Pieday Friday ~ Cupcake Heaven

It was hubby’s birthday a few of weekends ago (you may have read my blog post about this awesome Lego present I got for him!) and instead of baking him a birthday cake, I decided to make a whole load of cupcakes. This was for a couple of reasons: Firstly, he likes chocolate cake and I don’t, so I wanted to make some vanilla sponge for me and secondly, he was launching an art exhibition on his birthday and there would be loads of our friend, family and guests attending his exhibition. So instead of cutting up a cake, I made lots of little ones so that he could share his ‘birthday cake’ with everyone.

I made chocolate sponge cupcakes and then mixed up a whole pot of chocolate spread (you could use Chocolate Philadelphia or Nutella) with icing sugar and a little water to make a thick chocolate topping. I tried piping the mixture but the topping was too smooth to hold a shape, so I popped a blob on the top of each cake and used a fork to swirl it around into a traditional “cupcake shape”. A little grating of white chocolate and some chocolate sprinkles (from my favorite shop for cake decorating supplies MakeBake) was all I needed to make them look professional  I’m told they were very tasty, but my dislike of chocolate sponge (I know, weird) meant that I didn’t even taste one!

On the other hand, I happily scoffed away at my lovely sponge cakes, which I topped with a buttercream mixture – I mixed softened butter with lots of icing sugar to make it light and pale, then I added a couple of drops of vanilla extract for a gorgeous delicate fragrance and taste. Again, I used a fork to decorate the topping – this time I “spiked” the buttercream and sprinkled on pink sugar cupcake decorations. They looked super-girly for my manly husband’s exhibition, but I loved the taste and they went down very well with all our visitors!