Un-bee-lievable Cupcakes...

So, the theme of this week’s bake is honey. My original idea was to make honeycomb cakes with chocolate decorations. Then I had the opportunity to try some local wild flower honey from a local business. I’ve never really had honey before so I was intrigued how they would work in cakes but it was undeniable that they would be cute regardless. I had a vague idea what I wanted them to look like but I think they turned out better than expected. I made two flavours of cupcakes, 12 honey flavoured and 12 honeycomb flavoured, because why not. Bee-ware for some puns along the way I’m sure I can wing a few.

---

---

For the cupcakes I made two batches of mixture up at once in two different bowls. I put 175g of self raising flour, sugar, butter, 3 eggs and 1 teaspoon of baking powder in each bowl. In one bowl I added 2 tablespoons of honey and mixed it together. For the honey cupcakes I used yellow cupcakes cases. I’ve always just had one muffin tin so I bought another one to make my life easier so I can bake two batches at once. For the honeycomb cakes I added a few drops of the Foodie Flavours flavouring and mixed it together. So I could tell the two cupcakes apart for the honeycomb ones I used gold cupcake cases. I baked the cupcakes at 175 degrees for 20 minutes until they were golden in colour. I let them cool before I decorated them. I ended up making 27 cupcakes, somehow.

---

Whilst the cupcakes were baking, I made the chocolate decorations. I found a silicone honeycomb and bee mould online. I melted some cooking chocolate and poured it into the mould and left it to set in the fridge. I was so happy when they set and they came out of the mould. I had the intention of painting them using gold paint, I tried painting the honeycomb and the bee but I wasn’t a fan on how it looked. Instead I added some gold glitter which I loved I thought it was bee-utiful how it looked.

---

For the bees I was going to use yellow jelly beans and almond nuts with some melted chocolate. When I was looking for a new cake tin, I decided to try using some sugar paste icing and edible pens. I rolled out little balls for the body of the bee, then tried drawing black stripes using the pens. The pens didn’t really work as well as I’d have hoped. Plan bee was to use black food colouring and paint on the stripes using a thin brush. I then used some almonds for the wings, I was buzzing with how the bees turned out. Annoyingly they took longer than expected to make and I even got my dad to help make some bees. Did you know a bee styles their hair with a honeycomb…

---

---

For the buttercream, I made one and a half times the amount I normally would. I added 375g butter and 750g icing sugar with a dash of milk into a bowl. I added the icing sugar gradually. For the honeycomb cupcakes I just used vanilla buttercream, and I added a tablespoon of honey into the other half of the buttercream. I used a round nozzle and a star nozzle to decorate the cupcakes. I kept the honey buttercream solely for the honey cupcakes. In the coming blogs I’m going to make some cocktail themed cupcakes, so I bought some mini pipettes. For these cakes, I heated the honey so it was runny enough to be taken up by the pipettes, with some help from my dad. I alternated using the chocolate decorations, bees and pipettes to decorate the cupcakes. For a couple of them I drizzled some honey on top, in hindsight was silly because they just dripped down the sides. The finishing touch was certainly the sprinkling of gold glitter because I didn’t think it was possible to have too much.

---

---

I absolutely loved making these cupcakes. It was also the perfect opportunity to use my wooden boards for the first time for a photo. I took a lot of photos and had a lot of fun. I just loved the presentation of the cupcakes. These cupcakes were so fun to make and I loved using locally sourced honey and I encourage you to always support local businesses. When I first made the bees I was really critical of how they turned out, but I loved how they weren’t perfect, you just need to bee-lieve in yourself. These cupcakes certainly stand out to what I would normally make, and I couldn’t have been happier. I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and have a lovely week!

Lots of love!

Hannah x