Engagement Cupcakes

So my other best friend Frances got engaged in Barcelona last week! Barcelona is one of my favourite places it's so beautiful! Again I went to University with Frances, and have known Daryl for years too - They're like two peas in a pod!! Such exciting news!! I decided to make some cupcakes for them!
After my usual scout on Pinterest for some ideas, I fell in love with the idea of cupcakes shaped like an engagement ring! Although finding a cake board big enough was a bit of a challenge and I ended up changing my design slightly to fit it!

180g Caster Sugar

180g Self Raising Flour

180g Margarine (Stork as before)

1.5 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

2 Free range eggs

150g Fresh Raspberries

So here enters my trusty Kitchen Aid, which I adore. Me and my Fiance received it from my mum as an engagement gift last year and i absolutely love it!
A lot of recipes using a food processor will just chuck all the ingredients in, but after so many baking fails when i started out I like to stick to my tried and tested method!

Preheat your oven to 180’C/350’F/Gas 4 – OR if you have a fan oven 160’C

Start by creaming the margarine and sugar together in the food processor, then sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and combine all ingredients.

Then add the eggs and vanilla extract.

Lastly add the raspberries and whizz until they're evenly broken up and distributed!

Fill up to 12 cupcake cases with your mixture, aim for 3/4s full!

Pop the cakes in the oven for 15-20 minutes.

I like to test my cakes with a skewer, as long as it comes out clean your cakes are ready!

I leave them to cool on a wire baking rack and then I arranged them in the shape I wanted ready to decorate.

Since Frances' beautiful ring is platinum I decided to go for a silvery grey icing. I used black gel colouring to get this colour and used my trusty stork margarine as it has a slight yellow tinge. This meant that I got the greyish colour I was after. I also added some white lustre dust to give it a bit of sheen.
For the diamond I used Lurpack which gave it a much whiter colour and again added some lustre dust to make it shine!

You can find more recipes at my blog, feel free to ask me any questions in the comments.