Cupcakes Galore

I spent 3 hours in the kitchen this morning baking and icing 3 different types of cupcakes for a get together DD2 and her fiance are having tonight for his family. 

As I'm supposed to be making cupcakes for their wedding next May, I tried out a couple of new recipes as well as my usual tried and tested American recipe for Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting. 

I used recipes for chocolate cakes using cocoa, and strawberry milkshake cakes using Nesquick, from the Hummingbird Bakery book. I'm not very impressed with the results actually as they all sank slightly in the middle whereas my vanilla ones were fine. The book used a funny way of combining the ingredients which I didn't care for, but I followed the recipe for this first attempt. I'm sure they will all get eaten as her fiance has lots of young nieces and nephews, and I've kept a few back for DH and my boys and they will eat almost anything. I had enough tastings whilst doing the frosting and I pinched a couple of chocolate buttons from the pack too, so I don't feel the need to have a whole cupcake. 

I will give the recipes another go, but think next time I might mix them as I usually do the vanilla ones. Decorating the cakes for the actual wedding will be done by fiance's mother as I'm not much cop at that kind of thing. Cake decoration is her hobby, and she's excellent at it even though she's only been doing it for a few months since she retired.

I'm off to deliver the cakes in a moment and then have a relaxing afternoon. I'm all achy after standing in the kitchen for so long, so I think the syringe driver bags will have to wait another day or so to be finished off.