Celebrity dress cupcakes

Every baker I know has a little trademark piece that they love making, that nobody does quite like them. So I'm super excited to be releasing my new 'Dress' cupcake range. 

The pieces I started with were inspired by a a very girly friend of mine who, like me, loves all things fashion. For her leaving do (she's ditching picturesque Edinburgh for the hustle and bustle of London), I wanted something extra special... this is one of my besties I'm talking about here! I got thinking about all the times we'd coo'ed over fab pieces that celebs had worn, and thought 'I could do that... but with cakes!!'

Here I've posted the full collection that I made for my (already greatly missed) gal pal, including detail of the designers looks behind them.... let me know what you think!

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Contrasting Heart Cupcakes

A couple of months back I posted a picture of valentines cupcakes that I wanted to try for myself. So, with a few spare cupcakes and a bit of extra fondant to hand, I made a batch this week. These cupcakes are brilliant for valentines day, but would be perfect any time of year for those deserving loved ones...

YOU'RE GONNA NEED...

Cupcakes
Jam
Butter cream
Packet of ready to roll fondant
Red gel food colouring

Circular cutter
Small Heart shaped cutter
Grease proof paper




STEP 1

Lay down some grease proof paper to roll your fondant onto. It's really easy to peel your fondant shapes away from this, meaning no sticking to surfaces.

STEP 2

Using a skewer/knife/cocktail stick, add small globs of the red gel colouring to your fondant. Need in the colour until you have a smooth overall look.

Keep a little bit of white fondant to the side for your white hearts. 

NOTE: If you're not used to working with the gel colouring, add the colour and need in little by little... YOU CAN ADD, BUT YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY!!!

STEP 3

Take your cupcakes and cut a small hole in the center of each one. Fill this hole with jam/chocolate spread/filling of your choice.

NOTE: You can buy a little contraption that allows you to inject the filling into the center, but this way you get more filling (plus you can keep the cut outs for cake pops!!)

STEP 4

Top your cupcakes with butter cream (I chose red to stick to the valentines theme). Make sure you don't go right to the edges, as this could mean it will show/come out at the sides when it comes to adding your fondant toppers.

Choose a circular cutter and ensure that it is big enough to go over the top of your cupcake neatly. This will mean that your circle of fondant will cover all of your cupcake without a lot of excess as the sides.

STEP 5

Roll out your fondant and cut circular toppers for your cupcakes. sit them on top of your butter cream.

Using you small heart shaped cutter, use the rest of your fondant to cut out heart shapes. Remember to cut out your white heart shapes for the center of the cupcakes.

STEP 6

Peel your small hearts away from the grease proof paper and (using water or edible glue) arrange them onto your cupcakes, starting from the outside. When I first tried these I started on the inside, beginning with the white heart. This didn't work as it meant my hearts around the edge of the cakes didn't run in a straight line and I had to think about it more. Working from the outside means that all your hearts will run in the direction they are supposed to and gives the cakes a nice finish.

At the end, your cakes should look something like this. If they don't... you did something wrong!

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Easy Marbled Chocolate Cake

I saw this cake on the fabulous Iced Jems sight whilst I was away and, after my bad experience following other people's tutorials (ref: patchwork cakes), I thought I'd try it out for myself. In all fairness to iced Jems, the tutorial was pretty spot on..though I've mentioned a few things that I had issues with that she either didn't have trouble with, or just missed out.

YOU'LL BE NEEDING

3x bars of milk/dark chocolate
1x bar of white chocolate
1 round sponge cake
Chocolate butter cream

Grease proof paper
Sharp knife







STEP 1

Making the sponge and getting the butter cream on is always the boring bit of the cake for me. Luckily, with this cake, you just need the one layer of butter cream (make it thick) as you're going to have most of it hidden by the chocolate pieces anyways! Make a chocolate butter cream, it looks better with the pieces.

NOTE: When I start a cake, I always put shreds of the grease proof paper around it to catch any mess I don't want on my board at the end.

STEP 2

Melt down your 2 chocolates. Once they've melted all the way down, keep them this way by leaving them on the hob at a really low heat.

STEP 3

On top of grease proof paper, using a tablespoon, create dollops of the dark/milk chocolate. The grease proof paper is essential so that you can peel away the shapes once they have set!!!! Top these with swirls of the white chocolate. Don't worry about making perfect circles, you're going to mess them up anyway!

STEP 4

Using a sharp knife, start at the center of your chocolate circles and flick outwards to make a splattered shape. Do this around the full circles of your dollop. Don't be afraid to cut lines across others...again, it doesn't need to be perfect! Make some of your shapes longer so that you have taller pieces for the top of the cake.

Your chocolate shapes should now look something like this. I made 22 in all. I wish I'd had more to bulk the cake up a bit between tiers. As you make your shapes, pop sets in the fridge to help them set (this took longer than I thought).

STEP 5

Fill a mug with boiling water and leave your sharp knife to sit in it for a few minutes. The boiling water will heat the knife up and make it easier to cut cleanly through your shapes. Take the knife and trim the bottom of each shape to a flat. 

NOTE: Keep the pieces you cut off, they'll come in hand for decoration at the end.

STEP 6:

Arrange the shapes around the base of your cake.

STEP 7

Cut supporting slots into the top of the cake for the top tier. This should mirror the shape of the ones surrounding the base of the cake. 

NOTE: Don't even bother trying to avoid this step in favour of just trying to balance the pieces, hoping that the butter cream will do the job. I tried this!!! I didn't work..the pieces kept toppling and it was utterly impossible to move the cake anywhere without trashing it. 

STEP 8

Slot your shapes into the slits that you cut out for them to rest in. Once you have done this, use four longer shapes to make a center stack coming out of the middle (again, make sure you cut the support slits for these!). 

Once finished, use left over shapes and the cut offs to fill gaps.

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