate fudge cake with silky smooth chocolate fudge buttercream frosting. It’s then smothered with a milk chocolate ganache before being iced with fondant and decorated.
We loved creating the vintage inspired jewels, make-up items and sugar roses as well as hand-painting aspects of the cake in gold! They all help to lend a more grown-up and elegant feel to the cake whilst combined with a bright and fun colour palette.
Above is a photograph of the side of the cake capturing the gold fondant tassel and pearl necklace. We added stitching detail, a lovely pearlescent sheen to the fondant pearls, and a glowing hand-painted gold shimmer,
This cake was such fun to create! We loved adding the sweet yet fun little touches of jewellery, old fashioned style cosmetics, a personalised name plaque, etc.
We created this floral / English garden party themed bird cage cake with a Ladurée inspired colour palette. With the spring season fast approaching we thought added roses and cherry blossoms to the design would be perfect. Of course, it may be too early in the year to say, but we think this is one of our favourites of 2014!
The cake itself is a lovely soft lemon madeira cake filled with silky smooth lemon buttercream and covered with a white chocolate ganache. The cake is then iced in hand coloured pale pistachio green fondant before edible details are added.
Cherry Blossoms are one of our favourite florals to re-create in sugar form. They feature such wonderful petal shapes (from pinched, notched and ruffles), soft tones of pink (which add a lovely pop of colour to paler cakes) and look elegant gathered together on a Spring cake!
We hand created ivory sugar roses, rose leaves and delicate pink cherry blossoms as well as the birdcage’s scallop trims, bars and conical-esque handle. Even though this was a relatively small wedding creating it from start to finish took a total of 12 hours including baking time… phew!
Above is a close-up photograph showing the detail on the left hand side of the birdcage cake. We quilted the cake drum, studded it with shimmering ivory sugar pearls and trimmed the board with cream grosgrain ribbon.
From start to finish we loved every single element of this cake. This cake was such a wonderful way to get us in the mood for the new season.
It’s time to begin our next collection of cake and cupcake decorating tutorials and we are super excited about the next four instalments! For the next four weeks we’ll be showing you how to create some rather sweet and whimsical fairy tale themed pieces as well as some pretty darn fun and tasty recipes too! We commence with a wonderfully adorable fondant / sugarpaste unicorn sat upon rainbow swirled cupcakes with vanilla buttercream; perfect for kids’ parties. Now if these cupcakes don’t educe an excitable rush to the dessert table at a party then we may eat our chef’s hats! Keep posted on the next three tutorials/recipes to find how what we’ll be creating next…
Fondant / Sugarpaste Unicorn Cake and Cupcake Decor
Step one: To create your unicorn’s body simply shape a fair amount of your blue fondant into an ‘egg’. This will be your unicorn’s body.
Step two: Set your unicorn’s body aside for the time being and use the same method to create a smaller ‘egg'; this will become your unicorn’s head. Using the small end of the ball tool indent two eye sockets and place a sugar pearl in each. For the nostrils simply use the larger end of the flower and leaf shaping tool to indent the fondant.
Step three: To create the legs take four small balls of blue fondant, two slightly larger than the other two, and roll until you have four ‘sausage’ shapes. Once you’re happy with these begin tapering one end of each leg and flattening the other.
Step four: To create your unicorn’s ears take two very small balls of blue fondant and use your fingers to shape them into triangles. Using your flower and leaf shaping tool indent two triangular shapes to add detail.
Step five: To assemble your unicorn you will need water and a paintbrush. Apply a small amount of water to where you need to apply the legs and press the legs gently in place. To affix the head press half a toothpick into the ‘neck’ area, add a little water around the toothpick and attach the head.
Step six: Now it is time to create your unicorn’s horn! Cut a toothpick down to the appropriate size (this will depend on how small or large you have made the actual unicorn) and push it into the fondant between where your unicorn’s ears will be. Using your cake smoother roll a long, thin tube of fondant cutting away any rough edges with your blade tool. Paint the tool pick with a small amount of water and wind the fondant around until it is completely covered. Now with a little water affix the ears in place!
