Spring Flowerpot Cupcakes

Originally posted 23 February 2018

Dear lovelies

If like me you feel that this Winter has been cold, wet and dark, then you’ll need a fun, bright and sunny bake to celebrate that Spring is in fact within reach! At least I thought it was last weekend, but apparently February has not been wet or cold enough and that Wintery weather is back! Oh well, I have been daydreaming about sitting in our garden and soaking up some warmth with a cuppa and what better to go with that cuppa than a sweet treat!

I saw these fab silicone flower pot cases in the Lakeland catalogue and I couldn’t resist buying them and trying them out. I do love a terracotta pot with pretty flowers in! It takes a few simple and fun steps to make these sweet cakes.

Ingredients:

For the cakes:

This is a little more mixture than you need but 6oz/170g was too little. I suppose this means that there is more to go round when the inevitable ‘licking of the spoon’ happens! You could of course also use the extra mixture to make a few more cupcakes in normal cases.

8oz/225g unsalted butter plus extra for greasing

8oz/225g caster sugar

8oz/225g self raising flour plus a little extra to dust the cases

4 large free range eggs

1½ tsp vanilla extract

12 flower pot silicone cupcake cases

For the decoration:

Chocolate flowers:

100g bar white chocolate

Hundreds and thousands cake sprinkles

Flower lolly moulds

White paper confectionery lolly sticks and 1-2 drops of green food colouring gel (as above)

OR green paper confectionery lolly sticks (preferred)

Buttercream:

300g/10oz icing sugar

150g/5oz unsalted softened butter

2 tblsp warm water

2-3 drops of green food colouring gel such as this

Green leaves:

Ready to roll green fondant icing like this

Flower decorations. I used these wafer daisy decorations

Leaf shaped sugar paste cutters with plunger to make leaf vein designs

Method:

Starting with the chocolate flower lollies, break up the chocolate and place in a bowl over boiled water, stirring occasionally until melted.

Whilst the chocolate is melting and to make your own green lolly sticks, squeeze out 1-2 drops of the green food colouring gel onto a plate. Dip a piece of kitchen tissue into a small amount of the gel and rub it onto the lolly sticks to make them green. You may want to do this with gloves on – I had green fingers by the end of this but perhaps that is quite apt! You don’t need a lot and in fact the less you use the better as it does come off when licked (which is inevitable) and you may not want slightly green lips! The alternative (which I would recommend) is to buy green lolly sticks (link above). Place the sticks onto the plate until you need them.

Sprinkle a small handful of the hundreds and thousands into the flower moulds.

Pour the melted chocolate into the moulds until full. Sprinkle over some more decorations and then place the green lolly sticks into the moulds so that the ends of them are submerged in the chocolate.

Place in the fridge to chill.

For the cakes, preheat the oven to 180°c.

Grease the moulds with marg or butter and add a dusting of flour. This will really help. I tried a mould ungreased and one greased but with no flour and the cake stuck to the sides. Once greased and dusted, place on a baking tray.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. I use a free standing electric mixer but you could use a hand held electric mixer or the power of your arms!

Add the eggs one at a time, also adding a couple of spoonfuls of flour in between to stop the mixture curdling.

Add the vanilla extract, continuing to mix.

Fold in the remaining flour. I do this last bit with a spatula.

Using two spoons, place the cake mixture into the moulds, leaving a little room at the top of each one.

Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes. Once baked, take out of the oven and leave the cakes to cool in their moulds on a wire rack.

For the buttercream, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Add the softened butter and begin to mix, adding the warm water. Add 2-3 drops of the green food colouring gel to make the shade of green you would like.

Once fully combined, place a large dollop of the green buttercream onto each cooled cake and smooth out with a cake palette knife or spatula.

For the leaves, dust a rolling pin and roll out the green fondant icing onto a icing sugar dusted work surface to about 3mm thickness. Press the leaf cutters into the icing, making sure to use the plunger to make the vein design on the leaves. The plunger also helps to release the leaves from the cutter. Make as many leaves as desired.

Place the wafer daisies and leaves onto 6 of the cakes pressing gently to secure.

Carefully release the chocolate flowers from their moulds and push the sticks/stalks into the remaining cakes. Place leaves on these cakes too if you like!

Place on a serving plate or cake stand and enjoy with friends and family!

So effective! My kids consumed theirs very quickly! Oh and they used spoons/forks to eat the cakes out of the moulds.

If you didn’t want to buy the flower pot moulds, you could use gold or brown/orange cupcake cases. I think they would go down a storm at a school cake sale or tea party!

Well my lovelies, I hope I’ve brought a little bit of brightness and fun into your lives with this bake. Just in case you need a bit more cheer, here are some pretties I snapped last weekend…