If you follow my Year in Photos entries on Splodz Blogz you’ll know that recently I received a Cupcake Kit from Hey Little Cupcake, which obviously meant I had to try out my baking skills.
This was the photo… (and this was the post)
So you already know that I used my kit and I managed to make cakes. I should also say that they tasted gorgeous. But I wanted to share with you about the kit itself, and how easy it was to make cupcakes one Sunday afternoon.
I am not a baker. I am not very good in the kitchen at all, and while I can happily make biscuits and pastry on the occasions I get time, the ability to make cakes has always been someone else’s skill. But I do LOVE cupcakes… especially the current craze of muffin-sized cakes with equal part cake to butter icing – I like those alot.
The kit I received from Hey Little Cupcake had a valentines theme but I didn’t let that put me off. The mix promised six chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter icing. It included the cake mix, the icing mix, the cupcake cases, some (heart shaped) sprinkles to put on top, a presentation box and some ribbon to put around it. The little note on the side of the box said I needed to provide an egg and some butter… no problem.
The instructions were very clear – the whole process couldn’t have been simpler. I measured out my butter, cracker open the egg, and mixed the cake batter using a spatula (I chose to use the “by hand” method instead of getting the food mixer out). It took a minute or too to make the mixture smooth and put it into the six cupcake cases.
20 minutes later I took the cakes out of the oven – I was already being successful, the cakes looked like – well, cakes! While they cooled I made the chocolate butter icing – once again a very easy task. This was more difficult to make smooth but eventually it was ready to go on teh cakes. I thought about making a piping bag from some baking paper but I figured I’d probably end up in a mess, so I used a teaspoon to pile the icing on instead!
The instructions clearly stated that the butter icing would take about 15 minutes to set, so I was good and waited, although they smelt and looked good and I didn’t want to! So I was good and cleaned up my mess (not much to be fair, one very good reason to use a kit), loaded the dishwasher, and put the kettle on.
Once they were all set and the kitchen was sparkling I put my creations in the presentation box for the purposes of the following photo. But of course I wasn’t giving them away to anyone – these were for me to enjoy!
What a fantastic way to spend a Sunday afternoon. So easy and very tasty. Yes, a kit is cheating, but when you’re as bad at baking as me it’s just as well. The only improvement I can think of… I want to make 12 next time!
Interested in Hey Little Cupcake? You can visit their website to find out more. You can also follow them on Twitter.
