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. 

Jubilee Vanilla Sponge Cake

My final Jubilee Bake which was supposed to be one thing but turned out to be another. Never waste good cake is all I can say :) I planned to make a Jubilee checkerboard cake with red, white and blue. I bought the checkerboard pan from America and it feels like I'm destined not to make one as the first time I used it I failed and this is an epic fail too ....hmmm... maybe third time lucky? 

If you want to make a proper checkerboard cake without fancy equipment, check out this awesome cake by Dom from Belleau Kitchen. Pure genius! That was what I imagined in my head but let's just pretend I set out to make exactly this cake in the first place :) 

I used a basic vanilla sponge and divided the cake batter evenly into 3 - I left one plain, coloured one red and the other blue. So far so good.

Got my nifty checkerboard cake pan out and starting filling the batter. When I got to the second pan, I only managed to fill half the tin so clearly this was not going to work (you need to fill 3 tins). I scooped out the batter from the second tin and made 6 large cupcakes which I filled with strawberry jam and added to the street party cupcakes. 

I did however bake the first cake and ended up with this....

I debated what to do with the cake and in the end decided on this simple yet effective decoration. I've seen them everywhere and had wanted to make a traybake but ran out of time. Do you believe that things happen for a reason? 

Cover with vanilla buttercream... 

 Decorate with strawberries and blueberries in the Jubilee spirit :)

I was really impressed with the cake slice! Special thanks to J who bought me this cool cake board - thanks :)

Jubilee Vanilla Sponge cake - enjoy!

As this is a vanilla cake with vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract and a vanilla buttercream, I am entering it to this month's Alphabakes hosted by myself. I'm sure you can guess that the letter is "V" 

If you want to join in, make sure you email your entries by the 25th June.

As Karen has pointed out, these would also be perfect for this month's Tea Time Treats table as they are covered in berries. The theme is 'summer fruits'.  Tea Time Treats is a monthly blogging challenge hosted this month by Kate from What Kate Baked and on alternate months by Karen from Lavender and Lovage.

For the vanilla sponge
(makes 1 large 23cm cake and 6 large cupcakes)

500g butter
500g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
500g caster sugar
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Food colouring - I used paste colouring - red and blue

For the vanilla buttercream


250g butter
500g icing sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon milk
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

To decorate


Fresh strawberries (or raspberries)
Fresh blueberries

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add the eggs, one at time.
• Stir in the vanilla bean paste and vanilla extract.
• Add the flour and baking powder.
• Divide the cake batter evenly into 3 (I weighed them out on a scale).
• Colour 1 red, 1 blue and leave the third portion plain.
• Bake using a checkerboard pan as shown.
• Bake for approximately 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before decorating. 
• To make the buttercream, mix all the ingredients in a mixer until smooth.
• Spread the buttercream on top of the cooled cake and decorate with fresh fruits as shown. 

Jubilee Strawberries and Cream Cupcakes

Yes it's another Jubilee bake - I can't help it! My street had a street party today so I got up early to bake these little treats for my neighbours. It's my first street party and I've never seen anything quite like it. There's a lovely community atmosphere. It looks extremely festive with all the bunting and fancy dress. There's food, drinks, games, raffles, prizes... a really fun day! My cupcakes went down a treat and they disappeared within the first 15 minutes!! 

The cupcakes have fresh strawberries in the batter which give them a lovely juicy, moist flavour. It has a strawberry jam centre, finished with a vanilla buttercream and a fresh strawberry slice. I especially liked the Lakeland 'It's British' cupcake set which a colleague bought for me as a gift - thank you J!! :)

I'm sending these to the Tea Time Treats table hosted this month by Kate from What Kate Baked and co-hosted by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme for June is summer fruits so I'm sure these strawberries and cream cupcakes count! 

 My Sweet Party hosted by Johanna from Me and My Sweets has also chosen summer fruits as the theme for June so I'm adding them to her party too! 

As these are cupcakes, I'm also sending them to Cupcake Tuesday hosted by Liz from Hoosier Homemade

I'm also entering them to the #oneingredient challenge hosted by Nazima from Working London Mummy and co-hosted by Laura from How to Cook Good Food

 Cupcake set from Lakeland - contains 24 cupcake cases and 24 flag toppers. Perfect for the occasion. 

