One of the things our students tell us is most daunting is baking large batches of cakes, some having had bad experiences of being in the kitchen until the wee hours, followed by even more hours of cleaning up, and complete panic when it comes to setting up and displaying a cupcake tower. When you start taking on larger orders it can be very stressful and its easy to jump in and start anywhere you can for fear of time running out when a few little organistaional tweaks can relieve that stress and save you lots of time.

All of us here at BDB run our own cupcake businesses or have done, so here are our top tips for baking big batches of cupcakes.

1. Knowing you have the right ingredients and the right amount of each ingredient may sound obvious but its easily forgotten. When you’re convinced you have a cupboard full of caster sugar, the most chilling feeling is to realise on the morning of the big bake that you used it all mid-week for that treacle tart Mary Berry made on GBBO. So 2 or 3 days before, check your ingredients.

2. Sitting down for half an hour and working out how many bags of flour and boxes of eggs you use for 100 or 300 cakes is priceless in terms of time-saving. Keep a record of these amounts and then the next time you have a large order coming up it’ll take 2 minutes to check what you have and exactly how much more you need to order.

3. Make your buttercream in advance and in BIG batches. Buttercream can be frozen and will keep in the fridge for roughly a week so why not make it in advance?! A quick mix of room temperature buttercream will have it as smooth as new. Just imagine. No icing sugar clouds to deal with on the day of the bake!

4. Before baking, set out all of your ingredients in front of you. If warming your butter or milk do it now so its all there in front of you, rather than running between your mixer and the microwave over and again. The same goes for equipment. One mad rush for measuring jugs and weighing scales now is better than 6 mad rushes during baking.

5. The more baking trays you have the better. It may seem excessive but this is when you’ll be really glad you bought 3 too many. Laying them out on as a big a surface as you can find and lining with cupcake cases in one go will save you lots of time later. And if you buy lots of the same brand that stack nicely no one can tell you off for taking up too much room in the cupboard!

6. Believe it or not you can also start to prepare for displaying your cakes at this early stage too. If your display consists of 2 or 3 different colour cases and you want them to alternate around the stand, alternate them in your trays. This takes no extra time but cuts out any late night diagram drawings of setting up or frantic box swapping at the venue.

7. Tidy as you go – another obvious one but getting rid of empty packets and egg shells helps you concentrate. A quick wipe over surfaces helps clear your mind as well as your workspace. To help with the fall out later on have a bowl of soapy water for pre-soaking equipment (but remember to wash hands in a separate area) -this will make grease and smudges come away with ease when washed thoroughly (one of Guru Kath’s favorites!).

8. Ice cream scoops are a god-send for evenly distributing cake mix with much less mess and much more speed. We use 2 different sizes – for flat and domed tops, both available in our online shop!

9. BIG boxes are a must. You can buy heavy duty boxes for 24 cupcakes online which have endless advantages. As soon as your cakes are cool enough pop them straight into your boxes – again they can go in the same order as they sat in your trays if you’re doing an alternating display. They can then be stacked out of the way until you’re ready to decorate – then you can ice your cakes in the box and move around with ease.

10. Decant your sprinkles into pots you can fit your hand in for easy access rather than wrestling with miniscule plastic packets. Another plus of bulk boxes is they’re self contained sprinkle catchers! As long as you’re not worried about a little rattling of loose sprinkles in the bottom there’s nothing wrong with sprinkling your cakes in the box. Hours of rogue sprinkle hunting saved!

We hope this will help anyone tackling a large order in the future and we’d love to hear your tips for stress free baking too! What helps you to be efficient in the kitchen? What have you learnt from big orders? Any big successes or never to be mentioned again disasters?!

Jenny x

In this week’s Tuesday Tutorial we’re “winging” our support to everyone celebrating the International Day of Peace…

“Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and peoples.” http://www.un.org/en/events/peaceday/

In support of such a worthy cause, we’re showing you how to make one of the most widely recognised symbols of peace, a lovely dove.

What you’ll need…

White Sugarpaste
Coloured Sugarpaste (in yellow and black)
Non-Stick Smooth Rolling Mat
Rolling Pin
Ball Tool
Curved Heart Leaf Cutter Set
Heart/Arum Lily Cutter Set
Flower Veiner
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Cupcake Covered in Sugarpaste
Sugarpaste Flowers in Various Colours (optional)

1. Take your white sugarpaste and section off one piece the size of a walnut and one piece the size of a peanut. With the walnut sized piece, shape it into a 3D tear drop shape, then curve the narrower end upwards and sit on a desk (it should look a bit like an apostrophe when up-ended!) Roll the peanut sized piece into a ball.

