Halloween Cupcakes

Let's be real for a minute. A cupcake by itself is a perfectly good thing, but when you slap a witches hat, pumpkin or itty-bitty ghost on top you know you're in for a good time!

As most of the population would be aware another Halloween has just passed on by and this year I was requested to make some special cupcakes for when the neighbourhood kids came by. Being the obliging person that I am I said yes and so I thought I would share with you a few very basic ways you can decorate your cupcakes, be it for the next Halloween or simply because you have free will and can do what ever you very well please, official calendar dates be damned!  

1. Terrifying Tombstones

 

Super easy and quick! Just crush up some chocolate biscuits in a food processor and dip in an iced cupcake. Grab some grey fondant or gumpaste (or I used black and then painted it with grey lustre dust) and shape it into a flat tombstone then use a toothpick or something similar to carve out an 'RIP'. Stick it into the crumbed icing and you're done! 

If you're feeling fancy you could also go a step further and make a fondant hand coming out of the ground...  Just a thought for the gruesome minded...

2. Ghoulish Ghosts

 

As adorable as they are, these little ghosties are actually really simple! Simply take one iced cupcake, stick an Eskimo Snowball on top (if you don't know what they are check them out here - basically they are a chocolate and coconut covered marshmallow which give the ghosts their shape!). Roll out some plain white fondant/gumpaste and cut a circle out for each cupcake. Drape it over top of the snowball and paint on some little eyes and a mouth with some black food colouring. Bada-bing bada-boom! Boo!

3. Party Time Pumpkins 

 

 

 Got some fondant or gumpaste and food colouring? Then your set! 

Simply roll your fondant into small balls and use the back of a knife, a toothpick or whatever other tools you can find to press some grooves around the sides of the balls and press gently into the top of the ball to make them less spherical and more 'pumpkin-like'. Let them dry and harden a little (if you have the time, I didn't and they still worked out fine!) and then use some orange food colouring diluted with a drop of water (I didn't have orange so mixed some yellow and red) to paint them the perfect shade of Halloween spirit! Take a small amount of brown fondant, roll it into a short snake with your fingers and stick it in the top to make a stem. That's it! Now just pop them on top of your iced cupcakes!

 

 

 

 

4. Boo! and also a bit of Ahhh! 

 

Want to express your terror in painted message form? Simply grab some white fondant/gumpaste, roll it flat and cut out a small circle for each cupcake. Pinch a 'corner' of the circle (yes I am aware circles don't have corners, don't get sassy with me!) to make it into more of a speechbubble shape and let it dry out. Then go in with some plain black food colouring and a paintbrush and write whatever scary message your heart desires! No message is to generic!  

 

5. Jack Skull-etons

 

 

See what I did there? Yeah you do!

I love Tim Burton films and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' is a classic! Thus we have the cupcake dedicated to Jack Skeleton, King of Halloween. 

Like a number of the others really, grab some white fondant or gumpaste, roll it flat and cut out circles bit enough to mostly cover the top of your iced cupcake. Let it dry out hard (otherwise it will sag when sitting on the moist icing! Be warned!) and then paint on a your Jack faces in a variety of expressions using black food colouring. Stick it on top of your iced cupcakes and there you have it, a hoard of adorable Jack Skull-etons! 

 

6. Wicked Witch's Hats 

Is there anything more 'Halloween-y' than a witch? Possibly, but this is neither the time nor place for such a debate. Instead just be satisfied adorning your cupcakes with their cliche head wear!

Take a small piece of black fondant and roll it into a short sausage, tapering one end so that it is much thinner than the other. Use your fingers to pinch the fat end to create a flat brim of the hat and then slightly bend the thin end to give the hat a little more shape. Roll a tiny piece of yellow (or other colour) fondant into a very thin snake and form it into a square buckle to stick on the front of your witch's hat. Stick that baby on top to perfectly accessorise your cupcake! 

And there you have it! 

