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The Great Cupcake Challenge

Posted by English Mum in BLOG, FUN STUFF on Feb 8th, 2010 | 63 responses

Cupcake

So I’m a bit bleurgh about blogging at the moment. 

I have no inspiration.

I’ve lost my mojo, as it were. 

So I thought ‘ooh, I know, I need a little bit of reader interaction’.  And so I went in the bath (mango and lime bubbles, if you must know) and had a think.  And here’s the plan.  I’m setting you a challenge.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make me some cupcakes (well, not me exactly, I don’t want you to post them to me or anything).  Seeing as Valentine’s Day is coming up and it’s always a huge anticlimax, I thought you could make Valentine’s Day cupcakes.  I want real effort here, now –  none of this watery icing and sprinkles nonsense - proper, beeyootiful cupcakes.

If you’re a blogger, then you can post a picture on your blog, or if you’re not a nerd you can just email me a picture to be posted, proudly, on englishmum.com on Valentine’s Day.

What do you think, then?  You up for it?

 

Oh and while you’re at it, if you’re truly proud of your pic, you can enter it in this month’s Home Baked Challenge, the theme of which is ‘love’ and of which I happen to be a judge.  I won’t be biased.  Honest.

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63 Responses to “The Great Cupcake Challenge”

  1. Amy Lane says:
    February 8, 2010 at 9:37 am

    Great idea – looking forward to seeing lots of lovely Valentine’s cupcake pics. I did my samples last week and my pics are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/amylane/4313727799/ I shall, no doubt, be making some like this for my husband at the weekend :)

    Reply
  2. Rachel@fairycakeheaven says:
    February 8, 2010 at 9:51 am

    oooo do you get to eat cupcakes as part of your “judges duties”?

    Reply
  3. Kate says:
    February 8, 2010 at 11:07 am

    do you have a proper recipe for butter cream I’m always guessing

    Reply
  4. Jennifer Eccles says:
    February 8, 2010 at 11:47 am

    Hmm…no watery icing and sprinkles eh?…that’s me out then!

    Reply
  5. SmartLivingDiva says:
    February 8, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    My cupcakes never come out looking anything like that – how do you get the buttercream so swirlying good?

    Reply
    • English Mum says:
      February 8, 2010 at 1:54 pm

      Heya! The trick is in the mix, I think – you need double the quantity of sugar to butter and really beat it well! x

      Reply
      • jennynib says:
        February 10, 2010 at 5:34 pm

        Whip unsalted butter (paler, so truer colour)like a fecker and add twice the amount (like de Missus says) of sieved (V. Imp) icing sugar, salt and a dash of flavouring (citrus cuts the sweet best)a wee smidge of milk and whip s’more. Then use a BIIIIIG star tip when icing.

        Stir like mad before filling your piping bag and squirt a bit out first to avoid air bubbly, ‘farty’ icing. :)

        Sells for €2 a pop at the Gah Mah (GAA Mothers) cake sale! Chi-ching!!

        Reply
  6. Lucy says:
    February 8, 2010 at 4:38 pm

    Crikey your cupcakes are beautiful – I have those same pretty wrappers! Definitely taking up the challenge for you :)

    Reply
  7. moon says:
    February 8, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    See, thats just cheating .. when I go into blogging melt down, I just stop blogging and lose all my readers.. you turn to pink cupcakes … !!!!!!

    Reply
  8. Jamie says:
    February 8, 2010 at 5:53 pm

    Oooh yes! Thanks for inviting me over to bake for you! I love it! And I already have my Valentine’s Day heart cupcake paper cups out and begging to be used!

    Reply
  9. Daily Spud says:
    February 8, 2010 at 6:04 pm

    Hmm, somehow I suspect that my usual unadorned buns aren’t going to cut the mustard!

    Reply
  10. The Jelly Monster says:
    February 8, 2010 at 10:27 pm

    I’m sooooooooo up for that!

    Reply
  11. Knackered Mother says:
    February 8, 2010 at 11:34 pm

    Well, my last cupcakes were a disaster, put in peppermint essence instead of vanilla by mistake (distracted by small person asking for something) so they looked ok but tasted like toothpaste. Will have another go, and concentrate this time x

    Reply
  12. Jennifer Eccles says:
    February 9, 2010 at 10:08 am

    Ah ha ha ha toothpaste flavoured!!!!..brilliant KM!!! :)

    Reply
  13. a modern mother says:
    February 9, 2010 at 1:14 pm

    I’m up for it. It will be a nice half term project. I’ve misplaced my mojo too!

