Baptism cupcakes for a gorgeous boy

It has been almost exactly a year since I last wrote on my blog. Since then I had a baby boy and it has been quite busy (but fun!) with two little trolls at home.

My son was baptised last Sunday and as the Greek tradition is to give a little sweet to the guests after the ceremony I decided I had to make a boy version of the cupcakes I made for my daughter's baptism three years ago.


As spring is finally getting closer I opted for some fresh lemon cupcakes with lemon buttercream and coloured the icing blue. For decoration I made the cute little baby booties I made last time from homemade chocolate paste. As I had to make 100 pairs of boots it took some time, but was fun to do. I decorated the boots with tiny hearts made of marzipan. The baby booties are surprisingly easy to make - I used the excellent photos and tutorial from Not Quite Nigella's fab food blog




As my little boy has some food allergies and I am still breast feeding I have had to cut out all diary and egg products in my diet so couldn't try the cupcakes myself, but I was told they were very tasty. No wonder, as you can rarely go wrong with lemon!




Although not cupcakes I also wanted to make sugar cookies for the guests, and this was my very first time in trying to make them. I chose a recipe from Cake Journal and it was probably one of the easiest doughs I have ever worked with. It was so easy to roll out and I hardly needed any flour for it as there is quite a lot of butter in the dough. My daughter had a go in making some cookies too and she loved it, so I will definitely make these cookies again - particularly when I can eat dairy again!

I made over 100 cookies - half of them were heart shaped with my son's initials and half as elephants since we had a cute elephant on the invites. The invites were made by my son's godmother and my good friend at The Wishing Tree Designs .






Come Sunday I was quite exhausted having spent a whole week making the decorations and baking cookies and cupcakes so it was fantastic that the ceremony went so well - my little boy was a real champion and hardly cried at all (which is unexpected when you are undressed in front of lots and people and dipped in the baptismal font three times!) - I was so proud of him!

Now that the baptism is over and I have managed to find time to bake 100 cupcakes and 100 sugar cookies and make 100 pairs of baby booties with a 10-month old and 3.5 year old at home I should be able to find the time to bake and blog a bit more! I have baked since last year, but haven't found the time to blog about it, so expect some posts with the cupcakes I made in the interim in the coming days and weeks.

In the meantime I hope you enjoyed the photos of my son's baptism cupcakes!

THE BIG 3-0

A friend of mine recently turned 30. I thought it deserved some special cupcakes. I wanted to make chocolate ones, but then I remembered that her favourites are cakes with lemon in one way or another. I also really wanted to work on my meringue, so had the best excuse to make my lime cupcakes with lime curd filling and meringue frosting. I know lime aren't lemons, but hey, they are a citrus fruit, so hoped my friend would forgive me!

I used the same lime cupcake base as the mini lime cupcakes I made during Easter and I also made my own lime curd. Even after living in the UK for quite a few years I had never tasted lemon curd, so it took Greece and a passion for cupcakes to try it out! Turns out I love it! The receipe I use calls for lemon, but I replace it with lime and it really is supereasy to make. The recipe doesn't make a whole lot, but just enough to fill the cupcakes, and I use the spare egg whites for the meringue. That way, nothing goes to waste - it really is a win, win situation!

The other two times I have made these cupcakes the meringue has always sunk almost right after taking them out of the oven. I had read that it is important to whisk the meringue long enough and also, one shouldn't make it on a wet or a humid day as the humidity causes the meringue to be limp and sticky. I was looking to get a crispy meringue on the outside and pretty soft and gooey on the inside. I know that a bit of cream of tartar stabilises the egg whites, so I did this and whisked it long enough and the meringue was perfect. It didn't sink when I took the cupcakes out of the oven, but the hard or crispy shell as wanted wasn't exactly there. I guess it is too much to ask after only 5 minutes in the oven...





I like decorating my cupcakes, so had to come up with some nice decorations for these ones as well. I was planning to have the number 30 in sugarpaste on the cupcakes, but I wasn't sure on how I would do it and get them to stay on top of the meringue, but then my creative (his words, not mine!) husband suggested I could have one letter on each cupcakes spelling out "Life begins @ 30". What a perfect idea!! My friend had already said in her blog post about turing 30 that she will embrace it, rather than fighting it, so I thought this was the best decoration ever!
I made the sugarpaste, coloured it, made 12 hearts and added the letters on 10 of them and managed to roll out thin lines to spell out @ and 30 on the last two. I took these pictures in a hurry, but I think they look pretty cool!





Some family members have their names days and birthdays coming up within this week, so I will be making some cupcakes this week again. I think I am definitely trying out a red velvet recipe and possibly a chocolate and cardamom cupcake. If you have any other suggestions, I would love to hear them!