Four easy cupcake flavours

I received a request for cupcakes this time for my friends birthday. Cupcakes can be difficult to make look good unless it’s a big occasion and you have a lot of cupcakes. I also think you need several flavours and styles to make a cupcake display work well. After looking through my recipes I decided on four easy cupcake flavours for a small cupcake tower.

When we visited the Vintage & Country Brocante at Canungra recently I found a gorgeous vintage tiered tray and decided that it would be perfect for a small cupcake display.

This birthday party will only have 8 people so we didn’t need a lot of cupcakes just enough for a good display.

The four flavours I chose are:

• Vanilla cupcake with strawberry filling and strawberry whipped cream. I also wanted to make these ones the highlight cupcake and make them look like flamingos.
• Coconut cupcakes with lemon curd filling, cream cheese buttercream topped with Raffaello.
• Chocolate cupcakes filled with nutella, with an oreo buttercream and topped with a mini oreo.
• Caramel cupcakes filled with caramel, caramel cream cheese buttercream and topped with a homemade caramel heart. The caramel was 6 minute Seat Salted Caramel from Handmade Farmhouse and it was so easy and delicious

FIRST STEPS TO TAKE WHEN MAKING CUPCAKES

When I’m making multiple varieties of cupcakes I start at the top which means I start with any toppers that need to be made. With the cupcake flavours I chose there are two toppers that need to be made. One is the caramel topper and the other is the flamingo head and wings.

The caramel topper. I just wanted a nice easy chewy caramel recipe so that I could make love hearts to place on top of the caramel cupcakes. I found an unbelievable recipe for 6 minute caramel from Emily at Handmade Farmhouse and it’s so delicious. Even if you don’t want to make cupcakes definitely give this caramel a go.

The flamingos were next and they were surprisingly easy. Using purchased white fondant I dyed some of it pink, left some white and purchased black fondant for the beaks.

I started by making the wings and decided to use a small love heart cookie cutter to do this and used one of my tools to put some decoration on to them to make them look a little winglike. The next step is to roll out some pink fondant to make the head and neck of the flamingo. You need to just shape it into something like an S Shape for attaching to the cupcake.

Next up take a small round ball of white and attach it to the top of the pink tube and flattened it against the pink which you can see from the picture below makes the head a little bigger than the body. I then took black fondant and shaped a triangle shape and attached it to the white fondant and shape it to be more beaklike. I then took a toothpick and dipped it into a little bit of black food colouring for the eye. Just make sure you don’t have too much colour on the toothpick or it will spread and look awful.

Once you have go your flamingos the way you like them you need to add a toothpick so you can easily insert into the cupcakes.

NEXT UP – THE CUPCAKES

You can make things easy on yourself and make your cupcakes before you need them and freeze them. I didn’t do that this time as I knew I had some spare time to cook them just before I needed them. But I have done so a lot in the past. Because there was only going to be 8 people for this party and I was making four different varieties I halved my normal recipes. So that you can make one variety if you choose I have included the full recipes for both cakes and buttercream for you.

VANILLA CUPCAKES WITH STRAWBERRY FILLING AND STRAWBERRY WHIPPED CREAM

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

VANILLA CUPCAKES

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Servings: 15 Cupcakes

Equipment

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

• 300 grams plain flour
• 2.5 tsp baking powder
• 200 grams caster sugar
• 125 ml water
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 3 egg whites
• 275 ml pure cream

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 180°C.
• Combine flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a bowl and whisk well.
• Mix water and vanilla in a jug and set aside.
• Whisk the egg whites with the stand mixer until soft peaks form.
• In a separate bowl whisk the cream until fluffy,.
• With a large spoon or spatula gently fold the egg whites into the cream until fully combined. Pour in the water and vanilla and stir lightly until just combined. Add the dry ingredients a little at a time, folding gently but thoroughly between each addition.
• Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases until half full.
• Bake for about 20 minutes but start checking at 15 minutes as each oven differs. The cupcakes are ready when a skewer inserted comes out clean.

I used a homemade strawberry filling but you could also use strawberry jam if you wanted to make it easier on yourself. When I make my own I like that it doesn’t end up too sweet,

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Strawberry Cream

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Equipment

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

• 1 cup cream
• 1/4 cup icing sugar
• 2 tbsp Strawberry jelly powder

Instructions

• Place all ingredients into the bowl for your stand mixer and mix until stiff peaks form. This will take around 5 minutes

To decorate I used a Wilton 2D tip and just did little stars on top to give the look of feathers. I then added the flamingo wings and head pieces I made and I absolutely love how cute they look.

