The cake recipe I used was intially a basic vanilla, but to make them more interesting I spooned half the mixture into the cases, then added a tablespoon of cocoa power to the remaining mixture along with a little milk to keep the consistency right. This chocolate mixture was then added to the cases and mixed very gently to create a marbled effect. I was a little nervous doing this as I know how easy it is to upset the delicate balance of ingredients in a cake - you can't really improvise like with other recipes; making amendments to the ingredients just to see if it improves the taste; as you can end up with just a sunken mess in your cake pan - but it turned out well. They rose brilliantly, and what I ended up with was this:
I ended up having to cut the tops off in order to ice them, although given how domed cupcakes generally end up I guess I'd have had to do that anyway.
I didn't use any kind of mould for the figures - I know a lot of people use them for faces but I didn't have one, and I'm not sure I would want to use one anyway. I think it would depend on who I was making it for and what was expected.
The figures are completely edible, all made with icing with their heads fitted to the bodies with candy sticks. The fine detail is drawn onto the faces with an edible food pen.
I did little additions to reflect the person - this one is keen on growing his own veg!
This is my cousin the birthday girl.
Got to include the pets!
The family on their cakes (pink vanilla buttercream for the girls and blue for the boys!) all boxed up and ready to go. There were two cakes left over so I just covered these with the leftover icing and sugar decorations. The larger cake tops were sandwiched together with the rest of the icing - waste not want not!
I've been to Hobbycraft today and bought two new heart-shaped tins in preparation for Valentine's Day... watch this space!
No comments:
Post a Comment