Christmas Cupcakes

Stocking Cupcakes

To decorate some cinnamon cupcakes, I cut circles of red, white and green fondant with a scone cutter to get a crinkly edge. Using some recently bought Christmas cutters I cut out Christmas trees and stockings. I used apricot jam to stick the fondant to the cupcakes. To finish, I added small gold stars to the top of the Christmas trees.

 

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Christmas Florentines

Spooning on the Chocolate

Putting on the toppings

   









For these easy Christmas treats, I melted 200g of white chocolate and spooned it on baking paper in generous sized circles. I kept adding chocolate to the circles to make them thick. Then I scattered some of “Sainsbury’s Festive mix” over them. This included apple, orange and nuts. I then sprinkled gold sugar over them to finish. Next I melted 200g of milk chocolate and formed it into circles before covering them with “Sainsbury’s Black forest mix”. This was made up of white chocolate chunks, dried cherries and cherry flavoured apple. I chilled the Florentines until they were hard and then put them into presentation bags ready to give.

The milk chocolate florentines

Christmas Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes

Freshly baked cupcakes

    I had recently used cherry icing to fill a chocolate sponge cake when I thought, why don’t I make a chocolate cherry cake? I combined the basic ingredients together and sifted in some cocoa powder before adding 1 tsp of cherry flavouring. Then, to add to the richness of the cake I added a small amount of red colouring paste to give it a unique, deep red colour. I baked the cakes in Christmas cupcakes cases for 20 minutes before leaving to cool.

   To make the wreath Cupcakes, I made a green and red buttercream and used white icing. I rolled the icing and cut thick circles out. Then I cut the top of the cakes flat and used a thin layer of black cherry jam to stick the fondant on. I used a star nozzle to pipe small stars around the edge of the cupcake to look like a wreath. To finish, I piped a thin red bow and some holly berries onto each cupcake.

My Wreath Cupcakes

Coffee and Walnut Cake

   I brought myself some walnut halves and decided to make a coffee and walnut sponge. I creamed sugar and margarine together before adding beaten eggs and coffee granules. I sifted flour and baking powder and added crushed 2oz of walnuts. When it was golden brown I took it out of the oven to cool. To decorate, I made a thick buttercream from margerine and icing sugar before adding vanilla essence. I filled and topped the sponge cake and to finish I topped it with walnuts halves.

The coffee and walnut sponge

Festive Doughnuts

Covering the doughnuts with sprinkles

     To decorate the tiny doughnuts, I made a thick glace icing and dipped one side of the doughnuts in the icing before decorating. I wanted to mimic American Doughnut boxes (the ones with 12 differently decorated doughnuts) so I used every type of Christmas sprinkle I own! Here’s the full list of what I used:






Mini Gold Stars

• Sugar snowflakes
• Mini gingerbread men
• Mini silver stars
• Red sugar
• Mini gold stars
• Red, green and white balls
• Sugar Christmas trees

  

  Sugar Christmas Trees

• Green sugar
• Gold sprinkles
• Chocolate crispy balls
• Gold, yellow and white sprinkles
• Popping candy




All of the doughnuts!

Vanilla Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

Snowflake piping

  Happy December! I decided to whip up a simple vanilla cake mix but added a generous amount of chocolate chips. I mixed half of the chips in the cake batter and gentle pushed the rest into the top of the cakes when they were in the cases. I did this because they have a habit of sinking to the bottom. Once the cakes were cooled I turned them upside-down and found that most of the chocolate had sunk to the bottom, but the chips placed on the top were scattered within the cake! To decorate I made a vanilla buttercream and piped stars in a snowflake formation on the top of the cakes before sprinkling with glitter.

Pretty Pink Gerbera

Shaping the flower

   Today I was at Claire’s and I was going to make flowers. I mixed pink colouring with white fondant icing and rolled it thinly to begin making a gerbera. Using a large plunger cutter I cut out 2 flowers and I laid one upon the other to show off all of the petals. Then I made a dish out of tin foil to shape the flower. Using a ball tool I put a large indent in the flower. Then I cut out two small flowers and rolled a small ball out of chocolate icing and put indents all over it to give it texture. I then wrapped the two flowers over the chocolate icing before putting this in the centre of the two large flowers. I finished by putting this flower on the top of a pink swirl of icing on a pink cupcake.

