As I mentioned the other day, I decided to try my hand (again) at decorating some cupcakes for a morning tea this weekend.
I had grand plans of sweet rolled fondant flowers, maybe in girly pastel colours. I was going to try my darnedest to make something that looked delicate and pretty.
I mixed up a batch of cupcakes, set them aside to cool, and started to think about how I was going to decorate. Then I remembered (or rather my body reminded me), that I am 8 and 1/2 months pregnant, and some days I just can't do what I want to do. Exhaustion hit me big time today, and the thought of spending heaps of time decorating cupcakes, even though I wanted to, was just too much.
That said, I now had unfinished business. So I came back to the computer and referred to the goddesses of baking blogs for inspiration. The result -- well I don't quite know what to call them, they are a rose cake with a coconut butter-cream icing (pretty girly huh!). So in honour of the event they were baked for I am calling them, Birthday Girl Cup cakes.
125g (41/2 oz) softened, unsalted butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I added Rose Water instead)
3 eggs
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 180c or 350f. Line 12 hole tray with paper cases. Place the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Sift the flour and baking powder with 1/2 tsp salt and fold into the mixture, alternating with the milk until it has a soft dropping consistency. Spoon into cases and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes in the tin.
Buttercream icing
The icing was Magnolia's Vanilla Buttercream, but instead of vanilla extract I replaced with coconut essence.
Fondant flowers
These flowers were 'inspired' by Sweetopia and her 'how to make gum paste flowers' tutorial. I say inspired, 'cause I don't have the equipment or ingredients that she mentioned. What I did have was ready made fondant and cookie cutters.
Basically I rolled out the white fondant, and used a small, simple flower cutter to get the shapes. I gently pressed the flowers into a mini-muffin tray that had the nice smooth curve that I was looking for.
I coloured a second amount of fondant, rolled it out and used whatever I could find to cut circles the right size... I think I ended up with a 1M piping tip... hey, it worked well enough..
I think in the end they turned out okay. Actually, what can I say... I am pretty impressed with myself. The result certainly isn't as clean and crisp as the professionals, but I am sure they'll go down okay with a 3-year old!
