Flowerpot Cupcakes

Remember the Jubilee Rose cupcakes I baked for a charity bake sale last weekend? Well I made these cute flowerpot cupcakes as well as the event had a garden theme. I first saw them on this website which has really clear step by step photo instructions. The recipes given looked good so I gave them a go and I'm so glad I did! The cupcake and frosting was really easy to make and tasted really good! My cake decorating skills are still amateurish at best and it took me the whole evening to make 9 of these. As before, I gave up and piped the frosting on the remainder of the cupcakes and decorated with sprinkles. Fortunately, these were a huge hit at the bake sale. In fact I sold out of all my cakes and we raised lots of money for charity :) 

I'm entering these to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade

And to bookmarked recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes as I bookmarked these the minute I saw them! 

 I could only find a 'skin tone' icing and orange icing so I decided to mix the two to get a terracotta like colour 

 place a cupcake upside down on a plate 

 cover the top and sides with chocolate buttercream  

 roll out the icing and cut a large circle 

 place that circle of icing over the top of the cupcake and press gently so that the icing encases the cupcake

 crush some oreo cookies

 turn the cupcake over and spread more frosting on top 

 dip in oreo crumbs to look like "mud" 

 Finally cut a strip of icing and place around the top of the cupcake to resemble a flowerpot

 decorate with wafer daisies (I couldn't face making fondant flowers at this point and I didn't have any leaf cutters) 

 My cupcakes at the bake sale table - Only a few for display as the table was groaning with cakes and bakes! 

 I made some brownies as well on the bottom right of the picture

Recipe from instructable.com

Black Midnight Cupcake

280g plain flour

250g caster sugar

80g cocoa powder

1 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder  

1 1/4 cup water

170g butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

113g butter

28g cocoa powder

250g icing sugar, sifted

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons milk

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Place all the ingredients for the cupcake into a large mixer bowl and mix on low - medium speed for a few minutes until well mixed. 
• Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
• Scoop into cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes.
• To make the frosting, mix the butter and cocoa powder in a large mixer bowl. Add the remaining ingredients and continue beating until you get a smooth consistency. 
• To make the flowerpot cupcakes, see pictorial instructions above.