Flour Gardens: CupCakes

Surprise Cupcakes!

May the year ahead be filled
with sweet surprises...

Why bake plain chocolate cupcakes, when you can fill them with yummy sweets, add a swirl of fluffy buttercream, decorate with silver sprinkles and top it off with a french macaron...

Ingredients
Freshly Baked Cupcakes
Mini astro's (I got mine from Bake-a-Ton)
Buttercream Icing
French Macron (optional)
Sprinkles to decorate (optional)

Method
The cake plunger shown below is optional. You can buy it at any baking store or simply use a butter knife.

Gently place the cake plunger on the centre of the cupcake and slowly push down. Once the plunger is 3/4 way into the cupcake, twist the plunger whilst pulling it out of the cupcake. If you are using a butter knife, cut out a circular chunk of the cupcake.

Push the lever of the plunger, and the cake (which will now be the lid to the cupcake), will pop right out.

You will be left with a hole in the cupcake which can be filled with any type of sweet goodies such as chocolate peanuts, mini astros or m&m's. Take note not to fill the cupcake with heavier sweets like whispers or the original astros as the cupcake may not be able to support the weight.

Once the cupcake is filled to the top, gently place the lid (the piece of cake plunged out) back on top of the cupcake and pat it down firmly.

The cupcakes are ready to decorate to suit your style. I added a swirl of vanilla buttercream and topped it off with a homemade french macaron (recipe for macaron to follow soon).

These cupcakes look amazing even without knowing about the hidden surprise!

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Easy, no-mess Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

125g Margarine
1 and 1/2 cups Flour
1 cup Sugar
3 Eggs
4 tsp Baking Powder
8 tsp Cocoa
1/2 cup Milk

Method

Combine all ingredients in a food mixer and beat for approximately 3minutes.

Spoon into greased muffin tins until 3/4 full

Bake at 180degrees for about 15-20minutes

Baking can't get simpler than this!

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Sheep Cupcakes

Eid Mubarak!

Two weekends ago, Muslims around the world celebrated the Festival of Sacrifice (Eid ul Adha). The feast fell within the time of Hajj, the annual pilgrimage Muslims are expected to go on at least once in their lifetime. Eid commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim, or Abraham, to sacrifice his son in the Biblical story. Some Muslims observe the day by slaughtering a sheep, cow or other livestock animal.

The day's building up to Eid were not as hectic as before because for the past three Eid's, my Mum and I prepare the breakfast buffet. A table filled with fresh summer melons, golden brown waffles, sweet French toast and energising fruit smoothies, are just a few of the yummy treats to start the day. With all the excitement, I was too busy enjoying the moment and unfortunately did not take any pictures of the beautiful day, the decor and deliciousness, apart from the sheep cuppies which I made the day before.

Sheep Cupcakes

Freshly baked Chocolate Cupcakes, mini cupcakes are optional
2 Packets Mini Marshmallows (separate the white from the pink)
White and Green(optional) icing/frosting
Modelling Fondant in White and Brown

The first step is to apply a generous amount of icing on to the cupcake. If the icing is coated too thinly, the marshmallows will not hold.

Once coated, stick the mini marshmallows around, leaving an area for the sheep face.

For the face, I used a chocolate brown modelling fondant from Party Themes. The fondant does dry and harden rather quickly so ensure that the unused fondant is in a sealed container.

Roll abit of fondant between the palm of your hands until it is the size of a fireball/jawbreaker, then mould it into a slightly oval shape.
For the ears, gently pinch and pull on two sides of the oval ball.

Using white fondant, roll out two tiny balls for the eyes and glue them onto the face with a dab of water. I initially used black poppy seeds for the pupils but noticed that after a few hours they did fall out so then decided to just draw on a dot with a black marker.

For the nostrils, use a toothpick and make two deep holes toward the bottom of the face.

I deliberately baked 9 standard cupcakes so the leftover mixture could be used for mini grass cuppies. This gave an extra edge which created a fun, cute 'sheep story'.

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Mini Red Velvet and Oreo Cup Cakes (Pre-mix)

During the April long weekend I went with the family to visit my sister and her husband in Cape Town. Of course we had to leave one afternoon for Access Park, a shopping centre of factory shops, retail and outlet stores. I could not contain my excitement when we came across a baking wonderland.

This shop has anything and everything, specialising in Cab Foods cooking and baking goodies. What caught my attention was the wide range of pre-mixes on sale, from yellow velvet to blueberry cupcake mix. I was so overwhelmed at the unique flavours that when it was time to fill the shopping cart, unsurprisingly I reached for the classic red velvet cupcake mix...