Hopefully you find these tips useful the next time Halloween rolls around and have fun freaking out and/or delighting your friends, family or neighbourhood juveniles! 

 

Feeling a little sluggish?

Having sweet cravings but don't want to blow those crunches, lunges, squats and (God help you!) burpees?

Never fear! I bring to you yet another raw slice recipe which is all natural, vegan, dairy and gluten free, full of protein and iron and its just all round drool-worthy.

I have previously posted a recipe for a Raw Choc Mint Slice (here) and, though it too is delicious and nutritious, I wanted to have a go at tweaking the recipe to include fresh mint and greens. Let me tell you, this was a wise decision!

Though both slices taste quite similar, I found that adding fresh mint and spinach gave the filling an amazing green colouring and the taste of the real mint gives it a really fresh and natural... almost earthy taste. Maybe 'earthy' isn't the right word... just trust me on this one!

Also, a side hobby of mine is video editing and I thought what better way to combine my interests than to create a recipe video tutorial for you lovely people! So enjoy and let me know what you think!

RAW CHOC MINT SLICE 2.0

For the Base:

4 Tbsp Coconut Butter
1/3 cup Cacao
1/2 cup Coconut Flour
20 Pitted Dates
1 cup Walnuts

For the Filling:

One Bunch of Mint
Large handful of Baby Spinach
1 cup Cashews, soaked overnight
1/2 cup Coconut Butter
1/2 cup Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla 
1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract 

For the Topping:

3/4 cup Cashews, soaked overnight
1/3 cup Cacao
1/3 cup Maple Syrup
1 tsp Vanilla
1/3 cup Coconut Oil, melted



To make the base, blend all ingredients in a processor and press into the base of a 20cm square tin lined with baking paper. Stick in the freezer until firm and set.

To make the filling, again blend all ingredients in a processor until the mixture is almost smooth (the greens should be all chopped) and pour over the top of the frozen base. Smooth with a spatula or palette knife and put back in the freezer for at least an hour to set.

To make the topping, process all ingredients until smooth and pour over the top of the bottom two layers, smooth and then freeze until the entire slice is set and firm.


Slice up and enjoy!

The Great Cake Drape

 

Guess what guys?! Today I decided to give you another tutorial-style post! Yay for learning!

Unfortunately... along the way I had a few issues with what you would think would be a relatively simple cake. Boo!

But hey, I'm still learning as I go, so I decided to go ahead with this post anyway and you can take it as a what to and what NOT to do guide. Now that's some silver-lined lemonade!  

So, as you can probably assume from the image above, today I'm going to show you step by step how to make this fancy-pants cake featuring draped fondant, roses and pearls. Snazzy right?! 

Ok, so right off the bat let me give you a helpful hint: make sure your tiers are sized proportionately.

I think the cake looked better in real life than it appears in the photos, but looking at that first photo you can see that the top tier is slightly too small in contrast to the bottom tier so the entire thing just looks a little misshapen. If you don't have a stack of cake tins measuring every other dimension (as I clearly don't) then just use what you have and I'm sure it will still turn out fine. Like I said, in reality the cake looked fine and it's really only been since looking at the photos that it had been nagging at me. So my point is: try to proportion your tiers where possible but where you can't don't stress it too hard. 

My second major issue... that rose on the right making a break for freedom. 

If I had my way again I would have moved the drapery join and the adjourning rose inwards. As it is every time I look at these pictures I can imagine that rose sprouting legs and jumping for freedom off the edge of the cake! Call me paranoid, compulsive or simply observant... but that little detail really bugs me! So, to avoid that gnawing agitation that I am currently experiencing, make sure you know EXACTLY where you want each detail to be! Plan plan plan is all I can say!

Now that my neurotic frustrations are out the way, lets make some cake! 

