What you’ll need…
The BDB Jubilee Flag Template, to download click here… Union Jack Flags
White card & Colour Printer
Scissors
Sellotape
Cocktail Sticks
Cupcake with Buttercream Swirl and Sprinkles (Piped using a 1M nozzle)

1. Print out your Union Jack Flags Template on white card

2. Carefully cut out your flags – don’t worry about the black line on the triangle, this will be hidden when finished

3. Fold over the triangle, place a cocktail stick in the crease (so the pointy top is below the top of the flag) and sellotape into place

4. Insert into cupcake. Simple yet oh so majestic!

We’ll be back next week with more Jubilee ideas, but until then, happy flag making!

Jenny x

What you’ll need…

Pre-coloured Orange Sugarpaste (Or coloured with Tangerine/Apricot Gel)
Pre-coloured Yellow Sugarpaste (Or coloured with Egg Yellow Gel)
White Sugarpaste
Angled Palette Knife
Non-Stick Rolling Mat
Non-Stick Rolling Pin
Round Cutter (to fit the top of a cupcake)
Star Cutter Set of 3
Scriber Tool
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Cupcake & Buttercream

1. Take a walnut sized piece of orange sugarpaste and split into 3 equal pieces. Roll two of these into longish fat sausages to make his legs, then make grooves in one side all the way down with the side of your palette knife. Trim if needs be (they need to stay upright and hold his feet!)

2. Take the remaining piece of orange sugarpaste and split into two. Form these into rough pear shapes and flatten. Take your smallest star cutter, then using just one point of the star, cut out two triangles from each foot to make his toes.

3. Now shape his legs and feet, creating one slightly bulbous end on each leg and one slightly thinner flat end. Then shape his toes and curl a little, remembering that we’ll be looking at the bottom of them so curl upwards from the smoothest side. Glue his feet (smooth side up) onto the thinner end of his legs, with your leg grooves facing the front. Leave to dry.

4. Now take your cupcake and put a dollop of buttercream in the centre. Roll out a bit of yellow sugpaste to about 5mm thick, then cut out a circle to fit the top of your cupcake. Put into place, tucking the paste into the inside of the cupcake case.

5. Now roll and cut out another circle in your white sugarpaste. Before placing it over your cupcake, take your smallest star cutter and cut out two stars. Now place it over your cupcake, being careful to cover the yellow paste right down to the case. Then use your scriber tool to create a “cracked” effect in your egg, working from the points of each star.

6. All thats left to do now is pop his legs in place. Don’t worry if they’re a bit wonky, he’ll probably be a bit wobbly when he finally comes out of his shell!

If you like Charlie enough to give him a go we’d love to see your photos on Facebook and don’t forget, you can buy everything we used in our online shop HERE

Jenny x

The issue…

In recent guidelines on edible glitter and dust, the FSA have now decided that in order for a product to be sold as “edible” the ingredients must all be digested by the body. They have recommended that non-toxic glitter be used on cakes for decorative purposes only and should not be intended for consumption.

In most cases cake glitters are in fact non-digestible so can no longer be described as “edible”. While the majority of glitters on the market are non-toxic and will not cause any harm to anyone eating them, there are a number of products available out there that are misleading in their marketing and description. So it is important to find out the ingredients of a glitter before purchasing – these should be readily available from your supplier so don’t hesitate to check with them if you can’t see anything outlining this.

Our products…

For this reason we have reclassified the glitters we sell as “non-toxic”, so as not to mislead our customers, and avoid any confusion.

The glitters we sell are made by EdAble Art. Certification from Trading Standards of the EdAble Art glitters’ safety is freely available and the company works hard to keep up to date with new regulations and legislation.

So, to put it plainly, while the products are not considered to be a food item under The Food Safety Act 1990 they can be consumed without injurious effects and Trading Standards results indicate that the range of glitters is safe for consumption.

Please be assured that there is no threat to health in eating our glitters on a cupcake or as decoration on a cake, as they are intended, in small amounts. They’re made up of two materials known as Mica (E555) and Titanium Dioxide (E171), both of which are permitted additives, as outlined by the FSA.

We’ll do our very best to keep up to date with any changes to classifications and regulations of any of the products we sell and we’ll make sure you’re the first to know about anything and everything we find!

