LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS

With the London 2012 Olympics opening this weekend, why not have your own Opening Ceremony Party and impress your guests with these easy to make cupcakes :) (Opening ceremony begins 9pm GMT on Friday 27th July)

OLYMPIC CUPCAKES

Ingredients

150g caster sugar

150g butter

130g self-raising flour

20g cornflour

3 medium eggs

2 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the buttercream

100g butter, room temperature

250g icing sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp milk

For the decoration

390g white fondant icing

Ice Blue, Red and egg yellow paste food colourings

Rainbow Dust Gold paint (purplecakes.co.uk)

Equipment you'll need

Deep muffin tin

12 paper muffin cases (Union Jack cases from cakecraftworld.co.uk)

Small writing piping nozzle or toothpick 

1cm, 1.5cm and 2cm tear drop cutters or you can cut the shapes by hand

Alphabet embossers or edible pen

Two paint brushes, one very fine for the embossed letters and one medium for painting the torch

Method

To make the cakes: Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Place 12 cases in your muffin tin.

Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla extract until light and fluffy (about 5 mins). Combine the flour and cornflour.

Add 1 egg, one-third of the flour mix and a splash of milk and beat until just combined. Repeat until all the ingredients are added.

Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 20-25 mins.

Cool in the tin for 10 mins before moving to a wire rack to cool.

To make the buttercream: Add butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 mins with an electric whisk until smooth. 

Gradually whisk in the milk if you need to loosen the mixture.

To decorate: Colour 300g of fondant blue and roll out to 5mm thick. Cut 12 circles large enough to fit the top of the cakes (Victoria used a 6.5cm cutter), emboss 'London 2012' on each circle as you cut it. It's best to emboss immediately as the fondant will crack if you leave it too long.

Roll 70g of white fondant to 3mm thick and using a sharp knife cut 12 cone shapes for the torches using the circle cutter to cut the top where the flames are and the edge by the cake case.

Using the writing nozzle (or toothpick) emboss little circles onto the torch and stick it to the blue circles (toppers) with a brush of water. Using the gold paint, paint the torches and the embossed lettering.

To make the flames: Colour 10g fondant red and 10g yellow and lightly knead the two together so you get a nice 'flame like' pattern. Roll out to 3mm thick and cut out flame shapes using 1cm, 1.5cm and 2cm teardrop cutters or shape by hand. Arrange the 'flames' on top of the torches starting with the outside in, sticking with a brush of water, the smallest flames first, and the largest in the centre.

Spread a little buttercream over each cupcake and place a topper on each one.

Makes: 12

Prep time: 1 hr 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hr 35 mins

Enjoy!

Marilyn x