 Adding fresh strawberries to the batter 

 Decided to try out my new cupcake plunger. I couldn't quite get the hang of it so I used a melon baller for most of the cakes. Has anyone else used this before? I followed the instructions but I couldn't seem to get the core of the cake out and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. Any advice would be much appreciated :) 

 Fresh cupcakes ready to fill and frost

 Make a hole with a cupcake corer (or melon baller)

 Fill with strawberry jam 

 Replace the cake 

 Pipe frosting on top 

 Add a slice of fresh strawberry on top

I couldn't resist getting out my new cupcake stand which I found in Camden market yesterday. It has strawberry charms which are perfect. I have the exact same stand with cupcake charms but this is so cute and perfect for summer! I'm sure you'll be seeing more of this in the coming months :)

 Big ben 

 London Taxi 

 Soldier

 Red bus 

Which topper is your favourite? 

Strawberries and cream cupcakes - makes 22 of the size shown (I made 1.5 recipes - the recipe below is for 1 recipe ie 22 cupcakes) 

For the cupcakes

225g butter

225g caster sugar

4 eggs
210g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
25g cornflour
180g fresh, ripe strawberries, hulled and chopped

For the filling

Strawberry jam - approximately 1 teaspoon per cupcake

For the vanilla buttercream frosting (enough to frost ~25 cupcakes)

250g butter

500g icing sugar, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1-2 tablespoons milk

• Preheat the oven to 160C.
• Cream the butter and sugar then beat in the eggs, one by one. 
• Add the flours and baking powder and beat well together. 
• Finally stir in the chopped fresh strawberries. 
• Scoop the cake batter into the cases using an ice cream scoop (or just use a spoon), filling them to about 2/3 full. 
• Bake in the oven for about 20 -25  minutes.
• The cakes will be fairly moist even when cooked. 
• Remove from the oven and leave in their tins for about 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool. 
• Once completely cool, carefully make a small hole in the centre of each cupcake using a cupcake corer or melon baller. 
• Fill the hole with 1 teaspoon of strawberry jam then replace the sponge.
• To make the vanilla buttercream - beat all the ingredients together in an electric mixer until smooth. 
• Pipe the vanilla buttercream on top of the cupcakes.
• Decorate with a slice of fresh strawberry and cupcake toppers. Alternatively, you can use sprinkles. 

Jubilee Rose Cupcakes

Finally it's the long Jubilee weekend! Time for just one more Jubilee bake :) I've been baking up a storm in my kitchen for a charity bake sale happening this weekend.  As it is the Jubilee weekend, I thought I'd make some Jubilee cupcakes.  I decided to make rose cupcakes with my rose essence instead of plain vanilla.  Renshaw had kindly sent me a sample pack of their special Jubilee edition which contains 1 red, 1 white and 2 royal blue icing colours.  So I looked on their website and decided to re-create the Union Jack Cupcake. I rarely do cake decorating with icing so this was a real challenge for me. It took me hours just to make 10 of these at which point I'd had enough! I made a rose buttercream frosting to pipe on the remaining cakes and decorated with pretty sprinkles. 

I'm entering these to the Blogging Baking Competition hosted by Homemade by Fleur. The competition runs until 3rd June 2012 and the winner gets £100 of Amazon vouchers sponsored by Appliances Online.

 Renshaw icing pack, pink cupcake cases and rose essence. I love the colours of the icing and their mybakes website is great for ideas and instructions. 

 Blue circles, red and white strips 

 Heat some apricot baking glaze until boiling and spread on top of the cupcakes 

 add a blue circle

 then make a cross with the white strips

 2 more strips - remember to cut out the intersecting parts 

 Add the red strips on top 

 not bad for my first attempt :) 

 I got these cute boxes online to pack the cakes in for the bake sale. 

 Rose Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream and butterfly sprinkles.

Disclaimer: I was provided a pack of Renshaw icing free of charge to try. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe but added 2 teaspoons of rose essence to the batter instead of vanilla extract. I made a vanilla buttercream frosting and added 1 teaspoon of rose essence.