Christmas Tree Cupcakes.

After putting up my Christmas tree this week I was inspired to turn a cake into a tree and it couldn't have been simpler. I made my usual cupcakes and whipped up a double batch of my normal buttercream, adding a blob of green food colouring paste a little bit of blue to make it darker. I then piped on the buttercream with a 2D nozzle, making a tree. To finish, I added a chocolate star (from Sainsbury's) on the top of each with various sprinkles to look like baubles.

5 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Christmas Cupcakes.

As mentioned in a post earlier this month, I wanted to make cupcakes as presents for my friends this year and that is exactly what I did...

You may notice some that my inspiration came from the cakes I found featured in that post but I tried to put my own spin on them all. 

1. At the top is a cupcake with light blue icing and white snowflakes with a pearl in the centre of each. I used the cutter featured in day 's post. 
2. The Christmas pudding cupcake actually has chocolate flavoured icing on top. I wasn't aware of this when I bought it but my friend seems to approve of it. I then added a splodge of white icing, two holly leaves and three berries.
3. In the bottom right corner is a more simple cupcake, red icing with white 'ribbon' and a red bow. I felt it was a little too bare so I added a 'gift tag' in light blue icing and dark blue edible pen and a little bit of holly to finish.
4. This is probably my favourite cupcake; embossed red icing with a generous amount of lustre spray. I didn't intend for it to look like this but the spray came out uncontrollably and hence I smothered it all over. However, I think it gives a nice shiny bauble-effect to it. 
5. The Rudolph is a little childish but just as intricate as the rest. Again, the brown chocolate flavoured icing with a bright red nose, brown ears (with a little white in the centre to add dimension) and a pair of eyes made of black writing icing with white in the centre. They eyes drooped (more like ran) by themselves but I still think they look just as good. I added cocktail sticks for antlers and a few markings for a mouth. 
6. Finally, the improvised cupcake. A bright green fondant base with two red and white candy canes joined by a bow. I was just messing around when I made the first candy cane - make two thin sausages with the red and white icing then twist together - but I thought it looked quite realistic so I made another and put them on the cake!

12 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Cake Release Review.

We've all had the nightmare of baking the most perfect cake but not being able to get it out of the tin. Before, I thought the only way around this was to use greaseproof paper which is quite a laborious task when you just want to get the mixture in the oven ASAP! My mom actually discovered this product on a routinely shop on Lakeland and ordered it for me as a surprise.

Essentially it's grease in a bottle and in liquid form. You squirt a tiny amount into your cake tin and spread it around evenly using a brush et voilà, your tin is greased and ready to go. It really is as simple as that.

What I really love about this product, aside from the speed and convenience of it, is that it can be used to grease really intricately shaped tins where normal greaseproof paper wouldn't be able to reach. Also, the cakes come out absolutely perfectly (as long as you apply it all over, which isn't difficult) and with such ease. No more keeping your fingers crossed that your cake will come out in one piece.

For only £3.99 there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that I would re-purchase this. I've had it it since around August and with regular use, it is actually still quite full - you really do only need a tiny amount for great results!

16 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

17th Birthday Cake.

Let's take a step away from the fact that it is Christmas in just 17 days and discuss a different birthday. I made this birthday cake this week with a slightly festive theme in mind - the blue and white (aka I was asked to make it at short notice and had to use whatever I had in my cupboard, which happened to only be blue and white icing), but I think it worked out quite well in the end. I covered the cake in an ivory icing which I had rolled over one of my lace impressions mat to get the swirly floral pattern and brushed with rejuvenator to make the design stand out. I then made a light blue rose accompanied by seven hydrangea flowers in the shape of a '17', all stuck down with edible glue.

Inside was a normal sponge cake with homemade vanilla buttercream and a slither of apricot jam, which I personally love but I know it's not for everyone so I decided not to put too much in. Of course, no cake of mine would be complete without a spritz of pearl lustre spray.

The flowers on this cake could easily be substituted for snowflakes and the floral icing for something slightly more festive.

17 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

My Favourite Chocolate Truffles.

I really do love making these all year round, but especially at Christmas. I find they're great if you suddenly realised you've forgotten to buy someone a present or if you're not sure what to buy for someone and I also love making them as after-dinner. These chocolate truffles are quick, easy, delicious and will go down a treat!

Ingredients:

125g plain chocolate

2 tbsp of your choice of liquor (optional)

40g unsalted butter

55g icing sugar

55g ground almonds

cocoa powder for dusting (optional)

Method:

1. Put the plain chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water and melt, make sure you stir it regularly so chocolate doesn't burn.

2. Carefully remove form the heat and stir in your choice of liquor (I like to use rum).

3. Beat in the butter, sugar and almonds until thoroughly combined.

4. Shape the mixture into balls, I usually use 1 tsp per truffle to ensure they are all of a similar size. This recipe should make on average 18 but it depends on how big or small you make them.

