Cakes and Craft

I made a batch of cupcakes this weekend for a new acquaintance. I am glad that she gave me an opportunity (ordering my cupcakes) even though she didn't know me very well.

Her order: Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Swirl

I have yet to make peanut butter frosting even though I've always loved the stuff. When I was young, I once scooped a whole spoon of peanut butter from the jar and greedily swallowed it. I nearly died choking on it, but it tasted soooo good. Obviously, the near-death experience didn't diminish my affection for peanut butter.

My peanut butter swirl is a simple recipe. Three parts smooth peanut butter, one part Nutella – it's a creamy concoction that can't go wrong on anything! Using a 1M star tip, I piped rose swirls onto the chocolate cupcakes.

The cupcakes were meant for a lady celebrating her first year in Singapore – Happy Anniversary! So I was ask to incorporate some deco that would mark the occasion. I really didn't want to deal with fondant as it can be quite time-consuming, so I suggested cupcake toppers!

It's a lot of fun making cupcake toppers using pretty cutouts, printed patterns, etc and attaching them to toothpicks that you can easily insert into the cupcake swirl. This combines two of my favourite handiwork – baking and paper craft!

Handmade 'hearts' and '1s'

With paper craft, the creative possibilities are endless and you can even add personal messages with the toppers. I think this is going to be my new thing for cupcakes, I highly recommend it to anyone looking to get a box of cupcakes with a special message. 

A special arrangement

For my elder boy's first birthday back in 2010, I had actually made cupcake toppers for his 'Ladybug' theme party – Lemon cupcakes with 'Thank You' toppers for the kids.

Jake's 1st Birthday, Nov 2010

This is something that mothers should definitely consider for party cupcakes. It's easily customisable, looks amazing in an arrangement and doesn't add any more sugar to the sweet treat.