Oranges and Lemons said the bells of St. Clements

This post has absolutely naff all to do with St. Clements and neither do the cupcakes I frosted today apart from the fact that they are orange and lemon flavoured!  Even though the weather isn't perfect, there is nothing wrong with having cirtussy summery cupcakes to celebrate a birthday with!

This weekend is my boyfriend's mum's 50th birthday party, so we came all the way down to Windsor from the North to celebrate - and make cupcakes for her.  She asked me last year to make these for her and in all honesty it doesn't seem two minutes ago since she did!

Using a plain vanilla cupcake - find the recipe here - of which there were 64 of them in total (excluding the one I dropped on the floor!!) I then iced 32 with orange butter cream frosting and the other 32 with lemon butter cream frosting...

- Orange butter cream frosting - enough for 32 -

Ingredients:
1100g icing sugar
340g Lurpak unsalted butter at room temperature
x1 tbsp orange flavouring
Grated zest of x2 oranges
x1 whole cap yellow colouring
x2 drops red colouring

Method:
1. Gently grate the orange zest using a fine cheese grater - similar to the one you would use to grate parmesan - in to a small bowl.
2. Add and mix all of the above ingredients together in a large bowl - the longer you whisk/hand mix it the fluffier and lighter it gets.
3. Spread on to your cakes with a flat knife, or using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on to your cupcake - I used a star shaped nozzle and piped the frosting on in a circular motion.

- Lemon butter cream frosting - enough for 32 -
Ingredients:
1100g icing sugar
340g Lurpak unsalted butter at room temperature
Juice of x1 lemon
Grated zest of x2 lemons
x2 caps of yellow colouring

Method:

1. Mix the lemon juice and 100g of icing sugar together in a small bowl.

2. Add and mix all of the above ingredients together in a large bowl - the longer you whisk/hand mix it the fluffier and lighter it gets.

3. Spread on to your cakes with a flat knife, or using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on to your cupcake - I used a star shaped nozzle and piped the frosting on in a circular motion.

Vanilla Fudge Cupcakes

Firstly, I would like to apologise for the length of time it has taken me to write a new post for you all! But I finally got round to baking this weekend I made these wonderful vanilla fudge cupcakes....

Using the standard vanilla cupcake recipe you then top the cupcake with a sugary, tasty vanilla fudge butter cream dusted with crumbled digestives and tasty vanilla fudge cubes.


- Vanilla Cupcakes -
5oz lurpak butter (at room temp)
6oz self-raising flour
6oz caster sugar
x3 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence


Method:

1. Add all the ingredients to a bowl or food processor and whisk/blend until it becomes a batter type texture.
2. Pour mixture into cupcake cases, 1/2 filling each case and cook on 180'C for 15-20mins.

- Vanilla Fudge Butter Cream - 

Ingredients: enough for 12 and a bit extra!

x1 packet of Silver Spoon vanilla fudge

250g standard icing sugar

80g butter (Lurpak at room temperature is the best)

x4 caps of semi-skimmed milk

100g Royal icing sugar

Method:

1. Place the whole packet of Silver Spoon vanilla fudge in a small bowl with 2 tsp of water and melt in the microwave.
2. Whilst the melted vanilla fudge is being left to cool, mix the butter, standard icing sugar and 2 caps of semi-skimmed milk.
3. Once the melted vanilla fudge has cooled add to the mixture and stir.  Then add the Royal icing sugar and 2 more caps of semi-skimmed milk.
4. Put the butter cream in to a frosting bag for piping, or simply spread on top of your cupcakes with a knife.
5. Dust your cakes with crushed digestives and gently push some vanilla cubes on top - because of the fudge, the butter cream sets quite quickly which is why the cubes need to be pushed in.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did, the butter cream is absolutely delicious and sets wonderfully.

The Easter Rabbit

The Easter Rabbit in a cupcake.

This idea was inspired by a very talented lady, namely Astral De La Mare @ The Art of Being Perfect.  She produced some cupcakes a while ago in the theme of Alice in Wonderland, in which she designed a rabbit theme cupcake, along with a clock cupcake to match "I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! No time to say hello, goodbye; I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

So, I figured that because it was Easter this weekend, instead of buying my boyfriend's parents Easter Eggs - lets face it, it is too hot for chocolate - I would make them some Easter themed cupcakes.  These are great for adults and children, and always make a more interesting Easter present.

The cakes - plain vanilla cupcake.

The mud butter cream - standard chocolate butter cream, using a nozzle I injected the frosting in to the middle of the cupcake and then gently eased it out to give a muddy effect, so that it appeared like the rabbit was in a hole.  Do this first and then spread the green 'grass' butter cream around it.

The grass butter cream - peppermint flavoured frosting with two capfuls of green colouring.  This is spread on with a flat knife and then spiked up in a jabbing motion.

The rabbit ears - using sliced up regal icing, I pointed the ears at the top and then shaped them.  I made some of the ears floppy and some of them slightly bent at the top.  Paint them in with red colouring to make them look like real rabbit ears.  Then stick them in the chocolate butter cream.

Then add a bit of glitter on the grass for some sparkle and then eat!

I hope you enjoy these cupcakes!  Many thanks to The Art of Being Perfect for her inspiration! 

Have a fantastic Easter weekend!