Step six: To make your unicorn’s hair and tail use the cake smoother to roll out more thin tube shaped fondant in ivory and pink. Cut away rough edges with your blade tool and stick in place with water and a paintbrush.
Once your unicorns are finished pipe your rainbow cupcakes and swirl with vanilla buttercream and sit the fondant unicorns on top. You should be left with an array of bright, lovely and wonderfully fun cupcakes; perfect for a vibrant kids’ party or any event with a whimsical theme!
With Valentine’s Day literally just days away here’s a lovely cupcake recipe and tutorial for you to re-create at home for that special someone. We had such fun whipping these up in the Juniper Cakery kitchen and studio as you can imagine; cue lots of champagne, gold hand painting, miniature champagne bottles from fondant and decadent swirls of lovely vanilla buttercream! These adorable little pink champagne bottles nestled into silky vanilla buttercream atop soft rosy champagne infused cupcakes are bound to be a show-stopping hit with loved ones; they definitely were with ours! If you’re feeling extra adventurous why not paint, indent or pipe the recipient’s initials onto each bottle label for a sweet and impressive personal touch.
As an alternative to using real champagne, as this can get costly, in your cupcakes why not try utilising 6-12 drops of champagne essence.
Step one: Take some fondant the colour you wish your bottle to be and roll into a ball then a tapered oblong and shape carefully into a bottle whilst it is stood up on a flat surface.
Step two: With a approximately 2-3 drops of vodka added to some gold lustre dust OR some gold metallic edible paint hand paint the neck of the bottle. This may need a few coats if your bottle if a dark coloured fondant.
Step three: Take some 3mm ivory ribbon and cut to a length that fits around the bottle’s neck and crosses at the front well. Attach with a few tiny dots of melted candy melt (melt these quickly by filling a disposable back with the melts and microwaving until ready before snipping off the end of the piping bag). Hold gently until set.Step four: Roll out some white or ivory fondant / sugarpaste to 2mm thick onto an icing sugar dusted surface
Step four: With the blade tool cut out a rectangular shape an appropriate size for the front of your champagne bottle. Attach using a little edible glue. Imprint or add any detail to the label now.
Step five: Take a small amount of red or pink fondant and roll into a ball then into an oblong shape.
Step six: Shape into a dumb bell or bone-like shape by rolling the middle of the red fondant oblong with a finger.
Step nine: Take the dumb bell / bone shaped red fondant and carefully pinch in half into a heart shape. Smooth the centre over a little.
Step seven: With a little melted candy melt attach the heart where the ribbon crosses and meets at the front of the champagne bottle.
Step eight: Repeat all above steps until you have the desired amount of champagne bottles.
Now all that is left to do is to pipe your cupcakes generously with vanilla buttercream, add any decor you wish (edible glitter, sprinkles, sugar pearls etc) and nestle your tiny champagne bottles atop at a jaunty angle!
After all your hard work you should now be left with an array of delicious and adorable cupcakes waiting to steal the heart of all who cast their eyes upon them. If you’re making these for yourself, however, we really wouldn’t blame you at all!
What better way to treat a loved one for Valentine’s Day than with a beautiful and indulgent home-made cake! Using three key Valentine ingredients, and some egg whites from The Happy Egg Co. eggs, we created this truly lovely and decadent cake. One of the best things about this recipe is that it incorporates some incredibly sumptuous flavours and ingredients without being too sweet or rich. Perhaps the only bad thing about this cake is that you’ll find you’ve eaten quite a few slices without realising! Imagine a gorgeously soft and fluffy champagne infused cake smothered with fruity yet creamy strawberry and white chocolate buttercream just waiting to be devoured… can’t wait to start baking? We thought so.
