Gloverly Cupcakes

 A few weeks ago it was my 30th birthday! I knew Becky was going to make me an amazing cake for my Alice in Wonderland themed party so I made myself a simple, not decorated, white chocolate and cherry cake for the office. I did however get to make a decorated birthday cake that week for somebody else in the office.
 Amanda, who’s birthday it was, also loves baking. I always think it’s harder when the person you’re making the cake for likes to bake – it feels like added pressure! Amanda also has two very cute shih tzus so it was suggested that I could make a cake that was dog-themed. However, since it was my birthday that week, I knew I was going to be out a couple of nights, so I wanted to do something simple. Rather than spending several hours making dogs out of icing, I decided to cover the cake in some paw prints, which I thought would be quicker – don’t underestimate how long it takes to cut out loads of circles!  Luckily, the cake took ages to cool so I had plenty of time to cut out all the circles, letters and numbers. I even had time to decorate the edge of the board with pink circles. I made the 40 decoration in the same way that I made the 1 on this first birthday cake. To make the paw prints I cut the small circles out of black icing using the end of a piping nozzle. Using the other end of the nozzle, I cut the larger part of the paw out. I then cut a bit out of it, using the nozzle again, to give a horseshoe shape, and pushed in the points to make them rounded. I stuck all the decorations on to the cake using a bit of water and a paintbrush.