Passion Fruit Curd Mother's Day Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for Mother’s Day for my mum, my mother-in-law - and me!

I’ve developed quite a taste for passion fruit recently - Passoa passion fruit liqueur is delicious and could definitely be used in baking, but since my four year old daughter was going to have these cupcakes as well I wasn’t going to use alcohol. Instead, I got the passionfruit flavour from a combination of yogurt - papaya, passion fruit and mango flavour, from Morrisons - and passion fruit curd (The Cherry Tree brand, from Ocado).

I wanted a light cupcake using yogurt in the cake mix and these were so light and airy, they probably aren’t robust enough to put a spoonful of curd into the middle but I did anyway (it just makes them a bit messy when you eat them!).

Here is the recipe I used:

125g margarine or butter, softened

150g sugar

2 eggs

150ml yogurt - I used papaya, passion fruit and mango flavour from Morrison's 

225g self-raising flour

1 heaped tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

For the filling:

Passionfruit curd - I used the Cherry Tree brand from Ocado

For the icing:

500g icing sugar

250g butter, softened

Passionfruit flavouring to taste - for example you could add a spoonful of the passionfruit curd, or passionfruit liqueur if the cakes are for adults.

Preheat oven to 180C. Cream the butter and the sugar then beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the yogurt, then fold in the flour, baking powder and salt.

Spoon into cupcake cases and bake for around 15-20 minutes depending on the size until the tops are golden brown.

Allow to cool, then using a teaspoon make a small well in each cupcake and add a spoonful of passionfruit curd.

To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar and add a spoonful of passionfruit curd, or a few drops of passionfruit liqueur if for adults only - you may need to adjust the quantity of icing sugar if the mixture is too runny.

Using a piping bag and a nozzle, pipe swirls onto the top of the cupcakes. 

I decorated these cupcakes in different ways:

SuckUK customisable cookie stamp - this is a wooden stamp that comes with a plastic disc and little letters, that you insert into the disc to make the message of your choice. You can stamp this onto a cookie before it has baked, or stamp onto a circle of fondant icing, as I did here. I've had this piece of equipment for ages but this was the first time I had used it.

It was quite fiddly to get the letters into the right places, and took a bit of trial and error to work out if they were all the right way around; there isn't a huge amount of space for a message but I managed to get 'happy' across the top, 'mothers' day along the bottom and 'day' in the middle. However, there was only one of most letters and not enough to spell out 'happy' for instance as there was only one 'p', so I had to stamp the missing letter separately. It didn't quite look the same and I was surprised given that 'happy birthday' would be, to me, the most obvious message to use on the cookie stamp that there weren't enough letters to make it! Then I piped some small buttercream flowers around the edge.

Wilton Make Any Message Letterpress Set - this was also something I received as a gift several years ago. The letters are bigger than on the SukUK stamp so I just pressed 'mum' into a circle of fondant icing and placed it on top of each cupcake with a little buttercream. Then I piped some buttercream flowers along the top and bottom.

Piped flowers: I used two different colours of buttercream (pink and purple, though the latter looks a bit grey in this photo), and two different nozzles to pipe a swirl and some smaller flowers onto each cupcake and added some edible silver balls on top.

Floral letter decoration for girl's bedroom

My daughter is now two and a half and during lockdown we decided to redecorate her bedroom. She has a lovely mural on one wall (a giant decal sticker) and a bookcase full of books but other than that we hadn’t much much effort in, as she doesn’t really play in her bedroom yet apart from a few minutes after going up to bed. We decided it was about time we made the room nicer and somewhere she might want to play, plus she needed more toy storage as she has so many toys!

 I had been browsing photos of girls’ bedroom styles on Pinterest etc for inspiration and decided to put up a couple of shelves with pretty decorative items on them. I’d seen a few things I liked, in particular the child’s initial either in a picture frame or three dimensional and covered with flowers. It looked easy to make so I thought I’d have a go, and got everything I needed from Hobbycraft.

They sell wooden fillable letters (£4.40 each) many of which seemed to be out of stock online so I signed up to be emailed when they were back in stock. The first time I had such an email the letter I wanted was already sold out again by the time I went online so second time I was ready and made my purchase while I was getting up in the morning!

The flowers are fabric wired rose heads, I used three packs at £3 each - each pack is one colour. I used most of the packs to fill the letter and only had a couple of flowers left over. I cut and shaped pieces of florist oasis to put into the wooden letter and stick the flowers into, alternating colours and making sure there was no gap.

The oasis seemed firmly in place so I didn’t glue it in as I had intended but this would make it more secure. Hobbycraft also sells a small wooden stand (50p) which will help if you want the letter to stand up on a shelf.

I’m really pleased with how this turned out and how simple it was to make - once everything turned up from Hobbycraft it took about ten minutes!

DIY Wedding: Giant Decopatch Decorative Letters

 

Are you familiar with Decoupage? It’s simply the art of decorating objects with paper cut-outs. In card making, it usually means layering the same picture with slightly less of the image each time, so you get certain details raised off the card more than others – here’s one example and here’s another.

 

In crafts however, there’s a new take on decoupage called decopatch. It’s described as being like papier mache. Hobbycraft sells decoupatch papers which are very thin, almost tissue-like printed papers, that you cut or tear up and stick onto wooden or cardboard objects, which they also sell. They have words, letters and animals – all sorts of things including photo frames and pretty little trays which you could decorate to match someone’s bedroom or living room décor.

 

Some time ago in the sale I bought my initial and that of my now-husband and an ampersand sign. I realised a few months back that these were still untouched in my craft cupboard and I thought they would look really nice at our wedding. You can buy large decorative letters of your initials or Mr & Mrs, or even hire 6ft-high illuminated letters – which look great but the latter cost a couple of hundred of pounds to hire and we’ve decided to spend our money on other things.

