Cupcake Bouquets.......

If you have a search on Google - you'll find loads of stunning examples of cupcake bouquets. I'd never heard or seen such a thing until I bought the Marks and Spencer's Cupcakes book last week.

As soon as I saw it, I was DESPERATE to give it a go. Theirs used an uniced recipe with pieces of candied peel on top to make the cupcakes look like flowers.... but I decided I was going to ice mine and make sugarpaste flowers to go on top.The book said you needed a 6" / 150mm dia polystyrene ball and that it required 24 mini cupcakes to cover it.

I couldn't get big enough polystyrene balls - so I went to the florists suppliers and bought a 6" / 150mm and an 8" / 200mm oasis ball. I figured the smaller ball would be good for a first attempt and I'd have a go with the larger ball at a later date. At the same time, I also bought a vase that would suit either of the two balls.

I've never used sugarpaste for anything before - so it was quite a new experience. I bought it white and pre-made, but coloured batches of it myself so I could use several colours.

I printed a template for cards off from an online site, cut it out of paper and stuck it on to some cardboard. I used that on top of the sugarpaste to make sure all my flowers were the same size. This was a time consuming process for a total novice and after doing the amount I required plus a few spares, I was glad to get on to making the cupcakes.

I chose to make little carrot cakes with cream cheese frosting. I've posted the recipe before - it works very well for muffins or for cupcakes. One batch of mix makes 12 muffins - or 48 minis plus 3 standard size. Given I didn't need that lot - I took all the extras into work on Saturday whilst they were still slightly warm. Our 24 cell silicone mini muffin / cupcake moulds are ideal for this - though I use mini muffin paper cases in them for hygiene when handling - especially with iced cakes.

In the evening, I iced the remaining cupcakes and put the little flowers on the top. Whilst the cream cheese frosting was hardening off in the fridge, I decided to prepare the ball with the toothpicks required to hold the cakes on.

First, I wrapped it in loads of clingfilm as oasis has a tendancy to crumble - and I didnt want it getting in the cakes ! I then used empty cupcake liners to pin on the mould to check the layout.

It was soon VERY obvious that there was some kind of error in the book. No way were 24 mini cupcakes going to go anywhere close to covering the ball ! Instead, it took 46 !!!!!

That delayed my project completion until today, as I had to make another batch of mini cupcakes. As I had no carrots left, I decided I'd use the Martha Swift one bowl chocolate cake recipe. Oliver (my toddler) had decided he'd help me in the kitchen whilst I was making this and decided to change the washing machine settings to put the delicates on to boil wash !

By the time I'd calmed things down and sorted the washing - I remembered I'd forgotten to put the sugar in the mix just as I was putting the cupcakes in the oven. ARRRRRGGHHHHH

Cupcake batch 3 became banana - as there were no carrots left and not enough cocoa :rolls eyes:

Anyway - eventually, I got all the cupcakes baked and iced. It became immediately obvious that one toothpick is not enough to hold these properly in position - so I had to double up on the bottom 3 rows of cupcakes.

Overall - I was highly delighted with the end result and will definately be making these again :-) However, not before buying a flower shaped sugar paste cutter !!