Arty Cupcakes by Celeste from Travelling in Mary Janes

Celeste and I met at the first Nuffnang end of the year party last year. It is so easy to pick out a fellow Singaporean with the undeniable Singlish! I knew that she is really clever with her hands. She made some really cute cupcake and meringue earrings, she can knit, she can sew. She is able to do all those craft stuff that I can only dream of. And then I found out that she loves food (typical Singaporean, yah) and she loves to cook! YAY!

I was quite intrigued that she is so multi-talented and so asked if she will like to do a guest post for me. I was very interested how she would be able to connect her passion for craft and food into one blog post. It was definitely a challenge that she accepted and embraced.

Enjoy this post because I sure did!

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Hi all, it’s Celeste from Travelling in Mary Janes or more simply known as Berrytravels.

I am a Music Teacher by day, a Jewellery Maker by night and a wannabe Chef every meal time. To me, all three of them are closely linked and I cannot imagine life without any of them. So when Penny asked me to do a guest post on her amazing blog about crafts (and food), I very happily said yes.

Have you ever been to a restaurant and been blown away by their plating, their presentation and the skill that’s apparent on the plate? Have you ever been to a cake shop and marvel at the beautiful sculpted sugar flowers and whistle at the realism of them all? That is art. In every chef or baker, there is an artist. I’m rambling on, but what I’m trying to point out here is just how closely linked food and art or crafts can be. They go hand in hand, and you only need a different eye, a different perspective to see just what good friends they can be.

Source: via Teenytinyturkey

Today’s post was inspired by Vegan Yum Yum where she showed us how to make beautiful knitting inspired decorations for her cupcakes with Marzipan. I cannot claim credit for the idea. What I did was expand upon it, and this is the result of my very poor attempt at sugar crafting. (I don’t like marzipan.)

For the cupcakes I made Red Velvet Cupcakes from the widely popular recipe found in the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. You can find the recipe here and here with slight variations to the recipes.

For the sugar sculptures, I started by drawing them out to get an idea of the 3D model, then sculpted them free hand. They don’t look awesome, I’m warning you now. I also used various food colourings to obtain the colours I wanted. For the actual moulding paste, I used the flower moulding paste from Cake Art.

Disclaimer: This is my first attempt at sugar art. Ever.

I’m trying not to do the usual verbal vomit I tend to do on my own blog, so I’m going to let my photos do the talking. Enjoy!

Oye, the cupcakes are done! And the sugar sculptures done! (rather shoddily, but I tried my best.)

I have to point out tho, that adding liquid food colouring to sugar paste is such a bad idea. You can do it, as has been proven by my little creations above, but it makes it all rather sticky and hard to work with. If you are not using marzipan, then the best way to get the colours you want onto sugar paste is to airbrush it on.

I also added 1 tsp of Vanilla extract instead of the 1/2 tsp that they recommended, as I found the chocolate flavour of the cupcakes a little too strong for my liking while the vanilla fragrance sorely lacking on my first attempt. But this is personal preference and completely optional.

And now for the end result:

What do you think? Perfect for the craft circle’s night out?

I cannot tell you exactly how to mould the paste into the model that you want, but what I can say is: Practice makes perfect. Keep on at it and you will get there. Also, toothpicks, skewers, and even sewing pins are your best friends so use those wisely.

As for how they tasted? Absolutely delicious. The cupcakes were beautifully red on the inside, moist and not too sickeningly sweet. I definitely see myself making these again. No photos of that as the cupcakes were eaten before I could dig the camera out. Sorry!

Thanks for having me on the blog, it was lovely being able to spend some time in the shoes of Penny. I hope I didn’t bore you half to death, and I hope to see you over at my blog sometime soon too!

I’m off to eat some of the leftover cream cheese frosting.. yum!