Birthday Cupcakes

This past weekend we all went to Kent for a family birthday. My Uncle Barry was 70 and it was my mum's birthday yesterday too.

Its weird how my mum, her brother and his two children all have a birthday in the same week. My cousins are even on the same day... 5 years apart.

So, with a big celebration I was tasked with making the cake. The brief was chocolate cake and enough to feed around 30.


Now, im not great making big cakes, in fact, id say im below a beginner, I just can't get my head around the long cooking times compared to cupcakes (which for me are my speciality) and plus, the drive down in a hot car does not make me anymore confident, so instead I decided it would be best if we bought a chocolate cake and I would decorate it, and also do 48 cupcakes. 24 in pink for my mum and cousin Jocelyn, and another 24 in blue for my Uncle Barry and cousin Neal - both Man City fans (poor things)

We got the cake from Costco, and wow did it look amazingly good. (it tasted amazing too - theres no way I could have trumped this one)

I made 48 cupcakes on the Thursday night and packaged them away in my carry case ready for our Friday morning commute. I would be frosting them at my aunty and uncles house on the Friday night ready for the Saturday party.

We arrived later than planned so while my dad and Uncle Dennis along with Fred, my sister and her boyfriend went to the pub to watch the England match, I stayed home with the intention of frosting the cupcakes. Instead, I watched the match and rested my feet. 2 hours of start stop traffic on the Dartford Bridge did nothing for my tootsies.

So Saturday morning and I start to frost the cakes. It takes me an AGE using my auntys mixer (which im guessing how to use as I go along) to make the blue frosting. It just wants to turn green because I cant whip the butter white enough. Its my own fault, this would have taken me next to no time in my trusty Kenwood - something I know how to use and know how long it takes to work. About a billion years later, we had blue frosting. I pop it in my piping bag and begin swirling on the cakes. I top half the blue cakes with footballs.

The pink take a millisecond to make - seriously, it whips perfectly and colours instantly (although by this time my aunty is cooking chicken and sausages which is making the kitchen warm)

I pipe onto the remaining cakes and top half with mini butterflies (which is something quite personal in our family - it reminds us of my nanna)

Heres the final result...