Party cupcakes recipe

Complete your party cupcakes with hand-made toppers with this easy cupcake recipe. You can put any message on the toppers so you can personalise them with a special message for loved ones – perfect for celebrations or as food gifts. The trick for perfecting these cupcakes is to make sure the buttercream is extra smooth so the flower paste topper and handmade fondant champagne glasses can sit evenly on top without warping.

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 140g self-raising flour
• 10g cornflour
• 3 medium eggs
• 30ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

• 110g butter, room temperature
• 500g icing sugar
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 60ml milk

For the toppers:

• 500g white fondant
• 75g flower paste
• Pink food colour
• Silver sugar balls
• Letter embossers
• Gold and silver lustre dust for painting
• White alcohol for painting
• Edible glue
• 68mm cookie cutters
• Plain piping nozzle

Method

1. For the cupcakes:
   1. Preheat your oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line the baking tray with 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 12 cases and bake for 25-30 mins. Remove and cool in the tins for 10 mins before moving to a wire cooling rack.
   For the buttercream:
   1. Add butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 mins with an electric whisk until smooth.
   2. Pour the milk gradually if you need to loosen the mixture.
   For the toppers:
   1. Mould the flower paste into 24 champagne glasses with your hands and leave to dry slightly while you are making the toppers.
   2. Colour the white fondant pink, roll and cut 12 scalloped circles and place on greaseproof paper.
   3. Using the plain piping nozzle, cut a small hole in the centre of each scallop and stick silver sugar ball in each hole with the edible glue.
   4. Using the letter embossers, emboss ‘Let’s Party!’ around the bottom edge using the silver balls as a guide.
   5. When the champagne glasses are dry, you can brush the tops and the bottoms with the silver lustre and leave the middle for the gold. Mixing the gold lustre with a touch of white alcohol (you could use gin), paint the middle part of the glasses gold.
   6. When all the glasses are painted, stick two to the fondant with your edible glue and stick the tiny gold balls on top to make bubbles.
   7. When the cakes are cool, spread or pipe the buttercream on the tops of the cakes and place a topper on each.

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