Next Monday is World Fashion Day so we thought we’d show you how to make some very fabulous leopard print cupcakes! These are fantastic for any occasion, particularly girly birthday parties and hen parties and so simple you won’t believe it…

What you’ll need

Sugarpaste coloured with a smidgen of Sugarflair Chestnut Gel Colour
Round cutters
Cupcakes & buttercream
Gold lustre dust
Sugarflair Liquorice Gel Colour
Rejuvenator spirit
Paintbrushes & small mixing bowls

1. First cover your cupcakes with your sugarpaste, making them as smooth as possible

2. Next mix some gold lustre dust with a little rejuvenator spirit until it forms a paint-like consistency. Paint gold ovals all over your cupcakes, giving yourself a little room in between each one. Vary the spots in size and shape as no two leaopards are the same!

3. Once your gold spots have dried, mix some liquorice gel colour with a little rejuvenator spirit in a small bowl (best not to use yours or anyone else’s best china for this bit!). Then paint the outsides of your spots – these should go around roughly 3/4 of the spot, not quite touching on one side. Short sharp brush strokes/jabs with the paintbrush give the best effect.

4. Work your way around all of the dots, varying the strokes and sizes. And you’re done! Absolutely Fabulous if we do say so ourselves!

Please rest assured no animals were harmed in the making of these cupcakes, we love leopards very much

Jenny x

This week its National Allotments Week! Celebrating all that is brilliant about allotments, including the wonderful produce you can grow on them; the social advantages to the community; they’re importance for wildlife and keeping our air fresh!

So to help raise awareness we thought we’d go all out with this week’s Tuesday Tutorial and show you how to create your own entirely edible alloment. The brilliant thing about these cakes is they look better when they’re not perfect – much more organic like allotment vegetables should be!

First you’ll need some cupcakes and some edible dirt – we used chocolate cupcakes and for our edible dirt we put a bit of caster sugar, plain flour, a bit of butter and some cocoa in a mixer and blended until it looked like breadcrumbs.

What you’ll need…

Sugar paste in the following colours – green, orange, red & white
Ball tool
Non stick rolling mat
Rolling pin
Very small daisy cutter (found in our sets of 4)
Round plunger cutter
Holly Green gel paste
Rejuvenator spirit
Paintbrush
Green buttercream
Piping bag fitted with grass and hair nozzle
Cocktail stick
Edible Glue

Carrots

1. Take hazelnut sized pieces of orange paste and roll into balls, then roll and taper one end
2. Use the cocktail stick to make indents
3. Use the small end of your ball tool to make a tiny well in the top and glue a little green strand in place

Tomatoes

1. Roll peanut sized balls of red paste, put on your surface and gently press down a tiny bit
2. Cut out a green daisy and glue to the top
3. Add a stalk

Broccoli

1. Roll walnut sized pieces of green paste, make a well in the bottom using your ball tool, and add a fairly chunky stalk into the well
2. Texture the top of your broccoli using the ball tool
3. Mix a little Holly Green gel colour with rejuventor spirit and roughly dab onto the broccoli with a paintbrush

Cauliflower

1. Roll walnut sized pieces of white sugarpaste
2. Cut out rounds of green paste and gently pull and stretch them out of shape, then glue them around the outisde of the cauliflower, overlapping in places (this should take 5 or 6 leaves)
3. Texture the top of the cauliflower poking out from the leaves

Once your decorations are made flat ice all of your cupcakes with greem buttercream. Dip some of them into the edible dirt and pipe grass onto others, remembering that your grass won’t stick to the dirt if you try to add it afterwards. To have both on one cupcakes only half dip your cakes or scrape a little of the dirt off using a palette knife before piping your grass.

Landscape and plant however you wish and remember to visit the National Allotments Week page on The National Allotments Society’s website!

Jenny x