This is what life looks like....in Leighland...

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Giant cupcakes? Mmmm, yes please!!

So today is school allocation day...eeeeeeeekkkk!!!!!

I'm desperately trying to take my mind off the agonising wait for the email that will tell my if my 'Lil Monster has gotten into the good school or the bad school and I remembered that I was going to post the recipe for the giant cupcake I made for easter!!

My baking history is not the best, I love making cakes and I love decorating them, but I'm really a bit rubbish at it as you can see below!


The first cake was originally a 2 tier Monster High inspired 3rd birthday cake.  It was my first ever attempt at both a 2 tier and at covering cakes with fondant icing!  As you can just about make out from the picture the icing is rather lumpy and bumpy, especially around the edges and the other pic is of cakes I made for Mothers Day last year - also pretty shoddy!!

So I figured a giant cupcake was biting off more than I could chew...literally, but hey...what the heck?  Who would have thought it would turn out as well as it did?!  I know the piping is less than perfect, but for a first attempt.....

And not only did it look great, it tasted great too!! The recipe I followed was for a red velvet cake, but as my mum doesn't eat cocoa, so after a little switcheroo, I made a pink velvet cake instead...YUM!!

So here it is

For the cake                                                     For the butter cream
125g butter                                                       150g unsalted butter
325g castor sugar                                              450g icing sugar2
2 eggs
1-2tsp vanilla extract
red food colouring paste
25g cocoa
325g fine cake flour
1tsp bicarb soda
284mls buttermilk*
1tbsp  vinegar
Raspberry jam 

*I didn't actually have buttermilk, so I used the same volume of full fat milk, squeezed 1/4 fresh lemon into it and let it sit for 10 mins

preheat the oven to 180c/350f/gas mark 4.  Prepare both cake pans, you can do this with a light covering of spray oil or flour.

Soften the butter (I usually stick mine in the microwave  on a low to medium setting and check it every 20-30s) then cream with the sugar.  There is a lot more sugar in this recipe compared to butter, so you really need to work it.  I mix by hand - its a great way to tone up your arms!!  Once you've got it nice and fluffy, beat in the eggs a little at a time.

If you want a cocoa bases red velvet cake, take the cocoa, vanilla and food colouring and mix in a separate bowl.  If you want to make a cocoa free pink velvet cake, switch out the cocoa for 25g of flour.  Once your mix is smooth, blend it into the butter and sugar mixture until it is fully incorporated.

Sift the flour, salt and bicarb together then alternate between adding small amounts of the flour mix and small amounts of buttermilk into the mixture and stir well. Then add the vinegar.

Separate the mixture between the pans, allowing plenty of room for rising and bake for 40-50 mins.  You will know they are ready when you can insert a skewer or long sharp knife into the middle of the cake and it comes out clean.

Once the cakes have fully cooled, beat the butter in a bowl and slowly add in the icing sugar.  Turn the cakes out and level off, then stick together with the jam.  To pipe the roses, put either a D2 nozzle or large star nozzle into the piping bag and add the icing,  Twist the empty end of the bag to remove air and with a firm, but not hard pressure, start piping in circles to get the rose effect and copy all the way round the cake until the top half is covered et voila!!!!

And there you have it!  Now you too can make a special occasion giant cupcake!!



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