Celebrating National Cupcake Week

I have to confess that I am probably THE world’s worst cook!!!  Luckily for me, I have an amazing husband who’s a great cook – and who actually enjoys being in the kitchen.  

For me, the kitchen is a scary place, where dangers lurk in every drawer and cupboard!  The last time I attempted to make dinner, for example, I plugged in the blender without realising that the button was switched to ‘on’.  Ooooops!!!!!  My husband heard the blender start up at the same time as my scream of shock and came running in, thinking I’d blended myself.  Luckily, I’d only blended all the blender attachments and lid (that we keep inside the blender when we’re not using it)!

So.....  I tend to avoid the kitchen as much as possible!  But, loving all things pretty, I bought myself the ‘Bake-a-Boo Bakery Cookbook’ (by Zoe Berkeley) a few months ago.  My husband nearly died of shock when he saw what I’d picked up! 

When I realised that this week has been National Cupcake Week (check out www.nationalcuocakeweek.co.uk for some mouth-watering recipes and photos), I thought I’d get out my scrumptious little book and venture back into the kitchen.  This time, thank goodness, there were no disasters!  I decided to use the basic fairy cake recipe (starting off my baking career as simply as possible), and put pink butter cream on top.  This photo from the book was my initial inspiration for icing.....  

..... but I thought I’d give the sugar craft flowers a miss and use hundreds & thousands (along with some cute cocktail sticks I found in the drawer) to decorate my cakes.

Here are all my ingredients, laid out nicely.

And here they are again, all mixed up and ready to go into the oven.  Of course, there was a tiny bit of mixture left in the bowl for me!

While the cakes were in the oven, I mixed up the butter cream.  Mmmmm!!!  I had to fight off the temptation to just stick my head into the bowl and lick away!

And.....  TADA!!!  Here are my finished cupcakes! 

I know they’re absolutely no match for the ones in the book, but they look girly and pretty – and they taste okay!  If I made them again, there are a few things I’d try to change.  The icing could have been thicker and more creamy.  And I think I left the cakes in the oven for a few minutes longer than I should have.  Next time, I might try the recipe for ‘dainty lemon cakes’, though.  They sound (and look) yummy!  But, until National Cupcake Week 2012, that’s it from the Crafted by Carly kitchen.....

Now I’m off to have another cake.....

Carly

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