Pirate Cupcakes

'Raaaacccchh' I heard my sister say one evening last week. I waited patiently to find out what she was going to ask me for. Turns out she'd had a great idea for an end of year gift for all of the children in her reception class. They have been learning all about pirates so Alice thought that a fitting end of year gift would be for each of them to have a themed cupcake, wrapped in cellophane with a little personal message on a tag. The only problem she has was that she cannot bake at all (that's not me being cruel - she would say the same about herself). Hence the 'Raaaaaaccccchhh'!

After a quick browse on Pinterest and a chat on twitter with some fellow bakers I had a rough idea in my head - now it was all in the baking. I've never really used fondant icing before apart from with with shop brought cutters so this was going to test my artistic skills as I'd have to model the fondant to get the look I was after. Whilst I can be creative - execution is not my strong suit so this was a real test. Thankfully they turned out ok - I just hoped that the kiddies like them! Since writing this they have been given them and they got a big thumbs up!

Right then - lets get baking!

Chocolate Cupcakes: Baked by Harry

A few weeks ago my sister had some very special guests to our house, her best friend, her husband and their very special little boy Harry who is now a whole 3 years old.

Harry loves animals so on the Sunday of their visit the plan was for a day trip to our local zoo, Twycross. One of the most important parts of a family day trip is the picnic, and the most important component in a picnic (in my opinion as a baker) is cake! So, the plan was for Harry to have an early morning baking lesson to make chocolate cakes to be the star feature of the picnic.

I am an early riser and on this occasion it was no different, I got up extra early to get everything ready for my little baker friend who joined me as soon as he woke up to begin baking.

For this recipe Harry and I used my go to sponge recipe and adapted it slightly to make them chocolatey.