Gingerbread Cupcakes

With the end of Spring term fast approaching, and the Easter holidays looming, I thought I’d make Archie’s preschool team a few cupcakes in thanks for their hard work. The summer term will probably be his last there, and he’ll be in a new setting from September, but that’s all for another post!

He is only in preschool on Tuesday & Thursday afternoons and as mid-week will see me busy with his birthday cake, I thought cakes for Tuesday would be easier! So this morning I made some “Gingerbread Cupcakes” topped with vanilla buttercream and the Raspberry/Teal combo decs (I had icing left over from a previous cake, so made sense to use that up).

Gingerbread Cupcake Recipe: (Makes 12)

• 1/2 Cup Self Raising Flour
• 1/2 Cup Plain Flour
• 1/4 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 90g Butter, softened
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 2 tbsp Golden Syrup

1. Pre heat oven to 170 degrees C & line cupcake tin
2. Sift flours, bicarb, ginger, cinnamon & nutmeg into a large bowl
3. Add remaining ingredients
4. Beat until combined & lighter in colour (should take a couple of mins)
5. Divide into cake cases
6. Recipe says to bake for 30 mins, but mine were ready after 20-22 mins. So just check after 20 mins and keep and eye on them

I made my buttercream with 220g icing sugar & 100g softened unsalted butter & 1 tsp of vanilla extract. I have learnt the hard way that using a hand-held electric mixer results in the kitchen (& me!) being covered in icing sugar dust, so I now beat it all in the food processor with the lid on! If it feels a little too thick, I just add a couple tbsp of boiling water, and mix, and that usually thins it just the right amount.

I had some pretty pink gingham cupcakes cases and some turquoise with white polka dots. For the decorations I used a mixture of flowers, butterflies and also used my new embossing mat to detail discs to sit on top of some of the cakes – you can just make out a paisley texture to some of them on the photo.

Easter Cupcakes for Preschool

 

An exciting arrival in the post this morning – some business cards!! Not that this is a proper business yet, but I wanted to be able to give people, that might want me to make a cake for them, the opportunity to see some previously made. So I’ve got photos on Flickr and printed my details and the Flickr link onto the cards, and so when I do get a bit more business like, I’m all up and ready!! I also got a little notepad printed, so I can pop in a message to the recipient, with the cake! Although whether I’ll actually have the nerve to give anyone a business card, is another thing!!

Contact Cards & Notepad!