Christmas Cupcakes

My sister's fiancée had a Bake-Off in work last week, where he got landed with the awkward category of Muffins. He added an extra teaspoon of baking soda to my Nutella cupcake recipe and lo and behold we had muffins!

Since these are sweet enough he dusted icing sugar ontop using a stencil I had, and I made some quick Christmas goodies out of different coloured fondant! The end result was fab!

You might guess where he works! 

Stay sweet! x

Bloody Halloween Cupcakes

To get you in the mood for Halloween, these spookily decorated bloody cupcakes should do the trick...or treat! (Sorry, couldn't help myself!)

Spider, witch's hat, mummy, ghost, bat, tombstone, broom, skull, pumpkin, Frankenstein's monster, bloody fangs and a bone... All in a day's work! 

I made simple sponge cupcakes but before baking dribbled some strawberry jam on top and quickly buried the jam under batter so it would bake nicely.

The toppers are all handmade out of fondant, I didn't follow any designs or stencils I just fiddled around with sugarpaste until I got a shape I liked. I was too lazy to whip up buttercream so I used a glass tumbler to cut out circles of sugarpaste and used these as a base on the cupcakes. FYI, all the materials I used were featured here as well as an oh-so-fancy cocktail stick, and I painted yellow fondant with red food colouring to get a pumpkin orange colour! I also used an edible black felt tip pen which I found in Brussels for writing/pupils.

Ingredients for a dozen cupcakes:

6oz self-raising flour

4oz caster sugar

4oz margarine

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 jar of jam (strawberry or raspberry)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celcius, and line a cupcake tray.
2. Beat margarine and sugar together on a medium speed until combined.
3. Add eggs one at a time and mix until combined.
4. Add vanilla extract.
5. Sieve in flour and beat until combined.
6. Divide batter between cases.
7. Add a teaspoon of jam to each case (trail along), cover this over with batter.
8. Bake for 20mins or until springy to touch.
9. Allow cupcakes to cool before applying a thin layer of jam on top. Place fondant circle atop.
10. Brush fondant with clear alcohol to give shine and allow toppers to stick.
11. Enjoy!

If you're looking for more spooky treats check out last year's post which features a podcast with great ideas from other bloggers!

Looking for costume inspiration? Last year I wrote this article for the UCC Express but I also love Urban Outfitters range! Whatever you get up to, have a great night!

 Happy Halloween, and stay spooky! x

Sunflower Cake

It was my mom's birthday a few weeks ago and instead of the usual buttercream icing and HAPPY BIRTHDAY scrawled with an unsteady hand I wanted to create something a little more special than my previous cakes...
This sunflower cake was the answer! 

It looks complicated but really, it was tedious moreso than difficult. I've broken it down into the different elements below so you can re-create the look yourself.

1. Covering the cake

After crumb coating the cake (covering with a thin layer of buttercream) I allowed it to stand. I then rolled out white fondant and covered the cake.

    2. The Petals

I rolled out yellow fondant and used a large tumbler and a champagne flute to cut a large circle and a smaller one within the first. I removed the smaller circle and using an ordinary table knife cut out the petals freehand. (I'm sure there's an easier way of doing this, but it worked for me!) I did this twice so I would have loads of petals at my disposal.

The petals should be shaped like the image below [which I found on Google Images, credit to owner] so if you have a shaky hand you could use this as a template.

    3. The Stamen (Middle)

For this, I used the tumbler to cut a disc from rolled brown (chocolate flavoured!) fondant. I poked holes in it with a flower tool I had, but a toothpick/cocktail stick would work just as well. This added some texture to the stamen.

   4. The Grass

I rolled some green fondant and cut out a long rectangle. I then cut a zig-zag line down the middle of the rectangle, without cutting through the rectangle outline. I separated these and voila, two strips of grass!

Adhering these pieces was easy, I just dabbed some buttercream onto the cake. I placed all of the petals in a circle (overlapping some to add texture) and placed the stamen in the centre.

To make the cake shine I took a pastry brush and rubbed some vodka over the different elements. As always, I finished the cake by piping "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" with gold piping gel from International Home of Cooking in Brussels.

I hope you enjoyed going behind the scenes in my latest foray into the world of fondant! Apologies for the lack of photos, I was under pressure to produce this! ;) But was it tasty? What do you think?...

Fancy hosting a sunflower-themed party? This fab dessert table will definitely inspire you!

I guess this cake is really a last hurrah of summer. Today for the pulsating All-Ireland Hurling Final I made a lovely Autumn cake that I'll share with you soon... Just in time for the replay! REBELS ABU!!! (For the non-Irish check this out!)

