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The Olympics are finally here! Olympic themed cupcakes this week with an unusual mix of flavours fit for a champion!
Published 31 July 2012 by Veronica Stillwater
The Olympics are finally here! Olympic themed cupcakes this week with an unusual mix of flavours fit for a champion!
The Olympics are finally here and fully under way. If you are a fan, I am sure you will love to bake and make these for friends and family if perhaps visiting the Olympic stadium or on an afternoon or weekend with guests watching the Olympics events at home.
I chose to be adventurous on the flavours this week and chose apricot, ginger and cardamom. The apricot is really well accompanied by these 2 spices and adds an interesting flavour combination that makes for a nice change. These are soft, crumbly, rich and full of flavour.
I chose a simple decoration, one that would be easily achievable if there were children involved in the baking and making of these. I had been given the job of babysitter for a young teenage boy and his friend, so they were delighted to pitch in and help with the decorating when I told them the theme would be the Olympics. They both love football, swimming and cycling and were just as eager to help in the making of them as well as the eating of course! There is also a silly and fun little snake topper that's easy to make and will be loved by children and adults alike!
For the cupcakes you will need:
Food processor
Spatula
Tablespoon
12 cup muffin baking tray
12 muffin paper cases
Teaspoon
Cup
Kettle
Pestle and mortar
Chopping Board
Small knife
Ingredients:
220g Self raising flour
100g granulated sugar
2 Large sized eggs
100g butter or margarine
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
125ml milk
1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
3 cardamom pods
2 tablespoons ginger conserve
180g dried apricots
Turn on the oven and set to 180°
Fill the kettle with water and put on to boil. Roughly chop the dried apricots into chunks, place in the cup and cover with the boiled water from the kettle. Set aside.
Place the butter and sugar in the food processor and pulse blitz until pale and fluffy. Remove the outer shell of the cardamom pods and grind to a fine powder using the pestle and mortar, place in the food processor. Drain the apricots and discard the water.
Add the drained apricots and remaining ingredients and pulse blitz again until all the ingredients are fully combined and a smooth spoon dropping consistency is achieved.
Using a tablespoon, spoon a tablespoon of mixture into each of the 12 muffin cases.
Place in the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes checking at the 30 minute mark on their progress. You can always test by inserting a clean skewer into one of the cakes; if it comes out clean they are ready, if not return to the oven checking with the skewer again at 5 minute intervals.
For the frosting you will need:
Food processor
Piping bag
Small petal nozzle/tip
Spatula
Ingredients:
750g icing sugar
35g butter
2 tablespoons cream cheese
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon hot water
Place all the ingredients in the food processor and pulse blitz on a low speed setting at first to combine all the ingredients, once you can see a piping consistency starting to take form, turn the machine off, remove the lid and using the spatula, scrape any dry ingredients from the sides and lid into the centre of the mixture to avoid any lumps. Replace the lid turn the machine back on and pulse blitz on a high speed setting until a smooth piping consistency is achieved.
Using the spatula, fill your piping bag ready with your small petal nozzle/tip with the frosting.
Decorate the cupcakes using a continuous and close zigzag pattern working from just off centre , leaving a final area to fill in at the centre, working around the cake in towards the centre and out and back in again, continuously. leaving a ten pence piece size roughly of uncovered cake in the centre. Then fill in the middle using the same continuous zigzag motion but instead just piping from left to right.
For the Olympic rings and plaques/medals:
You will need:
Palette knife
Work surface
Pint glass and large cookie cutter
Rolling pin
Alphabet embossers (received with issue 3)
Clean small paint brush
Toothpick
Ingredients:
50g sugar paste or fondant icing
2 tablespoons icing sugar
1-2 drops of green food colouring
1-2 drops of red food colouring
1-2 drops of yellow food colouring
1-2 drops of blue food colouring
40g fondant icing or sugar paste
1-2 drops orange food colouring
Pea sized amount of edible gold dusting powder
Few drops water
1 tablespoon icing sugar
Split your fondant icing or sugar paste into 5 10g portions. Add a drop or two of the food colouring for each of the separate colours to each 10g portion, work the colour into the fondant by rolling in between your hands lightly dusted with icing sugar, washing your hands clean after each colour has been well blended with the fondant before moving onto the next colour. Repeat with each colour until you have 5 different coloured balls of fondant icing.
