The Pretty Cupcakes

bellaroberts522
May 27, 2017
3 min read

I love creating cupcakes like these, full of both flavour and colour. The buttercream swirls, pastel confetti and a scatter of freeze-dried raspberries all add to these little beauties.

I have made these cupcakes several times now. I created an Easter version which were decorated with those delicious mini eggs we all LOVE. I like to ensure these cupcakes aren't too busy in terms of decoration, but I think I've found my niche.

The beauty in baking cupcakes isn't just the edible decorations, it's also the range of cupcake cases which are available. Plain ones, spotty ones, patterned ones, anything you could wish for. I always feel that these add an extra wow to the cupcakes. I also love using inedible decorations such as striped straws and even those pretty little silver and gold candles. They look so pretty amongst the buttercream swirls.

I have several tips which will help guide you in creating your very own pretty cupcakes:

Whilst making the sponge mixture, I always ensure I cream the margarine and caster sugar together until it reaches the whitest of white. This honestly produces the fluffiest sponge you could ever imagine.
From years of experience of home baking, I have learnt that cleaning up as you go is the easiest way to go about baking. Trust me, you don't want to place your cupcakes in the oven and then turn around to a cake explosion in your kitchen. Weighing out your ingredients and then placing them away saves a lot of unwanted mess.
I always bake these cupcakes for 20 minutes and test them with my handy little cake tester (I couldn't live without it). If the cake tester or skewer comes out clean then you are ready to go! Most cupcakes will take between 20-25 minutes.
Once I have removed the cupcakes from the oven, I tend to leave them in their tray for around 5 minutes. This allows them to maintain their shape whilst still hot, otherwise they would just flop if you take them out of their tray straight away. They can then be placed on a wire, cooling rack.
Now onto the buttercream. ALWAYS take the butter out of the fridge waaaay in advance, at least 2 hours before you need it. This allows it to reach room temperature and become lovely and soft. This will create the creamiest of buttercream.
Whisk the softened butter for at least 10 minutes on maximum speed (preferably in a stand mixer or with an electric whisk). You need it to turn WHITE.
When it comes to the decorating of these cupcakes, I love using a mixture of colours. This is easily achievable by separating the buttercream into separate bowls and adding your desired colours. Colouring pastes are the best to use.
Even though I use up to 3 colours for these cupcakes, I always use the same piping bags. This creates an ombre effect. For instance, if you have piped all of your pink buttercream onto your cupcakes and then add the yellow buttercream into the same bag, it will look beautiful.
Finally, decorate your cupcakes with an array of sprinkles, go crazy (but not too crazy).

I absolutely love making these cupcakes, they will always put an instant smile on anybodies face, I promise you that. The results are endless. Why don't you play around with colours, piping nozzles and sprinkles.

Below are some photos of these pretty cupcakes in all their glory, even with the process of making.

P.S. please remember to add lots of edible glitter, it makes them SO much better, if that was even possible.

Have a pretty week..

Isabelle x