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 favourite 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!
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14 responses
Thanks very much! Go for it! x
Great ideas for cupcakes, I’d like to re-blog this for Friendmas recipe ideas!
Great, I’m glad you’ve tried out the nutella topping, it’s so yummy!! 🙂 x
those look fantastic! Gets me in the mood for baking! I’ve also tried the Nutella toppping – it went down very well 🙂
Thanks very much! Haha those photos were taken by my photographer friend Laceyinplaces.wordpress.com 😀
Those cakes are so pretty & the photos look like something from Good Food magazine!!