Our experience…

We have supplied and used these glitters to pretty up our cakes for a number of years without ever having experienced any problems. Lots of other companies in the industry use them and as far as we are aware, there have been no incidents of anyone suffering as a result of using them.

While we think EdAble Art glitter is safe to eat in small amounts, we also feel it is our responsibility to let you know as much as possible about it and give you the latest news on the subject, as well as our honest opinion. So you can decide whether you’d like to use it or not!

More information…

For more information on the subject please see the FSA’s recent article on edible glitter and dust guidelines HERE

An article on the moment the issue was brought to light HERE!

And, of course, please don’t hesitate to get in contact with us if you’d like any more clarification on our products and what you should/shouldn’t be using.

hello@bluedoorbakery.co.uk

We hope this helps make things a little clearer. Together we can get over Glittergate!

Jenny x

What you’ll need…

Black Pre-Coloured Sugarpaste
White Sugarpaste
Liquorice Edible Ink Pen
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Ball Tool
Scallop, Comb & Smile Tool
Cupcake & Buttercream
Angled Palette Knife
Sugar Pearls (place in a bowl – enough to cover the bottom of the bowl plus a bit more)

1. First we need to make all the pieces of Lenny. Its a good idea to start with his eyes as they need white sugarpaste, which may turn a little grey if handled after the black sugarpaste. Roll out 2 very small balls of white sugarpaste and gently squash a little. Then draw black dots in the middle with your edible ink pen.

2. Roll out 2 similar sized black balls and squash to form his ears – shape them a little, tapering one side to make a pear shape. Then use the small end of your ball tool to make indents in them.

3. Now take a walnut sized piece of black sugarpaste and roll into a ball. Then gently shape it into another pear. Flatten the top of Lenny’s head while almost pinching the underneath to make your pear a bit square. Finally, roll out 2 small sausages to form his front legs.

4. Making sure your hands are clean, glue Lenny’s eyes in place, followed by his ears. Then indent some nostrils with the small end of the ball tool and give him a smile with the scallop, comb and smile tool. Leave Lenny to dry.

5. Now take your cupcake. Flat ice the top with buttercream using your angled palette knife – don’t worry if your top isn’t perfectly smooth, just make sure there is a good layer of buttercream covering your cake and its not overhanging the case too much. Now turn the cupcake over and dip it in your bowl of pearls to completely cover the top.

6. Now its time to assemble Lenny. Push his head into the buttercream so that his chin is roughly in line with the halfway point of the cupcake top. Then put his feet in place a little below his chin. If you struggle to get him to stick, just move the pearls out of the way a bit with your ball tool, so you can see the buttercream, then pop him in.

7. Give Lenny a good home.

Jenny x

This week we’re giving you three tutorials in one, just because we like you. If you haven’t yet seen them, we’ve recently started selling a brand spanking new product – Edible Icing Sheets available with two very different but equally lovely patterns, as seen in our Shabby Chic Cupcake Class. From what we hear you’ve absolutely loved them and we’re struggling to print them fast enough! So we thought we’d show you a few things you could do with yours…

What you’ll need for all of this week’s tutorials…

Ditsy Vintage Rose Edible Icing Sheet
Blue Door Bakery Polkadot Edible Icing Sheet
Scissors
Edible Ink Pen in Liquorice
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Bow Cutter
White Florist Paste/Sugarpaste mixed with a little CMC Powder
Rolling Pin
Non-Stick Smooth Rolling Mat
Round Cutter (to fit the top of a cupcake)
Cocktail Sticks
Royal Icing for Flag Piping (optional)
Cupcakes
Buttercream (in a piping bag fitted with a 1M nozzle)
Blue Polkadot Cupcake Wrapper

Beautifully Wrapped Parcel Cupcake

1. Make a bow for your parcel using your bow cutter and florist paste/sugarpaste with CMC, plus 2 strips long enough to cover the width of your cupcake top. For an in depth tutorial on how to use your bow cutter please see our YouTube video below…

How To Make An Edible Bow For Cupcakes

2. Roll and cut out a piece of sugarpaste using a round cutter the same size as your cupcake top. Using the same cutter as a guide, cut out a circle of your polkadot Edible Icing Sheet (use your edible pen to draw a circle first if you’re not happy to do it freehand!). Remove the backing on your sheet and glue onto the sugarpaste, then fix your strips and box in place.

