Pretty In Blue Cupcakes

 Blogging is a very new hobby for me. It started from a love of baking, which then turned into a love of decorating, then photographing and finally recording my triumphs and losses in writing. Each time I decide to bake, a lot of thought goes into the flavour of cake to make, and how to decorate it. These can be two very separate things, or they can be tied together. This time I feel the decorating and the cake flavour baked are distinct, so they have been divided up. I am so happy with how these cupcakes turned out in both flavour and presentation, and they are my favourite so far.

 This is a carrot cupcake, frosted with a rose swirl of cream cheese frosting (of course!!!) - but more on that including the recipe is in my divine carrot cupcakes post. I then tied some ribbons in bows around the cakes and made some fondant decorations to complete the look. They would be perfect for either a morning tea or as a gift for a deserving person (these are my two favourite excuses for baking cupcakes).

 The rose swirl was achieved using my Wilton 1M piping tip (can also use 2D), but starting in the centre of the cupcake, then piping outwards towards the edge of the paper case. Bella Cupcakes has a fantastic photo tutorial on her blog and this is also a good video of how to create the rose swirl. I think it looks really pretty and will now be using this swirl more often.

The decorations are very simply made from cutting out small hearts from blue fondant and even tinier blossoms with a plunger cutter. Once dry, I attached the blossoms to the hearts with edible glue (or water). I tied lengths of the cute spotted ribbon into bows then attached them to the finished cupcakes using glue and a pin (the pin can be removed once the glue is dry).

Voila - pretty in blue cupcakes