Birthday cupcakes - first bake for 2024 - Wednesday 17th January 2024

This batch of cupcakes are my first birthday cupcake order for 2024. I used the go to vanilla cupcake sponge as the base, I added a strawberry conserve centre using Bonne Maman strawberry jam, topped with vanilla buttercream and handmade sugar paste toppers and decorations - roses and rose leaves. I added a couple of pink stripes to the inside of the piping bag using pink food colouring before adding the vanilla buttercream which produces a very pretty effect when piping a buttercream swirl. I also made chocolate geo hearts to decorate the cupcakes, these are made with white chocolate coloured with Colourmill food colouring (great for anything with an oily texture, chocolate, buttercream) spooned into a silicon heart mould. Once the chocolate is set I dust the hearts with sparkly colour dust. The other sprinkles used are Sprinkletti. The Happy Birthday embossed topper is from Lissie Lou. I also used one of the trending sugar paste colours, Aubergine, for some of the toppers and roses. The cupcakes were an order for my client's Mum, who was very happy when she received them at lunchtime today.