3. Pipe a rose swirl on top of a cupcake, then gently place your parcel circle on the top. Add a blue polkadot wrapper to really finish it off!

Edible Cupcake Flags (Minus the Cocktail Stick!)

1. Cut strips out of your Edible Icing Sheets roughly 6.5cm long and 2.5cm wide. Cut out an inverted “V” into one end of the strip and taper the other end. Making sure to remove the backing, glue your flags to the cocktail sticks, so that the tapered end is hidden – it works best if you seal the top just above the top of the cocktail stick to help the flag stay in place.

2. We’ve added a few phrases to ours using Royal icing but they look just as lovely proudly displaying nothing but the patterned icing. You may have to let everyone know that the flag in their cupcake is edible but don’t forget to warn them we haven’t quite managed the edible cocktail stick just yet!

Ditsy Vintage Rose

1. Take your rose Edible Icing Sheet and using your edible ink pen draw a large spiral – don’t worry about how neat your spiral is, the wonkier the rose, the more charm it has!

2. Cut along the line of your spiral. Remove the backing and beginning at the outer most point, start to roll your spiral so that the wider side forms the top of your rose, adding a little edible glue to the first twist to help it stick.

3. When you reach the end of your spiral cut of any excess and edible glue the free end to the side of the rose. You can shape the rose a little as you go, slowly allowing it to splay out a little towards the end. Leave it on a flat surface before adding to your cupcake, keeping one finger underneath whenever moving – it’ll be nice and secure once atop your cake!

We hope we’ve inspired you to get creative with your Edible Icing Sheets, as always they and all of the other products featured in the blog are available from our online shop HERE and you can learn more about using them in our Shabby Chic Cupcakes Class.

Jenny x

What you’ll need…

To Make the Cupcakes

125g Unsalted Butter
125g Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
125g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3 tbsp Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
The Zest of 1 Medium Orange
50g Sultanas
1 tbsp Mixed Peel
The Juice of 1 Lemon

1. Turn the oven to 170C and line a muffin tray with cake cases.

2. When used in a sponge cake dried fruit can sink to the bottom so to stop it doing this (and add a bit more zing) put the sultanas and mixed peel in a bowl, cover with the lemon juice and zap in the microwave for 1 minute, then put to one side to cool slightly.

3. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time, each time adding a tbsp of your flour. When combined add the rest of the flour and the milk and mix in by hand.

4. Now add your vanilla, cinnamon, sultanas, mixed peel and orange zest. Gently mix through.

5. Divide between the baking cases and bake for roughly 20 minutes, turning if necessary, until the cakes are golden brown on top (oven times and temperatures may vary so bake accordingly). Then leave to cool.

To Decorate

Buttercream
Non Stick Rolling Mat
Rolling Pin
Sugar paste in white, coloured brown with Chestnut, and some black (use pre-coloured for less dyed hands!)
Edible Glue
Confectioners Glaze
Paintsbrushes
Angled Palette Knife
Round Cutters (To fit the top of your cupcakes)

1. Roll out your brown sugarpaste and cut out a circle to fit the top of your cupcake. Put a dollop of buttercream on top of a cupcake and gently put the sugarpaste circle in place, slotting it down inside the case. Repeat with all cupcakes.

2. Roll out your white sugarpaste quite thinly. Using your palette knife, cut long strips and cut to size using the same round cutter as you used for your circle. Glue in place to form your crosses.

3. Paint a little confectioners glaze over each cupcake.

4. Roll out small balls of black sugar paste for your currants. Glue in place, pinching as you fix them to give them a more “curranty” shape!

Enjoy these yummy treats! We hope you’ve enjoyed our Easter specials, and put them to good practice this coming week. Remember we sell all of the products we use in our online shop and we love seeing your versions of our tutorials so please share on Facebook!

