Wedding Cupcakes

When my friend Tanya asked if I could make some cupcakes for a low-key wedding the following weekend that she was both a guest at and in charge of the planning for, my first response was panic!

Although I’m not a professional cake maker or decorator I love making cakes for friends and family. Each one I do I learn something from. Each  time I am generally pleased with what I have made because I have (usually!) improved on the time before. But when I look back at them on my blog I can see that while they are an achievement for me, they are not necessarily as good as I think they are! And when I look back at them I always see ways that I could have improved them.

So cupcakes for a wedding is a big deal. Brides have certain expectations for their weddings. Guests have certain expectations at weddings. Expectations that are very different from those of an 8 year old at their friend’s party!

Tanya managed to persuade me because she knew exactly what she wanted: caramel filled vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing. And she had already got the sprinkles. So the pressure was off, I didn’t need to design anything. Then I remembered that they still needed to taste and look great. Oops!

I love Victoria sponge based cupcakes and I always revert to my traditional recipe. Then I wondered if they would be too plain for a wedding so maybe I should try a more American style cupcake… Panic again! I tested the Hummingbird Bakery chocolate cupcake recipe on the basis that they are wildly popular and therefore should be a winner. But I just couldn’t do it. For me my usual recipe wins every time.

So I made vanilla cupcakes in silver cases and chocolate ones in gold cases. I found caramel sauce for the filling, made some vanilla icing and got out my trusty cupcake plunger.

Vanilla cupcakes ready for filling and decorating

There is something very satisfying about using a cupcake plunger. And it’s not just because you can eat the spare bits of cake…

Plunged…

And filled!

I used some of the cake I had removed to cover over the filling, iced them and sprinkled them. I didn’t remove a lot of cake as the caramel sauce is very sweet and rich. I still managed to get an extremely generous teaspoonful in each one. Don’t underestimate the amount of icing required: I had to make up another batch despite having made more than I thought I would need.

I particularly like the way the pearl sugar balls look on these cupcakes: very bridal. Vanilla icing on chocolate cupcakes looks great too.

Chocolate cupcake with vanilla icing

and of course the innocent-looking exterior hides a rich caramel filling:

Caramel filling

So thank you so much to Tanya for asking me (and trusting me!) to make the cupcakes, and congratulations to the bride and groom! Cheers!

Categories: Baking, Cakes, Cupcakes, Desserts, Recipes

Tags: baking, cake, caramel sauce, chocolate, cupcakes, dessert, filled cupcakes, frosting, hummingbird bakery, icing, recipe, sprinkles, vanilla, wedding, wedding cupcakes