Ingredients
:
- 300g
golden caster sugar
- 4 large
eggs
- 300g
butter, melted and cooled
- 300g
self-raising flour
- ¼ tsp
vanilla extract
- 140g
butter, softened
- 250g
icing sugar
- 2 tbsp
milk
- ¼ tsp
vanilla extract
- 175g
white fondant icing
- 1 tsp
cocoa powder
- 4
chocolate flake bars (we used Cadbury Flake)
- 4
chocolate bars (we used Twix)
- 175g
pale blue fondant icing
- 100g
dark blue fondant icing
- 25g
black fondant icing or black writing icing
- selection
of sweets for decorating (we used Smarties and green & blue chocolate beans
from Waitrose)
Adding
details :
If you want
to give your caterpillar wiggly legs cut lengths of bendy straws for the legs,
bend them and stick on pieces of green or blue fondant then press them into the
cakes.
Directions
:
- Heat
oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line 2 x 12 hole muffin tins with paper muffin
cases. In a large mixing bowl whisk together the sugar, eggs, butter, flour and
vanilla extract until pale and smooth with no pockets of flour visible. Divide
the mixture between the 24 muffin cases then bake in the oven for 18-20 mins or
until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Transfer the cupcakes to a wire rack
and make the butter cream while the cakes are cooling.
- To make
the buttercream place the softened butter in a large bowl, add the icing sugar
and beat well with electric whisk or a wooden spoon, until pale and fluffy,
adding the milk and vanilla extract half way through mixing. Once the cupcakes
have cooled, cover each one with a very thin layer of butter cream ensuring you
have about 3-4 tbsp of buttercream leftover for sticking on the rest of the
design.
- To
decorate, roll out the white icing and cut circles to cover the tops of 10 of
the cakes and dust those with a touch of cocoa powder (this forms the top of
the mushroom) reserve a little white fondant for the caterpillar’s eyes later.
Cut lengths of the chocolate flakes to make the gills of the mushrooms running
along the bottom half of 4 of the white fondant cupcakes and trim to fit using
a round cookie cutter. Cover 2 cupcakes with slices of chocolate bars, trimmed
to fit using a round cookie cutter to form the stalk of the mushroom.
- For the
caterpillar’s body, cover 8 of the cupcakes in the pale blue fondant and 4 with
dark blue fondant.
- Arrange
the cupcakes on a large board or table (approx. 1m x 50cm) Roll out the dark
blue fondant and cut semi circles and crescents to form the edges of the
caterpillar’s body using the remaining butter cream to stick them over the pale
blue bases. Use any leftover fondant for the nose and top of the caterpillars
head and using a blunt knife carve round grooves in pale blue fondant to shape
the belly.
- Create
the eyes from the reserved white fondant with the eyebrows and pupils from
black fondant or writing icing. If you like you can use green chocolate beans
scattered on the board to create grass and blue chocolate beans as the sky.