Splitting the inner petals

The Gerbera Cupcake

Geometric Cupcakes

Adding some colouring

4oz, sugar, margarine and flour, 2 eggs, teaspoon of baking powder, tsp of strawberry essence, splash of milk and a drop or red colouring. First I weighed the margarine and sugar and creamed them together. Next I added the beaten eggs, 1 at a time to make the mixture smooth. Then I added a drop of food colouring and the strawberry essence. I sieved the flour and baking powder and folded the mixture together before adding the milk to give the mixture a smooth consistency. Finally I spooned them into bun cases and cooked for 20 minutes at 180^oC. Once the cakes had cooled, I combined light cream cheese with icing sugar and some red food colouring. Once it was a thick frosting I covered the cakes with it before finishing with dark chocolate drops in geometric patterns.

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Pink icing and dark chocolate drops

Caramel, Fudge and Chocolate Surprises

Spooning in the chocolate spread

   I thought I would use some more of my caramel essence to make light and fluffy muffins. I combined butter, sugar, eggs, milk, essence, flour and baking powder together in a bowl. I now add a tablespoon of milk to give my cakes a lighter texture and to make them less oily. I spooned some of the mixture into the bottom of each case and then added a teaspoon of chocolate spread to the middle of each one. Then I covered the chocolate with some more batter. After cooking for 20 minutes on 170^oC they had small peaks and sprung back when touched.



The chocolate surprise

   When I cut the cakes open the chocolate spread was not in the middle but had sunk to form a thin layer on the bottom of the cake with very little cake underneath. It was still gooey and provided a unique aesthetic. 

  To decorate these cupcakes, I made a thick caramel buttercream and covered the top of the cakes in a thick layer before finally adding a sprinkle of chopped fudge pieces.

Thick caramel icing and real fudge pieces

Clementine and Pumpkin Cupcakes



Giving texure to the pumpkins

   I used a basic cupcake mix and added the rind of 1 clementine and a spoonful of orange curd before combining thoroughly and evenly. I spooned the mixture into the cupcake cases and baked for 20 minutes until they were golden brown. I left the cakes on a wire rack to cool and set about making the icing pumpkins for the top of the cakes. I softened orange sugarpaste and made 6 medium sizes balls. To achieve the ribbed effect I pressed spaghetti into the pumpkins. For the stems I combined green food paste with white fondant until it was malleable. Then I made 6 small cones with a curved point and put on each of the cupcakes. For a few I thinly rolled the green icing and made a small coil to act as a vine, and also a couple of leaves to make the pumpkins more realistic. To ice the cakes I beat margarine, icing sugar and concentrated orange juice together until it formed a smooth icing which I then coated the cakes with before decoratively placing the pumpkins on top.

The finished cupcakes

Chocolate Pillows

The little pillows

   I made a chocolate chip traybake and today I wanted to try and cover squares in fondant. I put the cake in the fridge to cool whilst I rolled out 6 squares of pale blue fondant 0.5cm thick and around 15cm square. I then made a quick chocolate buttercream. I then removed the cake from the fridge and quickly sliced it in half lengthways and then into six squares. I filled and covered the cakes with the buttercream before putting the fondant on top. I smoothed it down the sides and slit the icing to try and get a smoother finish in the corners and trimmed the icing and folded any excess underneath. The corners were ripped but I covered these up with rolled blue stars. When they were finished they looked like little pillows!

Blackberry and Vanilla Cupcakes

I topped the cakes with fresh fruit

   It is blackberry season and down our drive there plenty of berry bushes. I picked a large handful and washed them. I left 15 large blackberries aside and lightly crushed ½ of the remaining blackberries. I gently folded the whole blackberries in the vanilla cake mixture and then added the crushed fruit.  I spooned 2 teaspoons of the mixture into each cake before baking. When the cakes were golden brown and had a nice rise I took them out of the oven. Whilst they were cooling I creamed margarine and icing sugar together with a dash of vanilla essence to make buttercream. I filled a piping bag with a star nozzle and piped small swirls on the cold cakes. I pushed a ripe blackberry into the top of the cake and sprinkled pink glitter over the cakes. I made more cakes than I needed so I froze half of them and I also open froze the blackberries so I could use them to decorate. 

Three of the cakes