What You Will Need

• Fondant/Gum paste Flowers (I used 5 but feel free to go nuts! - I will be posting a how to on these at some point too!)
• 2 x baked cakes (I used a 20cm and a 12cm...regrettably! See above griping)
• 2 x Cake boards
• Roughly 2lb of white fondant (will vary depending on the size of your cakes)
• Buttercream (or ganache... explained further below)
• Ribbon of a colour of your choice
• Fondant smoother
• Icing sugar / cornflour 
• Rolling pin 
• Wooden dowel 
• Water
• A butt load of patience! 

Step 1: Optimus (Cake) Prime

The first thing you will need to do is to prime your cakes ready for decorating. Simply split your cakes horizontally and fill them with you preferred flavour of buttercream icing (or ganache or really whatever filling floats your boat). Sandwich them back together, pop them onto individual cake boards and then give each of them a good crumb coating.

Never crumb coated before? Never fear!
It simply means covering the outside of the cake in a very thin coat of icing which will hold down any stray crumbs so that when you give it a final coat you wont have any flecks of cake ruining the look of your pretty icing. Set the cake aside in a cool spot until the icing is firm to touch (refrigerating for about 10min can speed this up if your short of time).

Give the cake a second, thicker coat of icing. Your don't want it too thick or else it might go soft under the fondant and you will end up with lumps and bumps. I aim for between 1-2cm usually. 

 

Now you want to try and get this layer as smooth and even as possible. Here in Western Australia the weather has been crazy hot for the last few months and I found my icing was just not wanting to set and so when I eventually had to put my fondant over the top the soft icing didn't hold its shape as well as I would have liked, resulting in a generally 'softer' looking cake without the sharper edges I was after. If you are in a similarly hot or humid area I would recommend considering using a ganache icing instead of the buttercream. Ganache stands up in the hot weather much better than buttercream, believe it or not, and will increase your chances of getting that crisper, more professional looking final result.

Buttercream or ganache, whichever you use, set the cake aside until the icing has set firm and is not 'tacky' to touch, give your cake board a wipe to get ride of any excess icing and then roll out your fondant. Using a dusting of icing sugar or cornflour will help stop the fondant from sticking to the counter top and rolling pin but be careful not to overuse it as it can dry out your fondant and result in cracks later on! Just use only as much as you need to roll out the fondant without it sticking. 

Additionally, when rolling out your fondant make sure you don't go picking it up, flipping it over etc. Give it a roll, carefully rotate it 45 degrees, roll again and repeat until it is even and at your desired thickness.

You want the fondant to be no thinner than 3mm (otherwise it will become prone to tearing!) and not much thicker than 5 or 6mm. Use your rolling pin to help lift the fondant and drape it over the top of the cake and the use the palms of your hands to carefully press it onto the cake. I always start at the top and work my way down the sides, gently stretching the adjusting the fondant to get rid of any creases which inevitably happen with round cakes! Use a sharp knife (or a pizza cutter...) to trim the excess fondant from the bottom of the cake      

Next up, I grab my fondants smoother (pictured below) and go all over my cake with it to get rid of any imperfections. It also gives the cake a shinier, smoother look and for less than $10 I would say that's worth the money!

Do the same thing for your other cake layer so that you have two, fondant covered tiers just waiting to play the cake equivalent of stacks on!

Yes. We have another mistake on my part.

When I was trimming the excess fondant from my smaller cake I may have cut a little too close to the base so that you can see a little of the icing/cake glaring out. But guess what? We are covering the base of our cakes in ribbons and pearls so no one will ever know! Most convenient I would say.

Grab your wooden dowel and trim it if necessary (you want it to be just shorter than the height of the two cakes when stacked. Find the centre of your bottom tier and insert the dowel, pushing it all the way down to the cake board below. Dab a little extra buttercream on the bottom of your top tier (to act as glue) and press it down onto the dowel so it is is sitting smack-bang in the centre of the bottom tier.  

 Time to pretty up the base of the tiers with some ribbon! Now you can use ribbon made of fondant if you want but I opted to go for the real thing since I had it lying around and just really liked the colour of it.

