Shopping list for 12-15 cupcakes
250g self-raising flour
250g caster sugar
250 g butter (room temperature)
4 tablespoons milk (room temp.)
3 free range eggs (room temp.)
1 sachet vanilla sugar
1 teaspoon almond essence
piece of fondant icing, Skintone
piece of fondant icing, Maroon brown
edible glue or water
On February 8 upcoming the Chinese New Year begins. 2013 was the year of the Snake, 2014, the year of the Horse 2015, the year of the Sheep and 2016 is the year of the Monkey. So what do we make today?
Cute Monkey cupcakes!
Beat the butter and the two sugars creamy.
Mix in the eggs one by one.
Add the almond flavour to the mixture.
Weigh the right amount of flour.
Sieve the flour in 3 portions in it.
Fold the flour into the batter.
Finally add the milk and whisk it a second.
Preheat the oven to 170° C. Fill a 12 holes cupcake tin with paper cases. We use red and gold ones, the dominating colours during the Chine New Year celebrations.
Use an ice cream scoop to fill the cases up to 3/4.
Bake the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes.
Let the cupcakes cool in the tin, then on a wire rack.
Decorate the cooled cupcakes with a little monkey. Here you see how to step-by-step.
Roll out the brown fondant icing thinly.
Cut out of the brown fondant circles the size of a cupcake.
Stick the circles onto the cupcakes with edible glue.
Cut out the top half of a heart with a cookie cutter..
Don't you have a circle cutter, or a heartshape cookie cutter or no other utensils to help you decorate? No problem! We use a shot glass for the smaller circles as well.
Look for glasses in your kitchen cupboard to press out circles, cut with a knife a heart shape and cut it in half and a wooden skewer is excellent to make the eyes and the mouth.
Stick on the half heart first, then the small circle and a nose.
Prick little holes for eyes and a short letter u for a mouth.
Roll ovals for the ears and make a little indent in them.
Stick the ears on the sides of the head.
Leave the edible glue to dry well.
Place the cupcakes on a nice platter and add some chocolate coins.
Xin Nian Kuai Le! or Happy New Year!