Space Invaders

Just a quick little post to show you my latest creation:

Space Invader cupcakes! 

Now I got the idea from Hello Naomi while browsing through the Internet, and when I saw them I knew they'd just be a perfect little present for my boyfriend, so I quickly whipped up a few to take round to him, and this is how I did it...

I decided to make mine using these tiny little cases, as I had millions of them and I thought they'd look cuter.

I just used a simple vanilla cupcake recipe and baked batch after batch... after batch... I'm serious, want to see what I mean?

There were so many cupcakes... considering I only wanted 15!

Now for the icing. I'm slightly disappointed with how mine turned out in comparison to Naomi's ones, but none the less, this was my first attempt and the space invaders were extremely fiddly! However, this is how I iced mine.

First of all I tried using fondant dyed black, and glace icing to act as a sort of glue...

It sounded like it was going to work, but after using loads of food colouring, and what felt like an hour later...

It wasn't black enough and my hands were... well.. ruined! 

So I did cheat a tiny bit here, and I dug out some Dr Oetker coloured regal icing- much quicker, tastes just as good, and no mess! In a situation like this, I couldn't begrudge using it!

See, look how perfect the colour is! Anyway, roll it out and cut out circles which are a bit bigger that your cupcakes, this allows room for them to fold over the edge.

Glace icing, then the black. This is the basic cupcake, now all that was left was to decorate them. I didn't get any photos of this because I had to work quickly and I was getting a little stressed by the end of it! Those space invaders aren't easy to shape! But once they're all done, it's worth it. I thought it definitely was when I saw my boyfriend's face light up!

Oh, and one last thing... I also went a little over the top and made a box for them to go in:

I know, I know, not at all necessary, but it made it that little bit more special!

The box idea is great actually, especially if you are giving cupcakes as a gift. They're a lot easier to transport and really inexpensive! I get the feeling all of my cupcakes will come with a box now!