Pink and orange cupcakes

Over the past few months my family and friends have been buying sprinkles for me wherever they see them. I got sprinkles as presents for Christmas and every time I see my mum she's found some more in the £1 shop, or somewhere like that.

I've also been buying sprinkles wherever I can. In fact, I jump at the chance to go to a different supermarket just so I can check out their sprinkle collection. I know have a huge cupboard dedicated to sprinkles and baking goods which is ridiculous in my small kitchen!

Pink and orange is one of those colour combinations that you don't often see together but I personally love. On my sprinkle journeys I've picked up a few sets which I can then match together, even if they didn't come together - this includes orange, pink, white and yellow stars from Asda, pink hundreds and thousands from Sainsburys and orange and pink jimmies that I got as a present. They were my inspiration for last Sunday's cupcakes.

I also did a little experiment with the frosting based on something I saw in Sainsbury's magazine a few months back: I split the frosting into two parts and coloured one with pink food colouring. Then I added both parts into one piping bag so it would come out half pink and half white.

I made vanilla cakes in orange and pink cases with the two-colour cream cheese frosting and decorated with the pink and orange sprinkles.

Blue and pink edged cupcakes

After I made my black and white cupcakes I wanted to do some edged cupcakes again.

These lovelies were made with vanilla cakes and cream cheese frosting, I then edged with blue and pink ball sprinkles.

I actually used sprinkles from two different sets. I matched them up because they both have a similar matte look. Even though the blue ones came in a set with red and blue sprinkles I think the pink and blue look great together, it's sort of a blue-purple colour, lush!

Pink and Green cupcakes

So I made these with my standard vanilla cake recipe but I realised that I had forgotten to pick up any soft cheese to make the cream cheese frosting.

Instead of heading all the way to the supermarket I just popped across the road to the international supermarket that is opposite my apartment. There I bought some European cream cheese, I'm not sure of the brand but it was not expensive.

Once I opened it up I found it was crumbly, not cream-y like the Philadelphia brand that I normally use which was a little weird. When I whisked it with the unsalted butter and icing sugar however, it came up so fluffy! It did take a while to whisk out the crumbliness but it ended it up to be the perfect texture. It was great to pipe out, it held its shape and wasn't runny at all.

The only slight downside that I found was that the frosting was a little more bitter tasting than I like - I like it really sweet!

So, I would recommend trying out as many different cream / soft cheeses as you can!

I then decorated with a mix of green and pink sprinkles including using some sprinkles that my Mum had picked up for me whilst she was in Berlin a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not sure why I haven't tried this colour combo before - green and pink is my fave! The only thing that would make them better is if they had my initials, or even my full name on the cupcakes - oh, wait a minute...

Very berry strawberry cupcakes

So I made these with my fave vanilla recipe, but between spoonfuls of mix I piped a little strawberry preserve in the center of the cake. When they were baked I found the jam had made its way to the bottom so it might be best just to put it at the bottom next time...

I mixed some cream cheese frosting (the left overs from a couple of weeks ago that I had frozen and then defrosted) together with one teaspoon of strawberry preserve and a couple of drops of pink colouring. To finish off the berry heaven, I topped each cake with half a strawberry. Delicious!

Vanilla cakes with vanilla frosting and pink balls

I made some bonus midweek vanilla cakes for my friend Carrie's birthday!!

I actually made a little change to my recipe after reading this month's Sainsbury's magazine. So I made the recipe as usual then ten minutes after taking them out of the oven I pricked the cakes and brushed some vanilla syrup over them. This helped to make them extra vanilla-y and super moist.

I frosted them with canned frosting and decorated with pink sugar balls to make them all matching. Of course I used pink cases to make them uber-cute.

As we went out to Las Iguanas for dinner the waiter brought them out with pink candles after our meal and Carrie loved them. The waiter also commented that everyone in the kitchen was impressed too!

White chocolate cupcakes with pink butter cream icing and pink sprinkles

I wasn't able to make any cupcakes this weekend as I was moving all my belongings from my old flat in Leeds to my new flat in Leicester. But it's been two weeks since I've made any and I missed my cupcake rush so much that I HAD to make some tonight.

These beauties were made with my classic vanilla mixture but once it came to spooning it into the cases I used two teaspoons of mixture instead of one tablespoon and I popped in a chunk of white chocolate between spoons. Small chocolate chips in a cupcake are nice but I love having one big chunk of chocolate in the middle, especially when they are still warm because the chunk is all gooey and yummy.

For the topping I made some butter cream icing (equal parts margarine and icing sugar) with pink natural colouring. I used a zip lock bag with a small hole in one corner to pipe out the butter cream in a swirl. Some of them look a bit gooey because I was cooking dinner at the same time and it was a bit warm in the kitchen!

My friend, Carrie was over so she helped me decorate them with my massive pink sprinkle collection; pink stars, white hearts, pink sparkling sugars and sugar balls :D