Monday 15 August 2011

RSPCA Cupcake Day 2011


Today was my third year of participation in the RSPCA Cupcake Day, and it was a success once again... Thanks to the support of my family, friends and colleagues I raised $360 for the RSPCA! Hurrah, and a big thank you to everyone for their support of this wonderful cause :)

Vanilla cupcake with vanilla buttercream


This year I decided to keep my cupcakes simple, but no less delicious. I made my usual favourite chocolate cupcakes topped with ganache, as well as something new - a lovely Nutella cupcake which went down a treat with my fellow Nutella-addict friends. The recipe comes from this The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook - if you are keen for me to do a post on this recipe, please let me know!

'Nutella Lovers' cupcake

I also offered vanilla cupcakes with four different butter cream flavours - vanilla, strawberry, lavender and passionfruit. And because I'm not at all a fan of essences (oh don't even get me started!), I used all natural ingredients to create scrummy flavours. My favourite of the four was the strawberry buttercream - Mmmmm!

Vanilla cupcake with lavender buttercream

Vanilla cupcake with passionfruit buttercream

Vanilla cupcake with strawberry buttercream

Here is my recipe for you, my lovely readers...

Ladybird's Strawberry Buttercream (enough to generously top a dozen cupcakes)

an original Diary of a Ladybird recipe

125g unsalted butter, at room temperature
pinch of salt
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
250g punnet strawberries, washed and hulled
2 tablespoons caster sugar, plus extra to taste
1 tablespoon lemon juice, plus extra to taste
pink food colouring (optional)

1. First start on the strawberry syrup that will flavour the buttercream. Blitz the strawberries to a fine puree. Combine in a a small saucepan along with the caster sugar and lemon juice. Stirring occasionally, bring to a simmer over low-medium heat. Reduce to low heat and stir frequently until the liquid has reduced to a thick syrup. Taste as you go, adding more lemon juice / caster sugar as required. Pass the syrup through a fine sieve and set aside in the fridge to cool.

2. Now start on the buttercream. Using an electric mixer, beat together the butter, vanilla extract and pinch of salt for a minute. Then beat in the icing sugar a third at a time, mixing well and scraping down the bowl after each addition to keep the mixture light and fluffy.

3. Finally, mix in the cooled strawberry syrup until well combined. If the mixture is a little wet for spreading/piping, simply add extra icing sugar. At this point you could also add a little pink food colouring if you wanted to enhance the colour, but I find that the syrup itself gives colours the buttercream nicely.


Till next time, dear readers

Ladybird x

16 comments:

  1. Congratulations on such sweet little cupcakes and raising so much money for a great cause!
    You should certainly post the recipe, and the recipe for the lavender buttercream too please :)

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  2. The cupcakes all look so beautiful! I would love to see a post about the Nutella Cupcakes - my nephews are addicted to the stuff :)
    Congrats on raising so much money for a great cause!

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  3. Despite being a nutella lover through and through, my favourites so far were the Lavender and Strawberry buttercream cupcakes. I am saving the rich chocolate one until tomorrow! Thanks Ladybird x

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  4. Good work
    very nice cupcakes.

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  5. Thanks for your comments, everyone!

    Hi InTolerant Chef - the lavender buttercream is a piece of cake! Grind up about half a teaspoon of culinary lavender seeds with a little white sugar in a mortar and pestle and add that a little at a time (taste as you go) to a standard vanilla buttercream recipe(I used 125g unsalted butter, a pinch of salt, 2 cups icing sugar and a dash of milk). You can also add a little purple colouring if desired :)

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  6. Love the way you piped those cupcakes, they look lovely.

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  7. Oh ladybird I love you! I have just polished off the 'save the best till last' Rich Chocolate cupcake, I am in cupcake heaven, will you marry me and bake me cupcakes forever???
    The cupcake itself was so light fluffy and moist, topped with delicious rich chocolate icing mmmmm.

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  8. ohh such a good job on the cupcakes and for such a good cause too :D all the cupcakes look oh so lovely

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  9. Well done! The passionfruit buttercream looks so good, reminds me summer is getting closer!

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  10. Nice work, I picked up a couple of cupcakes at my workplace for cupcake day although they were lovingly made I must say wouldn't have minded some of your passionfruit or lavender ones. They look delish!

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  11. Hi! I found you following a pin on pinterest of your beautiful tea cup cupcake. I love all your other cupcakes and p-l-e-a-s-e share the Nutella recipe (and the passionfruit too).
    THANK YOU!!!
    Junia

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  12. Hi Anna! These cupcakes are so beautiful, and all for such a good cause. As much disaster as making the simplest cupcakes cause me, I'll make sure to try the strawberry buttercream icing one day! Yum!

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