Edible Book Festival: Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes

It was with some trepidation that I set about my second entry for the Edible Book Festival. For years I have wanted to do sugarcraft but after buying a copy of Debbie Brown's Character Cakes book, a block of sugarpaste and navy colouring paste, I swiftly gave up. My hands were stained for days, let alone the work surfaces; and as for the sugarpaste I was trying to colour; it dissolved! That put me off for a few years, so when Lakeland offered me the chance to review some of their Sugarpaste products I quickly took them up on it.

My entry was obviously based on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.

The products I used were:
Cool Coloured Sugardough £3.29 - This was incredibly easy to roll and mould, the colours were bright and vibrant and it was as simple to sculpt with as clay.

Funky Flavoured Sugardough £2.49 was my absolute favourite though because it made my mouth water when I was sculpting with it because it smelt so delicious. It smelt a bit like Opal Fruits used to smell. Amazing!

I also used a few various colours from the Renshaw brand. Renshaw is one of the top brands in the sugarcraft business and rightly so, it comes in a wide range of colours and is really easy to work with. I loved the mini-packs that I used above though, as they were the perfect amount to use for cupcakes. They allowed me to create delicious cupcakes that were very visually appealing due to the vast range of colours that I was able to incorporate. The price for these packs are really good too.

So with these packs in hand I set about my challenge. I didn't really know what I was doing but I made sure I kneaded the dough properly to avoid cracking and I pretty much treated the dough like Plasticine. I had some failures which I will know how to improve on next time, such as Alice's legs. I needed to paint her shoes on as opposed to drawing them on with edible pen as the pressure made her legs wilt and caused them to take on a grainy look. Next time I will also use edible gold paint to paint around the clock face.

I was armed with a blog post http://www.notquitenigella.com/2010/05/05/alice-in-wonderland-cupcakes-10-tips-for-cupcake-decorating-from-planet-cake/ and just tried to develop the characters from the pictures.

I'm very pleased with how they turned out and this has led me in to the wonderful world of sugarcraft! I am so excited to continue my journey in this wonderful world; instilling life in to beautiful little sugarcraft creatures!

I love how quirky each cupcake became. I hope you love these cakes as much as I do!

Please continue reading my blog posts on future cake decorating ventures.

For more info on where to get the products please visit www.lakeland.co.uk