How to make a fabulous Cupcake Bouquet

To celebrate my good friend Julie’s birthday,  I wanted to make something that looked amazing but would taste scrummy.

I decided to try making a bouquet of cupcakes as my childhood chum Gillian had told me that she had tried this with great success.  (Gilly and I have a similar approach to creative cooking that we have nurtured since we first made fudge together at the age of seven so I trust her judgement!)

With hindsight, I should have asked her for some instructions but as usual, I launched myself fully into it without much of a plan.

Click here for the basic cupcake recipe and instructions

Once you have baked the cupcakes- here’s what you have to do:

The basic concept is to decorate the cupcakes to look like flowers (I chose sunflowers as they are my favourites).

Pipe buttercream onto the cupcakes

Roll out yellow fondant icing between 2 sheets of cling film

.

Cut into petal shapes  or use a petal cutter.  Sprinkle some poppy seeds in the middle to make the sunflowers

The next part is really important.  Let the buttercream filling set completely and then use skewers to insert into the bottom of the cupcakes like stalksbefore using the skewers.  I tried skewering straight away and to my horror the skewers slid straight through!

When they were finished, they looked amazing.  They were a little bit tricky to transport in the car but I have to say, they were definitely worth all the effort