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Party Hat Cupcakes

Published 12 December 2012 by Veronica Stillwater

Using two different piping nozzles to achieve a party hat cupcake!

 

T'is almost the season! Party hat cupcakes!

Well, Christmas is almost upon us and I decided to do some piping that made these cupcakes look like party hats that often come with Christmas crackers for a little bit of fun. It would be great to also make up a batch like this and decorate them using different colours just like the paper party hats. For the frosting I chose to use a dusky pink along with a darker shade of red and using two types of open star nozzle, these were really simple to do and would look great in any colour choice. The cupcake sponge is vanilla with a hint of cinnamon for some winter warming flavour and these are a party treat that is quick and easy, hope you enjoy this week's recipe.

For the cupcakes:

You will need:

Food processor

12 cup muffin baking tray
12 muffin paper cases
Teaspoon　Tablespoon　

Ingredients:
115g butter or margarine
115g sugar
220g self raising flour

2 large eggs
1 level teaspoon baking powder
125ml milk

 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

 

Turn on the oven, set to 180° and fill the muffin baking tray with the paper muffin cases.

Place the butter and sugar in the food processor bowl, place on the lid, switch on and blitz until light, pale and fluffy. Switch the machine off, remove the lid and add the remaining ingredients. Replace the lid, switch the machine on and pulse blitz until a smooth spoon dropping consistency. Switch the machine off, remove the lid and using the tablespoon or an ice-cream scoop, place equal quantities of the cake mixture into each of the muffin cases. Once all are filled, place the baking tray in the oven near or just above the middle shelf and bake for 35-40 minutes, checking at 30 minutes cooking time on their progress. The cakes will appear golden, will have risen and be firm to the touch.

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. (Always really important never to open the oven door and allow any air in before 30 minutes of cooking as this will allow for the mixture to 'drop' and sink, look through the oven door if you have one that's made of glass to visually check on their progress rather than open the door). Once baked, using oven gloves remove the baking tray from the oven and rest on a trivet. Allow to cool completely.

 

 

For the frosting and toppers:

You will need:

Electric whisk

Large mixing bowl

Spatula

Small open star nozzle

Large open star nozzle

Piping bag

Ingredients:

65g butter

700g icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1-2 teaspoons hot water

Red food colouring (preferably powdered)

Blue food colouring (preferably powdered)

With the exception of the food colouring, place all the ingredients in the large mixing bowl and gently combine using the spatula to begin with to save the icing sugar causing dust from going everywhere in the kitchen, (you can also use a mixer or food processor for this process too). Once all the ingredients are combined and coming together you can switch to using the electric whisk to get a smooth and lump free piping consistency. Add a very little amount of blue food colouring, just a pinch and a little of the red food colouring, again just a pinch or two to achieve a dusky pink shade. It is always best to add colour little by little until you achieve the required shade. Whisk in until the colours are combined and a dusky pink shade is seen. Fill your piping bag ready with your small open star nozzle with approx 2 tablespoons of the dusky pink frosting.

Pipe in a circular motion around the outer edge of the cupcake, start at the edge, applying moderate pressure circling back round in a neat circular motion until you have a ring and are back at your start point. Repeat again over the top of the first piped ring, stop applying pressure and pull the piping bag quickly away from the frosting to finish. Repeat for all cupcakes until all have a dusky pinky frosting as above.

 

Add a little more red food colouring a pinch at a time to the remaining frosting in the bowl until you achieve a darker shade. Fill your piping bag ready with your small open star nozzle and pipe a small rosette in the centre of each of the cupcakes. Start to pipe at the centre with moderate pressure, you really want to only do one circular rotation coming back to meet the piping start point and slightly finishing with the piping just off centre, releasing the pressure and pulling the piping bag quickly away to finish. Repeat for all the cupcakes until all cupcakes have a small rosette in the centre. Fill your piping bag ready with your large open star nozzle with the remaining red frosting and start to pipe peaks all the way around the top of the cupcake between the rosette and the first large circular swirls. Apply moderate pressure, piping in the one position allowing the frosting to flow and form it's own star like shape and to finish with a peak, ease off on the pressure and pull the piping bag up and away quickly to finish. Repeat the peaks all the way round to fill the gap. Once complete, repeat for all the cupcakes until finished. Ready to serve and enjoy! Until Next week, happy baking! Look out for next week's post with snowman modelling for making snowman cupcake toppers!