Ariel Pull Apart Cupcake cake for Trinity's 4th birthday Recipe!

One year has past! Trinity has turned 4! I still remember when she requested for a "Princess Watalala cake" last year. She meant Cinderella. And she got it for her birthday. A fondant handmade Cinderella cake done by me. A first attempt. 

Of course by now, she can pronounce every Princess name accurately and she specially requested for an Ariel cake this year. 

Her school said that it would be better to have cupcakes like I made last year as it is easier to serve the children. So I decided to make an Ariel pull apart cupcake cake! This is my first attempt and I have to say that I'm pretty impressed with the final results!

This cake is requested, suggested, baked, partially assembled and partially Frosted by my 4 year old Trinity. She said she wanted to have pink and purple cupcakes with pink and purple frosting and Ariel on top with pink and purple candles. You get the girly drift. 

Yup so we did it! Here's the final results:

Tada! Trinity and all her girl friends at school were thrilled! 

The recipe is modified from Panya's Palette. 

(this

Recipe makes 12 standard cupcakes. I tripled the recipe to make 55 cupcakes.) 

Ingredients:

165g plain flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

120g sugar

1 egg

80g veg oil

160g milk

Pinch of salt

1. Mix the sugar, salt, oil, milk, vanilla and egg together until sugar is dissolved.

2. Sieve in the flour, baking powder and baking soda  and whisk till smooth.

3.use a clean toothpick and pick up the amount of wilton gel food coloring you like. Add to batter and whisk till you get your desired color. 

4. Pour into a 7 inch round cake tin or cupcake cases and bake at 180C for 20-25mins.

5. Cool before decorating it. 

I made poodle balloon sculptures for the entire school, make about 50 of them. 

Trini adds the pink batter on top pf the purple batter. it is easy for children to work with batter using either a squeeze bottle or a piping bag. 

Tada! Fresh from the oven! 

Now to make: 

American Classic buttercream frosting

The original recipe uses lots of sugar ratio of butter to sugar is 1:3! It's too much for us to take so I cut it down by half and put it in the fridge before using so that it is firm without being too sweet. 

Ingredients:

(this recipe can frost 46 mini cupcakes)

2 cups unsalted butter (soften to ice cream like texture)

3 cups icing sugar, sifted

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon sea salt 

2 tablespoon milk 

Stand by 2 cups Additional icing sugar to add 

1. Place soften butter in mixer. Use paddle attachment and beat till creamy.

2. Add icing sugar, vanilla extract and milk and continue beating till you get the desired consistency. Add more sugar if consistency is too soft and add more milk if consistency is too sift. 

This is my darling Tiffany who stayed up to make the frosting with me as she was waiting for me to nurse her. She is such a darling! I prepared the frosting one day in advance and thaw it 2  hours before using. You can leave the frosting in the refrigerator for a maximum of 1 week before use. 

Now to assemble the cake you need to cling wrap Ariel really well so that she doesn't get dirty and to make her tail and top, you need this amazing fruit roll ups which can be found at NTUC FINEST Woodgrove branch. You need about 3-5 pieces. It is easy to work with but the weather in Singapore makes it melt, tear and stick very easily so you do need  someone to hold Ariel for you while you wrap the fruit roll around. 

This is Ariel in Cling wrap and the "fruit roll ups" unrolled and how the packet looks like. 

Now assemble the cupcakes in any way you like and cut off the tops to make it even for frosting if needed 

This is the skeleton of the cake before slicing off the tops and before frosting.

To frost:

Use the buttercream and spread over the cupcake using an off set spatula and   Feel free to create the waves by moving your off set spatula in a circular motion. 

Pipe the borders in another color to give a better definition. 

I chilled the cake over night and worked with the rest of the details on the actual morning. It makes the buttercream firm up and easier to transport to the school. 

 For party favors, I made poodle balloon sculptures, About 50 of them and Trinity patiently drew eyes for every poodle! (almost! She gave up after doing about 40 pairs of poodles eyes at 10pm) 

hard at work! 

So we reached school and everyone was happy to have their Ariel cake and also the poodle balloon sculptures that Trinity gave out!

This is a great surprise for the children who are used to getting goodie bags. They got really excited and the teachers wrote their names on it to prevent conflicts.

After her teacher shared the timeline of her life for the past 4 years, she was invited to do the birthday walk to mark her turning of 4 years old. There were 2 other boys who had the same birthday month as her and they celebrated on the same day with their own cakes and goodie bags so you can imagine the joy on every child's face! 3 cakes to eat and 3 party favors to receive! 

