These cupcakes I made for one of my lovely friends, Belinda, who is going to Camp America in less than two weeks for two months. Belinda was having a small get together before she leaves on friday and I used this as an excuse to try something new. I used a recipe that was given to me from a university bake off challenge that I was going to enter, but unfortunately had too many essays.
So here is the ingredients for 12 small cupcakes:
- 125g of Butter
- 125g of Caster Sugar
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 125g of Self Raising Flour (NOTE: I don't have self raising flour, so I used plain but add 1 and a half tsps of baking powder)
- 2 tbsps of Milk (Desirable)
Preheat oven to 190c ...... I very rarely preheat the oven, more because I am so slow, I tend to only preheat the oven once I am ready to put the mixture into the cases so that I don't just wonder off and leave the oven on. 
Cream together the butter and sugar, try to resist eating all of the very yummy sweet mixture, I tend to fail at that :P
Add eggs, flour and milk.
In this instant I also added a sprinkle of cinnamon and some orange extract :)
Mix it all together into a yummy mess.
Divide into cake cases.
Put in the oven for 12-15 minutes, if you want to do smaller cupcakes then put them on for about 10-12 mins.
And eat!!!
Wel if you want to.
I went out earlier on in the day and brought some red, white and blue read to roll icing (all vegetarian) from an amazing cakes shop near me. I honestly think I enter heaven when I go there, I think if I did not have any self control all my money would of disappeared. One of the things I want to buy there is a selection of flavours you can add to cupcakes which ranged from popcorn, british toffee, cream soda, butterscotch and etc...
I decided as Belinda was going to America the cakes had to be american themed. I am quite pleased with how everything turned out, especially with it being a first time by myself (A.K.A not roping my mum into help) doing this technique.
I first tried to level off the cupcakes to make a flat even surface which would make it more easier for me to decorate. However, the cakes did not rise as much as i hoped which made it difficult to create an even surface.
I then sprinkled cornflour on the work surface, as to stop the icing sticking to the surface, this is something my mum uses when using read to roll icing. I started with using a simple white background. My first attempts I have to say were horrid. I found the icing breaking and looking a complete mess when I placed it on the cake. I used a special tool my mum has to glide across the surface of the cake to smooth it out (WARNING: you have to be very delicate with this as I think this is what caused rips in the icing). This tool looks very much like something you would use to plaster walls, but you don't need fancy tools to make cakes look good.
When putting on the icing, I did not bother cutting it to the exact shape of the cupcakes, if you just cut a piece of ready to roll icing off thats bigger than the cupcakes and place it over it and then rub the edges, any excess will be cut off easily by the paper case. I found a few of the cupcakes I had to redo, and I found that at the beginning I was not using any water to attach the icing but nearing the end I was. Also near the end I started using the technique of just tipping the cupcake upside down and flipping it over with the ready to roll icing instead. If you would prefer to not have to cut large pieces of icing off, you can always use the cupcake case to make an imprint in the icing and that way you only have to cut a little larger than that.
Here left to right, top to bottom is the order in which I did the cupcakes so you can see how you can improve even on your first go. he first one was awful, so this picture is after I re-iced it.
The first design I decided to do was stripes, so I rolled out the red icing and cut thin even strips of it and placed it over the cake, using water to help it stick to the white base icing. You can create a better effect by just using a long pieces and rubbing the edge of the cupcake case again once you have put the icing on to get the right length.
I used a range of different sized star cutters, as well as an aeroplane, duck and heart cutter. The small dots were made using the end of a Chuppa Chupps Lolly Stick.
As you can see you can really do anything, I did loose a bit of steam after a while so some of the designs are not as good as others. I find it can be quite time consuming at first, I think this will improve over time though.
If you have any questions, or even tips for me. Feel free to leave comments, plus I am happy to try and experiment with any ideas you have for me :)
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