Email from
23/05
Subject:
CUPCAKES: YES PLEASE
Good night
yesterday? You mentioning cupcakes when you arrived in the office got me
thinking. I’m currently shopping around for a bakery that delivers cupcakes in
London as I’d like to send some to a friend (...) I’d rather give my money to
someone I know can do a second-to-none job i.e. YOU!
Have you
ever made cakes to order? If not, can I be the first customer?
Thanks,
Joe
Turns out the person these cupcakes were for was the Head of UK Marketing for Twitter, Lucy Mosley. She gave Joe a ticket to
The Flaming Lips gig on Tuesday in Camden, despite them having never met before (Tweets here). Not only was I thrilled to have a little project to challenge
myself with but the fact that Joe trusted me enough to deliver bakery-level
cupcakes to someone I would consider to be pretty important. And for such a cool back story. This little dog probably accurately represented my excitement of the
day.
So of course I had no choice but to say Yes and ask for details of the order (flavour, decorations, theme,
delivery date, no. of cupcakes are all important facts to be taken into
consideration when baking isn’t your full-time occupation).Joe briefed me to
come up with some cupcakes that were inspired by a band:
“So if
possible I’d like the cakes to be inspired by the band The Flaming Lips. The tracks they’re famous for are eclectic, pretty
wild, and really colourful, as you can see in the photos. I’m no expert when it
comes to baking so I’d like to take your professional opinion on flavour,
decoration etc.”
Head space
went into a little bit of an overdrive but in the end we agreed on a classic
recipe with inspired decorations. The recipe I used to create these cupcakes is
the classic Hummingbird Bakery Red Velvet Cupcakes recipe.
Makes 12; You
will need:
- 60g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 20g cocoa powder
- 40ml red food colouring
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 120ml buttermilk
- 150g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1½ tsp white vinegar
- 12-hole cupcake tray, lined with paper cases
How to:
1. Preheat the oven to 170°C/325°F/gas mark 3.
2. Put the butter and the sugar in a freestanding electric mixer
with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on medium
speed until light and fluffy and well mixed. Turn the mixer up to high speed,
slowly add the egg and beat until everything is well incorporated.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, red food
colouring and vanilla extract to make a very thick, dark paste. Add to the
butter mixture and mix thoroughly until evenly combined and coloured (scrape
any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Turn
the mixer down to slow speed and slowly pour in half the buttermilk.
4. Beat until well mixed, then add half the flour and beat until
everything is well incorporated. Repeat this process until all the buttermilk
and flour have been added. Scrape down the side of the bowl again. Turn the
mixer up to high speed and beat until you have a smooth, even mixture. Turn the
mixer down to low speed and add the bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Beat until
well mixed, then turn up the speed again and beat for a couple more minutes.
5. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and
bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the sponge bounces
back when touched. A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave
the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire
cooling rack to cool completely.
Frosting:
·
300g icing sugar, sifted
·
50g unsalted butter, at room temperature
·
125g cream cheese, cold
How to:
To make the
frosting begin by beating the icing sugar the 50g of unsalted butter together
in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld
electric whisk) on medium-slow speed until the mixture comes together and is
well mixed. Add the cream cheese in one go and beat it until it is completely
incorporated. Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed. Continue beating until
the frosting is light and fluffy, at least five minutes. Do not overbeat, as it
can quickly become runny. When the cupcakes are cold, spoon the cream cheese
frosting on top and decorate.
Making the cupcakes was pretty straightforward and any baker with
a little bit of experience can make some delicious red velvet cupcakes with
this recipe. Personally I like my cakes a little more moist and gooey so I tend
to get them out right on time and let them cool to achieve that slightly gooey
texture (stick a knife into your cake and if it comes out with a little batter
still attached it will make for great gooey cakes, I always use this trick when
making brownies to make sure they aren’t dry!). The challenge with these
cupcakes (and the most fun part of the entire ‘Project’) was the decorations.
The cakes were meant to reflect and show the bands vibrant, wild and colourfulness
of the band and at the same time be unique and special.
Some of you might have seen my post for the Octopus cupcakes I
made for my last day in my old job. I got inspired by the way I got to use
roll-out sugar icing to create very personalised shapes and considering that it
was impossible to find lips big enough out of chocolate or as lollies anywhere
(who would have thought!) I decided to use the same method as the Octopi for
these lips. I wanted these to be bold, big and glittery to ensure the achievement
of maximum impact. Because my ability to make stuff out of roll-out sugar paste
is limited (my octopi were cute but somehow ended up looking a little more like
adorable little aliens) I asked my best friend from home to come and help. With
her help we ended up making 6 of these beauties:
A little research into the Cox Cookies & Cupcakes book told me
that they would have to harden over night in the fridge before being made
glittery the next day. So that’s what we did. We wrapped them up in a little
aluminium foil blanket and left them there. Then we used cooled, boiled water
(a little bit of an oxymoron I know) to apply the glitter with a tiny brush.
That resulted in the lips looking like this:
We mixed 2 different colours to ice the cupcakes with; one to act as the basic colour (the white) which could give us
some height on the cupcake to play with and give us a basic layer of icing
before continuing with the colours, and a couple of others to give the
cupcakes their vibrancy. I opted for blue and green to create the spikes on the cupcakes to give them some colour as well as texture and we then covered some of them in more edible glitter. Plop the red, glittery
lips on top and voila “The Flaming Lips Cupcake” were born.
I guess this little project means I am now in business for ready-to-order cupcakes. The question now is whether I have missed my calling by becoming a PR girl rather than a baker?!
Picture credits:
Cupcake: www.portobellovillage.com
All others my own