Hello everyone,

It's been almost a week that we're having such a grey weather plus rain in Brussels. Such a perfect weather to end summer. Well, though I came from a country where there's a lot sun, I dont want to complain for this gloomy weather since Brussels spoils me when it comes to Belgian fries, chocolate and beers :-)

To brighten up my day, today I created a little ray of sunshine at home by making Sunflower Cupcakes!! I still have some of ingredients from the last time I made cupcakes for my friend, so why not create something with it? I saw loads of these beauties on my Facebook feed and I was just so motivated to recreate them.

I used Sally's Baking Addiction Recipe for the cupcakes: Super Mois t ChocolateCupcakes, as for bittercream, I used Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream. I love using Swiss Meringue Buttercream because it's less sweet than American Buttercream. I cant stand reading the recipe of American Buttercream because of its amount of sugar. It's just TOO MUCH., especially for me. That is why I want to share with you the recipe of Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream now.

Vanilla Swiss Meringue Buttercream

This recipe is enough to decorate 24 Sunflower Cupcakes.

Ingredients

• 3 large egg whites
• 200 gr granulated sugar
• 340 gr unsalted butter, softened, cut into cube
• 11/2 tsp vanilla extract

Methods

• In a saucepan, bring some water to simmer for bain-marie (double boiler).
• In a bowl of a stand mixer, place the sugar and egg whites, whisk until well mixed.
• Place the bowl on the saucepan, make sure the bottom the bowl doesn't touch water. Whisk the sugar-egg whites (meringue) mixture on double boiler, keep whisking until the sugar is completely dissolved. I dont have sugar thermometer, so I feel with my fingers to check whether the mixture is ready or not. If it doesn't sandy anymore, you may remove the bowl from double boiler.
• Using stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment, beat the mixture until it forms medium-stiff peaks on high speed.
• Lower the speed, add in the unsalted butter, small amount at a time.
• Add in vanilla extract, beat until the buttercream looks smooth.
• Ready to use.

I am quite satisfied with the result of my piping. This was my very first time decorating cupcakes into sunflowers. Though I didn't get the correct color, I still find them beautiful. These cupcakes are made to be shared. I already prepared some for some friends and they will pass by to my home tomorrow to get them :-)

If you like this post, please do not hesitate to upvote and resteem. Thank you friends for reading.

Cheers,

All work and photos are original and mine. Photos were taken with my brand new Panasonic Lumix FZ1000 :-)