How Alice fell down the Rabbit Hole and ate (Chocolate) Cake

Alice? White Rabbit? Mad Hatter? Cheshire Cat?  Yep, you know I mean Alice in Wonderland.  I have an ancient copy of my mum's that she must have loved too.  And for something different, I also have a copy with the wonderfully quirky illustrations by Yayoi Kusama.  It seems that artists never get tired of re-inventing Alice, and Wonderland is a fave for costume parties.  Mr P. and I were off to a book-themed night with Alice being our tables' literary muse.  Mr P. hired a White Rabbit suit, and organised an express delivery from China of a Cheshire Cat onesie for me.  He never does things by halves!  We had massive amounts of fun decorating ourselves and the tables.  Sadly we lost out to a spectacular Hogwarts table who took out the prize for best decorated.  My food contribution was chocolate patty cakes with lashings of buttercream icing.  I like about equal quantities of cake to icing:)  You just make up any chocolate cupcake recipe you have, then add oodles of icing. You can flavour it how you like, and make it any colour you like too!  Here is my method for decorating these little beauties.

buttercream icing:

ingredients:

230g. butter - softened
480g. icing sugar or mixture
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbs cream
1 tsp pillar box red food colouring - yes you read me right - one teaspoon!

method:

Place the butter and icing sugar in a high-sided medium bowl (you don't want it all over your kitchen)
Beat on a low speed with your electric beaters for a couple of minutes till the icing sugar starts to be incorporated into the butter
Turn up the speed and keep beating for around 5 minutes more till it goes all smooth and creamy. For a while there, you think it will never come together but hang on, it does
Add the vanilla, cream and colouring and beat again till you have a gorgeous, deep pink icing
Spread generously over the tops of your completely cooled patty cakes

Some recipes suggest you can use margarine - urgh!, and some say to use unsalted butter but I like salted in my sweet recipes.  Heard of salted caramel before?:)   Happily use icing mixture here; let's not be precious.  Go for it with the colouring.  Why not?  Be bold.  And slather the icing/frosting on top of your cakes.  Personally I can live without the cake bit; just give me luscious icing to lick off.

ingredients 

butter and icing sugar in the bowl  

after a few minutes it looks like this

after a few more minutes, it looks like this!  

look at that gorgeous rosy hue 

getting ready to decorate 

take a small paring knife and cut into the centre of the cake

cut out a little triangle 

stuffing in the M & Ms as a surprise  

now take off the wrapper  

get slathering 

and more slathering  

pretty as a picture 

rows of cute cakes ready for the party 

what the heck! I couldn't resist one more photo 

my tatty and well-loved copy of a 1946 edition  

guess who!

Mr P. as the White Rabbit with a bunny friend