2. Glue the head to the body and gently mark where your dove’s eyes and beak will be with your ball tool. Then cut out two curved hearts and one normal heart (both using the smallest cutter in the set). Emboss your wings on the flower veiner – remembering they will go either side of your dove so need to be opposites of each other. Emboss the tail on both sides.

3. Glue the wings and tail in place, with the wings sticking up slightly from the body and the tail wrapping around the bottom of the dove’s bottom and sticking up. Take very tiny pieces of yellow and black sugarpaste to form the eyes and beak and glue into place.

TIP! The reason we leave his eyes until our dove is finished is so that the black sugarpaste doesn’t mark our fingers or our dove, keeping him as white as possible!

4. Place your dove on your cupcake with a little glue to fix him in place. We’ve added a few pretty flowers to finish our cake.

And there he is! We hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s tutorial, please don’t forget to check out what’s being done for International Peace Day. You can read all about it HERE And remember, there are lots of blog tutorials on our website, all free of charge and unique from our classes so please do have a browse!

Jenny x

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 we’re continuing the jubilee theme with a royal crown for her majesty! Its so simple to do and will look fantastic on your jubilee cupcakes.

What you’ll need…

Sugarpaste Coloured Yellow (either pre-coloured or using Egg Yellow Gel Colour)
Non Stick Smooth Rolling Mat
Rolling Pin
Angled Palette Knife
Star Cutters (Set of 3)
Edible Glue & Paintbrush
Gold Lustre Dust
Rejuventor Spirit
Sugar Pearls
Cupcake with Piped Swirl

1. Roll out your yellow sugarpaste and using your palette knife, cut a strip. Using a point of your largest star cutter cut out triangles from one side of your strip until you have roughly 7 points.

2. Then roll your strip round until the ends are touching. Glue together. Then pinch the points a little to shape them, but leaving enough on top for your sugar pearls to sit on.

3. While still fresh, glue a pearl to the end of each point, then adjust the shape if needs be and leave to dry.

4. Once dry, put some gold lustre dust in a bowl and add a little rejuventor spirit until it forms a “painting” consistency. Then paint your crown, being carfeul not to paint your pearls but covering as much of the yellow as possible.

5. Sit atop your royal cupcake and admire. How majestic!

Jenny x

This week we’re giving you all an early Jubilee present! If you’re itching to get started on your Jubilee designs, then here’s something you can prepare right now! We’re drawing on a previous blog and tweaking it to give you perfect Union Jack Jubilee Flags, which can be made, and sit waiting patiently til the big day.

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

We hope you all had a lovely Easter and managed to cook up some treats, as well as receiving many too!

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

Easter is fast approaching, which is a brilliant reason to get creative with our cupcakes! This week is the first of our Easter themed tutorials, to give you plenty of inspiration and time to plan what cakey treats you’ll be gifting!

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

This week our blog aims to raise awareness for a fantastic cause, as well as showing you a few tips and tricks in the cupcake department! We’ll be demonstrating how to make a beautiful sugar paste daffodil in dedication to The Great Daffodil Appeal, run by Marie Curie Cancer Care.

“Each March, the Great Daffodil Appeal aims to get everyone to wear a daffodil in support of our Marie Curie Nurses and raise money to help us provide more free care to people with terminal cancer and other illnesses.” (Marie Curie website, February 2012)

We think its really important to support causes as worthy as this one, so this March we’ll have our very own box of daffodil pins, courtesy of Marie Curie Cancer Care. They’ll be available to all our lovely customers, visiting us for classes or our shop, for a small donation to the charity.

And now to make our daffodil….

What you’ll need

Non-stick Rolling Mat
Rolling Pin
Sugarpaste coloured with a little Egg Yellow Gel Colour
Petunia Cutter & Mould Set
Foam Drying Pad
Lemon Yellow Dusting Colour
Paintbrush
Cocktail Stick
Edible Glue
Cupcake & Buttercream for frosting

1. Roll out the yellow paste reasonably thinly and cut out the petunia shape. Then place the shape in the mould and press down gently to emboss your flower

2. Take your paintbrush and Lemon Yellow dusting colour and dust your flower from the centre outward, applying quite liberally into the centre but leaving the edges pale. Leave the flower to dry on the bumpy side of a foam drying pad, so that it curls in on itself slightly

3. And now to create the trumpet! Take a small piece of the yellow sugarpaste (roughly the size of your little finger nail) and roll into a cone between your thumb and forefinger, gently flattening the bottom with your other forefinger

4. Now take the end of your paintbrush and push your cone onto the top of it so that it sits snugly, with the paintbrush nearly reaching the point

5. Keeping the cone on the end of the paintbrush, gently press the cocktail stick into the side, lengthways. Continue this right the way around the cone so that it gives a “grooved” effect. This will also thin out the trumpet and make it slightly larger

6. Brush the centre of the flower with a little edible glue and place the trumpet in the centre. Leave to dry before dusting the inside of the cone with more lemon yellow

7. Place on a cupcake with a pre-piped swirl and join us in making more people aware of the Great Daffodil Appeal!

We hope you enjoyed the blog this week and that you’ll be wearing a daffodil on your lapel as well as your cupcake.

