I made a combination of sponges - vanilla sponge, vanilla sponge with cranberries in, and chocolate sponge. Then I made a huge range of different frostings and toppings - creamy chocolate, vanilla buttercream, buttercream with various different colourings, mini eggs, crushed twirl bars, and crispy cakes (see previous post!). Although this took a lot of time, attention to detail, and washing up, it was definitely worth it! They look so cute and I think will put a smile on everyone's face on Easter Sunday tomorrow :) I will post all the recipes below, hope you give them a try! Don't forget that these aren't just for Easter, you can make these anytime - they are brilliant, versatile cupcake and frosting recipes!
Sponge recipes - makes 12-14 cupcakes
- 125g margarine
- 125g caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 125g self-raising flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- cocoa powder
- dried cranberries
1. Cream together the marg and sugar until well combined. Gradually whisk in the eggs and vanilla essence.
2. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and fold in, stirring well.
3. Fill this vanilla sponge mixture into cupcake cases - I filled 5 cases.
4. Take half of the rest of the cake mixture and place in another bowl. Mix with a few handfuls of dried cranberries, or other dried fruit (put as much as you want in), and fill another 5 cupcake cases.
5. Sieve some cocoa powder into the remaining mixture and combine until brown in colour. Spoon into the remaining cases. (For me, this was another 4 cases)
6. Bake in a preheated oven (gas mark 5/190 degrees) for around 15 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on a wired rack.
Frosting recipes
Chocolate cream cheese frosting (used on 4 cupcakes)
- Half a tub (80g) of Cadbury's chocolate Philadelphia
- small bit of icing sugar
- small knob of butter, melted
Combine everything together in a bowl, fill into a piping bag with a star shaped nozel, and pipe onto the cupcakes. I piped onto 2, and spread on to the other 2. I topped with mini eggs and crushed Twirl bars.
Vanilla buttercream (used on 10 cupcakes)
- 125g butter, softened
- 200g icing sugar, sifted
- 1 tbsp warm milk
- various food colourings
Beat everything together until smooth, and lighter in colour (feel free to add more of anything depending on consistency, flavour and colour). I iced 4 cupcakes with plain vanilla frosting, then used pink food colouring for 2, green for another 2, and yellow for another 2. This requires a lot of different bowls to transfer the icing too! (It is worth it though, so pretty) You can either pipe these onto the cake or simply spread with a knife. For the yellow and the green frosting, I used a piping bag and nozel to dot the icing on making flower shapes - prefect for Spring!
Enjoy :)