There are a number of ways you can go about attaching the ribbon to the cakes. Some people pipe a ring of icing around the cake and press the ribbon into it, but I find the fat from the icing has a habit of leaking through the ribbon and staining it. Not the greatest look!

I decided to try out a new technique I had read about for the first time and overall I was fairly impressed by it. You simply take your ribbon, dunk it in clean water, thoroughly wring and use your fingers to squeeze out any excess water so the ribbon is just damp but not overly wet to touch. Then you simply wrap it around the cake and press the ends together to seal them. The dampness will help the ribbon stick to the sugar in the fondant and when it dries it will hold on tight.

Time to make some pearls! Grab some extra white fondant or gumpaste and use it to roll out enough small balls to go around the base of each tier. I tried to get all of mine as close to 1cm high as I could. For a little extra pizazz you can give your pearls a light  dusting with lustre dust or you can simply use them as they are. Attach them to the cake using small dabs of water, getting them as close to the side of the cake as you can without squashing them.  

  

Looks like its all coming together now! Thumbs up for progress.

So you now have your basic cake structure and its time to dress it up and make her  pretty!

To make your fondant drapery grab 3 or 4 dowels (depending on how thick you want the drape to be) and line them up on a bench top, evenly spaced with around a cm between each one. Thinly roll out some fondant large enough to cover the dowels, you want it thin enough to have the look of fine material (slightly thinner than what you did for the cake covering).

Place the fondant over the dowels and carefully press the fondant down so the grooves are well defined. Trim off any excess fondant and then leave the fondant for a few minutes to firm up a little. You don't want to leave it so long that it starts turning hard otherwise you may get cracks and lines when you try to bend it around the cake. A couple of minutes should do the trick. Repeat with a second drape for the second tier.

Using a few dabs of water as glue, pinch the two ends of the drapes and stick them to the cake. I started at the top and worked my way down. When joining the two drapes in the middle of the cake I tucked the bottom drape around the end of the first one to make it look more like one flowing piece.  

 Grab your edible roses and use a little more water or edible glue to attach them at each point that the drapes intersect the cake. You may need to support the roses as the water dries but they should hold their positions when fully dried.


 

 

 

   


And there you have it!

Simply yet fancy-pants cake to serve at birthdays, anniversaries or to simply carry around and give you an air of superiority!

Hit up the comments below with your thoughts and let me know if you give it a go!

  

 

Who's Ready For A Fiesta!

Its been a long time coming I know, but I finally have another tutorial-style post for you! Hooray!

Today boys and girls, we are going to learn how to make our very own Pinata Cake! Perfect for Mexican-themes parties or even Cinco de Mayo!

This cake came about after I was requested to make a cake for an upcoming 21st birthday fitting the following criteria:

• Not too big, something to serve between 30-40 people
• No fondant! 
• Mexican themed 

Besides that I was given a free licence style wise.  Oh yeahhhhhhh!

Its not often I get to decorate a cake sans-fondant and using buttercream icing as a feature, so I was quite pleased with the opportunity. Something I hadn't considered though was just how much the weather would mess with me! Here in Australia we are still struggling through summer and week after week of temperatures in the mid-high 30s... not good for a cake covered in highly melt-able butter! Nevertheless I struggled on and the cake really held its own given the conditions.

And of course, it wouldn't be a pinata cake without being stuffed full of lollies and chocolates!

So, lets get to the good stuff!

You Will Need:

• 2 x square cakes (I used 30cm square chocolate cakes) 
• Assorted lollies of your choice (I used about 2 packets... and ate the rest)
• Buttercream icing (in total I used almost 1kg of butter and almost 2kg of icing sugar)
• Your choice of food colourings
• A solid cake board 
• Piping bags and a large petal piping tip 
• A small amount of brown and white fondant (optional) 

To start off, grab one of your cakes and decide the shape and size of your pinata! After some solid time spent on google images I settled on a classic horse shape (or is it a donkey? No, pretty sure its a horse...).

