Am I not pretty enough?

You could be forgiven for thinking that the life of a baking blogger is all sugar and spice and all things nice. There is an ugly side.

Welcome to “reality baking” in a domestic kitchen where sometimes the cakes just don’t bake pretty.

Uneven edges, baking papers coming away from the cake – there’s no rhyme or reason why it happens. But when it happens to an important order, it’s annoying to say the least.

The cakes themselves were fine (di-licious in fact) but they just didn’t look great. Even a generous swirl of buttercream couldn’t hide the fact that the papers were distorted.

In order to get these cakes to the party on time, I rewrote the rules for cupcakes and tried something a little unorthodox - I gave them a head to toe makeover.

Firstly, I removed the offending paper cups. Just like the plain-Jane secretary taking off her glasses and shaking out her hair, all of a sudden my ugly duckling cupcakes turned into swans with serious potential.

Next, I neatened up the edge of the cakes by cupping them in my hand and pressing in the rim – instant facelift!

You can’t go to the ball without a dress so I put the cupcakes into new mint green cases. I actually love the effect of the fanned out papers.

Then using a Wilton 2D tip, I piped beautiful buttercream roses on top. (The trick is to start piping from the centre and then spiral outwards – it creates the rose petal effect.)

The final result – lovely Rose cupcakes with rosewater buttercream – dressed to impress.

What do you think? Are they pretty enough now?