Farm Yard Cupcakes

So these are super yummy and so easy to make! I actually cheated and have used the M&S Percy Pigs and friends sweets, as well as the Phizzy Pig Tails. However they were very much a crowd pleaser regardless!

I started by whipping up a normal Victoria sponge recipe:

• 6oz – Caster Sugar
• 6oz – Butter
• 3 Free Range Eggs
• 6oz – Self Rising Flour
• 1 pack of Oreos (I LOVE Oreo bottom cupcakes)

1. Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth, then add the flour and the eggs.
2. Place an Oreo in the bottom of each cupcake case
3. Fill each cupcake case 2/3’s full and bake for about 20-30 minutes until golden on top. Be sure to test they are baked all the way through by inserting a skewer into a cupcake- if it comes out clean they are ready!
4. Remove the cupcakes from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes in their tray, then leave them on a wire rack to cool. Super Simple!

For these cupcakes I used three types of icing:

• Butter and icing sugar – For the Sheep and Cows
• Coco powder, butter and icing sugar – The mud for the Pigs
• Water and icing sugar – The back grounds for the Pigs and Cows

Separate the Percy pigs and friends into animal sections so you can see how many cupcakes you can make of each animal.

I started with the sheep first- Make a batch of butter cream using:

• 10oz Icing sugar (sieved)
• 5oz butter (room temperature)
• 1-2 tablespoons milk

Cream the butter and then add half the icing sugar, and beat until smooth. Then add the second half of the icing sugar and one table-spoon of milk and again beat until smooth.

Fit a small star icing nozzle onto  a piping bag and pipe little dots of icing closely together onto the cupcake to create the wool of the sheep. Once you have used enough for all of the sheep set the remaining icing aside as we will be using this again later.

This part is for the background of the Pigs and Cows

• 250g icing sugar
• 45ml water
• A few drops lemon juice
• A few drops of green and red food colouring

1. Mix all the ingredients together but don’t add the food colouring
2. Separate the mixture into two bowls and colour one pink and one green
3. Distribute these colours on the remaining cupcakes in accordance to the number of Pigs and Cows you have

Mud for the Pigs

• 2.5 oz icing sugar
• 2.5 oz coco powder (sieved)
• 2.5 oz butter
• 1 tablespoon of Milk

Mix all of the ingredients together and place a nice blob (about the size of a bottle lid) on top of the pink cupcakes

Stick a Phizzy Pig Tail into the back of the cupcake and a Pig face on the front and VOILA Pigs in mud!

Grass for the Sheep and Cows 

1. Add a few drops of green food colouring to the remaining butter cream icing
2. Fit the grass icing nozzle to an icing bag
3. Ice little tufts of grass onto the Sheep bodies so they look like they are munching on grass, then place the Sheep faces onto the cupcake
4. Ice tufts of grass onto the remaining green cupcakes and then place the Cow faces on top.

As always, if there are any questions just ask!

Tilly x

Farm Yard Cupcakes!