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Hello and welcome back to the Cupcake Gemma channel with me Gemma. I'm here at the Cromand Doy shop in Soho where we are getting our Easter vibes on and we always have such a wicked display at Easter. It's actually one of my favorite seasons to have in the shop just cuz we have like little chicky things and little eggy things. And today I'm going to make uh some cupcakes for you guys. I can't actually believe this isn't on the channel. Well, various parts of it are on the channel, but this is the first time I've brought them together for you. um in a video and it's our Easter nest cupcakes. So, it's a really simple vanilla sponge with vanilla buttercream, but we put little cute little uh nests
on the top and then splatter it to make them kind of look a bit like eggs. And they're really fun and they're really delicious and they're cute because Easter. It's going to be a simple vanilla sponge. You've seen me make these a million times, but you know, let's recap. So, we're going to start with 125 g of soft, squeezable butter. Also going to add 125 g of caster sugar. And I'm going to just take this off for a moment. And sift some self-raising flour. I've got 125 g of that. Just going to put that straight in. That's also got a quarter of a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda and a little pinch of salt in there just to bring out the flave. So just pop that through the serve.
Have a little tidy up. Now, pop your paddle back on cuz it's not going to get very far without one of those. Also, last time I filmed here and used this machine, I'd forgotten about this handy light. So, if you have a light, put it on so you can see what you're doing. If not, don't worry. Your cupcakes will still turn out great with or without light, unless you're doing it in complete darkness. And then two large freerange eggs. Just get that mixing. Start on a low speed just so it doesn't, you know, all fly out of the bowl. And then increase the speed. You're going to beat that together for a minute or so just to combine all the ingredients. That's looking good. So, I'm just going to keep that going on a
low speed while I add 1 and 1/2 tbsp of whole milk. And then I'm going to add 1/4 teaspoon or a little bit more than that cuz it just all flew out of vanilla extract. good quality vanilla extract. And don't forget, you can buy that on cupcake jammer.com. Then just speed that up and beat it all together for another 30 seconds to a minute. Beautiful. As usual, I like to use spoons to distribute my cupcake batter, but if you want, you can use a piping bag or I don't know, I don't know what else you could use, some other kind of distribution device. Um, just make sure, give it a good old scrape around with a spatula just to make sure you haven't forgotten any bits at the bottom. And then distribute evenly between 12 cupcake
cases. When you've done that, you just need to bake these at 170° C for 18 to 20 minutes. Give them a little prod when 18 minutes is up, just to see if they spring back nicely. And if they don't, just add a little minute here, a minute there, until they're ready. Do you want to get a closer? Right, my cakes are nice and cool and so we're going to start decorating. Now, of course, I've made some buttercream. In this case, I've made just regular Americanstyle buttercream. You've seen me do this a gazillion times, I think. You need to put 200 g of soft, unsalted butter. Now, this needs to be squeezably soft, so make sure it isn't just room temperature cuz your room might be cold. Beat that
up for at least 5 minutes. And what you're looking for is for the color to be nice and pale. Then you can add your icing sugar. I've got 320 g of icing sugar, which I've sifted to get rid of any lumps. I'm going to add it in two stages, beating for at least 3 minutes after each addition. Once that's all in, throw a little pinch of salt in there as well, just to bring out the flavor. Next, you can add your vanilla. I'm going to just add about 1/4 of a teaspoon of good quality vanilla extract. And then follow that with your milk. I'm going to start with two tablespoons and just see what the consistency is like. And of course, I'm
doing this on a slow speed so it doesn't fly out and get me all milky. And it should look like this. Now, of course, I've colored mine. I've used just an oil based food coloring. We use color mill, but you can use food color paste or liquid if you like. Just beware with liquid that it might change the consistency of your icing. Just mix that really well until you have whatever color you like, but I feel like purple or sort of lilac and pale blue are really like mini egg Easter colors. I don't really know why. I guess that's because the whole world has decided that and most of the stuff you get at Easter are these colors. You can pipe this onto your cupcakes if you want, but I'm going to go old school and do it with a
palette knife. Um, so each cupcake gets around about that amount. This is how I used to do it back in the day. I just blob it on with my palette knife. You could also use a spoon. And as I bounce, I turn my cupcake just to guide the icing into the edges of the case. If you feel like you've got a bit too much, you can dab it and just wipe it off onto your bowl. I think that's quite nice. And then just give it a little smooth off. Gorgeous. And then keep going until you've ice all your cupcakes.
