How To Bake and Decorate Union Jack Cupcakes

How To Bake and Decorate Union Jack Cupcakes - Biscuiteers

Did you know that alongside hand-iced biscuits, we also specialise in delicious hand-iced cakes and cupcakes? With the Queen's 90th birthday just around the corner, we thought what better time to show you how to bake and decorate our very own fondant topped Union Jack cupcakes?

Our colourful cupcakes are perfect for barbecues and street parties, and here's how to make your very own...

ingredients

  • - For the 12 vanilla cupcakes:
  • - 175g (6 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • - 175g (6 oz) caster sugar
  • - 175g (6 oz) sifted self-raising flour
  • - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • - 3 eggs
  • - For the vanilla buttercream:
  • - 140g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • - 280g/10oz icing sugar
  • - 2 tbsp milk

serves:12

difficulty:easy

30 mins

For the cupcakes
Step 1 - Preheat the oven to 170 C / Gas 3.

Step 2 - Line a cupcake tin with paper cupcake cases - we have a beautiful selection available in our boutiques!

Step 3 - Put the butter and sugar into a mixer and whizz up until light and fluffy.

Step 4 - Pour in the vanilla essence and add the eggs one at a time – mix to make a yellow batter.

Step 5 - Add the flour and mix into the wet batter until it is smooth, for about 5 minutes. Stop once in the middle of this and scrape the sides of your bowl down using a spatula.

Step 6 - Scoop roughly 2 tbsp of the mixture into your cupcake cases.

Step 7 - Place your tray into the oven and bake for about 14 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They will be perfectly cooked when they bounce back to the touch and the top of the cupcakes look slightly sticky. If you want to, you can check if they are cooked through by inserting a tooth pick into the middle of the cupcakes, if it comes out clean – they are ready to be taken out of the oven!

Step 8 - Leave your cupcakes on a cooling rack for 30 minutes or until completely cool.

For the buttercream
Step 1 - For the buttercream icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until soft and pale.

Step 2 - Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

Step 3 - Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth, creamy with no lumps.
Decorating your Union Jack Cupcakes
Step 1 - Now it’s time to decorate your cupcakes using the buttercream icing and blue fondant icing: watch this video on how to decorate your cupcakes.

Step 2 - Roll out your blue fondant to a thickness of about 5mm.
Top tip:
You can use a small amount of icing sugar sprinkled on your work top to prevent the fondant icing sticking!

Step 3 - Cut out 12 circles that measure approximately 7cm in diameter.

Step 4 – Once you have piped your buttercream and covered your cupcakes in fondant you will need to make your icing for your union jack flags. Follow our basic line icing recipe here

Step 5 – Colour half of your line icing with red gel food colouring, and leave the other half white.

Step 6 – Take the red icing and pipe the large cross on your cupcakes, then the smaller red lines.

Step 7 – Use your white icing to pipe either side of all the red lines on your cupcakes.
Step 8 – Once you have decorated all your cupcakes, leave the icing to dry for 15 minutes - and that's it you're ready for a right royal get together!
If don’t have the time to follow this recipe and make your own cupcakes you can have our Union Jack Cupcakes delivered to your door, ahead of your Royal celebrations! We also have a beautiful tin of biscuits to celebrate The Queen's 90th Birthday and are serving up very special Royal Afternoon Tea's in our Icing Cafes throughout June.