 

We decided not to decorate the room where we are having the band (and a few other things – we spent our ‘frivolous’ money on something else!) with flowers, as it will be late and dark when everyone is in that room. But there are a couple of mantelpieces where I realised these letters would look really good.

 

 

 

I bought some cowprint decopatch paper at the same time as the letters which is particularly appropriate for the wedding as we had a bit of a cow theme (as my last name is now Cowe!). I didn’t realise though that you are supposed to use a special glue to stick on the paper, which dries clear and gives a sort of varnish effect. I used Pritt-Stick which worked fine but gives the letters a matt rather than gloss effect. It took a bit of time but was quite simple as I just cut strips of the paper and stuck it over the letters – some of the curves were a bit harder to do but overall I was quite pleased with it.
 

 

 

Father's Day Shirt and Tie Cake

This cake would be perfect for Father’s Day or a male birthday – or a colleague leaving work. It’s really simple to make and you can easily add your own personal touches.

 

I made this cake as part of an evening class I am taking at South Thames College. The course is aimed at all levels and because it is an evening class with many participants who work full time, we used shop-bought cake. You can of course make a cake yourself; this particular cake doesn’t need carving into a shape (though you will need to trim the top and sides) so you can bake any kind of rectangular cake.

 

We used madeira cakes from the supermarket though they are not all exactly the same size so a bit of trimming was required.
 

We started off by covering the cake board then made the tie first, and I’d suggest you do the same. We used a template the tutor, Bridgette, had prepared but you can easily draw and cut out the shape of a tie.

 

 

Cover a 14 inch cake board in white fondant, trim the edges and leave to dry. You can also put a ribbon around the edge.

 

We used flower paste (like modelling paste) with a little sugarpaste (fondant) mixed in, so the tie would dry stiff. Roll out whichever colour you want as a base, and place the template on top, then cut around with a sharp knife, being careful not to drag the edges of the paste.

 

Do the same with the knot of the tie and the collar part.
 

I wanted my tie to be stripey so I mixed another colour of flower paste. My tie was royal blue, and for the stripes I mixed a little black into the royal blue to make it darker. I used a thin strip of paper to measure to make sure each stripe was the same width, and that when I placed them on the base of the tie, they were spaced evenly apart. Use a little water or clear alcohol to stick the pieces on.

You can do anything you want with the tie – plain, or polka dots, or rainbow stripes as one person in the class did!

 

Take the section you have made for the collar and gently fold over so it stands upright. Curl around so it looks like the neckline, and place it on top of the tie knot. Place both parts on top of the tie.

 

Place the tie in the centre of your cake board to set. I had very carefully prise it off of the board a week later as it had stuck; but I managed to get the tip of a sharp knife underneath. It did make a few holes in the sugarpaste that I had covered the board with but that didn’t matter as the cake itself sits on top.

 

 

When you are ready to make the cake, mix 1kg of fondant with a different colour for the shirt. I used sky blue, to go with the royal blue of the tie. If you are making this for a specific person you might want to think about their favourite colour shirt or if they wear a uniform to work!

 

 

Use buttercream (with jam as well if you wish) to stick the madeira cakes together; or, carefully split and fill your cake. I used five shop-bought madeira cakes, using a mixture of plain and ones with icing and filling.

 

Trim the top of the cake so it is completely flat, and trim the sides as well if they need to be neatened up. Cover the top and sides with buttercream and smooth over.

 

Roll out your fondant and cover the cake, then trim off the excess. A cake smoother is a useful tool to get the corners sharp and the top and sides flat and smooth.

 

 

Lifting the cake onto the cake board is not easy, especially if you have stuck smaller cakes together! Bridgette, the tutor, helped each of us in turn; you need to slide two palette knives under the cake vertically and another one or two horizontally, and have two people lift it at the same time. Place the cake carefully on the cake board.

 

Arrange the tie on top and stick down with a little water or clear alcohol. You can also make a pocket but I felt my cake was a bit too narrow and there wasn’t enough space.

 

 

Most of the class had never done lettering before and I’ve never done a particularly good job; I recently bought myself a set of FMM Tappit Cutters in the ‘funky’ style. These letters are fairly large so probably not ideal for writing ‘happy birthday’ or ‘happy birthday’, but they are great for shorter words, names and ages. I love the way that they look!

 

There is a knack to using these which I will explain. First you need to grease the cutter with some Trex (vegetable fat) and then remove any excess using a cocktail stick.

 

Roll out some flower or modelling paste; I used the same colour as the stripes on the tie as I had some left over. Make sure your surface is dusted with icing sugar; press down the cutter and move it around on the worktop using the palm of your hand. Lift the cutter and remove the excess paste; you will see your letter firmly stuck inside the cutter. These are thin and fragile which means if you try to extract it using a cocktail stick you will ruin it. The reason they are called Tappits is that you tap it on the edge of the worktop. I alternated between a short sharp tap and ‘twanging’ it slightly like you might a ruler; the letter should dislodge and fall out by itself.

 

Carefully pick it up – you could use tweezers but I used my fingers – and lay it out on the cake board so that you can make sure all the letters will fit before you stick them down. Use a paintbrush to dab some water onto the back of the letters to stick them down when you are happy.

 

As I said, this is a simple cake, in that it is a plain rectangle, covered with sugarpaste, and you can leave out the lettering if you like. I think that with the matching tie and the letters it looks really professional and I’m really pleased with it – my dad will be getting this on Father’s Day!

 

 

 

I’m sharing this with the Food Year Linkup, hosted by Charlotte's Lively Kitchen
 

 

and also with Love Cake, hosted by Ness at JibberJabberUK.