Flower cupcakes recipe

Flavour these delicious flower cupcakes with vanilla and top with a sweet buttercream icing. Finish with an impressive fondant flower design. 

Use ready-to-roll white fondant icing to top these delicate flower cupcakes. Colour the icing with gooseberry and claret paste food colourings. These cupcakes are by cupcake expert and cake designer Victoria Threader. Victoria recommends using daisy cutters to make the flower topper in three sizes, 30mm, 37mm, and 45mm.

Ingredients

• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 130g self-raising flour
• 20g cornflour
• 3 medium eggs
• 2 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 

For the buttercream

• 100g butter, softened
• 250g icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp milk

For the decoration

• 450g ready-to-roll white fondant icing
• Gooseberry and claret paste food colourings

Equipment you'll need

• Deep muffin tin
• 12 silver foil muffin cases or paper muffin cases
• 7cm diameter round cookie cutter
• Daisy cutters in three sizes, 30mm, 37mm and 45mm

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3.
2. Place 12 cases in your muffin tin.
3. Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla extract until light and fluffy (about 5 mins). Combine the flour and cornflour.
4. Add 1 egg, one-third of the flour mix and a splash of milk and beat until just combined. Repeat until all the ingredients are combined. Don’t over beat.
5. Divide the batter between the 12 cases (use an ice cream scoop to get even amounts) and bake for 20-25 mins depending on your oven.
6. Cool in the tins for 10 mins before moving to a wire cooling rack.
7. To make the buttercream: Add butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 mins with an electric whisk until smooth. Gradually whisk in the milk if you need to loosen the mixture.
8. To decorate: When the cupcakes have cooled spread a little of the buttercream over the tops. This is just to give the fondant a nice smooth dome effect.
9. Colour 360g of the white fondant icing with the gooseberry colour. Roll the fondant to 6mm thick and prick all over with a toothpick (you can use an embossing folder instead if you have one). Cut out rounds using the cookie cutter and place over the buttercream. Smooth the edge with the tips of your fingers.
10. When all the cupcakes are covered, divide the remaining white icing into three and colour each piece a different shade of pink using the claret colouring. Thinly roll out each colour and, using the daisy cutters, cut out 12 large flowers from the dark pink, 12 medium from the medium pink and 12 small from the light pink. Layer up the flowers, offsetting them slightly and stick in place with a brush of water.
11. Roll any remaining dark pink icing into 12 balls and flatten. Prick with a cocktail stick (or press with a daisy stamp if you have one) and secure in the centre of each flower with a brush of water.

Top tips for making flower cupcakes

When kneading and rolling out the fondant, grease the work surface with a touch of veg fat (Trex) or use a silicone pastry mat to stop your fondant icing sticking.

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