Hosting a teddy bear’s picnic? We’ve teamed up with Cadbury to make these super-cute smiley bear cupcakes for a themed children’s party. With a simple vanilla sponge mix for the base, all you need is a little ready-made icing, some Cadbury chocolate buttons and some sprinkles to bring these smiley bears to life. Easy, impressive - and perfect for the kids’ party bags. Makes 20.
INGREDIENTS
FOR THE CUPCAKES
170g butter
170g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
170g self raising flour
FOR THE DECORATION
200g ready-made chocolate, butter-cream style icing
100g Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons (regular, not giant)
120g white, fondant style icing
A few drops of brown food colouring
50g chocolate sprinkles, ideally a mix of milk and dark chocolate
METHOD
1. To make the cupcakes, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Whisk in the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour and fill 20 cases (two thirds full) with the cake mixture.
Top tip: Prefer chocolate cupcakes? Just omit the vanilla extract and replace 20g of flour for 20g of Cadbury Bournville cocoa powder.
2. Bake the cupcakes in a preheated oven at 180 ˚C, or 160 ˚C fan oven or gas mark 4 for about 20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool before decorating.
3. Add a few drops of brown food colouring to the white royal icing and knead well together to give a light brown colour. Roll out thinly on a surface dusted with icing sugar and cut out 20 circles - approximately 4cm in diameter - that will becomes your teddy bears’ faces. Carve a little smile into the bottom of each one, using the edge of a spoon or similar.
4. Spread each cupcake with a generous layer of the chocolate butter-cream icing. Add two Cadbury buttons for the ears, then two more for the eyes, followed by the smile you made in Step 3. Dampen the back of one more chocolate button (this just helps to make it stick!), and pop it on as the Teddy Bear’s nose.
5. Dust with mixed brown sprinkles to give your grizzly bear faces a little fuzz, brushing away any excess.
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