White Champagne Cake (makes three 9 inch diameter layers one inch deep)
453g Self-raising flour
453g Butter
453g Caster sugar
453g Egg whites from The Happy Egg Co. eggs
400ml Champagne or 12-18 drops of champagne essence
Pre-heat an oven to Gas Mark 3/325F/170C.
In a saucepan add the 400ml of champagne, set to boil then simmer until reduced to half the amount. Set aside to cool.
Cream your butter in a mixer then add the 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 eggs along with the champagne or champagne essence. Mix for about 5 minutes.
Pour batter in the pan around 2cm in height and place on the top shelf. Bake for around 40-50 minutes. Repeat this step to create your second and third layer. When all layers are baked leave them to cool fully as you prepare your buttercream!
Strawberry and White Chocolate Buttercream
500g Diced/chopped butter at room temperature
300-400g Icing sugar (keep testing when adding to make sure it is the consistency and sweetness you like)
6-12 Drops of strawberry extract
150g Melted white chocolate
Pink gel paste food colour
Add half of the of butter into your mixer and cream. Then gradually add icing sugar and the remaining butter (cut into cubes) until you get a smooth, creamy texture. Add in the melted chocolate and then add the strawberry essence to taste with some pink gel paste food colour.
To assemble you need to stack your layers with your buttercream sandwiching them together; now you need to crumb coat your cake. A crumbcoat is a thin layer of buttercream or ganache that seals in the crumbs before being fully iced or covered. With a good angled spatula smoother some of the buttercream atop and around the sides of the stacked cake until covered. Chill in a refrigerator for 20-40 minutes. Once chilled remove and cover with the rest of your strawberries and white chocolate buttercream using a spatula. We covered ours with soft buttercream ruffles for a romantic look.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our year of various cake recipes utilising eggs from The Happy Egg Co. as we have and that we’ve inspired more people to try their hand a new skill… or several.
With February 14th right around the corner we’re sure you probably have lots of romantic projects in progress, however, there’s always some time to fit in another sweet treat. Why not whip up a batch of cupcakes to decorate with adorable love letter toppers for your loved ones. Here’s a lovely and quick tutorial to help you make little fondant love letters for your sweetheart! One of the best things about this cupcake decorating tutorial is that you only need a few tools and materials and a few spare minutes!
Also, because we’re so generous we’ve included a lovely recipe for Strawberries & Cream cupcakes for you to whip up and nestle your love letters atop of!
Step one: Dust your work surface with icing sugar and roll out some white fondant to a thickness of 2mm.
Step two: With the blade tool cut out a house shape approximately 3cm by 4cm out of the white fondant. This will be the envelope.
Step three: Indent a ‘V’ shape from the bottom of the white envelope that reaches about 2cm into the centre.
Step four: Take the top (shaped like a house’s rooftop) of the envelope and carefully fold over to match the indented ‘V’ shape. Affix with a dab of edible glue.
Step five: Take a small amount of red or pink fondant and roll into a ball then into an oblong shape.
Step six: Shape into a dumb bell or bone-like shape by rolling the middle of the red fondant oblong with a finger.
Step seven: Take the dumb bell / bone shaped red fondant and carefully pinch in half into a heart shape. Smooth the centre over a little. This is the heart that sits at the seal of the envelope!
Step eight: With some edible glue attach the heart where the envelope flap and indented ‘V’ on the envelope bottom meet.
Step nine: Repeat all above steps until you have the desire amount of love letters.
You should now be left with a wonderful flurry of eye-catching yet simple love letters! If you’re feeling brave and adventurous and handing out cupcake adorned with these to family why not try hand painted their names onto each envelope! All you need is a fine paintbrush, some black gel paste food colour mixed with a tiny amount of vodka (the alcohol will evaporate before consumption so it will be safe for kids) and a steady hand. Also, to add a little sparkle why not dust edible glitter or lustre onto your little hearts.
