Justin and the Knights of Valour Cupcakes

Whilst I love to bake, I never claim to do fancy icing and when a recent opportunity presented to make some Knightly themed food, I managed made some cute cupcakes that I am super proud of! I initially designed some ideas on paper with colouring pens (I will never grow up!) and they are fairly similar to the finished results so maybe I should learn to gain some confidence in both my design and decorating skills!

The cupcakes we made are to celebrate the launch of a new animated movie called 'Justin and the Knights of Valour', which is out on DVD/Blu-ray from 3rd February 2014. I have not managed yet to watch it all the way through owing to my shift patterns this week in the real world but hopefully will manage it this weekend, is very funny from what I have seen so far and I am looking forward to watching it! 

Picture courtsey of DNA PR

We had lots of fun making them, getting dyed various shades of green and grey making up the tiny batches of icing and improvising mini icing bags out of greaseproof paper, plus the cakes were delicious too, which always helps! A glass of chilled white wine also played a part in keeping us calm thoughout! It was very therapeutic experience and I am so glad we had a dishwasher after!

As I was baking these someone elses house, I enlisted some of their son's toys to set the scene with this shot! Though I am sure he was a little surprised as to why I was trying to steal them out of his toybox..

I never knew how fiddly a castle would be to make out of fondant but it was worth it for the finished result! I let my neighbour's son choose a cake and unsurprisingly he chose the castle, though I think secretly to B’s horror as he had his eyes on it!! 

  

My basic sponge mix involved a new item – Extra fine cake flour, it was a little more expensive but gave the sponge a more lighter texture and definitely worth it for a special occasion! I always weigh my eggs as its cheaper to buy a mixed tray and my other ingredients weights are based on them.

Basic fairy cake mix:

Makes 12

120g Extra fine cake flour

2 eggs

120g caster sugar

120g soft butter/ margarine

Tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp milk

Heat oven to 180o

Beat the sugar and butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the eggs, milk and vanilla. Fold through the flour and mixed in and spoon the batter into cake cases.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden and a skewer comes away clean.

Allow to cool on the tray for a couple of minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before icing

We used a mixture of butter icing and fondant icing to decorate the cakes, gel colour food dyes, along with a vivid imagination and silver and gold sugar balls. We started with 12 cakes but some were er, sacrificed to make castles and provide snacks!

If you fancy some more Knightly themed food do check out Helen's gorgeously crispy Knights of Valour Castle Cake

Many thanks to DNA Pr and of course my lovely girl friend for lending her support, icing skills and wine to the day!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post in collaboration with DNA Pr.

                                                 

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