Gloverly Cupcakes

So it’s probably a bit late to actually make a Christmas cake (I made mine about 6 weeks ago and it’s been injected with brandy once a week since then!) and maybe even too late to decorate it. But if you’re feeling ambitious then how about decorating it with drunken robins?!

I saw a picture of this online and decided straight away that that’s how I’d decorate my cake this year. I’ve tired to fit in way too much this year before Christmas so I only just finished this in time. I was going to finish it on Friday afternoon when I got back from work but I was so tired that I fell asleep on the sofa holding a half drunk mug of tea. Tom decided that I looked so peaceful and he didn’t think there was a risk of me spilling the tea down me so he left me snoring away on the sofa and I woke up about an hour later holding a very cold mug of tea! Consequently I finished this at 10pm and I still had to pack and tidy up since we were leaving at 8am on Saturday morning.

I made an 8″ round cake and covered it in marzipan. To make the ring effect on top of the cake, colour some fondant icing so it’s a pale brown colour. Roll it out so it’s about 2mm thick and then cut into into long strips about 1cm wide. Paint these with brown food colouring and then roll up into a large spiral. Place so the spiral is facing up (you should be able to see the brown food colouring in between the spiral of icing). Using a rolling pin, roll it out so it makes a circle large enough to cover the top of the cake.

To make the tree-trunk effect, make up some very thick royal icing and colour it with a lot of brown food colouring to get a dark brown tree colour – leave a bit uncoloured for the “snow”. Using a spoon, spread it roughly round the edge of the cake so it’s thicker at the bottom and goes all the way up to the top. Then, using a fork, create the rough lines of the bark.

Use the remaining white royal icing to make a patch of snow on the top of the cake and round the base of the tree trunk to cover the rest of the board. Once the icing is dry, place some icing sugar in a mini sieve and lightly dust over the board and parts of the tree trunk to give it a “snowy” effect.

Now it’s time to make the robins. I would have taken pictures as I went along but I was too tired so I forgot! Colour a large chunk of white fondant icing dark brown, another large chunk a light grey-brown colour, a smaller bit red, a small bit yellow and finally a small bit green. Wrap them all in cling film to prevent them drying out until you are ready to use them.

1. Firstly make the body – using the light grey-brown roll it into a ball, stick 2 small balls on (for the top of the legs) using a bit of water.
2. Roll out a small about of red icing until it’s less than 1mm thick. Cut out an oval (for the “red breast”) and stick onto the body using water.
3. To create a feather effect, I used one of my cake tools but you could use a blunted cocktail stick. Working from the bottom of the legs first go round pulling small dents towards the bottom of the leg, then do another line and keeping going until both legs have been done. Do the same with the main body so that it looks like the rows of feather start from the top of the body.
4. Roll out some thin strands of brown icing, squash the one end for a foot and cut some lines in for the “toes”.
5. Next, roll out the dark brown icing to about 1mm thick and depending which robin you’re making cut out a T-shape (for the 2 sitting up), a triangle (for the one upside down) or a rectangle with slanted ends (for the one lying on his back). Cut lines into the edges of the wings using the knife and then make them into points for the feathers.
6. Drape the wings over the body and stick on using a few drops of water.
7. Roll out a ball of brown icing for the head. Using the cocktail stick, ruffle up the top of the head. Stick on some triangles of white for the eyes, partially covered with triangles of brown or grey for the eyelids and then using a small paintbrush paint on dots for the eyes and paint on eyelashes.
8. Roll out the yellow and red icing and cut out triangles for the beaks. Stick on using a couple of drops of water.
9. Using the green icing, shape some into a bottle – dip the end into gold food colouring and then paint a label on too. Roll a small out too and cut out some holly leaves.
10. Finally, roll out some white fondant icing and cut out a strip about 2cm wide. Using a very fine paintbrush, write “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” or another carol if you want and then roll the ends up.
11. Finally assemble it all – stick things in place using a bit of royal icing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!