Jenny x

What you’ll need…

Pink Sugar Paste (coloured with Pink Gel Colour or Professional Pink Pre-coloured Sugar Paste)
Grey Sugar Paste (coloured with a little Liquorice Gel Colour)
White Sugar Paste
CMC Powder
Ball Tool
Non-Stick Mat
Foam Drying Pad
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Green Buttercream (coloured with Holly & Party Green)
Chocolate Buttercream (or coloured with lots of Chestnut Gel Colour)
Wilton 1M (fitted into a piping bag)
Grass & Hair Nozzle (fitted into a piping bag)
Blossom and/or Daisy plunger cutters

1. Mix a little CMC Powder into both the pink and grey sugar paste. Now roll a piece of grey paste into a ball (roughly half the size of a ping pong ball), then gently push it down onto the Non-Stick Mat on an angle to lightly flatten one side/create a lopsided dome.

2. Take 2 more pieces of grey sugar paste, roughly the size of peanuts each. Roll into 2 sausages the same length and gently flatten with an index finger. Softly pinch one end of each “foot” so that there is one bulbous end, keeping both feet as similar as possible.

3. Now roll two small balls of pink paste and 6 very small balls. Flatten all of them with a finger and stick them to the feet to create the pads on your rabbit’s paws. Roll one small ball of white sugar paste to create his tail. Use the ball tool to indent to make it a bit less uniform and more “fluffy”! Cut out two or three flowers with the left over pink and white to decorate your finished cupcake.

4. Using the edible glue, stick the feet to the body of your rabbit, placing them a little way down the leaning side of the dome. Now stick his tail in place, just above his feet. Leave him to dry overnight or as long as possible.

5. The piping for your rabbit is very similar to last week’s tutorial. Pipe some grass over the top of your cupcake, holding the bag vertical above the cake, squeezing, then releasing and pulling away all over the surface of the cake. Then, using your chocolate buttercream, pipe a double circle just in from the edge of the cake, big enough to fit your bunny.

6. Put your rabbit in place, pushing him down into the hole in the brown buttercream so he looks like he’s disappearing into it/stuck (depending on your bunny’s waistline!).

Now all that’s left to do is name him! Don’t forget you can buy all of the products we use in our online shop HERE and we’d love to see your finished bunnies on Facebook!

Jenny x

What you’ll need…

Brown Sugar Paste (either pre-coloured or coloured with lots of Chestnut Gel)
CMC Powder
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Yellow Florist Paste (coloured with Egg Yellow Gel Colour)
Bow Cutter (we used the medium size from our set of 3)
Non-Stick Rolling Mat
Foam Decoration Drying Pad
Mini Eggs
Grass & Hair Nozzle
Wilton 1M Nozzle
Piping Bags
Cupcake
Green Buttercream (we used a mixture of Party Green and Holly Green)
Chocolate Buttercream

1. First we need to make the handle and rim of our basket. Add a little CMC powder to your brown sugar paste (not too much as we need it to stay pliable while we’re working with it but set stiff!). Section 3 pieces, each roughly the size of a large Malteser! then roll each one very thinly, into very long sausages.

2. Glue together the sausages at one end and gently plait them, keeping them as tight as possible without stretching or breaking them – gently squeezing the length together after plaiting will get rid of any gaps and keep your plait neat. Glue together the other ends and cut off any excess.

3. Now cut two pieces of your plait, roughly 2 1/2 inches long and shape on the drying foam, one in a curved shape for the basket handle, and the other in a complete circle, with each end glued together to form the basket rim. Make a bow as per our Youtube tutorial (see below), stick to the rim and leave all pieces to dry overnight.

Bow Cutter Tutorial

4. Once your pieces are set, fit the grass nozzle into a piping bag and fill with green sugarpaste. Flat ice your cupcake with extra green buttercream (optional). Then pipe your grass – hold the piping bag vertical, squeeze gently then stop squeezing and pull away – repeat all over cupcake, leaving the centre a little lower or free of grass.

5. Fit the Wilton 1M nozzle into a piping bag and fill with chocolate buttercream. Pipe a circle just in from the edge of the cake, then pipe a second on top of the first to create a bit of height to your basket.

6. Add 3 Mini Eggs to the centre of your basket (we’ve added a few pearls too, just because they’re pretty!). Then take your basket rim and place it on top of the basket, surrounding the Mini Eggs. Now put your handle in place, fitting it just inside the rim, into the buttercream to hold it steady. Done!

We hope you enjoyed this week’s tutorial. If you’re pushed for time you can substitute the plaited handle for strawberry bootlaces with a small ribbon bow. Whichever way you make your Easter Basket Cupcakes we’d love to see a picture posted on our Facebook wall!

