Jewelled Flower Cupcakes

I see lots of beautiful sets of cupcakes, usually made by English ladies, made of complimentary flowers and colours, each slightly different to the other, usually referred to as "vintage", I love these and want to make a set one day. BUT ... Firstly, I struggle to find time to make 20 or 30 of each of the different flowers and pearls and leaves and other beautiful things that are required and secondly, there is always one design that I like more than the others and that is the only one that I want to make, which I suppose is why mostly, my sets of cupcakes or cookies are all the same.

So, here I am, with only a couple of evenings to spare, needing to make some cupcakes to be sold for charity at a craft fair and wanting to make something more than a buttercream swirl with some sprinkles. Everybody loves sprinkles and I love sprinkles, I just wanted to make something a little more me. One of my aims is to learn to make more sugar flowers and I haven't done as many as I would have liked, so seized this opportunity to make some for the cupcakes.

I suppose this flower is a fantasy flower. It is reminiscent, to me, of a peony, although it is made with a hollyhock cutter. The one I used is from a Sunflower Sugarart set. I love the crinkly outline of the petals.

The Cupcakes were made with this recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Recipe book and my own chocolate butter cream recipe. The chocolate butter cream swirls are piped with a Wilton 1M nozzle.

Making the flowers

You will need

1. Flower cutter and silicone veiner. I used one from Sunflower Sugarart

2. Sugar florist paste in whatever colour you want to use for the petals.

3. Sugar florist paste in whatever colour you want to use for the centres.

4. A ball tool

5. A Dresden tool

6. Round flower formers. I used ones from Wilton, or you can scrunch tin foil into shape

7. A mould for the centre of the flower. The one I used is the Karen Davies Vintage Brooch Mould

8. Lustre dusts and edible glitter. See below for the details of the ones I used.

9. A little vegetable fat (trex/crisco), cornflour / cornstarch and a little edible glue.

Start by rolling out the sugar florist paste as thin as you can and cut out a flower shape. Use the ball tool to stretch the petals and thin the edges a little.

Press the cut out and thinned flower between the two parts of the silicone mould and press together to add the veining. You will notice that the two parts of the mould have  little notch so that you can line them up properly.

I wanted my veining to be a little more prominent, so I used a Dresden tool to make some of the markings deeper. This flower doesn't really look that special yet, it is amazing how it is transformed with a little lustre, a centre and a shape.

I popped the veined flowers into some curved flower formers to take shape whilst I made some centres for the flowers. I  knew that I wanted a stylised centre for my flower, first of all I tried this moulded button, below. It is cute, but, not quite what I was looking for.

Next, I tried the little jewelled centre, below. This was just the look I wanted, so I set about transforming it with a little petal dust, lustre dust and edible glitter.

The mould that I used for the centres, is this Vintage Brooch Mould by Karen Davies.

Moulds are so easy to use, take a small ball of sugar florist paste and work it till soft, roll it into a little ball and press it into the mould that you want to use. Smooth around the edges and remove any excess, then pop out the moulded paste

To paint the centres, I used:-

1. Sugarflair pearl ivory lustre dust all over
2. Edible Art edible glitter in baby blue in the centre
3. Sugarflair  autumn leaf petal dust to add colour around the outside
4. Squires Kitchen gold sparkles on top of the autumn leaf colour

After sticking the jewelled centre in the centre of the flower with a little water, I brushed a little more of the gold sparkles lustre dust on the centre of the petals

Then, back in the flower former to finish drying

That's all for today

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Lavender and Lace Cookies

Whenever I bake a batch of sugar cookies, I always make more that I need, in some different and sometimes random shapes for practising various techniques on. I had had these cookies in mind for a while and my plan was to make fondant lace and then top them with a rose, when I came to do it, I found that I preferred the look of a few (shop bought) sugar pearls instead.

These are lavender flavoured cookies adapted from a basic sugar cookie recipe. The same recipe I used for the Lavender Chrysanthemum cookies find it here.

If you have never tried decorating cookies with fondant, this is a great place to start. I used this beautiful "Amy Lace" mould by Karen Davies who is generous enough with her talent to make many wonderful moulds. If you pop by her shop, bet you can't just buy one!

You can use any lace mould, embossing sheet or rolling pin to get a similair effect.

