Jubilee Rose Cupcakes

Finally it's the long Jubilee weekend! Time for just one more Jubilee bake :) I've been baking up a storm in my kitchen for a charity bake sale happening this weekend.  As it is the Jubilee weekend, I thought I'd make some Jubilee cupcakes.  I decided to make rose cupcakes with my rose essence instead of plain vanilla.  Renshaw had kindly sent me a sample pack of their special Jubilee edition which contains 1 red, 1 white and 2 royal blue icing colours.  So I looked on their website and decided to re-create the Union Jack Cupcake. I rarely do cake decorating with icing so this was a real challenge for me. It took me hours just to make 10 of these at which point I'd had enough! I made a rose buttercream frosting to pipe on the remaining cakes and decorated with pretty sprinkles. 

I'm entering these to the Blogging Baking Competition hosted by Homemade by Fleur. The competition runs until 3rd June 2012 and the winner gets £100 of Amazon vouchers sponsored by Appliances Online.

 Renshaw icing pack, pink cupcake cases and rose essence. I love the colours of the icing and their mybakes website is great for ideas and instructions. 

 Blue circles, red and white strips 

 Heat some apricot baking glaze until boiling and spread on top of the cupcakes 

 add a blue circle

 then make a cross with the white strips

 2 more strips - remember to cut out the intersecting parts 

 Add the red strips on top 

 not bad for my first attempt :) 

 I got these cute boxes online to pack the cakes in for the bake sale. 

 Rose Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream and butterfly sprinkles.

Disclaimer: I was provided a pack of Renshaw icing free of charge to try. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions expressed are my own. 

I used a basic vanilla cupcake recipe but added 2 teaspoons of rose essence to the batter instead of vanilla extract. I made a vanilla buttercream frosting and added 1 teaspoon of rose essence.

Jubilee Cake Truffles

I had some leftover cake from making my hamburger cupcakes so I decided to make cake truffles again ... Jubilee style! I ended up making 2 batches of cake for my hamburger cupcakes - the first batch without cases to give the proper 'hamburger' look but even though I greased the tin with cake release spray, they refused to come out whole so I made a second batch with cases which was used.

All is not lost as I have learnt from previous experience that all you need is a tub of Cadbury Philadelphia chocolate cream cheese and you have cake truffles! I used red, white and blue candy melts to coat them and sprinkled red, white and blue decorations on top. 

 cake crumbs and chocolate cream cheese 

 mix to get this

 roll into balls 

 dip in candy melts and add sprinkles 

Jubilee Cake Truffles!

These are really quick and simple to make and would be perfect for a Jubilee street party or any party! I am submitting these to the Blogging Baking Jubilee Competition hosted by Homemade by Fleur. The competition runs until 3rd June 2012 and the winner gets £100 of Amazon vouchers, provided by Appliances Online.

Hamburger Cupcakes

This month's AlphaBakes hosted by Caroline from Caroline Makes is the letter 'H". If you don't already know, AlphaBakes is a monthly baking blogging challenge where we bake from a random letter each month. So far we have had L, M and B. For each of these letters, I could immediately think of a few things to bake but not this month! I came up with 2 ideas but wanted to challenge myself and make something slightly different. So I present you with H for Hamburger Cupcakes! Yes they look like hamburgers but are actually made from cake! Pretty cool, huh? 

I made a vanilla sponge for my 'burger buns' and a chocolate sponge for my 'burger meat'. I then coloured some leftover buttercream icing (from making my Jubilee mini cakes) red to look like ketchup and coloured dessicated coconut green to resemble lettuce. You can also make cheese and mustard if you like. 

 Vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes, green dessicated coconut, red buttercream icing, toasted sesame seeds. 

 Slice each vanilla cupcake in half horizontally

 Slice the chocolate cupcakes horizontally and place one piece of top of the vanilla cupcake

 Add a blob of "ketchup" (red buttercream icing)

 add your "lettuce" (green dessicated coconut)

 Top with your "burger bun" (sliced vanilla cupcake) Lightly brush the tops with water and sprinkle sesame seeds on top

 What do you think? Is it  hamburger? Is it a cake? It's a hamburger cupcake!! 

As mentioned in my previous post, Homemade by Fleur is running a Blogging Baking Jubilee Competition until 3rd June 2012.  There is an awesome prize of £100 Amazon vouchers kindly provided by Appliances Online.  I think these mini hamburger cupcakes are perfect for any party especially a Jubilee street party so I'm entering these to the competition. I couldn't resist getting my little flags out to make them look more Jubilee themed :) 

I used my favourite vanilla cupcake recipe to make the buns. I decided to use Nigella's Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake for the "burger meat" as my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe involved separating the eggs and beating the whites separately. I was quite short on time and had enough washing up to do so I looked for another recipe. It's a really simple all in one recipe and as Nigella says "If you're going to get started, this is the cake you should begin with" It was a really moist and delicious chocolate cake - I'm glad I had extra to munch on :) As it's a Nigella recipe, I'm also entering this to Forever Nigella #15  as the theme this month is The Jubilee. Forever Nigella is run by Sarah from Maison Cupcake and hosted this month by Nelly's Cupcakes.

Jubilee mini cakes

Is everyone excited about the upcoming Jubilee celebrations? Who's going to a street party? How are you celebrating? I was out of the country last year during the Royal Wedding so I'm going to make up for it this year by getting stuck into some Jubilee baking (this is 1 of 3 that I've made so far) and may even get up to some Olympic baking later on! 

I was sent some lovely red, white and blue sugar strands by Just Bake which is a cool website for all your baking supplies. If you've not come across them before, do check them out as they have really nice stuff at a reasonable price. 

These cakes are really simple to make and will look impressive at a party. It's a basic vanilla sponge topped with fresh fruits, buttercream and sprinkles. I decided to make mini cakes as minis always look so much cuter! I also used my heart mould but the mini cakes looked much better! 

I'm entering these to the Blogging Baking Jubilee Competition hosted by Homemade by Fleur. The competition runs until 3rd June 2012 and the winner gets  £100 of Amazon vouchers, provided by Appliances Online. Join in the fun and get baking!

 Divide the cake batter evenly into 3 - 1 plain, 1 blue and 1 red

 Jubilee themed sprinkles from Just Bake

 Ready? Buttercream icing, 3 colours of cake, fresh blueberries, fresh raspberries, red white & blue sugar strands, Jubilee cupcake cases 

 Place one mini cake into a cupcake wrapper. Pipe a small star of buttercream on top. 

 Place fresh blueberries and raspberries on top - I used blueberries with the blue sponge an raspberries with the red sponge. 

 Add another layer of a different colour

 Pipe more buttercream on top and add a different fruit layer on top

Finish with a plain sponge topped with sprinkles

For the sponge

250g butter
250g self raising flour
250g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
Red paste colouring
Blue paste colouring

For the buttercream


110g butter
250g icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk

To decorate


Fresh blueberries
Fresh raspberries
Sprinkles

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time.
• Mix in the vanilla bean paste.
• Sift in the flour and mix well. 
• Divide the cake batter into 3 portions - I weighed them in ziplock bags.
• Add blue paste colouring to one bag, red paste colouring to another bag and leave the third bag plain.
• Pipe the batter into a mini cupcake mould and bake for approximately 10-12 minutes.
• Make the buttercream by mixing all the ingredients together in an electric mixer. 
• To assemble follow instructions that accompany the pictures above. 

Disclaimer: I was sent the sprinkles free of charge from Just Bake. I was not required to write about Just Bake or their products. All opinions expressed are my own.