Christmas bauble cupcakes recipe

goodtoknow’s cupcake queen Victoria Threader has made these amazing Christmas bauble cupcakes just for us. The toppers are easier to make than you may think, you just need a bit of patience and a steady hand to cut out the fondant shapes. You could food colour the fondant yourself meaning you’ll have more control over the different colour shades but if you want to save time, buy ready-coloured fondant which you can get in most supermarkets. Rainbow dust and edible gold paint add an extra Christmassy feel to these Christmas cupcakes too. Make sure you show your cakes off on a cupcake stand or large plate so your friends and family can admire them.

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g butter, room temperature
• 3 medium eggs, room temperature
• 150g sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 30ml milk, room temperature

For the buttercream:

• 100g unsalted butter
• 200g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp milk (to loosen if necessary)

For the toppers:

• 400g white ready to roll fondant
• Red, yellow and green food colour
• Rainbow dust edible gold paint

You will also need:

• Circle cookie cutters 68mm, 2cm
• Ribbon cutter
• 1cm star cutter
• Palette knife
• Water bush
• Toothpick

Method

1. For the cakes:
   
   1. To make this cupcake recipe, preheat your oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line the baking tray with 12 cases.
   2. Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
   3. Add 1 egg, 1 third of the flour and a splash of milk and beat until just combined and repeat until all the ingredients are combined.
   4. Divide the batter between the cases and bake for 20-25 mins. Remove and cool in the tins for 10 mins before moving to a wire cooling rack

   For the buttercream:
   

   1. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
   2. When the cakes are cool spread the buttercream onto the tops, making sure you don’t ice up to the papers or the icing will squish out the sides of the fondant.

   For the topper:
   

   1. Cut 100g of white fondant, roll into a sausage shape and cut into 3. Colour one red, one green and one yellow. Wrap in cling film (separately) and pop them to one side until you need them.
   2. Roll the remaining white fondant to 1/8inch thick and cut 12x 68mm circles, placing them over the buttercream and smoothing the edges with your fingers.
   3. Roll the red and green fondant to 2mm thick and, using the ribbon cutter, cut strips and stick them with a brush of water to the tops of the white fondant to create a pattern. Roll the yellow fondant to 2mm thick and use the star and circle cutter to cut shapes to stick between the ribbons. You can design your own patterns.
      
   4. Once you have designed your desired pattern, paint the yellow shapes with the gold edible paint with a small paint brush.
   5. To make the bauble caps. Roll 1/3 of the remaining yellow fondant into a sausage shape and cut 12 small discs. Score the edge of the disc with a toothpick and then pop 2 holes through the disc using the toothpick. Roll the leftover yellow fondant into a really thin sausage shape and cut loops for the top of the caps. Put a dot of water into the holes and poke the loops into the holes. You may need to let them dry before sticking them onto the edge of the cupcakes. If you have trouble keeping the loops straight, roll a strip of kitchen towel and place it behind the loops until they are dry. Once dry, stick onto the cupcakes with a brush of water.