Be careful not to let the colours blend and allow enough work space to be able to work with the 5 separate colours in their own areas to avoid merging of the different the colours.
Lightly dust the work surface with the icing sugar and working with one colour at a time, roll between your fingers to form a long thin sausage. Using the palette knife, cut into 10 pieces of 2 inch lengths and join the ends of each 2 inch length to form a ring.
You can dampen a finger and smooth off the edges of the join using your fingers as well as using the edge of the palette knife to create and smooth the curve at the join. Lift each ring from the work surface and place on a clean area of the work surface to dry. I found that 10 minutes was ample time for drying using fondant icing.
Repeat with the remaining colours until you have 10 rings of each colour ready.
Place the rings in order, on each of the cakes, yellow and green first then place the blue black and red slightly overlapping the yellow and green rings.
Dust the work surface with the icing sugar and using the rolling pin to roll out the fondant icing until you can cut 2 circles using the cookie cutter and pint glass rim, I used 2 different sizes of circles for the plaques.
Using the palette knife, gently glide the knife under each of the circles gently and slowly to remove them gently from the work surface in case they are stuck to it. Using the alphabet embossers as received in issue 3, imprint the word Olympics around the outer edge of each of the circles. Press gently so as not to make the circle attach itself back to the work surface. Once you have imprinted the words for each, using the edible gold dusting powder (just a small pea sized amount is more than enough with a drop of water to fill in and paint the wording as well as numbering). Once you have filled in all the areas of the wording, using the edible gold dust and paintbrush paint the numbering 2012 just below the word Olympics on the larger of the 2 circles. Allow the edible gold dusting powder to dry and using a toothpick, outline the numbering 2012 by pricking the surface creating dots all the way around the edges of the numbers to create a border effect.
Take an already frosted cupcake and flatten the top using the palette knife, gently lift the plaques one by one using the palette knife and place each of them on top of the frosting, pressing gently and lightly as possible using the flat side of the palette knife to fix it in place. For the larger of the 2 plaques, pinch the edges together at 3cm apart intervals all the way around, in the same way you would for a pie crust edging. With the other plaque, gently place on top in a central position.
For the silly fun snakes:
I had a little fondant icing spare, approx 20g and thought I would get the children to make a silly snake, they named him 'bug eye' rather appropriately. So if you're not in the mood for celebrating the Olympics or just not a fan, then these are great fun and a little silly too.
You can use red and brown fondant icing for the body, but you could use any colours of your choice. Take a small amount of white fondant icing for the eyes and some more of the red for the tongue.
Roll the brown fondant icing out into a chunky sausage shape, leaving a larger amount for the head and pinching in at the sides a centimeter in from the end to create a head. At the other end, roll out to a point to create a tail. Then roll out the red fondant icing into a long and thin sausage shape cut a 2 inch piece off of the end and cut to create a split only cutting half of the length in this way. Gently pull apart the split using the palette knife to create a forked tongue. Set aside. With the remaining roll of red fondant icing, wrap this around the brown fondant icing snake and gently roll to incorporate the two colours together to make up the two-tone body. If necessary, reshape the head a little if the rolling has altered the shape in any way. Slightly curve the tail in towards the body.
Roll 2 very small balls using the white fondant icing and place on either side of the head, dipping the brush in a little water and brushing the area where the eyes are to be applied in order for the eyes to remain in position. Allow to dry for a minute or so and then roll 2 smaller balls from the white fondant icing and brush the first 2 balls already in position with the already dampened brush and place the smaller ball on each of them, gently pushing in place. Allow to dry. Using the paint brush, a drop of water and some edible black dusting powder, paint the smaller balls of the eyes black. Allow to dry. Take the tongue and place under the head, leaving enough of the tongue sticking out to show its a forked tongue. The snake can be lifted in one piece, using the palette knife to place on your cupcake as your topper when you have frosted your cupcake. The frosting is the same recipe for the frosting as detailed in this post, just a few drops of green food colouring added. For the grass effect frosting, you can use a particular nozzle called a grass tip, but if you don't have one of these, you can opt to use a writing nozzle size 2 and pipe singular lines starting at one point on the cake raising up and towards you, easing off on the pressure to finish as well as piping across and over existing piping to get a rough looking grass effect. Until next week! Happy baking!