And remember, you can buy all of the equipment we use in each tutorial on our online shop, here… http://bluedoorbakery.highwire.com/

Jenny x

We regularly receive enquiries about how to make a cupcake bouquet and thought Mother’s day was the perfect opportunity to show you just how to do it. Its a lot more simple than you may think and is so effective, not to mention, it’ll make your Mum feel extra special! And if you wanted to go that extra mile, class vouchers are still available for Mother’s day. We’ll be posting all vouchers First Class until Friday. Wouldn’t that be perfect, tucked inside a card, alondside a stunning cupcake bouquet!

We’ve used a fantastic planter cup and saucer (straight from a BDB Guru “just in case” kitchen cupboard), but this works just as well with an inexpensive terracotta plant pot, found at all good (and not so good) garden centres.

What you’ll need…

Round plant pot or planter (roughly 20cm in diameter)
Polystyrene ball to fit or slightly larger than your plant pot
Cocktail sticks
Pretty tissue or florist paper
Ribbon
7 Cupcakes, decorated as per our “How to pipe a two tone cupcake” video. Use whatever colours you like – we’ve gone for some plain white rose swirls and some tinted with Egg Yellow Gel Colour. Please see the video below for a demonstration with the lovely new Mum herself…

How to pipe a two tone cupcake

1. Your polystyrene ball will most likely come in two pieces, so split in half (or cut if whole) and measure against your planter. Cut down if necessary so that it sits tightly in the planter.

2. Before placing your ball into the planter properly, line the planter with a sheet of tissue paper, so that it touches the bottom and sticks out at the sides

3. Now cover the ball with another sheet of tissue paper and fix it into the planter, with the rest of that tissue tucked underneath.

4. Insert two cocktail sticks into the center of the ball, until about half of them is showing and push a cupcake onto the top

5. Place two more cocktail sticks to one side of the centre cupcake, so that the two cupcakes will be touching but not squashed. Then put another cupcake in place.

6. Continue to do this, surrounding the centre cupcake with another 6 cakes, each time using two cocktail sticks to hold each one in place. Inserting the cocktail sticks at an angle can help to hold them in the right position!

7. To finish off your cupcake bouquet, tidy the tissue by tucking it in slightly and securing with a bow, tied around the top of the planter, just underneath your cakes. And don’t forget a gift tag!

We hope you enjoyed this week’s blog and whether you’re treating your own Mum, being treated as a Mum or both, have a lovely lovely Mother’s Day!

For more information on booking a class or voucher for Mother’s Day please see the website HERE or call us on (01562) 228232.

Jenny x

According to legend Saint Patrick used the shamrock, a three-leaved plant, to explain the Holy Trinity to the pre-Christian Irish people. So in tribute to St. Patrick and his holiday, this week we’ll be showing you how to adorn a cupcake with sugarpaste Shamrocks!

What you’ll need…

Non Stick Smart Mat
Foam Drying Pad
Rolling Pin
Angled Palette Knife
Heart Cutters (Set of 3)
Green Sugarpaste (We used a mixture of Holly Green and Party Green Gel Colour to get our green)
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Cupcake with Sugarpaste Top

1. Roll out your green sugarpaste very thinly and, using the smallest heart cutter, cut out 6 hearts. To get a neat finish gently rub the cutter on a foam pad before releasing the heart shape onto the foam drying pad

2. Now take a peanut sized piece of green sugarpaste and roll into a very thin sausage shape. Then cut in half using your palette knife (these can be altered a little later on if they’re a bit long!). Put to one side on your drying foam

3. Brush a little glue onto your cupcake top to the far left hand side (remembering you need to fit a whole other shamrock next to it) and place 3 of your hearts on, with pointed ends touching. Repeat this to the left and up slightly from your first shamrock, to form your second

4. Check your stalks against your cupcake and trim if they’re a little long. Then glue in place, with the cut end at the centre of your shamrock, crossing them if you so desire!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day in advance everyone! We’d love to see some photos of you with your shamrock cupcakes posted on our Facebook page! (Guiness in hand optional)

And remember, you can buy all of the equipment we use in all of our tutorials in our online shop.

Thanks

Jenny x