Love baking? Try sugarcraft
Baking is a popular pastime and food fans are increasingly taking the next step to sugarcraft, discovering how to decorate their cakes like works of art.
It’s the perfect opportunity to get creative and add a personal touch to gift cakes, cookies, desserts, celebration cakes and much more.
If you fancy trying your hand at sugarcraft, then the experts at Squires Kitchen have everything you need. Squires Kitchen has been creating, manufacturing and selling products for cake decorating and sugarcraft for almost 30 years. The company has built its reputation on high-quality, innovative products which are loved by customers all over the world, from sugarcraft hobbyists to professional chefs.
To help you bake and decorate your own cakes at home, Squires Kitchen also publishes several inspirational magazines, including Cakes & Sugarcraft, Wedding Cakes and Squires Kitchen Bake School, as well as a growing portfolio of books. Their latest release, Quick Cakes for Busy Mums, is full of ideas for making and decorating impressive cakes when you’re short on time.
Decorating cakes with children is a great way to channel their creativity and spend quality time together during the school holidays. Seeing a finished, decorated cake gives a huge sense of achievement and pride and it’s also great fun, too! We look forward to seeing what you make – share your creations and pick up tips on the Squires Kitchen Facebook page.
Five-a-Day Flower Cupcakes
Mini Bakers project by Jan Clement-May from Cakes & Sugarcraft 124
These cupcakes contain courgettes, which make them lovely and moist and are a great way to encourage children to cook with vegetables. The decorations are easy to make with the help of food-safe silicone moulds and are a wonderful introduction to sugarcraft.
You will need
Cupcakes
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
25g (just over ¾oz) Squires Kitchen Extra Brute Cocoa Powder
½tsp mixed spice
½tsp salt
90ml (3fl oz) olive oil
190g (6¾oz) golden caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1tsp vanilla extract
250ml (8¾fl oz) grated courgette (approximately 1 medium courgette)
70g (2½oz) Squires Kitchen Dark Chocolate Baking Chunks
Squires Kitchen Colour Block Cupcake Cases: Double Cream, Pastel Green and Pastel Pink
Decoration
Squires Kitchen Sugarpaste: 125g (4½oz) Ballerina Pink, 125g (4½oz) Frosted Leaf and 125g (4½oz) Vintage Ivory
White vegetable fat
Small palette knife
Small, non-stick rolling pin
Alphabet Metal Cookie Cutter Set
Squires Kitchen Great Impressions Moulds: Field of Daisies Texture Mat, Five-Petal Blossom
6.5cm (2½“) round cutter
Squires Kitchen Edible Metallic Paint: Gold
Squires Kitchen Confectioners’ Glaze Cleaner
Squires Kitchen High-Quality Paintbrush: No. 1
Small amount of chocolate buttercream
Makes 12
Cakes
1 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/gas mark 4). Line a cupcake tin with four of each colour of cupcake cases.
2 Grate the courgette(s) and measure the amount by volume in a measuring jug.
3 In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, mixed spice and salt. In a second bowl, combine the olive oil, sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and grated courgette.
4 Mix the wet and dry mixtures together until just combined and then fold in the chocolate chunks.
Top Tip
SK Dark Chocolate Baking Chunks are bake-stable so they hold their shape in hot ovens and won’t melt into the rest of the mixture.
5 Half-fill each cupcake case with the cake mixture and bake in the oven for 20–25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
6 Leave to cool in the tin a little before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Blossoms
1 Knead a little white vegetable fat into 5g (just under ¼oz) of sugarpaste to soften it then push the paste into the blossom mould. Trim away the excess paste from the back using a palette knife.
2 Gently squeeze the edges of the mould, turn it upside down and tap it with a small rolling pin remove the blossom. Set the blossom aside to firm up a little.
3 Repeat steps 1–2 using all three sugarpaste colours until you have made 18 blossoms in total.
You could also add your initials or a message using letter cutters.
Lettering
1 Roll out 5g (just under ¼oz) of sugarpaste to a thickness of approximately 5mm (¼”).
2 Use the alphabet cutters to cut out your chosen letters in different colours and set them aside with the blossoms.
Top Tip
Dust the bases of the letter cutters with icing sugar before using them to prevent the paste from sticking.
Tops
1 Roll out approximately 30g (1oz) of sugarpaste to a thickness of 5mm (¼”).
2 Lay the paste over the top of the Field of Daisies texture mat and roll over the top with a small rolling pin to make an impression in the paste.
3 Lift off the sugarpaste and lay it on the table, design side up. Cut out a circle using a 6.5cm (2½“) round cutter.
4 Spread a little chocolate buttercream over the centre of the cupcake and lay the disc on top. Press the disc onto the cake around the edges, trying not to erase the design.
5 Repeat steps 1–4 using all three colours of sugarpaste until there are four cakes covered in each colour.
6 Using a very fine brush, paint the centres of the blossoms and daisies with edible gold paint. Next, paint the edges of the blossoms. You can also paint the edges of your letters to match if you have made these.
7 Attach your blossoms and letters to the tops of the cupcakes using edible glue.
If you’d like to learn more, you can choose from a huge variety of courses taught by experts at Squires Kitchen International School in the beautiful Georgian town of Farnham in Surrey. Courses range from baking the perfect sponge and basic cake decorating to sugar flower masterclasses and making your own chocolates and last between one day and six days.
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