Here in the UK, the Queen started her official Diamond Jubilee celebrations back in March, beginning with a Nationwide tour. Now the country is gearing up for a 4 day weekend to celebrate with official events including the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, the Big Lunch and the BBC Concert at Buckingham Palace. Schools, shops, pubs and High streets are all proudly displaying union jacks and there is a buzz in the air (no doubt helped by the fact that the summer has now arrived!)
The cake making profession has also been gearing up for this celebration and there have been some incredible works of art produced ......
The Military caterers created an amazing 3 tier cake with a replica of the Queen's coronation crown on top all modelled from icing which was presented to the Queen at the Diamond Jubilee parade and muster at Windsor Castle on the 19th May.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-18099799
Dr Oetker teamed up with food artist Prudence Staite to create a portrait of the Queen using 2,012 cupcakes
http://www.smittenbybritain.com/2012/05/queen-elizabeth-iis-portrait-in-cupcakes/
The military caterers spent 500 hours producing their cake and the cupcake portrait took around 300 hours .... works of art like this are unlikely to be recreated for the average street party! So I've come up with some cupcake ideas that require no particular cake decorating skills or specialist icings, colourings or equipment which will hopefully provide some inspiration for your street party this weekend. Everything I have used is available from your local supermarkets or shops.
I baked a dozen vanilla cupcakes and topped with vanilla buttercream as these are my personal favourite. The cupcake cases I used are from Marks and Spencer, but there are lots of Jubilee themed cases around at the moment.
Add crown cupcake picks - these came with the Marks and Spencer cupcake cases.
Add flag cupcake picks - these ones came from Lakeland.
And now for the healthy ones! ..... Add fruit. I opted for blueberries and strawberries as these looked the nicest in the supermarket yesterday morning, but raspberries would work really well too.
Marks and Spencer also had some "white chocolate sprinklies" that I placed on a couple of cupcakes. These are large white chocolate buttons with sprinkles on top.
Then place the cupcakes randomly on a cupcake stand or plate and voila!
Now stand back and admire your work for a moment ... then enjoy!
A big thank you to
Linda Scannell Photography for the amazing photographs taken yesterday.
www.facebook.com/CAKELISAPRICE
www.cakebylisaprice.co.uk
www.lindascannell.com
