Cupcakes & Coffee
Go straight to Cupcake decorating ideas
Have you ever baked cupcakes? Well, I actually know a lot of people who start
acquiring baking skills with cupcake recipes. My daughter is one of them and she baked her first cupcakes at
the age of 5. She bakes them for almost every festive occasion but her favorite part will always be
the cupcake decorating stage. She can decorate 20-30 in one go :) and
goodness me they always look fantastic. She has such a vivid imagination and
using different colours, sweets, sprinkles, chocolate curls, sugar flowers
conjure the most creative and beautiful cupcakes only a child can come up
with.
But cupcakes must taste yummy too. To be perfectly honest, it is not difficult to find a cupcake recipe for a good cupcake base. Books, internet, TV shows are
bombarding us left-right and center with great cupcake recipes. My advice is - you can use any cake recipe for baking yummy cupcake base too, only baking time needs to be
adjusted accordingly. My number one cupcake recipe is the basic Victoria sponge cake recipe. It is a simple recipe and cupcakes taste fantastic.
Before you start with baking and decorating make sure that you have the right baking and decorating equipment:
What will you need for baking cupcakes:
- Cupcake tins: a specialized tins (pans) made for baking cupcakes, similar to muffin tins. They are made from metal with a non-stick coat and generally have 6 to 12 cups. They
can also be made from silicon.
- Cupcake liners or individual cups: round sheets of thin paper pressed into a round shape. They are great for easy removal of the cupcake from the tin, keep them moist and prevent sticking and crumbling.
What will you need for cupcake decoration (some basic decorating equipments):
- Edible food colors: they are available in several forms. Liquids are best for pastel shades; pastes for stronger, deeper shades; dusting powders can be brushed on to give subtle effects; colored pens can be used for writing or drawing on small areas.
- Cutters: there are hundreds of shapes available so you can stamp out almost any design.
Prevent overwhelming yourself by buying all shapes possible - buy only
what you need.
- Piping bags: you can use small washable bags made from cotton or plastic, or
indeed disposable piping bags. They are available in different sizes. For butter icing use a large washable piping bag, but for fine work use a
homemade small paper piping bag. Good quality greaseproof or parchment paper should be used.
- Piping nozzles: there are hundreds of small nozzle shapes from fine writing to butter icing shells. First buy small selections of the basic types and later gradually add more shapes.
- Rolling pins: for small shapes and flowers you will need a very small plastic or steel rolling pin.
- Scalpel: for cutting paper designs or fine edges.
- Modelling tools: a dog bone tool used to cut out a perfect shape from sugar paste.
- Scissors: you will need them for different tasks.
- Sticks: cocktail sticks or small wooden sticks can be useful for shaping, frilling edges
and so on.
- Sugar paste and icing: sugar paste, flower paste, modeling paste, royal icing and many more types are available mixed or in a ready-mix powder form. They give the right icing consistency. Most are white, but some are available in different colors.
- Different sugar and chocolate decorating bits: sugar balls, chocolate or caramel curls, chocolate stars and sprinkles are just a few of the large range you get from every supermarket.
There is
no need to buy all this in one go. Buy what you need for
a single project and gradually add more items.
Here are some Birthday cupcake decorating ideas which (I hope) will inspire you:
Useful tips
- Any cupcakes with added fruit or chocolate could stick to the cupcake tin, so use cupcake liners.
- Never use fridge-cooled eggs, always warm them before baking. The best way to do that is to leave them outside a fridge during the night.
- All dry ingredients in the cupcake recipes should be sifted to prevent dry lumps.
- The cupcake is baked when it springs back if you touch it with the tip of your finger. You can
also check this by inserting a toothpick in the center of a cupcake and leave it there for a second. If
it comes out clean than cupcake is baked. If there is any wet batter on it,
put the cupcakes back in the oven and continue baking.
- What to do if you run out of or don't have any cupcake decorating ideas?
Children books and magazines can help and give you many cupcake decorating ideas. Keep your design simple and don't forget that at the end cupcakes must
be and look edible (practise is an essential ingredient for success).
Good to know
- Vanilla cupcake recipes and chocolate cupcake recipes are the most popular and yummy cupcake recipes among children.
- Most of baking books that I buy come from Amazon. Books are much cheaper than and they have a great choice of
books with cupcake recipes and baking books in general.
