Valentines Giant Cupcake

So would it even be Valentines Day coming up if I didn’t have an excuse for cake? I’m all for Valentines, there’s something nice about telling someone you love them. Regardless of whether you feel you’re obliged to say it on the day, what’s wrong with celebrating that? Tell your partner you love them, tell your parents you love them, your best friends. Everyone needs a little love in their life right? So of course, we all need a little cake to go with that too. I’m having my own girl gang over for our ‘Galentines’ next weekend to binge on sweet treats and enjoy some cocktails. Getting in the spirit of all things pink, I decided to try my hand at a baking Giant Cupcake.

Traditional Baking Cheats

I must admit, I did cheat a little with this. I actually have a cupcake mould designed specifically for this. If you’re not wanting to invest, you could make this just the same with a standard round base, and a pyrex bowl for a dome top. You can make any flavour you like, but I decided on a simple classic sponge. Experiment with Food Colouring for the likes of red velvet cake, or just leave things plain. Topped with some piped pink roses on the top with some sprinkles and fresh raspberries.

I’ve tried lots of recipes throughout all my time baking. But I always come back to the original classic mix my mum taught me growing up. Basically, keeping the measurements the same of whatever you use will always ensure a consistent bake. I grew up learning to bake in oz the old-fashioned way, but it roughly translates to 12oz/340g, but most scales generally offer both measurements. This amount of mixture will do for both halves of your mould, or tin and bowl method. It’s an easy throw everything in together and give it a mix!

Ingredients

340g/12oz for:

self raising flour
caster sugar
butter (I use Stork for baking)

x6 medium free-range eggs
A dash of vanilla essence and/or food colouring
A splash of milk if mixture is a little heavy

Optional extras:

1 tub of Betty Crocker frosting
Punnet of fresh raspberries
Sprinkles

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 200C
2. Prepare your mixture, combine the flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla essence and milk (if needed). Add food colouring if using.
3. Grease your moulds or tins and equally distribute the mix between the two.
4. Once the oven has reached temperature, place into the middle of the oven to bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch.
5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool, taking them out of their moulds after around 10 minutes once cooled slightly.
6. Sandwich together both sides of your giant cupcake with a thin layer of frosting.
7. Depending on your choice of decorations, I opted for a ‘naked cake’ approach on the outside with my vanilla frosting, to make it less heavy on the frosting! Adding a tea-spoon of pink food colouring to half a tub of frosting will be plenty for the topping. Use a piping bag and a star shaped nozzle to pipe roses. Placing raspberries or anything else you fancy around the sides and top. With added sprinkles if desired over the ‘roses’ part of the frosting. Enjoy!