Ideas for Wow Factor Cakes & Cupcakes

I love baking and creating cakes for friends, my family and for my boys on their birthdays. I am by no means a cake making expert, and often my cakes are a little wonky and are full of little imperfections, but they taste good and, as corny as it sounds, they are made with love and my enjoyment of baking.

I am very lucky that I have a lovely kitchen in which to bake my cakes – and make the mess that comes with that – and my oven certainly gets a lot of use! It is a Belling range cooker which has a generous sized oven, which is perfect for baking lots of cakes inside.

I like to keep my bakes as simple and as easy as possible, and therefore the majority of my cakes are made using the same sponge recipe mix (basically a Victoria sponge recipe), but adapted depending if it is vanilla or chocolate sponge, for example. I will be honest, I am rubbish at using fondant icing on cakes, but if I do then I try to keep it as simple as possible and make templates to use to cut around on the icing. Therefore, the majority of my cakes, tend to use chocolates, sweets, biscuits or edible decorations to decorate my cakes with instead.

I thought I would share some of my celebration cakes to show you how easily you can make a simple sponge into a cake which has a wow! factor, without too much trouble or effort. 

Themed Cakes

Monkey Birthday Cake – chocolate sponge topped with a fondant icing money face, mini meringue and chocolate buttons for the eyes, nose and ears and some foam bananas for fun. 

Number 5 Cake – a chocolate and buttercream cake cut up to make a 5 and decorated with Smarties 

Big Hero 6 Cake – chocolate cake shaped to make not only a number 6, but also Baymax from the film, covered with icing

Fancy Cupcakes

Ice Cream Cone CupCakes – you bake the cake batter inside the cones and then top with a vanilla buttercream and a flake 

Crocodile Cupcake Cake – lots of little chocolate cupcakes , topped with green frosting and then various chocolate buttons/marshamallows to make the body parts 

Rainbow Cupcakes – vanilla flavoured cupcakes topped with frosting, fondant icing rainbows, with marshmallow clouds and a (chocolate) gold coin at the end of the rainbow. 

Rainbow Piñata Cupcakes – chocolate cupcakes covered with white chocolate and edible sprinkles,  filled with smarties, and topped with a multi coloured buttercream.

Sweet Treat Cakes

Mocha & Salted Caramel Cake – a chocolate and coffee flavoured sponge with a coffee flavoured buttercream, topped with salted caramel popcorn and sauce.

Malteser & Chocolate Finger Celebration Cake – a chocolate cake covered with chocolate fingers and Maltesers and finished with red ribbon.

Willy Wonka’s Sweetie Shop Topped Chocolate Cake – a chocolate cake topped with chocolate and lots of sweets, biscuits and chocolates.

Pick ‘n’ Mix Chocolate Fingers Cake – a chocolate cake covered with a chocolate frosting, and then decorated with chocolate fingers and a selection of sweets/chocolates.

Trust me, if I have managed to make these cakes then anyone can, because I really am not the neatest baker or cake decorater, (and I am also a messy baker!) but I enjoy trying new baking challenges and it makes me happy.

#GoodLookingCooking

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