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Moon cycle cupcakes
Ingredients
175g softened unsalted butter
175g caster sugar
3 large eggs
Method
150g self-raising flour
50g cocoa powder
1.
Line a 12-hole muffin tin with 12 dark brown or black muffin
cases. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put all the
ingredients in a large bowl and using a hand-held electric whisk,
beat for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy.
4 tbsp icing sugar
100g blue ready-made fondant
icing
100g black ready-made fondant
2.
Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, then bake for 20 25 minutes, until risen and springy to the touch – ask an adult to
help you with this bit. When the cakes are cooked, take them out of
the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely – ask an
adult to help you with this bit too. You will need 8 of the cakes to
make a full cycle of the moon. If you need to, you can trim the tops
of the cakes so that they are flat.
3.
Mix 3 tbsp of the icing sugar with enough water to make a
spreadable paste and set aside. Knead the blue and black fondant
icing together until the colours are almost blended together, leaving
a few streaks of blue running through.
icing
140g white fondant icing
gold edible glitter (optional)
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4.
Dust a work surface with a little icing sugar and roll out the
coloured icing so that it's large enough to cut out 12 x 7cm rounds.
Spread a little smear of the icing sugar paste on top of each cake
and stick an icing round on top.
5.
Roll out the white icing to about 0.5cm thick. Using a small
sharp knife, cut out 2 thin crescent shapes to make the waxing and
waning crescent. Using a 7cm cutter, cut out 4 rounds. Cut one
round in half to make the first and third quarter of the moon. Leave
one round as it is to make the full moon and cut a small crescent
away from the remaining 2 rounds, to make the waxing and waning
gibbous moon. Using a little of the icing paste, stick each shape on
to a cake. Leave one cake with nothing on – this will be the new
moon. Use a star-shaped cutter to decorate the 4 cupcakes not
included in the cycle with the leftover white icing.
6.
Using a pastry brush, apply a tiny bit of water over the darker
icing then sprinkle a little glitter over the top – the water helps it
stick in place. Have fun arranging your cakes in a lunar cycle!