As usual, the serious looking face when she is in the limelight...

Giving out balloons to everyone. 

Happy children makes all the effort worthwhile!

Trinity and Tiffany eats the birthday Cakes! 

Outdoor time!

Look at the strong Rambutan tree in Trinity's school! 

Tiffany looking for fallen rambutans.

 Tada! Mummy look! I found one! But it is time to go home! 

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Praise Jesus for your strength to carry me through this 2 days of party preparation! Trinity and Tiffany enjoyed themselves tremendously!

Hope you will try this recipe for your child soon! If you have a son, I would suggest you to top with a car with an action figurine or transport with blue and green frosting! 

Inspiring Yummy Mummies

PoshPearl 

Strawberry shortcake recipe: a simple taste for little ones

I got a four leaves strawberry shortcake for Trinity when she was 1 year old cos I feel that it is uncomplicated, simple sponge cake with fresh strawberries and since during infanthood, babies have not been exposed to cakes due to sugar and whole milk content, hence to begin eating, should be something light on the palette. And if all else fails, just eat the fresh strawberries for picture sake!
So for Tiffany's 1st birthday, I wanted her to have a strawberry shortcake as well. The only difference this time is that it is homemade! My baker friend Stephanie told me that strawberry shortcake consist of 2 things. A good sponge cake and creme Chantilly.
So I began researching on various recipes and in the end, I got 2 delicious recipes which worked together perfectly!

To create, I used my kenwood mixer and here's my tips:

1. Make sure eggs used in this recipe is 60g each and must be at room temperature. Cold eggs DO NOT reach their maximum potential when whipped which means that meringue for the creme Chantilly will not be as voluminous as it ought to be.
2. The traditional way to make creme Chantilly is to place your mixing bowl under a bowl of ice water but how are we going to achieve that using the kitchen stand mixer? Well, I place the entire mixing bowl and whisk attachment on the fridge and chilled it for at least 1-2 hours before use. This way, the bowl and whisk will be icy cold and nice!
3. I used Korean strawberries. These strawberries are really
Sweet and nice! If not, go for organic strawberries which has a tender texture and sweeter than regular strawberries.
4. Do try serving them as cupcakes literally. I got the silicon cupcake bakeware for coldstorage.
It comes with saucers too! In white or pink!

Here's my recipe combined from cakeboss' website and my creme chantilly recipe.

For sponge cake:
Recipe from the cake boss website

http://www.cakeboss.com/cakebossspongecake.aspx

4 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup butter (lightly salted)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt


1. Beat eggs in large mixing bowl with paddle attachment for 4 minutes. Do not skip this step!

2. Add sugar, and continue beating for another 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and stir on low until just combined.

3. In a separate bowl, sift together dry ingredients. Add to eggs and sugar on low speed until just combined.

4. In a saucepan, heat milk and butter on low heat just until butter is melted. Add to batter, beat just until combined.

5. Pour into 2 greased 20cm round cake pans and the silicon cupcakes moulds. I fill them
3/4 full

6. Bake at 160 deg celsius until the middle springs back when touched, or a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The cupcakes took less than 20 minutes while the cake took 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand in pans for 10 minutes. Then turn out onto wire cooling racks and cool completely.

Hint: Cakes are close to being done when you start to smell them.


Creme Chantilly

2 cups whipping cream
2 tablespoon icing sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Place your metal mixing bowl and whisk attachment in the refrigerator and chill it for 2 hours.

2. Combine everything and whisk till soft peak.

3. Cover and chill the creme until ready for use.

Strawberry shortcake

1. Remove cakes from pans carefully.
2. Chill cake in fridge for at least 30minutes to cool them.
3. Place 1st layer of cake, a layer of creme chantilly.
4. Place sliced strawberries neatly and lavishly.
5. Place 2nd layer of sponge and place a layer of creme Chantilly and chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
6. Add 2nd layer of creme Chantilly and decorate with strawberries and it's ready!

Strawberry cupcake

1. Use a small sharp knife to make an incision in the middle of the cupcake. Remove a chunk, the hole should be the amount of creme Chantilly you want to fill with.
2. Use a piping bag and squeeze the creme Chantilly to fill the cupcake and place an inverted strawberry onto it!

Children will love filling the creme Chantilly and placing the strawberries! Do invite them to help!

Then it's party time!

Inspiring Yummy Mummies
PoshPearl