5. If you are going to dust them with cocoa then spread some cocoa powder onto a plate and simply roll the truffles around in it until they are coated all over. Be careful not to put too much cocoa powder on them as this can make them very bitter and have an almost furry texture. An alternative decoration, which I prefer, is melting some chocolate and either dipping them in or drizzling it over them. I would advise refrigerating them for a while before and after doing this.

19 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Christmas Cookie Inspiration.

I really do love decorating biscuits at Christmas, my earliest memory of this was when I was 7 and I went to Ikea with my mom and buying about 50 of their gingerbread biscuits in star and tree shapes. I decorated them all with festive writing icing and put the first letter of everyone in my year group's name on biscuits and giving to them in cellophane bags as presents. They went down well, despite the fact that I got angry at some people for opening theirs before Christmas day. Since then I've had an obsession with biscuits for the festive season. Here are a few which have inspired me this year...

20 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Quick Festive Haul.

After Monday's post (if you missed it click here), I just couldn't help going to my local cake decorating supplies shop and getting a few bits and bobs for my cupcakes so here's what I picked up...

I purchased a few packs of icing in the most festive colours I have ever laid eyes on. The brown is for Christmas pudding/Rudolph, then you can probably guess that the red is possibly for a Santa or Santa hat and the green is mainly for some form of Christmas tree (I don't want to give too much away).

I am so pleased with these holly and snowflake cutters. They're quite pricey but I truly think they're worth it when you see how well these cutters work. I'm also really excited that T K Maxx are now selling this brand of cutters, hallelujah! The holly is for the top of Christmas pudding or just holly in general and I'll be looking to use the snowflake on my baubles.

I'm also running out of my pearl lustre spray which is my holy grail item, I literally cannot recommend it enough. There is nothing (that I have yet discovered) that doesn't look even better with a spray of this over. I think it'll be really great for my baubles this year to give them a more shiny look - just like a real bauble. 

21 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

My Favourite Yule Log Recipe.

I absolutely adore this recipe and have been using it to make my yule logs for several years now. It's so delicious and the sponge is pretty much fat free - perfect for this time of year! I smother it in chocolate buttercream and then use a fork to create a bark-like effect before adding a sprinkle of icing sugar just to make it look a little more snowy and festive. The holly and 'Merry Christmas' sign were just odd plastic-y things that I found in the kitchen but I thought completed the whole festive look.

Ingredients: 

3 Eggs

75g Caster sugar

75g Plain flour

25g Cocoa powder

100g Butter

100g Icing sugar

75g Milk chocolate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Grease and line a swiss roll tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar together and fold in the flour and cocoa powder. 
3. Bake for 10-12 minutes until it feels springy.
4. When baked, immediately turn the sponge out onto greaseproof paper dusted lightly with caster sugar and trim off the hard edges. 
5. Carefully roll up the cake with the paper still in the middle and leave to cool.
6. Combine the butter and icing sugar together and then stir in the melted chocolate. 
7. Unroll the sponge, spread half of the butter cream inside and up roll again.
8. Use the remaining butter cream to coat the top of the roll.
9. Using a fork, make marks in the butter cream as in the picture to make it look more like a log and sprinkle icing sugar over the top.

22 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo

Chrismas Cupcake Inspiration.

This year I'm really looking forward to making some proper Christmas cupcakes with proper icing! I think homemade gifts are the most personal and have the most thought and care put into them. It's easy to go around a shop and pick up presents that you think people might like but when presents are handmade, you can't help loving them (I hope). I wish I could make all of my presents but time is always an issue at such a busy time of the year so I'm hoping to make cupcakes for a few of my friends.

I'm absolutely in love with the idea of Christmas pudding cupcakes, mainly because it's so easy to create the dome shape just like a real Christmas pudding! I think these ones are so simply yet effective and I'd probably use a chocolate cupcake inside.

I also adore these bauble cupcakes. Again, a lovely domed cupcake makes these the perfect shape. I would use a lace embossing mat, some lustre spray and then finish with the hanger (and maybe even a piece of festive thread for authenticity). There are also so many designs and colours you could put on these, the possibilities are almost endless.

If you're not a fan of the modern colours and symbols of Christmas, I'm sure you'll love these snowy blue and white cupcakes. They're so much more sophisticated - perhaps suitable for a more mature friend or family members but nonetheless festive. I particularly love the one in the centre.

Similarly, the lady whose cupcakes courses I go on (Mrs Mac) made these absolutely exquisite Christmas cupcakes. I'm so sad that I can't go to the course to make these ones but I would highly highly recommend her.

And finally, after an overdose of fondant icing, there's The Hummingbird Bakery's festive cupcakes for this year which they have been posting on twitter repeatedly since the start of November which I think has lead to an obsession. I love the signature buttercream swirl on top and I just can't get over how effective they look with such a small amount of effort. I particularly love the gingerbread man with the read crumbs around the edge, I assume this signifies a red velvet cupcake. Yum!

23 DAYS TO GO! Cakesfordorothy xoxo