Vanilla cupcake bouquet

This bouquet takes a little time to make,but my mum was amazed – and thrilled – when she saw it, so it’s truly worth the effort! 1 large curved star piping nozzle (I used a Wilton 2D fower nozzle, available from 3-piece set of sunfower cutters

(available from 23cm Oasis Foam Frame (mine was

from 24-25cm basket or bowl 15 lollipop sticks (available from

or light and dark green tissue paper coloured tissue paper to wrap the bouquet (I used pale pink and blue) and a large sheet of cellophane (optional)

1 First, make the cakes. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line two 12-hole muffn tins with 15 muffn cases. Melt the butter in a small saucepan or in the microwave, then leave to cool a little. Transfer to a large jug and stir in the yogurt, eggs and vanilla. Beat until combined. 2 Tip the four, sugar, almonds, baking powder and 1/ tsp salt into a large bowl.

2 Stir to combine, then make a well in the centre. Pour in the wet ingredients and mix using a spatula or electric whisk until lump-free. It will be quite a runny mixture. 3 Spoon the mixture into the muffn cases so they are two-thirds full, using all of the mixture. Bake in the oven for 25-30 mins or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 4 Meanwhile, make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter with half the icing sugar, then, once smooth, add the remaining icing sugar, the milk and vanilla extract. Beat again until fuffy and smooth. Reserving two large spoonfuls of the icing for the fondant cupcakes, halve the remaining icing and put into two bowls. Use a little of the pink food colouring to turn half of the icing pink, beating the icing until it changes colour. Use the purple colouring to do the same with the other half. Set all the icing aside at room temperature and cover the surface with cling flm (or keep in the fridge overnight). 5 To make the fondant fowers, roll out 250g of the fondant icing to a £1 coin thickness. Use the 3-piece cutters to stamp out three sunfowers. You will need to use each cutter three times (see pic A). Scrunch pieces of foil into doughnut shapes and place in the muffn tin. Sit the fowers on top and leave to set for 30 mins. This will set the shape so the petals look more 3D. If you need more icing, roll out a little more until you have the right amount of fowers. 6 Using the reserved white buttercream, gently sandwich the fowers together. Dot a little buttercream in the middle of the biggest fower and put the medium-sized fower on top of it. Repeat with the smallest fower on top. 7 Next, decorate the cupcakes. Pipe the buttercream roses and hydrangeas onto 12 of the cupcakes. Use the paintbrush to paint four stripes of pink food colouring from the bottom to the middle of a piping bag – this will create a dark pink outline for the roses. Drop the curved 2D nozzle into the end of the bag and snip off the end so that the tip is fully exposed. Pop the bag over a jug or large glass and fold over the top (this will make it easier to pile in the buttercream). Make sure all the air is out of the piping bag when you take it out of the jug, as this will ensure you pipe evenly. Starting in the middle of the cupcake, hold the bag directly above the cake and pipe a swirl in a clockwise motion, applying a steady pressure until you reach the edge of the cupcake. Repeat with another fve cupcakes until you have six pink rose cupcakes. Set aside. 8 To pipe the hydrangeas, use the paintbrush to paint four stripes of purple food colouring from the bottom to the middle of another piping bag, to create a