Shewee! But things have been busy in our kitchen! and I embarked on this adventure on Sunday. We decided to divide and conquer and we finished her pride flag cupcakes yesterday morning so that she could take them to school to distribute to her other friends - so thoughtfully prepared by Aime to make sure each friend got the cupcake that represents how they identify themselves. She even made a cis-gendered cupcake for one of her friends. Everyone had a good laugh when they bit into their cupcakes and discovered the secret strawberry filling! They were all joking that even people who identify as straight are still just a little bit gay inside π€£π€£π€£
Aime took over decorating the regular cupcakes while I was struggling to bake the heart shaped cake layers and the heart shaped cupcakes. It turned out that I was overfilling the baking trays. This lead to the cake layer/ cupcakes rising gorgeously and then collapsing on themselves. Lesson learnt.
It also took forever to get the cake/ cupcakes to bake through and it was a case of switcheroo in the oven to make sure the cupcakes and the cake layers didn't burn on top - switching between levels in the oven. All this messing around and opening and closing the oven was also a big no no, but it had to be done, and actually, everything turned out fine! Well sort of...
The second batch of cupcakes decided to rise by spreading all over the cupcake tray instead of rising upwards, like the previous batch. I don't know what I did wrong. Same batter, same process. They also stuck horribly to the bottom which was so sad. The first batch came out so perfectly. I probably needed to bake from the bottom a bit longer, but the cupcake tray is not transparent, so there's no way of really knowing what's going on in there.
I tried trimming the edges so carefully this morning but I decided that it was just going to be too much effort - and I am running low on icing - to finish them, so I just gave them to the kids to munch. No complaints there :p
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This still leaves me with about 7 or 8 heart cupcakes and the double layer cake.
Since we focused completely, decorating-wise on Aime's flag cupcakes, I decided to wait till she was done before I started icing my items as we were going for totally different colour pallets.
Unfortunately, left unsupervised, Aime used a little too much of the icing and I may have to make some more. Lets see how far I can stretch this batch.
This morning, after leaving the base white and strawberry icing out of the fridge overnight to soften, so I could easily apply the base coat/ crumb coat to my goodies. Its a step I normally don't bother with, but since I am trying to bake more professionally, I've found that its a step that's actually super important.
The main colour was supposed to be white with strawberry filling and decorations/piping, but Aime left me lots of strawberry icing and hardly any white icing, so I had to adapt by switching them around. It actually doesn't matter and still looks cool. It also means that the top is white, and therefore will be easier to write on and place my decorations.
I was scheming all afternoon and all night about how I was going to get this all right since my original plan was turned upside down. I couldn't do much yesterday as I overdid the cooking and baking this weekend and my back needed a day off.
It was difficult to relax or nap as my brain was swimming with ideas. I even figured out a wonderful way to incorporate the lime syrup that bought me! Taste wise, it will go well with the strawberry icing as long as it's balanced out with plain buttercream and I don't use too much. I assume its super concentrated. I'm going to use it to craft the vines for my flowers!
photo taken after a nice bath and a blow dry - definitely NOT what I looked like at 4am π€£
Lexi looking super confused by my early rising this morning!
I was up at 4am this morning, doing my thing and getting as much as I could done before everyone else woke up. It was nice actually, to just have peace and quiet.
So with the crumb coats completed on both the surviving cupcakes and the main cake, I decided to focus on decorations. All I had left was a large blob of blue coloured fondant. This actually suited my colour scheme perfectly! I used my stamps (which are SO AWESOME) to cut out butterflies, flowers and even leaves, which I achieved by just cutting hearts in half.
I really had a lot of fun, but it's time for the cake, the cupcakes, the decorations and myself to rest before I more onto the next phase - which will hopefully be the final phase! But I think it's all going to be really stunning!
Watch this space for phase 3!