Easy red nose cupcakes

Sport relief is coming next month and the bloggers from the Great Bloggers Bake Off have decided to join a special linky in support of this brilliant charity. All across the blogging community there are people getting involved, specifically supporting the awesome efforts of Team Honk. And so the Team Honk Great Bloggers Bake Off has been launched by the lovely Jenny Paulin.

The idea is to make a bake that is related to a sporting activity or to sport relief itself. I might have a go at a show stopper later in the month but for now I wanted to share a simple idea which I used for a bake sale last year and which I will be doing again in March for a bake sale then.

If you want to make effective themed cupcakes and don’t have a lot of time these are the perfect option. I made vanilla cupcakes using my standard recipe and then used a large star nozzle to swirl my uncoloured vanilla frosting on top. I coloured some flower and modelling paste (which is edible but dries harder than normal fondant icing) red using some gel colour and kneading it through. You could also use normal fondant but it wouldn’t dry into a flat disc. I used an upside down glass to cut out the red noses and then used a little white flower paste to make the highlights for the noses. I used water to stick the highlights onto the noses then simply waited for the discs to dry before placing them on top of the cupcakes.

Store in a cardboard box or other ventilated contained as sealed containers like tins and tupperware will trap moisture and the discs will become sticky and lose their shape.