Let them eat cake!

I love to bake & have done since I was very young. Cupcakes seem to be the in thing right now and were not something I'd really made until recently. I've made plenty of fairy cakes in the past, Top Hat cakes & Butterfly cakes etc, but cupcakes, I think, should be larger than that, more like the size of a muffin. But that's just my opinion! Mr P, my partner, had a significant birthday coming up. I thought it would be nice if I made his cake this year and I fancied trying my hand at cupcakes. I'd seem some on a website that looked like '99' ice creams. Knowing how much Mr P loves ice cream, I decided they'd be the ones I'd make. Being as organised as ever I left it until the day before his birthday to try and find a local cake decorating shop and purchase the needed equipment such as piping bags, icing tubes and a stand. This took up most of the day! I made chocolate cupcakes using this recipe. I increased the servings to 18 from 12 to get 13 cupcake size cakes, instead of fairy cake size cakes. I made up a quantity of butter cream using 250g unsalted butter, 500g icing sugar & a splash of milk and used my newly acquired Mr Whippy nozzle to pipe swirls of the butter cream and topped them off with half a chocolate flake. I have to admit I was very pleased with the results especially as A) it was my first attempt and B) I had no back up plan if they failed!

'99' Cupcake Tower

Everyone loved the cakes and of course I was expected to make more!

Next I decided to try Red Velvet cakes. I'd heard friends talking about them but had never tried or made them so I found a recipe on this blog and topped them off with cream cheese frosting. They have to be the lightest cakes I have ever made and they didn't last very long at all!

Next we went to visit some friends and family who had seen pictures of the cakes I'd been making. So I made a batch to take with us & I'm glad to say they survived the 200+ mile journey intact.

Chocolate with chocolate frosting and Vanilla with butter cream frosting

The cakes Once we'd arrived

Easter came next and the children asked if I would make some cakes for their teachers so.......

Individually boxed cakes

The weekend after Easter was The Royal Wedding and we had guests so I made these

Red Velvet Fairy cakes with Cream cheese frosting 

and these

Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

I'd seen cookie cupcakes on various websites and just used my usual chocolate cupcake recipe & topped it off with butter cream mixed with crushed Oreo cookies, with a mini Oreo on top. They turned out really well!
It seems I am now taking requests from the family for other cupcakes they dream up!
 The girls wanted coloured cupcakes but they couldn't agree on what colour so I made both

Pale Green & Bright Pink cake batter

Fresh from the oven

Finished cakes 

And Mr P suggested I make Malteaser cupcakes but I'll show you those another day!