This weekend we've enjoyed an early birthday party for one of my sons that he shared with a few of his friends from school. Thirty of the most energetic six year olds (and younger) gathered for madness and mayhem. I've kind of (unwittingly) introduced a tradition in our household for three celebration cakes for every birthday (one for the party, one to take into school and one for tea on the big day itself). It's quite a challenge! Especially coming up with three cake designs that have male street cred! As there were going to be four (!) party cakes, we decided that I'd make cupcakes as they're so much easier to hand out whilst the big cakes were being cut up.
This year, it's all about Harry Potter. We're reading each of the books before he's allowed to watch the film and he LOVES it. So he challenged me with designing a set of cupcakes that reflected the most memorable things and for us they were: Harry, Ron, Hermione, snitch, firebolt, book of spells, sorting hat, Harry's glasses and wand and his scarf. It was great fun creating them. And the hardest bit? Crazily it was creating the base board which was covered with sugarpaste, impressed with woodgrain and then painted with (edible) brown airbrush paint. But I really wanted something to set off the cupcakes so it was completely worth it.
The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate buttercream (my most favourite recipe is the Primrose Bakery chocolate cupcakes) and the toppers were completely edible, made from sugarpaste. Any painted features were added with Sugarflair Edible Tints mixed with a little vodka. Although they did take a little time to create, the toppers were made earlier in the week and then added to cupcakes made fresh on the day so it felt relatively easy!
And the biggest reward for all the hard work is just looking at their little faces as the cakes are presented to the room with candles and the pride on my little boy's face that they were his birthday cupcakes, designed just for him.
I was just glad that I didn't have to do any of the tidying up :)
