Custom Valentine's Day Cupcakes

I had the privilege of making a very special cupcake gift box for a lovely young lady to give to her other half this Valentine's Day.

She contacted me saying that she knew it was a bit of a strange request but could I possibly make some windmills for on top of cupcakes as they shared a private joke about them so I said I was sure I would be able to come up with something.  I also asked if she would like to have "I love you" on a couple of the cupcakes & she said yes but wondered if it could read "I blah you" instead (another inside joke) so this was the end result.

They were 'Midnight Delight' (dark chocolate mud cake) cupcakes with a rich chocolate buttercream made with chocolate ganache.  All the toppers were edible & made from marshmallow fondant.

For the windmills & the "I blah you" I used large heart shapes that I embossed with a floral design & then finished with a light dusting of lustre dust.

For the remaining 2 cupcakes I made different size smaller hearts in shades of red & pink in the same way as the large ones (embossed & lustred) & also made some various size sugar pearls.

It was lovely to do this order, I just love it when you get to make something really personalised & special to the recipient.

She thought they were awesome & I was happy to receive an email saying that they "tasted delicious!!" & that her boyfriend "thought they were great".  This customer is now having some more cupcakes made for her upcoming birthday.

The Secret Garden Cupcakes

I was recently invited to a friends house for a tupperware party & wanted to take along something special for her & her guests, so knowing that there would be mainly ladies there I choose to create something very pretty & feminine.  They would also be wonderful for a wedding, for mothers day or a thank you.

These gorgeous floral cupcakes were inspired by the fact that spring is not too far away now. I decided on a secret garden theme featuring all manner of flowers in various colours including roses, carnations, frangipanis, lilies & daisies as well as some leaves, vines, bright butterflies & little tiny ladybugs.

The cake for these cupcakes was my 'Luscious Lemon Zing' which as the name suggests has quite a zingy lemon flavour, I paired this with a subtle lemon & vanilla Swiss meringue buttercream frosting. Followed by light sprinkle of green sugar crystals.

The beautifully delicate flowers, leaves, vines & animals that topped each cupcake I created using sugarpaste & were finished with accents & highlights using edible petal & lustre dusts, cachous & sugar pearls.

Some of the flowers were very time consuming to make especially the carnations but definitely worth it I'm sure you would agree.

These cupcakes would make the ultimate gift to cheer someone special up as they would receive both cupcakes & flowers (completely edible ones too), it doesn't get better then that!

White Embossed Fondant Cupcakes

These were some lovely fondant topped cupcakes, you can achieve some really stunning looks when you use a fondant topping. They were a very classic design, which resulted in simple elegance!

The cake was 'Snow White' (white chocolate mud cake) covered with a thin layer of white chocolate ganache which really complemented the simplicity of these cupcakes.

They were then topped with pure white marshmallow fondant which I had embossed with a floral design & dusted with an edible white luster dust to give them a beautiful shimmer.

To finish I crafted some sugarpaste red 'ribbon' roses to sit atop each cupcake & the result was quite lovely.

This type of cupcake is just perfect for an engagement, wedding or valentines day.