gardening cake | Little Button Diaries

My father-in-law is a keen gardener and has an impressive array of vegetables growing in his garden. I created these peek-a-boo cupcakes for his birthday as a nod to his green fingers.

To make 12 cupcakes you will need:

For the sponge:

250g unsalted butter
250g caster sugar
250g self-raising flour (sifted)
4 eggs
2 teaspoons of baking powder
Orange food colouring gel
Cocoa powder

For the ganache:

450g dark chocolate
200g unsalted butter

For the topping:

Grated dark chocolate
Ready to roll green icing

1. Begin by preheating the oven to 180 degrees. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs and combine. Fold in the flour and baking powder until fully mixed.

2. Line a baking sheet. Take a quarter of the mixture and scoop into a separate bowl. Add the orange food colouring and stir until the mixture is bright orange.

3. Spoon onto the baking tray and smooth using a palette knife. Cook for approximately 8-10 minutes or until done. Leave to cool.

4. Once cooled, cut into triangles so they resemble carrots. They need to be the length of the cupcake case, and you need two per cake. Place on a lined baking tray and pop in the freezer to harden a little.

5. Add the cocoa powder to the remaining cake mixture and mix until combined. Half fill the cupcake cases. Remove the carrots from the freezer and place two back to back in the centre of the cupcake. Cover the carrots with the remaining cake mixture. Place in oven for 20 minutes or until cooked. Transfer to wire cooking rack and leave to cool.

6. Whilst the cakes are cooling make the soil and leaves. For the soil, grate dark chocolate. For the leaves, roll the icing out to 0.5cm in thickness. Using a sharp knife, cut out leaf shapes and add small details onto the top of the leaves.

7. Next, make the ganache. Melt chocolate then add butter and stir until melted. Once the ganache has cooled (but isn’t set) pour on top of the cakes.