Cupcake Party

I had a cupcake themed party for my birthday last summer, which involved me making copious numbers of cupcakes and inviting all my friends round to eat them! It was great fun, but not very well thought out as I then ended up spending my whole birthday baking frantically, which was quite stressful.

My other half did, however, manage to whisk me off at lunch time for Afternoon tea at a nearby hotel in Belfast, called 'The Merchant' (http://www.themerchanthotel.com/). It is one of the best hotels in Belfast and is based in an old bank building which is beatiful inside and out. Afternoon tea is served in the great Hall, which is absolutely stunning inside. The whole afternoon was fantastic and along with some sandwiches and speciality teas we also indulged in pastries, jellies and scones with clotted cream and jam....It was immense!

The Great Hall, where Afternoon tea is served.

Our triple tiered tray of treats, Yum!

The whole thing ended up being our lunch and then we just had cupcakes for dinner....not the healthiest of days but lots of sugar rush fun was had!

I have included a few pictures of some of the cupcakes I made for the party that evening. I made lemon flavoured cakes, rasberry and chocolate and even banoffee. I also made some Sesame street themed cakes for friends, with the cookie monster for my other half (who loves cookie monster) and Oscar the grouch for his best friend who had dressed as the charachter for a party a few months prior. Kermit also got thrown into the mix for a bit of fun.

Banoffee cupcakes (I will include this recipe in a seperate post at a later date)

Chocolate cupcakes, topped with whipped cream and rasberries

My Sesame Street cupcakes: I used a vanilla cupcake as the base and then iced them adding white chocolate Maltesers for eyes, with pupils drawn on with a black food colouring pen.  I then added a section of cookie to the cookie monsters mouth to make them extra realistic.  I was very pleased with how they turned out and have made the cookie monsters again since.