Something Spooky (Bonus Halloween Blog)...

For this Halloween Special, I thought I'd do something a little different. So I turned a catch up with my friend (BB) into a Fondant lesson and we created these awesome Halloween Cupcakes. We did some Pinterest/ Google research for the Fondant designs and off we went, here's how we made them...

For the Cupcakes you will need;

-2 Eggs

-Plain Flour

-Sugar

-Butter

-Baking Powder

-Vanilla Essence
- Muffin Tin
- Muffin Cases or cases of your choice
- Cooling Wire Rack

For the Butter Frosting;

-2oz Butter

-5 dessert spoons of Icing Sugar

-1 dessert spoon of Water

-Almond Natural Extract

Fondant Colours;

-Black

-Orange

-White

-Green

-Pink

 Cupcakes:

1. Preheat your oven to 190°C, Fan 170, Gas Mark 5

2. Weigh your eggs - ours = 120kg

3. Measure your plain flour, sugar and butter in the same amounts. It's a good idea to have your butter out of the fridge for a while before you start, this is to ensure it starts to soften and makes your life a bit easier when it comes to mixing

*Top tip from BB - measure your butter last otherwise everything sticks to it in the measuring bowl

4. Add a teaspoon of Baking Powder

5. Mix with a hand mixer, being careful not to cover your kitchen in the mixture!

6. Add a splash of Vanilla Essence

7. With an ice cream scoop, scoop evenly into each of the cases - we used plain cases but you can get so many now, so go mad

*Top tip from BB - always use muffin cases and a muffin tin, that way the tin supports the sides of the cases and gives a better rise

8. Bake for 10 minutes - the best way to keep an eye on them is to set a timer on your phone so you don't forget and get too engrossed in the tidying up

9. After 10 Minutes, check to see whether they are done by using a skewer. Pop this into the centre of the cakes and if it comes out clean they're done, if not leave in the oven a little longer but watch closely

10. Once the cakes are done - cool on a wire rack.

Butter Frosting:

1. Whilst your cakes are cooling; add 2oz of butter, 5 heaped dessert spoons of icing sugar and 1 dessert spoon of water into your mixing bowl

2. Mix the mixture together with your hand mixer

3. Add a splash of Almond Natural extract to balance out the sweetness, as this is a lot of icing sugar

4. Once mixed, spoon the mixture onto the top of each cake (once they are cool enough)

5. Using a palette knife, smooth this over the top of the cakes making sure it's well covered.

Fondant Decorated Pumpkin:

1. Break off the amount of Fondant required and warm this up in your hands

2. Roll to a good thickness, not too thin and not too thick - it's like playing with Play-Doh as a child but remember you've got to eat these and you don't want to be biting through thick Fondant

4. Then cut the Fondant with a cookie cutter that is slightly larger than the top of the cake

5. Place this on your cupcake and smooth the top and the edges into place, by going around the outside of the case with your fingers

6. Score the fondant with a blunt knife - make sure you don't press too hard otherwise you'll pierce through the Fondant

7. Cut out the triangle Pumpkin eyes

8. Cut out the other sections you need, so for example, we had a leaf cutter for the leaves. You can get Fondant stamps and cutters really cheaply on places like Amazon and eBay

9. Remember that Fondant can be reworked so if it goes wrong try again

*Top tip from BB - if the Fondant gets 'stretch marks' this means it needs to be warmed up again. To do this roll it in your hands until smooth, then its ready to be reworked.

We followed the same process with the other cupcakes :). Remember to have fun when using Fondant, it can be frustrating but with anything it takes practice.

I hope you liked this and thank you for reading

Love.Hx