Christmas is coming....

Its been a while i have blogged, as i have been tied up over the few months with travelling, family and friends, a baby shower, a baby christening, weddings etc. Plenty of fun, but tiring as well!


Well am back now, and before you know it Christmas is just round the corner! The last i checked it was still August. How time flies. 


There have been many opportunities (yay!) for me to practice baking and decorating my cupcakes. NEXT on the December calendar - being the charity bake sale at the office. I decided to contribute 12 cupcakes. Why only 12 you might ask? Well, i didnt have much time (i baked, iced and decorated them just the night before!) and because i tried to make it look quite nice, it did take a considerable amount of time.


I started off baking some lemon cupcakes.


I found the recipe from this website kitchenwench, and it turned out really yummy! See recipe below:


Ingredients for cupcakes (makes approx. 16 medium sized cupcakes)
90g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Zest of 1/2 lemon (or 1 lemon if you like)
Juice of 1/4 a lemon (about 3/4 - 1 tbsp)
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/3 tsp baking powder
225g all-purpose flour
3/4 cups whole milk


Method:
1. Preheat your oven to 175 degrees C, and using an electric mixer, cream together your butter and sugar till creamy.

2. Beat in the eggs, vanilla, salt and baking powder and continue beating till the mixture is light and fluffy, then add your lemon zest and juice and beat in for another few minutes.

3. Add your milk and flour in 3 alternating batches, beating well after each addition. Once all the milk and flour has been added, beat at top speed for about 30 sec – 1 minute or till the mixture is smooth and shiny.


4. Line your cupcake baking tray with cupcake liners and fill each liner about 1/2 full. 


5. Remove them from the oven and place on a cooling rack till they have completely cooled. While they are cooling, start to prep your lemon buttercream.


Ingredients for lemon buttercream (makes enough to just cover the tops of about 16 medium sized cupcakes)


175g icing sugar
85g slightly salted butter
zest of 1/2 lemon 
1 tbsp lemon juice


Method:
1. Cream icing sugar and butter with an electric whisk. Start on low speed to prevent the mixture from going everywhere.


2. Add the lemon juice and lemon zest, increase speed of mixer and beat the buttercream until it becomes pale, light and fluffy.


*note: you can store the buttercream for up to 2 weeks in the fridge in an airtight container.


Now, the hard, but really fun part - decorating the cupcakes! After much consideration, i decided on the following patterns.

Close-ups of illustrations v the actuals:
First up, the Christmas tree cupcake 

Next, the snowman 

Then, santa

Then the starry-eyed cupcakes

 And lastly, the buttercream swirl cupcakes

Now for the packaging!

It was nice to be able to do something for charity especially at this time of year! Hope that the collection from my contribution was able to help someone less privileged out.