Gloverly Cupcakes

Over Easter weekend it was our Grandma’s 90th Birthday and to celebrate we had a wonderful family weekend together. It all started with a surprise Birthday lunch for Grandma followed by tea and cake of course! Making cakes for the family is always special, particularly this time as Emma and I were always fascinated by the sugar flowers that Grandma used to make, so it was really lovely to be able to make some for her. Click

I made all the flowers in advance and assumed it really wouldn’t take long to put them onto the cake with a bit of royal icing and add all the sugar balls. But as usual it took much longer than I expected! The piping had to be done in small stages as the sugar balls only stick when it’s just been piped. Also each silver ball was put onto the cake using a pair of tweezers otherwise they rolled off or ended up in the wrong place. My kitchen floor was covered in sugar balls by the time I had finished!

The cake was a vanilla syrup cake filled with vanilla buttercream and raspberry jam, the recipe can be found here. It’s slightly richer than a normal Victoria sponge cake and is more sturdy for decorating as well as keeping for longer too. Emily wanted to be a part of making this special cake too, so she helped spread out some of the jam and butter cream on the layers of the cake.

All the attention to detail was worth it, especially for such a special person. Cakes are always so much more enjoyable to make when they are for family. Happy 90th Birthday Grandma!