I entered a cupcake competition at the weekend and the theme was music. I didn’t have any ideas in mind so I asked my twitter friends for ideas and one of them came up with the idea!

The cupcakes themselves use the red velvet recipe I tried before.

For the tongues and lips I used flowerpaste and made the items a couple of nights before so they would harden up a bit. I used gel food colouring to colour them – unfortunately I couldn’t get it to turn bright red! To make the templates, print out the image below twice, cutting out the tongue on one. On the other, draw in the rest of the lips and cut them out.

I then cut around the lip templates using the pink/red flowerpaste then I gently brushed them with strawberry jam and sprinkled them with red sanding sugar. Then I cut out the tongues using the pink flowerpaste, and left them to dry with the lips. When they had hardened and dried, I used white writing icing to accent the lips and tongue.

I made some cream cheese buttercream and piped it on using a piping bag, then sprinkled a few edible gold stars on. Then I added the lips and put the tongue on so it poked out.

Nom and roll!

These red velvet cupcakes have been causing me trauma today! I’ve been trying to learn how to make a swirly frosting like in this video:

Unfortunately the recipe I used was for a large red velvet cake, not cupcakes and the frosting wasn’t strong enough to hold the shape when trying to create swirls on top. Instead I found a batch of pre-made vanilla buttercream in the cupboard and used that to practice. I also made my own sugar sand really easily.

These cupcakes make perfect Valentines cupcakes – you can sprinkle these edible heart sprinkles on top too for that loving feeling. Despite being a really thick batter, they are incredibly light.

The recipes I used for the cupcakes is from Red Velvet Cake recipe from Joy Of Baking.com.

Red velvet cupcakes are tradionally frosted with cream cheese but you will need a stiffer mix like this recipe for cream cheese frosting All Recipes.com. Or you could just use a vanilla buttercream recipe – just make sure to put it in the fridge so it stiffens up if you make it yourself. Make swirly frosting on the top of the cupcakes as in the video.

I pre-prepared the sugar by mixing 6tbsp of granulated sugar with 1tsp red liquid food colouring. I stirred it well to ensure all the sugar was red then turned it onto a plate with a piece of kitchen roll to dry it out. Once dried, split up any big pieces with the back of a spoon.

Gently sprinkle the sugar on top of the cupcakes.

I’ve been looking for a very special chocolate cake recipe for a while – one that actually tastes chocolatey. The recipes I have suggest putting a tablespoon of cocoa powder in a normal victoria sponge but this never ever tastes good to me! This recipe doesn’t use any raising agent surprisingly and comes from The Telegraph from many years ago (I only have a photocopy of the page so can’t tell you exactly when or who to credit). It is deliciously moist and the fudge frosting tops it off.

40mins – Prep time: 20mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

For the cake

• 175g plain chocolate, broken into pieces (minimum 64% cocoa solids)
• 175g softened unsalted butter
• 75g unrefined caster sugar
• 4 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 90g ground almonds
• 90g plain flour, sifted

For the chocolate fudge icing

• 125ml milk
• 90g sugar
• 125g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
• 45g unsalted butter

Ingredients

1. Grease and line two 17cm/7inch sandwich tins.
2. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until it melts. Do not let the bowl touch the water and never melt the chocolate directly in a pan as it goes grainy. Stir well.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until frothy and light. Beat in the egg yolks bit by bit. Add the melted chocolate and the ground almonds.
4. Whisk the egg whites in a seperate bowl until soft peaks form. Do not go on beating or they will collapse.
5. Using a large metal spoon, gently fold the egg white and the flour into the mixture bit by bit until it has all been used.
6. Spread the mixture evenly into the sandwich tines and baker for 20 minutes. It’s a good idea to check them after 18 minutes, the sponge should be springy, not firm.
7. Remove the tins from the oven and leave to cool for a couple of minutes before turning them onto a wire rack.
8. To make the icing, bring the milk and sugar to the boil and then stir over a low heat for 5 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chocolate and butter until they have both melted. Pour the icing into a bowl.
9. When cool, put in the fridge to thicken for a couple of hours (this makes it easier to spread).
10. Spread half the icing on top of one cake then sandwich the other cake on top. Then cover the cake top and sides with the rest of the icing. I top mine with some “choco crunchies” cake toppings from Asda.

Add some zing to your chocolate cupcakes with a hint of orange!

50mins – Prep time: 35mins – Cooking time: 15mins

Ingredients

Cake mixture

• 200g self raising flour
• 170g caster sugar
• 170g margarine
• 80g dark chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 6 drops orange essence
• 4 tbsp juice from orange
• 1 tsp baking powder.
• Rind 1/2 an orange

Topping

• 120g butter
• 250g icing sugar
• 3tbsp juice from orange
• 3 drops orange essence
• 80g plain chocolate
• Ringe 1/2 an orange to decorate

Instructions

1. Lay out cupcake cases (about 18). If you use silicon you can lay them on a flat baking tray, if you use paper ones, I advise using a bun tin to make the cakes hold their shape.
2. Whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 4 minutes with an electric hand whisk and beat air into the mix so it fluffs up.
3. Bit by bit, sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed, then mix in the orange essence and rind.
4. Melt the chocolate and spoon into the chocolate and mix in too.
5. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases, ensuring you smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
6. Put the cupcakes into the oven for 10-15 minutes until they feel spongey on top.
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly. Meanwhile begin make the frosting by melting the chocolate.
8. Mix the butter, icing sugar and orange juice and essence until the mixture goes pale and fluffy, then add the chocolate.
9. Pipe chocolate buttercream onto the cupcakes and finish with a few strangs of orange rind

There’s nothing like indulging in a little luxury from time to time and Charbonnel & Walker chocolates offer you just that. I could hardly contain my excitement when I discovered they had a shop in Leeds where you can choose your own little boxes of treats. My particular favourite are strawberry truffles which is truffle encased in a delicious strawberry coating. My mum always buys me the champagne ones at Christmas, when they come in a gorgeous round pink box.

The best bit is that you can choose single chocolates to put in box and they come thoughtfully tied with ribbon. I think I’ll be putting them in my Christmas hampers this year. My little box of six cost me £6.80.

Pop into the shop or you can order online at www.charbonnel.co.uk