Birthdays Galore!

First up is the most recent cupcakes as a birthday gift for a friend of mine! The textured mats, Blossom mould and buttercream were used to decorate these ones.

Next... a pre-Christmas order of birthday cupcakes... mixed box of Red Velvet, Lemon Curd and Chocolate!

Having finally purchased a set of textured sheets over Christmas; 6 Floral patterns from Autumn Carpenter. I was really excited to text them out and finally got to for a couple of birthday orders in January & February! I wanted to go with a girly theme but keeping the colours pastel for a soft finish. As well as the textured mats, I also used the Blossom Sugar Art Hydrangea Cutter & Mould and PME Sunflower plunger cutter for some decorations. For some shimmer and shine I also used Mother of Pearl dust.

January and February are a birthday-filled time in my family! For a joint occasion, and as per a request, I did some experimenting with the cupcakes! Two flavours up this time were Caramel and Corona Lime. Using Carnation Caramel as an addition to the buttercream for the caramel cupcakes makes the buttercream quite loose so there's a balancing act to be done between the caramel and icing sugar! The corona lime cupcakes turned out well, and the flavour of the Corona baked in the sponge seemed strong enough, so I opted not to add it in a syrup to the baked cupcakes. There is definitely some work to be done for the frosting for these cupcakes. It uses a cream cheese base which will itself make a looser buttercream. With the addition of lime juice, this was not a buttercream stiff enough to hold a swirl pattern! The buttercream tastes cream and looks good without a star piping effect, but for transportation purposes especially some adapting should be done for a stiffer frosting!