So, this week’s bake is inspired after my visit trip to Blackpool, by the seaside cupcakes. I decided to decorate my cupcakes by choosing three signature things from my trip, ice cream because the weather was glorious, candy floss because what Pier doesn’t sell it and Blackpool rock because I couldn’t go all the way to Blackpool and not bring any back as presents. These trio of cakes are the perfect treat to bring a bit of the seaside to your own kitchen. I went to Blackpool with my friend Charlotte who I met at uni and we had a very fun couple of days with a reasonable amount of alcohol drank to celebrate the end of our first year at uni. I even managed to put a twist in some of the cupcakes using the pipettes I bought a couple of weeks ago but we’ll get to that.
For the cupcakes, I used my normal recipe but doubled it up. I added 350g self raising flour, sugar, butter, 6 eggs and 1 teaspoon of baking powder. I then added a few drops of vanilla flavouring. I wanted to decorate 6 with candy floss and 6 with Blackpool rock so used two different colour cupcakes cases so I could tell them apart. After I had made 12 cupcakes with the remaining mixture I made 16 ice cream cone cupcakes. I also flavoured the ice cream cone cakes butterscotch flavour because I haven’t used that one in a while. I used flat bottomed ice cream cones and filled them 2/3 full. You don’t want to overfill the cones because they will spill over the top. I baked both the cupcakes and the ice cream cones for 15-20 minutes at 175degrees. The ice cream cones took slightly longer so I just kept testing them with a tooth pick until they came out clean. I left them to cool before I decorated them.
For the buttercream, I doubled up the mixture and used 500g butter to 1kg icing sugar with a dash of milk and some vanilla flavouring. I made the buttercream when it was quite warm so it wasn’t harder to work with than normal, but it somehow still worked. The heat wasn’t my friend but it wasn’t a disaster. I wanted to keep the buttercream simple and not complicated. Let’s start with the ice cream cone cakes. I piped buttercream on top using a star nozzle. I bought some strawberry sauce that’s used on ice creams to make it look authentic. It was super runny because it was so hot, I had to cook it down to stop it going everywhere. I piped the buttercream higher than usual to resemble ice cream and drizzled some sauce on top. In some I added a flake and I added some bright sprinkles to all of them. I was very happy with how they turned out.
For the other two cupcakes I piped the buttercream on again with a star nozzle. I don’t think you realise how difficult it was to find the candy floss I needed. I went everywhere and just couldn’t seem to find any until the last shop I went to thankfully had some. To put the candy floss on top of the cupcakes I rolled it around a toothpick and placed it in the top of the cupcake. I added some sprinkles and some Squashie sweets I’d added some glitter to.
In some of the pipettes I added some marshmallow flavour vodka. It looked really cool when the vodka was put on the candy floss because it just melted away. Unfortunately the heat wasn’t on my side and after they went in the fridge the candy floss went funny. For the rock cakes, I cut up a stick of coloured rock and placed it on top of the cakes. Again like the candy floss ones added some pipettes to a couple with vodka. It’s safe to say a lot of drinks were had in Blackpool so why not show that in the cakes I made as well.
I was very happy with how the cupcakes came out. The only annoying thing was trying to get a photo of them all. They looked great individually but together there was something missing I thought. Nevertheless my family and friends loved them as per usual. I don’t think I could’ve captured the seaside any better after my trip. Feel free to bring some of the seaside to your own kitchens especially with the nice weather we’ve been having recently. Me and Charlotte had a great time in Blackpool and these cupcakes made the holiday last a little longer and gave my family a taste of what they were missing. I always love making the ice cream cone cupcakes because I only make them in the Summer. They are so bold and I think are actually quite convincing considering it’s not actually ice cream. I think next time I’ll put some jam or filling in the middle to make them even better. I really hope you’ve enjoyed my Blackpool inspired seaside cupcakes, especially when the Summer holidays are just around the corner. I hope you have a lovely week, I know I will, ready for my birthday next weekend. Who knows next week might be alcohol themed to celebrate in style.
Lots of love,
Hannah x
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