I thought I would share with you some of the gorgeous chocolate cupcakes that Helen and I have made . Some of the icing flower work is intricate and detailed, but some is very easy and can be made with flower cutters and moulds. If you live in South Africa, a great source for cake decorating equipment is Lollodoo in Cape Town, and they will deliver around the country. They stock the latest trends in cake decoarting, stock moulds, cookie cutters, designed acrylic rolling pins, patchwork cutters, and cake pop moulds.
Have a look at this great tutorial by Peggy Weaver on how to make and roll fondant icing, Marshmallow Fondant Icing recipe and Tutorial . You can always buy the fondant ready made but it doesn’t taste as nice as the marshmallow fondant. For making small flowers, the store bought version is perfect.
And if you are feeling adventurous try out the beautiful Unwired Anemone Tutorial by Tasha’s Tasty Treats. But be warned, you will need a lot of time and patience to master these babies.
Helen has perfected the beautiful cameo’s below , which are made from a mold which I bought in Paris. What a find, in an amazing cake decorating shop situated in the industrial food catering area of Paris. Unfortunately I never took the name of the shop and will probably never find it again.
Pressed design moulds or rollers can be used for the damask and filigree work on the fondant.
The little flower cupcakes below are super easy to make using blossom sugar art cutters. All you need is a little time to make hundreds of them. The more you add to the cupcake the better. Happy decorating !!!!
- 90g Dark chocolate
- 2 teaspoons cocoa powder
- ¾ cup water
- 125g butter
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ½ cup plain all purpose flour
- ½ cup self raising flour
- ½ teaspoon bicaronate of soda
- Preheat oven to 160ºC.
- Line silicone cupcake moulds with paper cupcake cases.
- Combine broken chocolate, cocoa powder and water in a saucepan and heat of low heat until the chocolate has melted and is smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl and allow to cool for 15minutes.
- To this mixture add the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla essence, sour cream and sifted dry ingredients and beat on low speed with an electric mixer until combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for 3 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and lighter in color.
- Pour 80ml (1/3cup) into each cupcake case. This will make 12 cupcakes.
- Bake for 30 minutes
- 125g softened butter
- 1½ cups (240g) icing sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- Beat the butter in a small bowl with an electric mixer until the butter goes as white as possible.
- Beat in half the sifted icing sugar, then the milk and then the remaining sifted icing sugar.
- Beat until smooth and spreadable.
- If you are making chocolate buttercream sift ⅓ cup (35g) cocoa powder in with the icing sugar before mixing into the butter.
