Hi everyone! Here to tell you all about my taking part in this years Cupcake day in order to raise money for Alzheimer's Society UK.
Until an ad for Cupcake Day popped up on my phone, I had no idea that Alzheimer's Society had an annual cupcake day, and I knew instantly I wanted to get involved. I got to bake LOADS of cupcakes and fundraise for an incredible cause all at the same time...that's a win win if you ask me.
It seemed silly not to take part - I love baking so much and I hope that it's something that shapes my future. Cupcake Day allowed me to bake on a larger scale and receive some lovely feedback on my bakes. It proved to me I am capable of doing this as a career. As well as all of the pro's for me personally - all of the incredibly generous people who bought a box of cupcakes or just donated to show support helped me raise an amazing amount of money for Alzheimer's Society.
The incredible work that this charity does for people suffering with dementia & the families affected is more important than ever at the moment. The money raised will be used for further research into understanding the disease & offering support to those affected.
So...my plan.
I decided to sell boxes of 4 cupcakes for £6 (or whatever amount people were able to donate). I offered 3 flavours: vanilla, chocolate & lemon all topped with buttercream.
I did my cupcake 'day' over 2 weekends. The first weekend I received orders for 18 boxes, and the second week a crazy 27 boxes! Totalling 180 cupcakes baked & decorated. This was baking on a much bigger scale than I ever have done before, but I pulled it off (and I was pretty chuffed with myself). I also received lots of really positive feedback on my bakes, which makes me feel super proud of myself.
I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and even though this was to raise money for charity, I still knew I had to make some great cupcakes. As i've mentioned before, cake/cupcake decorating is not one of my strengths, so this was also a good opportunity to practice & improve.
I made 3 flavours of buttercream to topped the 3 different flavoured cupcakes. I used a dark chocolate ganache buttercream, created a beautiful pale yellow for the lemon, and mixed up a peachy pastel orange colour for the vanilla. The colours were beautiful on their own but looked equally as good all together.
For the chocolate cupcakes, I used the ganache buttercream in a piping bag with the Wilton 1M piping tip to decorate with a classic rosette. I topped these with a spritz of edible gold glitter and they looked stunning (even if i do say so myself!).
To decorate the lemon cupcakes, along with the yellow buttercream, I added some mini meringues that i'd baked with some leftover egg whites. I used the opportunity to experiment...so I loaded my buttercream into various piping bags fitted with different nozzles and let myself go mad! And it's safe to say I loved the result! I also tried out a flower design with petal details (see pic) which gave the prettiest effect, but it was far too time consuming when I had 180 cupcakes to decorate!
I decorated the vanilla cupcakes using a small open star nozzle with the peachy-coloured buttercream. I did some experimenting, and wound up creating some mini roses & hydrangea style cupcakes that turned out super pretty - probably some of my favourites.
I LOVED taking part in Alzheimer's Society Cupcake Day this year, and together with all of the incredibly generous people who donated and supported me, we raised £601! I set a target to raise £200, but the total exceeded that massively. I am so grateful to everyone who donated, supported me, supported this amazing charity, and for all the lovely feedback on my cupcakes. It's something i'm really proud of myself for doing, and i'm so happy I decided to take part and raise some dough for dementia!
There's no doubt i will be taking part next year, and I urge everyone who's reading this to have a go. You don't have to be a great baker - just have some fun, get creative and raise some money!
I'd also like to thank all of the people from Alzheimer's Society who put the work in to help people & families affected by dementia. And for being so encouraging for people to get involved and bake! Also thanks to Sally from Alzheimer's Society who got in touch with me after i'd completed my cupcake day to thank me - thank you for everything you do and i'm so pleased I can contribute to help, even in a small way, especially now.
Thank you so much for the continued support and love for abs bakes! I really hope this is the start of something bigger - and receiving such lovely messages, compliments and feedback on my bakes just makes the dream that much more believable.
....watch this space!
Love, abs X
Please show some support on @_absbakes - follow me so you don't miss any extra content like tutorials and endless baking pics! You can easily contact me on there too!
Add comment
Comments