Recipe: Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Edible Sewing Button Decorations

Summary: Aren’t these sweet? I made these for a sewing afternoon tea. You see, May is National Sewing Month and Australian Sewing Guild Groups around the country celebrate with all sorts of events. Our group decided to have an afternoon tea to celebrate. I think cupcakes and tea are perfect match, so I thought I’d whip up some cupcakes. The signature colour of the ASG is purple, so I knew purple would factor in the decorating somewhere. But then I remembered that I already had a silicone candy mold in the shape of sewing buttons. Of course, I knew I had to make purple buttons to decorate the cupcakes!

The buttons were so simple, only complicated by my colour choice. Wilton’s candy melts are really easy to work with (but white chocolate would work well too) and I thought I’d just pick up some purple ones from the baking shop.  As it turns out, the purple shades of candy melt are not available in Australia! I am sure it’s some quirky law regarding food colouring but really? Never mind. I grabbed some white melts and some purple candy colorant. If you go down this route, be sure the colourant works with candy/chocolate or it may seize up and go suddenly wrong.

I am super pleased with how cute these turned out, might I say, ‘cute as a button’? My ASG group meets in a huge fabric store and everyone loved these cakes! The sewing group in the next room were very curious and even the fabric store patrons were intrigued. So many people thought that they were real sewing buttons and couldn’t believe they were edible. I love that such simple decoration had so much impact!

Ingredients

For the Buttons

• ½ (340g) bag of Wilton’s candy melts (or white chocolate)
• Candy colorant (optional
• Button candy/chocolate mold

For the Cakes

• 125g butter
• 125g castor sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or seeds from 1 vanilla bean
• 1 tblsp sour cream
• 125g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 qty vanilla buttercream

Instructions

For the buttons

1. Add the candy melts to a microwave safe measuring jug and microwave for 30 secs at a time, stirring in between. Be careful not to overheat the melts.
2. Add candy colouring a little at a time, stirring well in between, until desired colour is achieved.
3. Carefully pour the mixture into the mold, ensuring that each button is properly filled.
4. Gently tap the mold to release any air bubbles and scrape up any excess candy mixture from the back.
5. Allow to cool and set. Wilton’s melts will set at room temp but you can speed up the process by putting them in the fridge.
6. Repeat until the desired amount of buttons have been made. Set aside.

For the cakes

1. Pre heat oven to 190C (180 fan forced). Line a 12 hole muffin tin with paper patty pans.
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a mixer or with electric beaters, till pale and creamy.
3. Add the eggs, vanilla and sour cream and mix until well combined.
4. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder and salt.
5. Stir the flour mixture into the wet ingredients in two batches.
6. Divide evenly between the 12 patty pans and bake for 12-15 mins or until a skewer comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool on a rack before icing with buttercream and decorating with the buttons.