Spring Cupcakes

So, Spring is here! Well according to the Met Office it is; they say Spring starts on the 1st March. According to my thermostat Spring has not yet sprung. I do however have one crocus blooming in my lawn, so maybe its time to celebrate the end of winter. After a trip to the WHSmiths craft section where I found these lovely petal cupcake cases and some other cake baking goodies I decided to force Spring on the inside of my house, even if its not warming up outside yet.

my favourite thing - new crafting supplies

I'm not very good at piping yet, but I do like experimenting to see what I can achieve, so I purchased leaf and drop flower nozzles. I thought these would go quite well with the cake cases. To hide the bits where its gone a bit wrong add some more spring feeling I found some lovely sugar butterflies. I also thought I'd try some piping bag ties as no matter how well I twist the bag I always seem to get covered in icing coming out of the wrong end - and they were brilliant.

Its surprisingly easy to pipe leaves

I have a new favourite piping nozzle (yes, I am aware that's a bit of an odd thing to have). The drop flower nozzle gives amazing results - just look at the cake in the top right of the pictures above, it looks like a rose. I was also very pleased with the leaves I made, I'm going to have to do a floral cake again soon.

I was slightly disappointed with the cake cases; they didn't quite fit my muffin tin, so a couple of them folded in on themselves, which made them very hard to ice. I don't know if the cases are too big, or my muffin tin too small, but I've never had this problem before.

Whilst looking at YouTube videos for the correct technique for my new nozzles I stumbled across someone making buttercream roses and discovered that to do that I need a "flower nail", oh dear, more shopping, woe is me! 

If you'd like to see my Google+ story of my shopping trip click here.

Disclaimer: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric. All opinions are my own.