How to make a giant cupcake

Have you ever been slightly disappointed that your cupcakes just aren’t quite as good as the ones your next door neighbour makes? Fear not, friends. Here is the cupcake to beat all cupcakes… the giant, jumbo, not-quite-colossal cupcake. And, if that wasn’t enough, the piñata cupcake, perfect for slightly crazy, celebrating people.
We sent the Kitchen Craft Jumbo Cupcake Baking Tin to the lovely baking lady Chef Sam for a test run. Here’s how she got on…
You can use this jumbo cupcake pan in many ways – for cake, to create chocolate moulds and even to make biscuit bowls for ice cream. It’s a lot of fun to use; here’s how I made my jumbo cupcake and piñata cake.

Ingredients for a vanilla cake

2 cups flour
1 and 1/2 cups sugar
15ml baking powder
2.5ml salt
125ml butter
1 cup milk
7.5ml vanilla essence
2 large eggs
4 egg whites

Icing of your choice. I used butter cream frosting and fondant icing.

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease your pan and lightly flour it.
2. Beat the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk, 2 eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl or stand mixer. Mix at a low speed for 2 minutes.
3. Add the egg whites and mix at a high speed until fluffy and smooth; this should take approximately 2 minutes.
4. Pour your cake mixture into both sides of the pan – they should be two thirds full of mixture.
5. Place the cupcake pan onto a baking try for easy handling and bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
6. Once done, trim off any excess cake so that the top and bottom of your giant cupcake fit neatly together.
7. Ice the base upside down with butter cream frosting and run your fingers through the grooves to keep the definition.
8. Cover the base of the cupcake with fondant icing (any colour you choose) and trim off excess icing before turning over.
9. Ice the top of your cupcake base with a layer of butter cream frosting to ‘glue on’ the top of your cupcake.
10. Ice the top of your cupcake with butter cream frosting and stop here if you want a simple cake but for a smoother look, cover the top with fondant as well.
11. If you choose to ice the top with fondant, run your hands through the grooves and trim the excess icing with a pair of scissors. Tuck the rest under with a skewer and for the cherry on top, roll a ball of red fondant and add a stalk of green florist wire with a tapered dot of green fondant on the end. I also decorated mine with different sized fondant polka dots.
And now for perhaps the ultimate cupcake, the piñata cupcake:

1. Make the base of your cake as above and ice it with fondant icing.
2. For the top of your cake, pour chocolate into the tin, swirl it around continuously until it is basically set (this can take quite a while – you’ll need patience) then place in the freezer and the chocolate should come away from the sides.
3. To remove your chocolate top, tap the tin while holding it upside down and very close to the work surface. (You don’t want the chocolate to fall and crack before the festivities begin!)
4. Pile the cake with your  favourite candy, attach the chocolate top with some melted chocolate, drizzle with white chocolate and let the fun begin!
Welcome to our world giant cupcake.

A big thanks to Chef Sam and photographer Jessica Commaille for this beautiful post.

Keen to try making a giant cupcake? Here’s the Jumbo Cupcake Pan on Yuppiechef.com and print-friendly recipe.

You might also like to check out:
5 ways to take your cupcakes from good to glorious
The science behind cupcakes
Maple and bacon French toast cupcakes