Stay sweet! x

Cake Decorating: Fondant How-To Guide

After drooling over fondant-covered cakes I did a lot of research on how to cover a cake. A lot of my initial preconceptions were entirely wrong:

• No marzipan necessary :)
• It takes time- bake, cool, crumb coat, set, fondant, decorate...
• Practice makes perfect!

I found loads of YouTube videos but after checking out the comments section I found that those tutors had made mistakes, also some tutorials don't go into enough detail for first timers!

Norman Davis and Zane Beg of The Sweet Life Bakery in DC have a great series of YouTube instructables, start off with this one on crumb coating and follow up with this covering lesson. They have a lot more gumpaste modelling tutorials, but I found these two most helpful for beginners. I watched these videos a couple of times each before attempting a cake and now I know all of the steps off by heart, and I'm getting quicker each time I make a cake :)

This is the first cake I ever covered with fondant. I cut out squares of fondant using a table knife, and used a piping pen (Dr. Oetker) to write a CV and Intern Application (this was a cake for a career advisor!) 

I used those piping pens to fill in the Belgian flag, (as we had been to Belgium with said faculty member). I outlined the black, yellow and red and then flooded with icing on the inside, using a table knife to spread the icing.

The gold gel used was bought in Brussels, at Home of Cooking. 

After asking questions at my local sugarcraft supply store (Cake Craft Carrigtwohill) they advised me that the Create-A-Cake Ready to Roll Icing was too heavy to use in covering and better for modelling, therefore I changed to Renshaw Professional Ready-to-Roll Icing.

This cake was for a member of Cork Campus Radio staff who was sadly leaving (Miss you Bridget!!) 

To say thank you to the person who taught me everything about radio I used the Renshaw fondant, and Dr. Oetker black piping pen to draw earphones, a mic and musical notes. 

To spruce it up a little I rolled up balls of yellow Create-A-Cake fondant and secured them to the base of the cake using buttercream.

This beauty was for my sister Aileen's birthday back in April. Renshaw fondant covered, Home of Cooking gel piping pen, yellow Create-A-Cake fondant rolled into balls, secured at the base with butter cream and also used same for roses. 

I have seen loads of different rose tutorials but this is what worked for me: cut rolled fondant into slices about 1cm thick and not more than 7cm long. Roll the slice to create a rose, gently pulling the petal tips outward for more realism. Bundle up on top of each other, secure with a dab of buttercream. 

To make these very realistic I cut a tiny bit of the gold wrapper from a Moet and Chandon bottle of champagne and secured it with buttercream so that the flowers resembled a bouquet. (FYI, I would only advise this if you are there to remove this bit of inedible material, otherwise you run the risk of choking your dinner party!)

I topped the whole cake with edible disco dust in a neutral hologram colour.

This cake was for my aunt, Noreen's birthday. The same as above but I placed the roses in a pile in the centre so you could see roses from every angle.

I piped in a circle for a more sophisticated look, topped with disco dust and finished with a gold ribbon tied around the cake.

The recipes used for these cakes are just ordinary sponge, so whatever's your favourite will do! I'll share with you my special chocolate sponge recipe soon.

Hope you enjoyed this post, and that it helps you get started with fondant! I have a long way to go so if you have any tips please leave a comment below!

Stay sweet! x

Fun with Fondant

As you read here, I love sugarcraft! At the Cork Sugarcraft Fair I bought some bits and pieces and started making cakes every occasion that I could since. Here are the creations thus far. I definitely need to get more practice in- and patience! ;) I'll give a step-by-step soon as well as the ingredients used in each!

This was my first ever attempt at decorating with fondant. I loved the simplicity of it and the clean finish.

This was the second attempt. Loved the roses, and got inspiration for the balls from Ace of Cakes!

Making a cake to represent radio is no mean feat but I think I pulled it off pretty well! 

A more polished update on the original birthday cake from above!

Tomorrow morning I'm jetting off to Austria for the First Aid Convention in Europe competition, as part of the Irish First Aid Team. Hopefully I'll get to taste some yummy Austrian treats! 

Have a great weekend, hope you don't miss sUCCulent too much!!

Watch this space for more info on the cakes featured above, and as always...

Stay sweet! x

New Year's Baking Resolutions

I've been drooling over blogs, the food network, magazines and cookbooks all over the festive period so I decided to share with you my New Year Resolutions for baking!

• Have Fun with Fondant
• Core some Cupcakes
• Make (and Master!) Macaroons
• Explore the Wonderful World of Whoopie Pies!
• Make Great Ganache
• Add some Pizzazz with Pistachios

I hope my macaroons turn out somewhat similar to Laudurèe's!... A girl can dream!

What are your New Year's Resolutions in the world of all that's sweet and scrumptious?x