For more information on the Marie Curie Great Daffodil Appeal, ideas for fundraising, how you can join in, and to donate to a great cause please click HERE

Thank you!

Jenny x

This is a great little trick to learn just in case you run out of piping bags… or you just want to show off your amazing cupcake knowledge and skill! Great for royal icing piping and other delicate details.

What you’ll need…

Greaseproof Paper
Scissors
Stapler
Nozzle

1. Take a section of greaseproof paper and fold side to side to form a triangle, then trim off any excess paper, so it creates a square when unfolded (this will make 2 piping bags)

2. Cut the paper in half along the fold, to leave you with two triangles of equal size

3. In your left hand hold one paper up high, at the corner, with the longest side of the triangle running down the length of your forearm

4. Take the other corner of the longest side and take it across to meet the remaining corner, while curling it inwards to form a cone, keeping the point as tight as possible

5. Keeping hold of the joined corners in your right hand, bring your left hand down towards them and around the back, continuing to wrap the paper around itself, then holding all three corners in your right hand

6. Keep the point of your cone tight and hold all three corners together. Here you’re looking to have three ” peaks” at the top back of your cone

7. Fold over the three peaks and staple into place to keep your cone stable.

8. Cut a small hole in the point, big enough to fit your nozzle and fill with icing, ready for wonderful piping

Laura x

The nation’s love of “vintage” is here to stay and we will continue to embrace it as long it wants to be here! Cupcakes are perfect for adorning with edible vintage style decorations and when done well, can really enhance the look of any wedding or event based on the theme. One finishing touch we’ve always loved is lace or ribbon trim, added to the cupcake just before displaying, it can make a wedding tower or tea party spread that little bit more beautiful, not to mention making your Valentine’s Day cupcakes even more romantic! It’s so effective, but I’ll let you into a little secret…. It’s so easy to achieve!

We’ve made up two tutorials today, to show you just how easy it is to create two different looks using lace and ribbon on your cupcakes.

Lace Trim

What you’ll need…

Length of lace, preferably with one straight and one scalloped edge
Good quality double sided tape (reasonably thin)
Scissors
Cupcake
Tape measure (optional)

1. (Optional) If you want to be thrifty with your lace and tape, first measure the circumference of a ready baked cupcake at the top of the case (one of your own as everyones’ differ in size!), but giving yourself an extra 1cm or so per cake. Then times by the number of cakes you’d like to have trim to find out exactly how much you’ll need. However, it doesn’t hurt to buy extra, prepare and use at a later date, or find something else wonderfully vintage to use the left over lace on!

Tip! Most material shops cost their ribbon and lace per metre rather than by imperial measurements, so bear this in mind when measuring out how much you’ll need.

2. Lay the strip of lace flat along a surface. Carefully stick the double sided tape as neatly as possible along the straight edge of the lace, trying to keep it below the top of the lace (so its hidden from view). Leave the free side of the tape covered.

3. Now cut the number of pieces you need, using the measurements from earlier, or if you decided to stock up and didn’t do any measuring. Simply take a scrap of tape/paper and place around the outside of the cupcake, cut the scrap to the right length (plus roughly 1cm) and all your pieces of lace trim to the same length.

4. Carefully stick to your finished cupcakes, as close to the top of the case as possible, overlapping the lace at the back of the cupcake.

Bow Trim

Much the same as the lace trim, but adding a very cute bow to the front of your cupcake. You’ll need the same things to make this, just replacing the lace with twice as much ribbon, remembering that slightly thinner ribbon will work best.

1. Cut a piece of ribbon long enough to reach around the circumference of your cupcake, plus a cm or two extra. Cut a piece a little longer, which will form your bow.

2. Lay out the piece of ribbon to go around your cupcake on a surface, then tie the other ribbon around it in a knot, as close to the centre as you can.

3. Tighten the knot and tie your bow with the same piece of ribbon, shaping and cutting off any excess and neatening up the ends.

4. As with the lace trim, apply the double sided tape and attach to your cupcake.

We hope you enjoyed reading this week’s blog and then enjoy finding out how simple it is at home! Also remember that if you’re transporting your cakes its best to add your trim when at your venue, so all of the trims stay in place and don’t get knocked/squashed on the way. This way is no where near as stressful when you have perfect sized strips of ready-taped lace all prepared for when you arrive, rather than unsticking trims from boxes and other cakes, and trying to straighten wonky bows and uncrease scalloped edging!

Jenny x