Cupcakes With Piped Flowers Food

FLORAL CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180ºC/160ºC fan-assistant. Line 1-2 muffin tins with 15 muffin cases.
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave (check on it every 10 seconds if using the microwave) and let it cool a little.
• Transfer the melted butter to a bowl and add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined.
• Sift the flour, sugar, ground almond and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the zest. Stir to combine them and make a well in the centre.
• Pour in the wet ingredients into the centre of the dry ingredients. Mix well until lump-free.
• Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases. Each case should not be more than 2/3 full.
• Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Start by beating the butter in your mixer (I used my Smeg) until it's fluffy (about 5 minutes, starting with lower power). Then add half the icing sugar and combine well, and then add the rest of the sugar and combine well again. If the mixture becomes too thick, you can add 1-2 tBsp of milk to loosen it.
• Divide the buttercream into bowls and add the colours of your choice to each bowl. I like to start by adding just a couple drops and building up from there so my colours don't get too crazy. Mix the colours well into the buttercream.
• Place each colour of buttercream into a piping bag, twisted at the top, with a nozzle of your choice. You are ready to pipe now!
• Onto each cupcake, you can pipe simple rosette shapes or more complicated flower designs depending on your nozzles.

PIPED-ROSE CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Starting with 1 drop at a time, add gel-paste food coloring to buttercream. Stir well to combine. Add more food coloring, stirring constantly, until desired color is reached. Dab buttercream on top of pastry nail, and press a 2-inch square of parchment on top. Reserve half the buttercream for frosting tops of cupcakes. Fit pastry bag with coupler, and fill with remaining buttercream. Place tip of coupler in center of parchment square, squeeze pastry bag gently, and pull up slowly to make an acorn-shaped mound (this is the bud).
• Fit pastry bag with petal tip. (You can anchor the nail in Styrofoam or a potato with a flat-cut bottom.) Hold tip against the point of the bud, wide end down and narrow end angled in toward center. While turning the nail slowly, pipe a wide, tight strip, enrobing the top of the bud. Turning the nail as you go, pipe 2 arched petals that each reach around half of the bud. Continue turning the nail and piping, making longer, overlapping petals and angling further outward as you go, until you reach the bottom of the rose. Gently slide parchment with rose onto a baking sheet, and refrigerate until firm, at least 20 minutes (or up to 2 days). Repeat to make more roses.
• Frost tops of cupcakes with buttercream. Using a small offset spatula, gently place a rose on top of each cupcake, discarding parchment.

FLOWER CUPCAKES

Steps:

• Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin pans with paper liners.
• Cream the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on high speed, until light and fluffy. On medium speed, add the eggs, 2 at a time, then add the sour cream and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and stir until smooth.
• Sift together the flour, cornstarch, salt, and baking soda in a bowl. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until just combined. Fill the cupcake liners to the top with batter. Bake in the center of the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.
• For the icing, mix the butter, cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, on low speed, mixing just until smooth. Spread the frosting generously on top of each cupcake.