Cupcakes!

Good evening!

So, my friend was finally having her house warming party, and everyone was supposed to bring something. So of course I'd be making Cupcakes! :)

I'll add the recipe to the end, so first, let us enjoy some crappy quality pictures!

 

^ Here is pictures of the cupcakes with and without frosting. I just love rose piping so much, it makes the cupcakes look so, well, rosy! <3

^ And here they are decorated! Most of them had these bronze/goldish flower "buttons", two had big white roses and one had a jewel, but that one was taken before I had a chance to take any pictures! I think my friends daughter actually took the sugarpaste decor and decided to keep it. :)

I used basic cupcake recipe for the base, my own "recipe" for the frosting and sugarpaste, food colourings and moulds/cutters for the decorations. And of course some piping bags and nozzles (if you feel like piping).

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And now for the recipe! I always use this recipe for cupcakes, they always come out so fluffy and moist, without rising and tearing! 

 .......

 Cupcakes (makes 12)  

Pre-heat oven to 180Celcius (350F or Gas 4)

Ingredients:

:: 115g butter (normal salted, room temperature)

:: 115g caster sugar

:: 2 eggs (medium)

:: 115g wheat flour

:: 3tsp baking powder (skip this if you have self-raising flour)

:: 2tbs cream or full-fat milk

:: 1tsp vanilla (extract, paste or powder)

1. Beat the sugar and butter in a bowl until white and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold in. Stir in the vanilla and cream/milk.

2. Spoon the mixture into paper cases and bake in the preheated oven for about 18 minutes until risen and golden and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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And you're done with the base! 

You can use cocoa powder to make them dark, or different food colourings (paste!) to make them more fabulous! You can also grate the zest of a lemon or an orange into the mixture to give it some taste, or use different kind of aromas and pastes. Or you can chop in some nuts, like pecan or hazelnuts :) Or what ever you want to!

For the paper cases pretty much anything will do, but the ones I used are sold in the boutique I work in, and they're the best ones I have ever tried! No grease can get through it (as you can see in the picture), so I don't have to put on two cases to make them look pretty.

As for the frosting I used, I don't have any recipe, I just put in what I felt like, didn't even measure anything. But if someone wants to play around and try, here's a list of ingredients I used:

.......

:: Cream (whipped)

:: Cream cheese (unflavoured, but you could use different flavours to make things easier)

:: Pink food colouring

:: Strawberry bavarois mix (it has powdered gelatine in it to help set the mixture)

:: Some other strawberry powder mixture I got from UK

:: Powdered vanilla

.......

So I just whipped the cream, then added cream cheese and food colouring. Then I mixed the powders with a bit of cold water and mixed it with the cream and cream cheese mixture, not forgetting to add the vanilla.

But for an easier frosting, you can make buttercream! And here's how:

.......

Ingredients:

:: 100g butter (normal salted, room temperature)

:: 1dl powdered sugar (sifted)

:: 1-3tbs cream (optional)

:: 1tsp vanilla (extract, paste or powder)

1. Beat the butter in a bowl until white and fluffy. Add the powdered sugar in small portions, mixing it with the butter. Add cream if you want to make it easier to spread.  Add vanilla.

.......

And you're done! You can also colour this mixture with food colours (paste!), or use different kind of flavours too. You can mix couple tablespoons of lemon curd into the mixture, it will be heaven on earth! But other than that, beware of jams and such, they might ruin it. Dunno why, but it did to me once. :F

Quite a lot of text if you ask me! I hope this will be helpful for someone, and please ask if something left you wondering!

Byebye! <3

~Delicious!