Fancy a cupcake challenge? Try making these impressive Three Little Pig cupcakes, made by our very own cupcake queen, Victoria Threader. They’ll huff and they’ll puff and they’ll blow your party away
Ingredients
- For the sponge:
- 75g caster sugar
- 75g butter
- 70g self-raising flour
- 5g cornflour
- 2 medium eggs
- 15ml milk
- 1tsp vanilla extract
- For the buttercream:
- 55g butter
- 250g icing sugar
- 1/2tsp vanilla extract
- 30ml milk
- For the Three Little Pig toppers:
- 440g white ready to roll fondant
- Food colouring: red, navy, yellow, black and tangerine
- White nonpariels (small sugar balls) or spinkles
- Rose petal dust
- Equipment:
- 78mm, 35mm, 10mm, 6mm circle cookie cutters
- 50mm oval cutter
- Soft brush
- Bow mould (optional)
- Smile tool (optional)
Method
For the cakes:
- Preheat your oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line your baking tray with 6 cases.
- Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
- 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 mixed.
- Fill your cases to 2 thirds full. Bake in the oven for 15-18 mins, remove and cool in the tray for 10 minute before cooling on a wire rack
- Make the buttercream by adding all the ingredients together and beating for 5 mins on a medium speed.
- When your cupcakes are cool smooth a little buttercream over the tops of the cakes.
For the Three Little Pig toppers:
- Colour 400g fondant with a little tangerine food colour, when you have the desired colour, roll and cut 6x 78mm circles. Pop them onto the iced cupcakes and smooth with your fingers.
- Cut 6 noses from remaining fondant using the 35mm cutter, then make the nostrils by cutting 2 circles out of each one using the 6mm circle cutter.
- Colour 5g of fondant pink with a tiny amount of the red colour. Roll 12 small pink balls and pop them in the holes you made for the nostrils. Stick the noses onto the cakes with a brush of water.
- Using the edge of the 78mm cutter, press into the fondant under the noses to make a smile. You can then use a smile tool, if you have one, at the corners of the mouth to make them look chubby.
- Using the last of the pale pink fondant, cut 12 ears using the 50mm oval cutter and stick them into place with a brush of water, curling them at the end up as you stick.
- To make the eyes, colour 10g of fondant black and 10g white. Use the 10mm circle cutter to cut the whites of the eyes and the 6mm circle cutter to cut black circles. Stick a white nonpariel or sprinkle in each black circle. Stick the black to the white with a brush of water and stick onto the cake.
- Colour 5g fondant navy, 5g red and 5g yellow to make bowties with a mould, if you have one. Stick them onto the chins of the pigs.
- Brush the cheeks with a little rose petal dust, using the soft brush.
Top tip for making Three Little Pigs cupcakes
If you want to save time you can buy the edible bows and eyes online.
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Chocolate cupcake recipe
Vanilla cupcakes recipe
