The Perfect Cupcake

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll probably know that I love making cupcakes.  So I’ve decided to put together a list of everything you need to make a perfect cupcake…..

First, you need some cute cupcake cases.  There are loads of places that sell these.  The easiest place to get them would probably be the supermarket, most of which have more than enough to chose from.  Asda and Tesco both do their own ranges of coloured cupcake and muffin cases as well as stocking other brands including Dr Oetker who have cases with fun, patterned, designs.  If you want to get cases which are more exciting and that no one will have seen before then you can try websites such as Milly Molly Mandy or Splat Cooking.

If you are making vanilla flavoured cupcakes or icing then it is best not to use just any old vanilla essence but to make sure you get proper vanilla extract.  Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract is made from real Madagascan vanilla beans and you really can tell the difference between it and the synthetic vanilla essences you can buy.

When making your cupcakes I would have to say make sure not to scrimp on the flavourings.  For example, when using lemon or orange rind I always use more than the recipe says.  The same goes when I use nuts, chocolate chips, raisins……. There is nothing more disappointing than biting into a gorgeous looking cupcake only to find that it is bland and flavourless.

Aside from making sure the cupcakes taste good, the most important part of cupcake making is ensuring that they look beautiful.   I have bought an icing piper which is brilliant.  It makes butter icing look really neat and is much quicker than trying to apply it with a knife.  The icing piper also lets you do feathering with glace icing – I still haven’t quite got the hang of that though!  You can buy all sorts of decorations to top your cupcakes with.  Dr Oetker sell a big range of quite cheap decorations in their Tea Party Range which you can read about here.  Milly Molly Mandy and Splat Cooking have slightly fancier decorations but they are a bit more expensive and you will have to pay to get them delivered.  There are lots of other small companies that sell decorations but these are two that I have used.  I really love the edible glitter that I got from Splat Cooking – it makes decorating my cupcakes so quick and easy and they look very professional when their done.

Now all I need to make my cupcakes perfect is a cute cupcake stand.  I still haven’t found one that I love so if anyone has any ideas then let me know!

Dr Oetker Tea Party Range

Dr Oetker make lots of different cake decorations which look really good and are easy to use.

I used the 3D Wafer Daisies and the Giant Chocolate Stars on my latest batch of cupcakes.  (The photos aren’t great but you get the idea!).  Unfortunately some of the Wafer Daisies got crushed inside the packet due to them being left loose in the box but the Chocolate Stars are really well packed and came out looking perfect.  The decorations make the cakes look really professional and at just £1.29 per packet I will definitely use them again.

Also in the same Tea Party range are Glimmer Hundreds & Thousands, Mini Jazzies, Chocolate Stars, Moons and Hearts and Chocolate Hearts.  All of the decorations are free from artificial colours, flavours and preservatives.  I also really like the bright and colourful Dr Oetker cupcake cases.