The Icing on the Cupcake!

To celebrate National Cupcake Week, Little Miss Luxe has been chatting to Kate Shirazi, the fabulous founder of cupcake mail order company Cakeadoodledoo and the author of a number of brilliant baking books including Cucpcake Magic, Cookie Magic, Baking Magic and Chocolate Magic. Kate is a lady after our own hearts; crazy about cupcakes and swoony over sprinkles! Great inspiration for baking your own wedding cupcakes...

How did you get into baking Kate?
I had a fabulous Good Housekeeping children's cookbook given to me when I was eight. It was full of lots of grown up looking girls in smart blouses piping flowers. Hooked. On the spot!

What is your favourite flavour cupcake, and what would you recommend for a wedding cupcake?
My favourite is whatever the latest invention is! Lime and coconut is very good, but I have a soft spot for a good Red Velvet... Wedding cupcakes? Go for LOTS of different flavours. If you've got a tower of over 100, you can get a good five flavours in!

What cake did you have for your own wedding?
Cupcakes! We had a small, informal wedding so we had very simple vanilla cupcakes iced in white with tiny white sugar rosebuds. It was a winter wedding so the very white theme looked fab and we had ivy trailing about the place. We've got some classic pictures of children cramming cakes into their cherubic faces.

Do you have any special wedding memories you would love to share with our readers?
I loved my own wedding, but it was a weeny affair...I have made cupcakes for some really fabulous weddings. My absolute favourite was in a field on the top of a cliff in the middle of nowhere. The marquee was the most beautiful I have ever seen with one whole wall looking over the cliff to the sea. The tables all looked beautiful with teapots crammed with flowers, vintage china and of course, my 200 cupcakes in 10 different flavours looked OK too! I love seeing the empty venue and waiting for everyone to arrive. It's a special calm-before-the-storm place!

What are your top tips for making your own cupcakes?
Use a machine! Food processor, mixer or electric hand whisk. The results are always lighter and anyone who says you are cheating needs their head examining and also doesn't deserve one of your cupcakes!

Yum! What sweet treats are you planning for your wedding? Are you torn between a traditional three tier fruit cake or the more contemporary cupcake tower? We think Kate puts across a pretty good argument for the latter, but whatever you do make sure your special day reflects you. And if it features cake, home-made or not we we think there's nothing better than having lots of it! It's what makes the world go round! Why not consider making double the amount you need to use as favours too, wrapping some of our Just Married ribbon around the cases and topping with one of our fab Just Married flags?

Until next week lovelies...

Little Miss Luxe xxx

Do you have a question for Little Miss Luxe? Is there a topic you would like her to cover? Then why not drop Her Royal Loveliness an email: littlemissluxe@letrousseau.co.uk