Baby Bib and ABC Block Cupcakes

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I'm a bit lost when it comes to babies. I don't know much about them and I certainly don't know how to stop them crying. However with friends having babies left, right and centre, affords me the luxury of decorating a new kind of cupcake. I loved the idea of making some baby bibs and thought that using these little cubes from a Dolly Mix would approximate ABC blocks. At first I started with a plain bib, then added the butterfly and then thought that the silver cachou would help. Then I added the ABC blocks and my husband stopped me there, I would've no doubt kept added decorations had he not, making it resemble more an "everything but the kitchen sink" cupcake.

One of my favourite purchases from the UK were some icing decorating tubes in a variety of colours with a range of tips (star, plain and leaf). They were a whole 59p-£1 per tube and they were an enormous improvement on the brand that I bought here at a supermarket which just went runny and watery. They also taste great which is actually something that I wondered about. I used a whole tube and making these little stars is time consuming and hard on the hards so you don't have to this, you could certainly just spread the icing over the top smoothly and then top with a bib and cubes.

The cupcakes themselves are very light and fluffy, especially with the moistening presence of strawberry, however mine didn't rise very much and didn't "dome". They slightly overflowed, not so much so that I needed to start again but I just needed to pry them away from the baking tray in parts with a knife so try not to overfill the cupcake pans. Between 2/3 and 3/4 full of batter is what you will need. Don't let the flatness of them put you off, you could certainly cut out cones from the tops and stuff them with sweetened whipped cream, otherwise these flatter cupcakes are perfect for this sort of decoration. As for the cute little red bear, he was part of my gift, he's hand crocheted and a more than worthy accompaniment for the cupcake.

Baby Bib and ABC Block Cupcakes

An original recipe by Not Quite Nigella

White Chocolate and Strawberry Cupcakes

• 60g white chocolate chopped roughly

• 90g butter at room temperature

• 1 cup caster sugar

• 2 eggs

• 2/3 cup (100g) SR flour

• 2 tablespoons cornflour

• 1/4 cup hot water

• 100g strawberries chopped into small pieces

For decoration:

• 12 bibs (see below)

• 48 blocks (see below)

• 1 120g tube of pink writing icing fixed with a small star tip

Step 1 - Preheat oven to moderate 180degrees/160 fan forced.

Step 2 - Melt chocolate in bowl over small saucepan of simmering water

Step 3 - Beat butter, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until light and fluffy

Step 4 - Fold in flours, strawberries and melted chocolate and hot water. Spoon into cases.

Step 5 - Bake for 20-25 minutes until a skewer or toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean. Cool in tin.

For Bibs

You will need:

• Coloured fondant

• Round cutter and flower cutter (or cutters similar to produce a bib shape)

• Silver Cachous

• Candy Butterflies (bought unless you have a tiny cutter)

• a toothpick

Roll out fondant onto greaseproof paper and cut out bib shape by cutting out a small circle and then cutting off a section with another cutter (I just improvised using a petal cutter).

Using a toothpick, make light but firm holes along the edge to imitate stitching. Then using a tiny amount of water, adhere butterflies and silver cachous to bib.

For Alphabet Cubes

You will need:

• The cubes from Dolly mixture

• Edible pen

Draw letters on Dolly Mixture using edible ink pen. Easiest decoration ever plus you get to eat the rest of the Dolly Mixture

Alternative decoration, Milk bottles

For Milk Bottles

You will need:

• White fondant

• A small amount of coloured fondant (you can use the bits left over from your booties or bibs)

• a toothpick

Roll white fondant into a log shape with square ends. Roll a small ball of coloured fondant and attach to one end. Then with white fondant shape a little tip and add this to the coloured fondant. Make "measurement levels" with toothpick.

OR add a tip to a Milk Bottle lolly!