Hello and welcome to my first blog post of 2023! Hope you've had a lovely Christmas and a fun time celebrating the start of the new year!
But back to us...
For the January issue of "Dolls House & Miniature Scene" I baked tiny little cupcakes in two British tea time staple biscuit flavours: Custard Creams and Bourbons!
If you are not familiar with these biscuits, they are both sandwich biscuits; the Custard Creams have a creamy custard-flavoured filling, whereas the Bourbons are chocolate biscuits with a chocolate buttercream filling.
What team are you? Let me know below!
0%Custard Creams
0%Bourbons
What else is in this issue?
From seeing in the new year in small scale with Sadie Brown as she celebrates Kathleen Holmes’ new year scenes, to looking at the wonderful idea of bottled gardens in terrariums with Dene Bebbington, we have plenty to get the year ahead off to a cracking start, if you’ve been looking for some new ideas.
For those who love to explore architecture, Deb Weissler looks at Mark Turpin’s custom suburban home which has grand proportions. It could certainly be viewed as a dream house! Still looking at dolls houses themselves, we travel to the mountains and find a cottage steeped in Eastern European folklore and what an ornate cottage this is! Turn to page 48 to find out more.
Also, Moi Ali takes us with her as she moves house – and all her mini houses too! A difficult task for any miniaturist, to transport all of their prized possessions, so Moi gives her top tips on making a move the smoothest it can be. You’ll find everything she has to say on page 27.
Now let's jump to my cupcakes...
The tutorial is fairly simple, we use simple tools and very few colours! Trying to make a miniature version of biscuits with names written on them can be daunting when you first think about it. But the biscuits I made are in the style of Custard Creams & Bourbons, they haven't got the names on them, they are a homemade version of them if you will.
If you've never made miniature cupcakes before, making the cupcake liner/wrapper can be tricky. The easiest thing as a beginner is to use a miniature cupcake mould. These are usually available in dolls house online shops, or online shopping platforms like Ebay, Amazon or Etsy. Always check the measurements as miniatures come in many different scales.
Another way to make the cupcake liner would be to make the mould yourself which is what I did for these cupcakes. For this you would need to sculpt the master yourself first and then use mould putty to make the moulds.
If you'd like to follow my tutorial with step by step instructions and photographs, you will find it in the January issue of Dolls House & Miniature Scene magazine, in both print and digital copies here.
I hope you enjoy the tutorial and working on these cupcakes! You can always change the biscuit flavours and go for party rings or jammy dodgers; perhaps we'll leave that for another issue ^_^
If on the other hand you'd like to learn more with me, my book "Miniature Cake Creations" will take you through making miniature cakes and sweet food, both as miniatures and different types of jewellery. You can order a copy here.
Thank you so much for reading and I'll catch you in my next blog post.
Lots of love,
Maive