Bake me I'm Yours... Cupcake Love. Zoe Clark

no. 0

      1 Boil the apricot masking jam and brush a thin layer on to the cupcakes. Chill

      the cupcakes in the refrigerator until they are firm.

      2 Dip the cupcakes in the prepared different-coloured fondant icings.

      3 Roll out the white sugarpaste fairly thinly and cut out the large blossom

      shape, sticking it on to the centre of the cupcake with a tiny amount of edible

      glue. Very lightly press the embosser into the sugarpaste to make the basic

      outline of the rose.

      4 Dilute some of the pink and claret paste colours with some water and

      start to paint the rose. Water down some green food colour and apply it in

      the same way to paint in the leaves. You will need to paint in extra leaves

      without an outline as a guide around the top of the rose.

      5 Finish the cupcake by piping little dots around the blossom with white royal icing using a piping (pastry) bag with a no. 0 tube (tip).

      By using different

      paste strengths or

      colours you can

      make the rose look

      more realistic

      back to basics fondant icing … royal icing … sugarpaste …

      cameo flowers

      Cameos are becoming really fashionable again and it’s easy to replicate these

       gorgeous little art pieces in sugar using a sugarcraft mould.

       you will need

       cupcakes baked in black paper cases

       flower paste: cream, black, grey

       grey royal icing

       silver edible lustre dust

       clear alcohol

       vanilla buttercream

       cameo flower mould (FI)

       white fat (shortening)

       wax paper

       small circle cutter

       edible glue

       small piping (pastry) bag and tube (tip) no. 1

       large piping (pastry) bag and large star tube (tip)

      1 Lightly grease the cameo flower mould with white fat (shortening) and

       press a small amount of cream flower paste into the flower part of the mould

       only. You may need to roll up several small pieces of flower paste to do this.

      2 Fill the rest of the mould with black flower paste. Use a sharp knife to cut

       away any excess paste so that the inner indented area is flat. Turn the mould

       out on to some wax paper.

      3 Thinly roll out some grey flower paste and cut out ten small circles. Place

       the circles around the oval cameo, tucking half of the circle underneath. Stick

       the circles in place, one at a time, using some edible glue.

      4 Using the grey royal icing and tube (tip) no. 1, pipe one dot in between each circle and three dots against the cameo on each circle. Pipe an additional two outer dots on each circle. Leave to dry completely for a few hours or overnight.

      5 Carefully paint the dots with silver lustre dust, using only a small amount of

       clear alcohol – if you make the royal icing too wet, it will start to dissolve.

      6 Snip the end off the large piping (pastry) bag and place the star tube (tip)

       inside. Fill with the buttercream and, holding each cupcake in one hand in turn,

       pipe a swirl.

      7 Place the cameos on the buttercream swirls. Make small black bows and place beneath the cameos on the cupcakes.

      back to basics flower paste … moulds … royal icing … buttercream … bows …

      pretty pearls

      Adorn your cupcakes with pretty pearls for a vintage look. These daintily decorated