    Reply
  14. snafflesmummy says:
    February 9, 2010 at 10:40 pm

    ooh this looks fab. Cant wait to get baking.

    Reply
  15. nonstopmama says:
    February 10, 2010 at 7:31 pm

    ooh, feel a case of frosting envy coming on! Had cake-making confidence knocked with recent b.day one crisis (used evap. instead of skimmed milk, didn’t think it wld matter too much but, as you the pro would know, WRONG! But but like brownie next day). Also, put springform base in wrong way and nearly lost the whole lot down side of dishwasher. Think I will sit on the fence and marvel at everyone’s entries!!! XX

    Reply
  16. In which my mojo returns and I make ganache with Green & Black’s - ENGLISH MUM says:
    February 11, 2010 at 8:17 am

    [...] seeing as we’ve got the ginormous Cupcake Challenge in the offing, I thought I’d say a few words about chocolate and a few more about [...]

    Reply
  17. Drina Murphy says:
    February 12, 2010 at 3:17 pm

    So you decided to do the contest:0) Some of these replies have made me laugh out loud! I really need to get hold of some of that colouring paste but I think you would have to go to a special cake supplies shop or ebay as I couldn’t find it in Tesco’s, Asda or Sainsburys. Your pink icing looks amazing, mine was drab in comparison:(

    Reply
  18. mummylimited says:
    February 12, 2010 at 3:47 pm

    I was a little scared when I saw Amy’s brilliant effort, how do you do that great white buttercream, but am so proud these little babies I had to join the challenge..

    see them at http://mummylimited.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-just-need-to-iron-my-pinny.html

    Reply
  19. Working Mum says:
    February 12, 2010 at 4:20 pm

    Will definitely entery cakes – thanks for letting me know. Planning to upload them to flickr this weekend- will call back and let you know when I’ve done so.

    Reply
  20. Working Mum says:
    February 12, 2010 at 5:12 pm

    Here are my efforts:

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/31004325@N05/4350996363/in/set-72157607641162562/

    or, if that doesn’t work, you can use the picture from my blog

    http://workingmumonverge.blogspot.com/2010/02/cupcake-by-any-other-name-would-taste.html

    Looking forward to seeing lots of lovely cupcakes. Great idea!

    Reply
  21. YoungMummy says:
    February 12, 2010 at 10:56 pm

    Love this! I’m a big cupcake fan. Instead of having a wedding cake, we sent every guest a small box and asked them to bring a (homemade if poss) cupcake instead. It was so much fun and definitely brought out people’s competitive sides!

    Reply
  22. exmoorjane says:
    February 13, 2010 at 4:36 pm

    oh for feck’s sake….now feeling wholly inadequate…. might slink away… :(

    Reply
  23. Knackered Mother says:
    February 13, 2010 at 8:43 pm

    My Chardonnay-infused beauties:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/knackeredmother/4354573526/in/photostream/

    Joking about the Chardonnay.

    x

    Reply
  24. Magic Mummy says:
    February 14, 2010 at 8:59 am

    I’m not sure if I can join in if you’re not allowed watery icing – that’s my speciality lol

    We are having a baking afternoon later so I will let you know if mine are worthy of being shown in public lol

    Reply
  25. Lucy says:
    February 14, 2010 at 4:24 pm

    I’m not too sure if I have entered right – but I just blogged my Valentine cupcakes. Thank you so much for making the contest – they were such fun to bake :)

    Reply
  26. Magic Mummy says:
    February 14, 2010 at 6:15 pm

    Well I’m done!

    I have some unusual looking cakes sitting on my counter than no one is willing to try lol

    (it could be the green tinge that they have aqcuired lol)

    Reply
  27. A Modern Mother says:
    February 18, 2010 at 7:01 pm

    I finally made mine! http://www.amodernmother.com/2010/02/cupcake-challenge.html

    Reply
  28. Karen Kirk says:
    February 21, 2010 at 11:07 am

    English Mum – you have inspired me what lovely cup cakes but being the anti-cook I think I shall have to start with something much simpler.
    I shall add a link to your blog on mine!
    Thanks I am looking forward to exploring your site x

    Reply

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