Wedding cupcakes

I recently made some cupcakes for a friend’s wedding. They wanted chocolate cupcakes with buttercream. I made the buttercream in both a cream and a green which matched the bridesmaids’ outfits. To add a bit of sparkle the cupcake cases were silver and I used silver chocolate beans also as well as white chocolate curls. As they wanted to cut a cake on the day I also made a chocolate cake which was covered in buttercream and then had white chocolate cigarellos round the outside.

Using the cake stand I have it all came together really well and with the flowers on top made a great centrepiece.


wedding cupcakes

wedding cupcakes 2

close up

top cake

It took a fair amount of research to find everything that was right for these cakes and I spent a while finding the right colouring to get the desired shade of green. A really good shop that I can recommend is Surbiton Sugarcraft. They have a small shop in Surbiton that has everything you can imagine for cake decorating and it can all be ordered online. I used the Sugarflaire colour powder to make the buttercream the desired colour. I wasn’t sure how well it would work initially as I have been used to using liquid colouring but it was great and really easy to use.

Double chocolate cupcakes - makes about 12

Ingredients
125 softened butter
125g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
90g self-raising flour
30g cocoa
100g milk chocolate drops

Equipment required

12-hole muffin tray
silver muffin cases
large mixing bowl
electric or hand whisk
sieve

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius. It is better to use a regular setting rather than a fan setting.
Beat the butter and sugar together
Add eggs to the bowl and sift the flour and cocoa on top
Beat all together until smooth
Stir in the chocolate drops
Fill the cases about two-thirds full and bake for 12-15 minutes or until springy to the touch

Buttercream – enough for 12 cupcakes
175g butter softened
350g icing sugar
3tbsp boiling water
few drops of vanilla essence

Beat together the butter until soft and smooth
Add everything else and beat until smooth and pale in colour

Tips
For these cupcakes I then used an icing bag with a large nozzle and iced them using that. It gave a much more professional look and was quite quick to do once you get used to it.

To make a good buttercream it is also vital to ensure your have softened butter - so leave it out overnight in a cool room. the beat it on its own first before adding the other ingredients - this makes a really light and fluffy buttercream.