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
VANILLA 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,
Strawberry Filling
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 1.5 tbsp corn flour
- 1 1/4 cups frozen strawberries
- 1/4 cup caster sugar
- 1 tbsp stawberry jam
Instructions
- Whisk water and cornflour in a small saucepan.
- Stir in strawberries, sugar and jam
- Cook over medium heat until strawberries are soft and mixture is thick.
- As I was using this mix in cupcakes I used a potato masher to ensure that the strawberry pieces were small.
- Put mix aside to cool slightly before filling cupcakes.
Strawberry Cream
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.
Easy Chocolate Cake with Old Fashioned Fudge Sauce
Equipment
- Stand Mixer or Hand Mixer
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup self raising flour
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 3 tbsp cocoa
- 90 grams butter
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Fudge Sauce
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp cocoa
- 2 tbsp cornflour blended with 1 tbsp cold water to form a liquid
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 170°C (fan forced);
- Grease and line your 20cm round cake tin;
- Combine all ingredients in your mixer and beat on high for 3 minutes;
- Pour in to your tin and bake for 35 minutes. Test your cake at the 30 minute mark as different ovens may cook faster;
- Cool cake and then pour over chocolate fudge sauce and let set.
Fudge Sauce
- Place sugar, water, butter and cocoa in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil while stirring to dissolve the sugar.
- Whisk in cornflour mix and whisk over medium/high heat until mixture comes to the boil and sauce thickens. You want the sauce to be thick but still pourable.
- Pour slowly over cake to required thickness.
Notes
- To make the cake extra moist you can poke holes in the top of the cake so the fudge is absorbed in to the centre of the cake. I usually use a chopstick for this;
- If you have leftover fudge sauce you can keep it in the fridge for three days. You can heat the sauce in the microwave for 20-30 seconds on high and then pour over ice cream, delicious!!!
- If you don’t have caster sugar you can substitute regular sugar in this recipe.
Oreo Buttercream
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.
Coconut Cupcakes
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.
Cream Cheese Frosting
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.
Caramel Mudcake Cupcakes
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.
Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream
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.