cuz we got to make these look all speckly like a little I don't know like a little duck egg or whatever other egg is purple. I don't know if that is a thing. A mini egg. Oh yeah, mini egg. You can do this however you fancy, but the best way we found, the tastiest way is by just literally watering down some cocoa powder into a sort of liquidy paste and splattering it on. So, I've just got like 10ish g of cocoa powder and some water and my little whisk, my trusty little whisk. And I'm just going to add a little bit of water at a time. Give it a whisk. And when I reach the right consistency, a splatterable consistency if you will, I'll stop
adding water. I think that's right. So, it's quite sort of runny, but not so runny that it's just going to kind of dribble down the whole cake. And it smells really good. I mean, which is to be expected cuz it's just basically cocoa powder, right? Get rid of you. Now, I'm just going to do this with a little paintbrush. Just going to sort of, and apologies in advance, Nikki, because you might actually be in a line of fire here. Um, I'm just gonna flick
it. Well, that was messier than I was uh anticipating. Sorry, Nikki. As you can see, it's a messy job, but someone's got to do it, right? And that's okay. You know, baking is all about making messes, but then making something beautiful out of that mess. It's a pretty mess. Thank you, Nikki. Um, now obviously these are nestless at the moment, but we have some little cute little nests here. And these are so easy to make. I can't even tell you, but I will cuz that's my job. So, I've used shredded wheat, which is a cereal, really common here. Um, it's basically shredded wheat. They're like little sort of pillows. In a bowl, you're going to put 50 g of unsalted butter. This can be fridge cold if you want. And then add
200 g of chocolate. Now I've got half 54% and half 70 just to mix it up a little bit. Then I've added 50 g of golden syrup. You could use caramel. You could use you could even use honey. Pop that into the microwave for start off with 30 seconds. Give it a mix in between each blast in the microwave until it's all melted together. And then I have four shredded wheats. I'm just going to crumble them really gently. You don't want to crumble them too much because you want to get this twiggy effect. And then once all your shredded wheat is crumbled up, you can pour your lovely chocolate mixture all over the top. And give that a mix. Now again, just be careful not to break up the
shredded wheat too much cuz you want to keep those twiggy bits. So I'm just kind of folding it gently with a spatula. I have a sheet of grease proof paper lining a tray and I'm just going to get a couple of spoons and just grab little clusters of this delicious stuff and kind of form it into a little nest shape with a bit of a divot in the middle. And then while it's still wet, I'm just going to sprinkle some naked shredded wheat twigs just over the top just to give it even more of a nestlike appearance. And then grab yourself a couple of mini eggs or eggs of your choosing, just as long as they're small. And pop them into the middle while the chocolate's still not set, just otherwise they won't stick. Pop them
into the fridge to set properly. And here they are looking super duper nestlike. And they're actually really tasty as well because they're full of chocolate and golden syrup, which is all delicious. So, all that remains is to just pop a little nest onto each cupcake to really finish these guys off. Oh, they're so sweet and Eastery. I love them. And also, they're just like really fun things to make with kids as well, cuz look how satisfying they are. And also, kids do love a mess, don't they? whether they know they're
making one or not. So, this is giving them permission to just make a mess, which I'm all about. Now, I'm going to have a little bite of this, but I'm going to take the nest off first because I feel like the world isn't ready to see that mess just now. So, let's remove the nest, which I just carefully put on. Give it a little nibble. Yummy. M. Delicious. Crunchy bird's nest. And no birds were harmed in the making of this nest as well, which is also a bonus. And then just an absolutely classic vanilla cupcake. Oh my gosh, I forgot how good a freshly baked vanilla cupcake is. You know, all your fancy flavors are great, but sometimes a vanilla cupcake is just where it's at. I hope you enjoyed that,
and I really do hope you give it a go with or without children. It's completely optional. Um, do let us know how you get on in the comments below or use the hashtag cupcake jammer on Instagram. And also if you're in town in London town, not just any old town. These are going to be in the shop all week alongside all of our Easter classic flavors. Cupcakes, cookies, tray bakes, all the things. It's always super cute in the shop. So, please come along if you're around. You can also order these online. And I've really enjoyed sharing this with you. So, thank you so much for joining me for this mess. I'm going to go and clear it up, I guess. Maybe Nikki will help me. Who knows? No. Oh, all right then. I guess I'm on my own. I'm
going to need a cupcake to commiserate with. See you next time. Mhm. Yeah. Crunchy, crispy, delicious.