As you can see above, I cut my cake into three main sections. One large piece for the body, a smaller rectangle for the head and a remaining rectangle from which I would cut the legs and a small triangle for the ear.

Cut them out and put them into formation on your cake board and you should have something resembling this:

Measure the size of each piece and use these measurements to make the exact same cuts in your remaining square cake. Cover these pieces to stop them drying out and leave these set aside for now while you work on the first cake which will form the bottom layer. 

Time to carve out some space in the cake for your lollies.  Using a serrated knife, carefully cut about halfway into the body section of the cake, leaving about a 3cm border from the edge of the cake. Make sure you don't cut all the way through, you only want to carve out about half the depth of the cake layer!

 I found that the easiest way to do this was to make a cut around the outline of the area I was removing with a knife and then using a fork like a chisel to lift it away  

 

Now grab your buttercream icing and apply a thin crumb coating to the entire bottom layer. For those new to the baking game, a crumb coating is simply a very thin coat of icing which helps stick and loose crumbs to the cake and stops them getting into your final icing layers. Don't worry if it looks a little rough, you will be covering it in another layer of icing in the end.

 

Allow the cake to sit in a cool spot until the icing firms, or if the weather is warm or you need it done quickly, stick the cake in the fridge for 10min or so. When the crumb coating no longer feels soft to touch, take the cake and fill the middle cavity with lollies! Take more of your buttercream icing and cover the top of the cake pieces (this will form the middle layer of icing on the finished cake).  

Halfway there! Now it's time to get the top layer on.

Grab the matching body piece of cake that you cut from the second cake and just like you did with the first one, carve out the middle. Again, be careful not to cut all the way through.

Carefully flip the piece and place on top of the lollies and base layer (so you are left with a nice flat surface). Take the other cuts made from the second cake and stick them on top of their corresponding body parts. Give the entire cake a quick crumb coating and set until firm. 

Once the crumb coat is set, give the cake a proper coating of icing (mine was about 1-1 1/2cm thick). Try to get it as smooth and even as you can, though you are covering it in colourful 'ruffles' so it doesn't have to be perfect or hot watered or anything like that.  

Time to get your ruffle on!

Take your remaining icing and divide it into 4 mixing bowls. Add whatever colouring you want to each, the brighter the better! Overall I ended up needing about 3-4 cups of each colour.

If you have four petal piping tips then this next step will be so much easier. If like me you only have one... here's where it gets a little frustrating. Decide what order you want your colours to go in and load up your piping bags with colouring (with only one piping tip I had to do it one bag at a time, emptying an excess from the bag when I finished a row, washing the tip and loading up the next colour...).

Starting at the bottom of the cake, make sure the thicker end of the petal tip is touching the cake and carefully use a back and forward movement with your hand to create a ruffled appearance across the feet and up the body. If you haven't used this piping technique before a quick google search will give you a ton of videos showing you how its done!

As you move up the cake, pipe each new row close enough to the one below so that it slightly overlaps.

 

I changed colours after every three rows but thats simply because I thought it looked the best given the dimensions of my cake.

 

 

If you find you icing getting too soft to pipe cleanly (Australia holla!) you can put it in the fridge for a couple of minutes to firm it up a little, but be careful not to leave it to long or you risk it getting grainy and too stiff (if this happens let it come to room temperature again and mix to try and get it smooth again). 

Once the piping is done you can leave it as is or you can add a few final details to make it look just that bit better! I flattened a piece of brown fondantinto a little nose and cut out a circle of white fondant, painted it with some food colouring gels and stuck it on to give him an eye.  

Here is a views of his cute butt....

And thats it! 


You now have yourself a fun, colourful and delicoious treat to serve at your next Mexican-infused event!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if you have any questions or thoughts just hit me up in the comments section below!

XO