Little birdies cupcakes

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Some sweet and funny cupcakes for my son's first birthday. 

I am very happy with the result. They're not that difficult to prepare, the medallions are made with white fondant, you just need to spend a little time on them but nothing complicated! Those cupcakes are nice to look at and very good to eat.
This recipe is always a success, a very good basic for your cupcakes. The buttercream recipe comes from the Spanish cupcakes goddess Alma Obregón from Objetivo Cupcake Perfecto, I have never  failed with her recipes; and the cake recipe is from a course I went to in Barcelona from Cup&Cake Barcelona. A lovely shop run by good professionals.

The medallions are a lovely idea from the amazing web page Sweetapolita.

Vanilla and white chocolate cupcakes with little birdies medallions

Ingredients * :

For the cakes (12-18 more or less)

• 140 g of butter
• 225 g of white sugar
• 230 g of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of  baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

For the buttercream

• 250 g of butter
• 250 g of icing sugar
• 100g of white chocolate
• 1 1/2 tea spoon of vanilla extract  
• 1 tablespoon of milk

*All the ingredients need to be at room temperature. 

For the filling (optional)

• Strawberry/raspberry jam

For the medallions

• white fondant
• food coloring in gel
• icing sugar

Material

• one cupcakes/muffins tin
• one electric whisk
• cupcakes paper cups
• a rolling pin
  
• a rubber stamp
• a small paintbrush
• a cooling rack
• a pipping bag and nozzle (I definitely recommend the 1 M-Wilton nozzle) 

Directions :

• For the cupcakes : preheat the oven on 180 ° C, line the tin with the paper cases. 
• Cream the butter and sugar together (low speed) until you obtain a smooth texture. 
• Add one egg, beat and add the other egg, beat again.
• Add the vanilla extract, Sift the flour with the baking powder. 
• Pour a third of the flour on the buttercream and beat with the whisk (low speed). Add half of the milk, beat. Then pour the other third of the flour, the other half of the milk and finally the rest of the flour (it is important to always end with the flour). Careful not to beat to much and too long, just what we need to mix in the ingredients together.
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until about two-third full (it's important not to "over-fill" the cases).
• Bake for 20-25mn (until the point of a knife got off the cupcake clean). 
• Remove from the oven and let the cupcakes cool for 5mn in the tin (this is very important, this helps the paper cases to stick to the cupcake). 
• Remove the cupcakes from the tin and put on the cooling rack. 

 

• For the buttercream : melt the chocolate at "bain-marie" or in the microwave (Make sure you don't cook it too long, otherwise the chocolate would burn and make lumps). Let it cool on the side.
• In a big bowl sift the icing sugar, add the butter cut in dices, the milk and the vanilla extract.
• Cover the bowl with a cloth (I use a plastic bag!) and start beating at low speed for 1 minute. Then beat on medium speed for 2 more minutes until the mixture gets whiter. 
• Beat in the white chocolate, that as to cool nearly cold, and beat 2-4 more minutes. The more you beat the better! You never beat too much! (One essential rule for the buttercream frosting!).

• For the decoration : knead the fondant with the rolling pin (don't forget to dust your work station with icing sugar so it doesn't stick) and cut out some circles with a cookie cutter. I made 20 of them in case I fail some of them with the stamping. Let them dry for 12h to 24h.
• The following day, brush the stamp with the food coloring (stamp ordered at Rubbermoon Stamps, handmade, sweet and lovely!) and stamp each medallion. The second "stamping" always looks better as there is less food coloring on the stamp. (Always use a new stamp and new paintbrush that have never been used before).
• Let them dry for 2 to 3 days.   

• Assembling the cupcakes: when the cakes are cold, make a hole in the middle with the help of a corer or a knife) and fill them with jam (optional). And what do we do with those little pieces of cakes? ....we eat them of course! We definitely deserve it!
• Pipe the buttercream on the cakes, from the centre to the edge or from the edge to the center. But as we  are going to cover them with the medallion it doesn't really matter if the piping isn't perfect.
• Place each medallion on top of the cupcakes to finish with the decoration.