A Glint of Gold | Beauty, Fashion, Life: Valentine's Cupcakes

Hello my lovelies!

Seeing as my first baking post did so well I thought that I would try my hand at making Valentine's cupcakes! If you're interested in making Valentine's cookies just click here

Ingredients

6 Cupcakes:

2 eggs (room temp) , 4 oz margarine, 1 tsp baking powder, 4 oz self
raising flour and 4 oz granulated sugar

Icing:

4 oz Icing sugar, 2 oz softened margarine, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Method

To make heart shaped Cupcakes I made cake moulds, I did this using tin foil and a heart shaped cookie cutter. You need to put the cutter in the middle of the foil and shape the foil around it, like so:

Next you need to put a cupcake case inside the foil mould and then place them inside a round cake tin with the pointed ends in the middle. (this is so when baking the pressure of the rising cakes will not cause the mould to misshape)

Preheat your oven to: 180°C electric
160°C fan
Gas mark 4

Now it's time for making the cupcake mixture. Weigh out all of the ingredients (listed above) and then put them into a bowl. Mix thoroughly until the mixture is smooth. Now you need to carefully spoon it into the cupcake cases, using approximately a generous tablespoon of mixture.

Place the tin in the centre of the oven and bake for approx. 18 minutes, until the cakes have risen and are golden brown. To test if the cakes are baked pierce with a skewer and if it comes out clean i.e.. with no cake mixture on it, the cakes are cooked. Take the cupcakes out of the oven and leave them to cool.

Freshly baked cupcake!

After taking out the cupcakes and leaving them to cool, make the icing. As butter icing has only 3 ingredients, this bit's easy! Sieve the icing sugar into a bowl and add the margarine and vanilla extract. Beat the ingredients together until light and fluffy.

Cooled and ready to decorate!

Now, it's time for the icing. Put your butter icing into a piping bag and squeeze!

From here you can decorate however you please. But if you're looking for some inspiration, here are mine, along with the toppings I used:

Caramel Curls and Heart sweets (Morrisons)

Fresh Strawberries and Chocolate Sprinkles

Chocolate hearts and Chocolate (Lidl)

For this last design I used melted chocolate to draw with. To do this you need to melt chocolate in a microwavable food bag placed in hot water. Keep the bag in the hot water until you can feel no lumps. Dry the outside of the bag off and cut a small hole in the corner of the bag with scissors.