The world waited with bated breath for the arrival of Princess Charlotte in early May, and if you or someone you know are eagerly awaiting a new baby too, try making these gorgeous cupcakes to celebrate. By Sophie Turhnam from Sophie Victoria Cupcakes shows us how.... As soon as I heard that the Royal baby had been born, I knew that my next blog had to be on baby shower cupcakes. (And it also got me thinking about if anyone made Kate any cupcakes and if she even had a baby shower?!). Anyway, follow these quick and easy steps to create cute baby shower cupcake toppers fit for a princess! For the Vanilla Cupcakes (makes 12): 110g butter, softened 110g caster sugar 110g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder ¼ tsp salt 1tsp vanilla extract 2 eggs For the Vanilla Frosting: 280g icing sugar 140g butter, softened 1 – 2 tbsp whole milk For the decorations: Sugarpaste Paprika food colouring gel for the face and pink (or blue) colouring gel for the blanket and heart. Small heart cutter Square Cutter (smooth or scalloped) Stitching tool Edible black pen Rolling pin Step 1: For the Cupcakes:
- Whisk together the; butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until smooth. Then add the eggs, vanilla extract and mix until smooth again. Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake cases.
- Spoon the mixture into the paper cases about 2/3 full. Bake for 20 mins until well risen and springy to touch, then put on a wire rack to cool.
Step 2: For the Vanilla Frosting:
- Sift the icing sugar and beat together with the pink gel colouring, butter and milk until smooth.
- Spoon your icing into the piping bag and pipe swirls on top of the cupcakes
Step 3: For the Cupcake Toppers:
- For the faces - dye some sugarpaste using the paprika food colouring gel *TOP TIP: A little goes a long way so just dip the tip of a cocktail stick in, this should be enough.* Roll12 small balls for the faces and 12 very small balls for the noses. Using a very small amount of water, stick the noses onto the faces and using a black edible pen draw on the eyes. Put to one side.
- Next for the blankets – dye some sugarpaste pink (or any other colour you fancy). Roll out onto a surface slightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out 12 squares (aprox 1.5 inches). Using the stitching tool go around the outline of the square to create a fabric effect.
- To create the dummy’s - Take some of the pink sugarpaste and roll 2 small balls with your fingers (1 slightly bigger than the other). Flatten them slightly with your fingers and put the smaller one on top of the bigger one. Using a small amount of water stick this onto the face.
- Add some more pink dye to your pink sugarpaste to get a darker colour, roll out onto a surface slightly dusted with icing sugar and cut out 12 small hearts.
Step 4: To assemble the Cupcake toppers:
- Take the square blanket and flip it over so the stitching is face down. Using a small bit of water wet the inside of the blanket (down the middle). Then place the face and a bit of spare sugarpaste for the body onto the blanket. Fold the bottom of the blanket up and then the left side followed by the right side. Using water attach the pink heart where the blanket joins.
