[schema type=”recipe” name=”Cat themed cupcakes” author=”Rachel Howard” pubdate=”2013-09-29″ image=”http://www.sundaybaking.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Cat-themed-cupcakes-700.jpg” description=”Cupcakes decorated with sugarpaste cats and paw prints” prephours=”1″ prepmins=”30″ cookmins=”25″ ]I received a beautiful email the other week asking me to make a cat themed leaving cake for a lady that loves cats (and it praised my baking skills which always goes down well!!). Unfortunately I was too busy to take on a big cake project but I was happy to make some cupcakes. I know it sounds silly, but I have made so many cupcakes that it takes me half the time to decorate 24 cupcakes rather than one big cake.
On the Tuesday night I got myself settled in front of the TV (ready to watch The Great British Bake Off), laid the table out in front of me with everything I could possibly need and set off making 24 sugarpaste cats. Unfortunately these cats took a little longer than I had planned as I decided to make multiple colours. I’m sure if you made them all the same colour it wouldn’t take as long though. So in the end I made 10 little cats and 10 paw prints. 
My cat inspiration came from Pinterest. I loved the look of these cute cats and the detail of how to make the face on here.I didn’t really use a guide to make them – I just made it up. This is roughly how I did it:
- Make the body by creating a pear shape with a flat edge. Make a reasonable sized hole for the tail
- Make the legs by rolling 4 small pieces of sugarpaste. If you want white paws just add a small piece of white sugarpaste at the end and blend it into the colour. Add 2 cuts at the end to create the paws
- Stick the legs to the body using water or edible glue
- Make the head following these pictures. Once you have made 1 or 2 you will find a way that suits you best. Experiment – there is no right or wrong way!
- Stick the head on with edible glue
- Make the tail by rolling a piece of sugarpaste and moulding it into the shape you want. Leave it to dry over night before you place it onto the cat
TIP: I found that the tails really didn’t want to stay in place, especially when travelling. My advice would be to either use flower modelling paste as it dries harder or make them curl up over the cats back so they don’t need to stand up.
Cake wise, my jaffa cupcakes were requested (Good choice as they are really tasty!). Otherwise, maybe you could make a vanilla green coloured buttercream and pipe it out using a grass nozzle to make it look like the cats were sitting in the grass? (I have tried colouring chocolate frosting before and it doesn’t work!!)I think they look super cute and anyone that loves cats should love these cupcakes!
Please post a photo to my Facebook page if you have a go at making these – I would love to see them!
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