Decorating

Equipment

Lace mould or embossing sheet

Lavender colour sugar paste or fondant

Small rolling pin

Marzipan spacers (optional)

Small round plain or fluted cutter, (that you have used to cut out your cookies with).
Edible Glue or piping gel (optional)
Sugar pearls 

Method

I remembered to snap some photographs of what I was doing when making these, they are only snapped with my phone, but, I hope that you will appreciate them to illustrate the method.

Roll out your sugar paste to about 1 cm thick, using the marzipan rollers as a guide if you have them.

If your sugar paste is sticky then rub a little vegetable fat (trex) onto the surface.






Place the rolled out sugar paste on to your mould or embossing sheet and roll a little more to impress the pattern from the mould or embossing sheet on to the fondant











Position a cutter over the part of the patterned sugar paste that you want to use and cut out

Carefully lift the sugar paste and place on top of one of your cookies.

You may need to use a little edible glue or piping gel to make it stick






Brush the holes in the lace mould, or anywhere else that you want the sugar pearls to stick with a little edible glue or piping gel and then  place a sugar pearl in position. A pair of clean tweeers can be helpful.




Before you go, please indulge me with one gratuitous china shot, this vintage plate is just too pretty not too show you

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Lavender Chrysanthemum Cookies

These cookies could be either Dahlias or Chrysanthemums, the mould I purchased said it was a chrysanthemum mould, so I have called them Chrysanthemum cookies, but feel free to make them as dahlia cookies if that is what you prefer! The two flowers in fact originate on different continents,  even thought they look so similar.

The lavender in the title doesn't just refer to the colour of these flowers, these sweet little cookies are flavoured with lavender as well. 

This recipe is an adaptation of a basic sugar cookie recipe. These are such sweet little cookies, that I have given a recipe for a half quantity of cookie dough. I have used a lavender flavouring by Beau products, you could replace the sugar with lavender sugar if you prefer a more natural flavouring.

You can make lavender sugar by wrapping two tablespoons of dried lavender flowers in a muslim pouch and leaving them if a tightly sealed jar containing 1 cup of caster sugar. Leave the flavours to permeate for about two weeks. You could also just mix one to two tablespoons of the dried lavender flowers in with the sugar, this gives pretty flowers in your biscuit mix too. 

Lavender Sugar Cookie Recipe

100g / 4oz Butter / block margarine

100g / 4oz caster / superfine sugar (or lavender sugar if using)

1 egg white (two tablespoons)

1 tsp lavender flavouring (if using)

Violet gel colour (optional)

200g / 8oz plain flour

Method

This is best done in a mixer, if you want to do it by hand, rub the margarine into the butter until the mix resembles fine breadcrumbs, stir in the sugar and then mix in the egg white until it forms a dough, pressing together if necessary.

In a mixer:

1. Mix or beat the butter or margarine with the sugar and lavender flavouring or lavender sugar. 
2. Mix or beat in the egg white with a little gel colour if you want to use it
3. Mix in the flour until a cookie dough forms.

Roll out the dough on a well floured surface until about half a centimetre or a quarter of an inch thick. Cut out your cookie shapes, choosing  a cutter the same size as the mould you are using or a little smaller as the cookies may spread slightly when cooked.

Decorating the cookies

Equipment

- lavender coloured fondant or sugar paste
- chrysanthemum mould
- edible glue or piping gel
- edible gold paint if you fancy painting one gold.

I have decorated these cookies using this Classic Chrysanthemum mould by First Impressions. This mould does require a little patience and may to be the best to start with if you have not tried moulding with fondant before.

I find it difficult to pop the moulded paste out without putting it in the freezer, so, because I am going to freeze it, I often make it with ordinary sugar paste rather than modelling paste. 

Method

1. Take a piece of sugar paste about the size of a small walnut and knead until smooth.  If your fondant is very sticky, rub a little vegetable fat (trex) between your palms. Roll into a ball and press firmly into the mould.
2. If you have too much sugar paste, remove the excess. I like to do this by rolling a toothpick across the top, from the centre outwards
3. If you don't have enough sugar paste, add a little more
4. Use your finger to smooth around and tidy up all the edges.
5. If you are lucky, flex the mould and your flower will pop out. (One of mine popped right out)
6. If your flower doesn't pop out, place it in the freezer for around fifteen minutes or longer if necessary.
7. Use edible glue or piping gel to attach the flowers onto the biscuits.
8. If you want to paint one or more, wait 24 hours until the flowers are dry. They get a little moist as they unfreeze. I used two coats of Squires Kitchen edible gold paint to get this effect

 That's all for today

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