Sunflower cupcakes

· by · in Cupcakes and muffins. ·

sunflower cupcakes

Last week I made cupcakes for a friend’s wedding again – 52 of them! And as the only flowers she’d be using were sunflowers I asked her if she would like the cupcakes to match them. She loved the idea!

These cupcakes are quite simple to make but the result is very impressive. The only problem is that if you’re making 52 of them you must be very well organised. The day before the wedding, I made the cupcakes and the white chocolate ganache and filled them with it. The next morning I made the dark chocolate ganache and decorated them. Is it time-consuming? Yes, but if you plan it well it won’t be an overwhelming task. These cupcakes were ready by noon (it took me 4 hours to decorate them all) and I still had time to chill and have my nails done 😉

You can find the recipe for the chocolate cake here, or you can use any recipe you like – even box mix. I made 3 batches. The thing about the ganaches is nailing the right amount you’ll need for the 52 cupcakes. So I’m posting the quantities I used. The meringue recipe is enough to decorate about 80 cupcakes, so you can either save some before dying or dye the whole batch (that’s what I did) and keep the rest in the fridge (I used it the next Friday for my mother’s birthday and it was perfectly good).

boxes

WHITE CHOCOLATE GANACHE
INGREDIENTS
350g white chocolate, chopped
200ml single cream
METHOD
Heat cream in the microwave oven for about 1 minute or until it’s hot. Add the chocolate and stir until well combined and glossy. Let it cool while you core the cupcakes.

DARK CHOCOLATE GANACHE
INGREDIENTS
150g dark chocolate, chopped
80ml single cream
METHOD
Heat cream in the microwave oven for about 30 secs or until it’s hot. Add the chocolate and stir until well combined and glossy.

wedding

DECORATION
1 quantity meringue
yellow gel food colouring
50g brown or chocolate 2mm sugar balls
piping nozzle: Wilton 352 (small leaf)
METHOD
Prepare the meringue and dye it yellow (I used a fairly great amount of food colouring). Let it set in the fridge.
Place a small amount of the ganache on the centre of the cupcake and spread it making a wide circle. Put the balls in a small container and invert the cupcake onto them gently so they adhere to the ganache. (I didn’t do it as in a production line because I thought the ganache could set and the balls wouldn’t glue to it as firmly).
Put the meringue in a piping bag fitted with the leaf nozzle and pipe the sunflower petals around the centre (see video below).

30 responses to “Sunflower cupcakes”

  7. These look wonderful, I can’t believe you made so many and they all look so consistant. Fantastic. GG

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  11. These cupcakes are wonderful in so many ways, Erica! Your friend’s wedding was enhanced by your baking skills and decorating talents. A wedding is all about love and these pretty sunflowers are a labor of love! The video makes your decorating idea do-able for anybody (Thanks!). My experience of what 4 hours of decorating feels like is its really fun the first hour, not a problem the second hour, getting tired/bored the third hour, and sure you were nuts to agree to such a thing the fourth! Funny thing is that never seems to stop me from doing it again and you will be doing it again with your wedding cookies also! Great job and lucky friends!

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    • Thank you! To be honest the time went by and I didn’t notice. Maybe because I was taking pictures and posting them to Facebook all the time 🙂 Then I decided to make a video and hubby took a while to get the hang of it 😀

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  12. These are so very pretty, not to mention a rather unique choice for a wedding cake. I love that. I made a tower of amaretto cupcakes and three different types of cookie the day before my own wedding – 120 cakes, 240 cookies! It was sheer madness on reflection but it worked our beautifully after a little drama. My oven over heated and a few cupcakes kinda exploded but fortunate one of my bridesmaids lived over the road so we used hers whilst mine returned to a normal temperature. Good memories 😉

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    • OMG, Jo! I wouldn’t dare! I have to make 200 decorated cookies for another friend’s wedding in May and just the thought of it makes me panic 🙂 Fortunately her aunt lives across from me, so if my oven overheats… 😉

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      • It was a labour of love I think very few appreciated at my wedding I must admit. Would I do it again? Aye I would but I have rediscovered my love for fruit cake so that would make things considerably less stressful as it could be done way, way in advance! Good luck with those cookies! At least mine weren’t decorated – an oatie cookie, double choc chip and a peanut butter one in each bag 🙂

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        • Even so it’s too much work for a bride! I love fruit cakes too! Sometimes when I know I won’t have time to bake a huge batch closer to the event I simply bake ahead and freeze – the only problem I noticed is that the tops tend to get a bit sticky but with the frosting all is concealed 😉

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  13. These look great! They’re all absolutely identical to one other, you must have had a lot of patience! Such a lovely idea for a wedding, I bet all the guests will remember your fab cupcakes 🙂

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