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH OREO BUTTERCREAM

I used my trusty chocolate cake recipe again but replaced the fudge icing with Oreo Buttercream. These cupcakes were filled with Nutella that had been thinned with some pure cream.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Oreo Buttercream

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Servings: 12 cupcakes

Equipment

• Stand mixer
• Food Processor or Blender

Ingredients

• 1 pkt Oreos
• 225 grams butter (room temperature)
• 350 grams icing sugar
• 1 teasp vanilla
• 2 tbs pure cream

Instructions

• Blend the Oreos until they are very fine.
• In your stand mixer cream butter the add the sugar 1/2 cup at a time until well mixed.
• Add vanilla and cream and mix well ensuring the mixture is very smooth.
• Add the Oreos and mix well.
• If you intend to pipe the mixture make sure it's not too thick. If it is just add extra cream a little at a time until the desired consistency is reached.
• If you are going to pipe the buttercream you will need to use a large tip as the Oreos can clog a smaller one.

COCONUT CUPCAKE WITH LEMON FILLING AND CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Next up was the delicious coconut cupcakes filled with lemon butter and iced with cream cheese frosting. I then topped the finished cupcakes with a Raffaello. These cupcakes are light and not too sweet.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Coconut Cupcakes

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Equipment

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

• 125 grams plain flour
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 30 grams desiccated coconut
• 115 grams butter (room temperature)
• 150 grams caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup coconut milk or full cream milk

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 175°C
• With your stand mixer cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy (about 5 minutes).
• Add the eggs beating well between each addition. Add vanilla and beat again.
• Add the flour in four batches alternating with the addition of the milk. Beat well between each addition.
• Fill cupcake cases to half way and bake for 15-20 minutes. Checking after 15 minutes to see if a skewer comes out clean.
• Cool on a wire rack.

Fill your cupcakes with lemon curd. We used to have a wonderful neighbour who regularly made us lemon curd. Sadly she has moved away so now I have to buy it. I then topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting (my favourite) and a Raffaello.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time0 minutes mins

Equipment

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

• 225 grams cream cheese at room temperature
• 2 cups pure cream
• 125 grams icing sugar `
• lemon zest to taste

Instructions

• Beat the cream cheese on high speed for 3 minutes until smooth.
• Add cream and beat on medium speed until mixed well. Add in lemon zest if using.
• Add the icing sugar and beat until peaks form and mixture is thick enough to pipe.

CARAMEL MUDCAKE CUPCAKES WITH CARAMEL FILLING AND TOPPED WITH CARAMEL BUTTERCREAM

I have been making this cake for years and it was a request for this party. Its easy and doesn’t require any special equipment. The caramel buttercream is delicious and I topped the cupcakes with the love hearts I made from the 6 minute caramel recipe from Emily at Handmade Farmhouse.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Caramel Mudcake Cupcakes

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time5 minutes mins

Ingredients

• 200 grams butter chopped
• 200 grams white chocolate
• 200 grams brown sugar
• 180 ml hot water
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs at room temperature
• 150 grams plain flour
• 150 grams self raising flour

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 170°C.
• Place butter, chocolate, sugar, water, syrup and vanilla in a saucepan. Stir over medium heat with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes until chocolate melts. Set aside to cool.
• Add eggs one at a time mixing well between each addition.
• Whisk flours together and add to chocolate mixture and stir well.
• Fill cupcake cases to half way and bake for 20 minutes. Check with a skewer to see if it comes out clean. If not cook for a further 5 minutes.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Equipment

• Stand mixer

Ingredients

• 225 grams butter (room temperature)
• 115 grams cream cheese (room temperature)
• 1/2 cup Bonne Maman Caramel Spread
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 485 grams icing sugar

Instructions

• Beat butter and cream cheese on high until creamy. Scrape down sides as necessary.
• Add caramel and vanilla and beat until light and fluffy.
• Gradually add in icing sugar beating on low speed until well combined. Once all icing sugar has been added beat on high for 2 minutes.

Thats all the recipes I used for the cupcake tower. Hope you give them a try at some stage. All recipes can be made in to full sized cakes with ease, you will just have to adjust the timing of the bake.

If you’re looking for something different for a special occasion cake take a look at my tropical birthday cake.