Baby Shower Cupcakes

My friends and I made some cupcakes for my sister in laws baby shower. I wasn't that happy with the actual cake, so I won't use that recipe I found, so I won't be posting a recipe for the cake, but pictures of the way we deocrate them.

We went with a "rubber duck" theme for the evening, hence the rubber duck patty pans but we also made it animal/bugs too.

For the icing we used a creamed cheese/icing sugar icing, and we also did another batch of butter and icing sugar. We used different food dyes to change the colour of the icing.



The butterfly was made using "freckles" for the wings, smarties for the body and pieces of licorice rope cut into antannae.


The dragonfly was made using jellybeans as the body, "banana" lollies cut into wing shapes and a smartie for its head.




For the ducks we cut out 2 "v" shapes from licorice allsorts for the beak and used smarties for the eyes (you could use M&M's etc).


These are "babies" we used writable ink that comes in a little tube for the outer part of the dummy (pacifer) and a jelly bean in the middle of that. The smile was made with some licorice as was the eyebrows. Smarties were used for the eyes.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have always wanted to try these since I saw them on a tv show and they kept raving about how good the cake was.

I've found a few great recipes from various blogs and cookbooks and taken what I thought was the best ingredients and methods.

2 1/2 cups plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

good pinch slat

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

6 tablespoons ( 2 bottles) red food colouring

60 gms (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

1 cup buttermilk

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 teaspoon bicarb soda

Cream Cheese frosting

The recipe I followed had LOADS of icing left over so I will give you an estimate of the cream cheese of which I think should be used instead.

190-200gms cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups icing mixture

1. Beat cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy

2. Add vanilla and beat well

3. Sift icing sugar and add gradually to the mixture. I like it so its firm enough to pipe onto the cupcakes, so if you need to add more icing sugar you can do so.


METHOD CUPCAKES

1. preheat oven to 175C (350F) and line cupcake trays with cupcake papers

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together in a bowl, set aside.

3. In a small bowl, mix the food colouring and cocoa to form a smooth paste

4. In another mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then add the cocoa paste. Beat for 60 seconds.

5. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Add half the buttermilk and mix until combined. Repeat with the remaining flour and buttermilk.

6. Mix the vinegar and bi-carb soda in a small bowl. When the mixture has stopped fizzing, add it to the batter and stir well to combine.

7. Spoon the mixture into the cupcake trays BUT only fill 3/4 full as they will rise. Bake for around 20 mins or until you can touch the top without it sinking, or a skewer comes out clean.

8. Leave cupcakes to cool on a rack and ice with the frosting when cool.

Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

I was inspired to try making these after I saw them on another blog HERE.Thanks for sharing your recipe with me!! I ended up changing a few things as I thought cocoa was meant to be added so I added it, and I changed a little thing in the frosting too.

1 cup milk

4 room temperature eggs

1/4 cup canola oil (I used vegetable oil as that is all I had)

1 cup caster sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract or essence

2 1/2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon bi-carb soda

1 cup cocoa (you probably could add a little more if you want it more chocolatey, and I think next time I will add some chocolate pieces to make it even gooier)

1/4 cup strawberry jam.

1. Preheat oven to 175 C and line 2 x 12 hold muffin tins with cupcake papers

2. In a mixing bowl or food processer beat eggs, milk, oil and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and ingredients combined. Add the vanilla and beat for another minute. I have also seen recipes that say to add the eggs one at a time, so I guess you could do that too.

3. Sift flour, baking powder and bi carb soda together and then add half to the wet ingredients. Beat for 30 seconds and then add the remaining flour mixture. Beat until combined.

4. Fill the cupcake tins halfway, then add a teaspoon of jam in the centre of each cupcake (the original recipe used a heavy jam that sank, but mine didn't). If you aren't using a heavy jam that sinks I would then place a little more mixture over the top so the jam is not exposed and spills out.

5. Bake for 20-25 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.

5. Allow to cool and then frost with the whipped cream buttercream (recipe below).

Whipped Cream Buttercream Frosting

1 cup unsalted butter (or 125 gms), softened

2 cups icing sugar (the original called for 6 cups but 2 was more than enough for the 24 cupcakes)

2 tablespoons boiling water

1/4 cup thickened cream

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (essence)

1. Cream butter and icing on low speed. Once combined increase speed and slowly add the boiling water and vanilla.

2. Add the cream and beat until thick and fluffy

3. I used a piping bag to put the cream on top of the cakes, but you could just spoon it on also.

4. Top with half a fresh strawberry. If you are going to be saving these for later top with the strawberry just before serving.