Want to add a bit of vintage glamour to your cupcakes? Follow our cupcake flag tutorial to make your cupcakes the talk of the tea party!

The most sort after style for wedding cupcakes in the last few years (and no doubt years to come), has been vintage. So we thought we’d show you how we make our flags, specially designed to add that vintage shabby chic touch to your cupcakes.

What you’ll need.

Blue Door Bakery cupcake flag template (Download here)
Cocktail sticks
Card suitable for printing (we’ve used cream coloured)
Scissors
Sellotape
Craft glue
Ribbon or ready-tied bows

1. Download the BDB cupcake flag template and print out on your card.

2. Once done carefully cut out your flag shapes.

3. Using a very small piece of sellotape, stick a cocktail stick to the back of your card so that the top is hidden (not poking over the top of your card!)

4. Tie your ribbon in bows or buy ready tied bows for a few pence from your local wool/craft shop (we love our local wool shop, Stepalong in Wollaston, for all our crafty bits and pieces!)

5. Then, to finish your flag, dab a very small amount of glue to the pointier side of your card. Gently press a bow into place.

6. Use and reuse at dinner parties and weddings to make your cupcakes that little bit more fabulous than they were already!

Don’t forget to show us photos of you using your flags by posting them to our Facebook page, we’d love to see!

Jenny x

Halloween is just around the corner so to make your haunting cupcake collection complete we thought we’d show you how to make our favourite sugarpaste pumpkin!

You’ll need:

Sugarpaste coloured orange (we like Sugarflair Gel Colour in Tangerine/Apricot)
Sugarpaste coloured green (we used a mixture of Sugarflair Gel Colour in Holly Green and Party Green)
CMC Powder
Palette Knife
Rolling Pin
Daisy Plunger Cutter
Ball Tool
Edible Glue
Paintbrush

1. Mix a little CMC powder in with both your orange and green sugarpaste to stiffen it up and help it hold its pumpkin shape better.

2. Take your orange sugarpaste and in the palm of your hand, roll it into a ball.

3. Place it onto a flat surface and gently squash it down a little to make your pumpkin nice and plump.

4. Using your palette knife carefully mark the sides of your pumpkin to create indents around it, leaving the top side of the pumpkin smooth.

5. Put your pumpkin to one side and roll out your green sugar paste. Cut out your daisy shape and put to one side.

6. Using a peanut sized amount of green sugar paste create your stalk, gently rolling it into a thin sausage shape, with one end slightly thicker than the other. Curl the thinner end around to give it a bit of character and tidy up the thicker end by trimming with your palette knife.

7. Now glue your daisy to the top of your pumpkin.

8. Using the smaller end of your ball tool, make an indent in the centre of your daisy, large enough to hold your stalk.

9. Brush with a little bit of glue and add your stalk.

10. Add to cupcakes to wow your friends at any ghoulish gathering of ghosts and ghouls.

Happy Halloween!

Jenny x

1. You’ll actually miss baking.

To start with you’ll sit at your desk a lot more than you bake. I had no real concept of this when I started. Suddenly, I really missed Sunday afternoons spent baking, where I was now busy working on spreadsheets and learning web design (well, muddling through). Have faith though, it’s all worth it in the end and it’s what will help you be a success. It means that you’re spending time on building a concept, a website, marketing, making a plan and all of the other things that will make your business successful, rather than just a hobby that sometimes people pay you for.

2. Buy some really comfy shoes.

Halloween is nearly here! It’s such a brilliant cupcake decorating occasion. We love an excuse to make some grizzly, gruesome cupcakes which hardly ever see the light of day during the other 364 days of the year.

We thought we’d shared the ghoulish cupcake love and show you how to make our favourite little cupcake ghosts.

You’ll need:

- Cupcakes
- Buttercream
- Angled palette knife
- Piping bags
- Piping nozzle (we used a Wilton 1M but it doesn’t really matter too much as the piped part it won’t be seen.)
- Sugarpaste
- Large circle cutter
- Edible pen

1. Top your cupcake with flat buttercream icing using the angled palette knife.

2. Pipe a tall, slim swirl in the centre of the cupcake.

3. Roll out your white sugarpaste and cut a large circle out.

4. Use the end of your rolling pin to shape the circle into a ghostly shape. Pinch the ‘skirt’ to give it shape.

5. Sit the ghost on top of your buttercream swirl and give him some eyes using your edible pen.

The products we used are available from our online shop.

Enjoy your spooky cupcakes! x

One of the questions we’re asked most often is what is the best vanilla to use for cupcake and cake baking. We only ever recommend using vanilla extract, never essence. Essence is a synthetic product and will never give the pure, delicious vanilla-e-ness (our new favourite word) that make your cakes really special.

The vanilla that we always recommend is Nielsen Massey, it’s available from Lakeland and also lots (although not all) supermarkets. If you’re baking for business or in bulk, you can buy it in larger quantities here: Natually Good Food.

In the quest for perfect vanilla flavour, we’ve been experimenting with making our own vanilla extract and thought we’d share our efforts with you in case you fancied having a go.

You will need:

- Rum (we used rum as we think it compliments the vanilla flavour well, you could use vodka which is flavourless.)
- Vanilla pods (we bought these in bulk, from eBay of all places.)
- A very clean jar or small bottle

1. Sterilise the jar you’re using by placing in a hot oven for 10 minutes, or by running through the dishwasher just before using.

2. The amount of rum/vanilla will depend on the size of your container. We used 4 vanilla pods for a small jam jar, with about a cup of rum. Carefully split the vanilla pods down the middle to open and expose the seeds.

3. Squash the pods into your jar.

4. Top up with the rum or vodka, close the lid and give a good shake.

5. Leave in a dark place for at least 6 weeks before using.

Let us know how you get on and what you think of the finished product!