Star Cupcakes to celebrate a new baby

By lovinghomemade on November 2, 2012 • ( 4 )

Cupcakes to celebrate a new baby

A friend of mine has recently had a beautiful new baby boy, Bailey.

So to celebrate we thought we would take him a little gift and some cupcakes for the rest of the family – it’s very important to keep your strength up as a new mum!

These are vanilla sponge decorated with white sugarpaste and baby blue and white sugarpaste stars.

I used a basic Victoria sponge recipe for the cupcakes. The following recipe will make around 12 large cupcakes:

Ingredients

175g butter

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

175g SR flour

Method

Set the oven to 175°C. Line a muffin or cupcake tin with cupcake cases. You may need two trays if your cases are quite small. I used silver ones but white or blue would be great too.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until well incorporated. Add the vanilla essence.

Sieve in the flour and fold in gently.

Spoon the mix into the cupcake cases and bake for around 20 minutes or until golden brown and springy to the touch.

Leave to cool for a few minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Decorating

You will need:

white sugarpaste, blue sugarpaste (or blue gel food colouring, not liquid), a small amount of buttercream or seedless jam (preferably apricot) to stick the sugarpaste to the cake;

a rolling pin, a round cutter, star cutters of various sizes and a small paintbrush for dipping in water to stick the stars on.

If your cupcakes are uneven, slightly different sizes or just if you prefer them flat you can slice the top off to level them using a bread knife.

Start by kneading the white sugarpaste well and then rolling out to a thickness of around 5mm. Cut out circles for the top of the cupcakes using a circular cutter slightly larger than the top of the cupcake. You can cut out any stars for decorations at this point also.

Spread a very small amount of buttercream or jam onto the top of the cupcake and carefully place the sugarpaste round on top. Smooth it down carefully to meet the edges.

Knead and roll out the blue sugarpaste (colouring the white if necessary first). Again cut out star decorations.

To fix the stars on to the top of the white sugarpaste you will need a little water; it is easiest to use a small paintbrush. Carefully transfer the stars and gently press them down to make sure they stick.

We hope Bailey approves!