The Cupcake Inspiration Station

Are you planning on a bit of baking this weekend to mark National Cupcake Week? Having already shared a basic recipe, I thought maybe I could provide a bit more inspiration on the flavours and decoration front.

Chocolate chip vanilla cupcake with white chocolate icing, cherry sauce,  sprinkles and cherries.

'Quick' Sugar Paste Flowers

During my time spent away from blogging recently, I had a few crafty things to do that I didn't get a chance to share. One of these things was revisiting my love for sugarcraft. 

My mother in law's 60th birthday saw me wanting to make a special cake but not having the drive to bake AND decorate one so I did a little bit of cheating. I made a visit to a supermarket where I located a large iced fruit cake. I was able to push my posy pick into the centre and I spent a few hours over a couple of weeks building up some sugar roses. 

The posy looked a bit sparce to me but my limited time away from Baby B meant I just had to do what I could. As my own worse critic I have to admit they are not my best work (the heat at the time of making them made these very difficult...) I also removed the ribbon from the cake and decorated around the bottom with some sugar paste flowers made with a mould.   

I have included a few random photos of the process for you to have a nose at, but I didn't really get any brill pics of the finished cake! Silly me. 

 

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Crafty B's Cupcake Decorating Party

At this week's Crafty B's craft group, we got down and sugary with a cupcake decorating party.

I made a big batch of vanilla cupcakes and butter icing and the group took these as a blank canvas and created some works of art.

Inspiration? Anything and everything. We had books, magazines and pictures provided by me and group members. We chatted, inspected what kind of colours, cutters, moulds and tools were at our disposal, considered what we might like to achieve and then we went for it.

Some wanted to make something pretty, some wanted artistic and some wanted practice for upcoming caking projects. Everyone had a different level of experience and some came with no experience whatsoever and took home the most amazing first time creations. Personally, I don't believe some of those 'first timers' ;-). he he.

Here are some pictures from the evening.*

Hopefully everyone had a lovely time and we will definitely do something like this again.

Don't forget that if you are local, the Crafty B's meet every Monday at 7.15pm till 9pm in the portacabin behind St.Marys Church in Hardwick, Cambridgeshire. It's the perfect chance for a couple of hours of crafting for those who don't get to fit it in elsewhere. We love to inspire each other with new ideas and discuss our next projects and there are no experts, just ladies learning along the way and sharing skills and knowledge.

If you feel that you want to come along or just want to pop in for a cuppa to see what we are all about, please feel free to come along** or just email me to make contact. We're a friendly bunch and would love to see you there :-). The email address in mrscraftyb@gmail.com

Love and Sugar,

Mrs Crafty B

*The dress was made by a participant who found the picture online. I am awaiting a link to credit the original creator.
**We don't meet on bank holidays :-)

Zoo Themed Cupcake Tower

It was inevitable that I would make Baby B's Birthday cake this year and probably every year to come but I wanted to make sure I went all out.

We had a little mars crispy cake on his actual birthday (which was decorated by Hubby B) and I decided that I would make a zoo themed cake for his party. With both adults and children attending, I wanted to make sure there was something for everyone. 

Of course that meant chocolate all round. I made a chocolate and hazelnut cake smothered with a chocolate ganache for the topper and I decorated lots of chocolate cupcakes with animal faces for the rest of the cake. I struggled to get these made with looking after Baby B but I did get there in the end. It went down a storm along side the trifle and cookies supplied by family members. Lucky Baby B! I hasten to add that there was a bit of cookie smuggling going on because my sister in-law makes the most yummy cookies! 

Here are a few pics of Baby B's Cake which has been prodded a few times by little fingers. I have also put in Hubby B's crispy cake :)

Mrs Crafty B

Book Browse: Maisie Parrish's Fun and Original Children's Cakes

Maisie Parrish is one of my inspirations. In 2010, I did a sugarcraft course and we used one of Maisie’s designs from her book, Fun and Original Children’s Cakes.

My finished work does not do Maisie’s justice and it isn't exactly the same but I had a good go and was very proud of my first attempt.