Cup-Cake Face - James de Gale epic

This is a bit of a delayed post as I have been stupidly busy! A few days after this event, on the 9th of September, I rushed down to Brighton to get my keys for my new student house, and then went to  Morocco for a few days with my boyfriend.  I got back last Thursday and drove down to my new house and moved my stuff in.  Not only does this mean I've had no time to blog, but no time to bake!

To cut a long story short here is what happened on the 9th of September, before things got hectic.

After going to Cake Britain I got quite excited about everything they were doing.  I browsed the organiser's blog- Miss Cakehead (Emma) and noticed that she put a friendly little p.s on her blog page saying to get in touch if we wanted to help out with Mad Artists Tea Party related events, particularly the Eat Your Heart Out 18+ pop up shop that is happening over halloween weekend in Shoreditch.

I was so excited to hear that they wanted help as soon as the following Thursday.  At first it was all a bit mysterious as to what I was actually helping with but soon enough I got all the details.  Following the success of Cake Britain, The Food Network asked the Mad Artist Teas party to get involved with their National Cupcake week.  They wanted to create the boxers face James de Gale out of 5,000 cupcakes, whilst breaking a world record at the same time. Here's what happened.

Me and the cakes!

I arrived at Westfield shopping centre for 5am.  I did indulge in a taxi from my house in South London rather than night buses and slept most of the way there - I am glad I did!

I was taken by security up to the North Atrium (which is probably a good thing as knowing me I'd have got lost along all those corridors).  I met Bruno Vincent, the photographer and sort of project manager, and Lily Vanilli.  They had all been there for ages before trying to set it all up.  There were boxes and boxes of cakes, all baked by Lily, a huge piece of lino where the cakes were going to be arranged, and a laptop which had all the info about which colour went where.  Then Emma turned up too, probably one of the friendliest people you could meet.

Models hired by Food Network to work with the boxing theme.

Each cupcake had a dollop of vanilla icing on which to stick the coloured sugar paper, which would form the pixel.  Every cake needed to have the right shade stuck down and be laid out in the right order.  (there were probably about 50+shades?)  I was doing the easy job of laying the cakes out onto the floor as they were handed to me by the team.  I'd be lying if my back wasn't a bit stiff the next day!

Me laying out cakes. The face starts to take form.

Trying to lay each cake out lining up with the row above.

The only problem was that buy the stage photographed below we had been working at it for 3 hours...which was the time it was suppose to take us to place 5,000 cakes (an attempt at a world record!)  James De Gale, was due to arrive for a photo with the finished product so we had to slightly alter our meticulous methods.

View from the balcony above.

James de Gale himself helping to construct his cupcake face.

The finished product.

The end product was pretty awesome.  James de Gale's boxing glove fist raised in victory!  As soon as we had finished everyone came to get their free cake!  Flyers had been handed out all day by the models for Food Network, advertising the free cupcake give away.  The whole thing was eaten up in about an eighth of the time it took to create but it was so worth it.  I loved meeting the minds behind the Mad Artists Tea Party, they really are a very friendly bunch and I hope to get involved with them for the Eat Your Heart Out pop up shop happening later this month.

 Infact...I've even started practising!

My first attempt at making Hummingbird genius

Unsurprisingly, being me, I couldn't get the delicious black bottom hummingbird cupcakes out of my head, and I knew the recipe was lurking in my Hummingbird cookbook.  Off to the supermarket I went, buying heaps of cream cheese, and chocolate chips.  I was slightly daunted by the mix of cheesecake and sponge, as I haven't ever tried this in a cupcake before.  I became even more dubious when I made the sponge mixture.  It had no egg, and as I used the electric hand whisk to combine, it actually cemented the whisks together to a near standstill (well almost).  It was the most elasticy, sticky, chocolatey sponge I have ever seen.  

I dolloped the sponge into each cupcake case and the poured a tablespoon of a rather runny, very sweet cheesecake mixture ontop.  Before the cream cheese entered that mix...I wasn't sure the icing sugar and butter were going to actually going to incorporate, but the cheese cheese saved the day.  

I popped the cakes into the oven, wary about over cooking them.  The recipe warned they can easily become crumbly if overdone.  I left them in for an extra four mintues (after the recommended time the skewer came out very wet).  I think an extra three would have done it, as altough still moist I wanted them to be slightly gooier. 

Next for the cream cheese frosting.  The cream cheese could have been whisked for a slightly shorter time as I prefer my icing firmer.  I was trying t achieve a light fluffiness, but not near runniness.  My icing technique still needs work, but I love working with an icing bag, I find it really creative and can make a normal sponge look really impressive..yes I still have a way to go (!).  Watch this space.  I finished by dusting with the recommended cocoa powder. Yum

I cheekily tucked into one for breakfast the next day.  Ultimate indulgence.  I was pretty happy with the finished taste and texture.  Next time though, a minute or two less in the oven, and firmer icing.  Thanks Hummingbird,  even though my cupcakes aren't quite as good as yours yet, you're a pretty stiff competition!