White chocolate Parmasan completes the authentic look
These Spaghetti pasta and meatball cupcakes (aka Fairy cakes) are absolutely delicious. The recipe can also be made as one large cake but I find it is easier to do the decoration and serve the cakes as individuals.
The quantities of ingredients are variable depending on the amount of cupcakes or size of whole cake you choose to use. This recipe is made to decorate 4 full sized cupcakes.
4 ready made plain/basic flavoured cupcakes(fairy cakes)
These can be home made with the easy sponge cake recipe, using a cake mix or ready bought. Because of the rather rich tasting decoration I recommend using a very basic vanilla flavour
White chocolate ganache spaghetti pasta
1 amount of chocolate ganache made with white chocolate and using 2:1 chocolate:cream allowed to cool to a piping consistency and can hold it’s shape.
Jelly/jello pasta sauce.
This sauce can be made with strawberry/raspberry Jelly or jam (jello/jelly).
Make up jelly/jello following the packet recipe but using half quantities of water. If using Jam it is best to heat and strain to remove fruit chunks and pips.
I added a few drops of red food colouring to enhance the vibrancy of the sauce colour.
Meatballs
100g of milk chocolate- melted
2 heaped teaspoons of desiccated coconut
The middles from the cupcakes -crumbled
Parmasan cheese garnish
White chocolate
Prepare white chocolate ganache and allow to cool down.
Prepare the jello and allow to set to a consistency that can still be poured but not runny.
Scoop out centre of Cupcake
Score circles into the cupcake tops using a knife and scoop out around ¼ inch of cake. Reserve removed cake for later
Seal the centre of the cupcake
Seal the dents in the cupcake centres with a small amount of the chocolate ganache. Allow to set.
When the chocolate mixture has cooled enough to pipe begin to pipe the icing onto the cupcakes in a random fashion to imitate pasta. If you find the chocolate is losing shape because it is warming up place in the refrigerator for a short while and pipe the icing in short time batches.
Pipe Ganache to make Spaghetti Pasta
Place cupcakes in the refrigerator to fully set.
Prepare the meatballs by adding the coconut and crumbed bits of cupcake to the melted chocolate and combine.
Make the chocolate meatballs
Form into small balls. I chose to put 3 small balls in each of the cupcakes but you can use your judgment based on the size of your cakes. The coconut and cake crumb create a more realistic texture in the balls so do not over work them.
They also helped to give a fuller flavour.
When all parts of the cupcake decoration are ready it is time to put it all together.
First spoon a small amount of jelly into the middle of the pasta, then add your chocolate truffle balls.
Add sauce and chocolate meatballs
Spoon over the balls a small amount of the sauce and finish off with some grated white chocolate to represent Parmesan cheese. I used my fine cheese grater to get the exact effect. Sometimes it may be necessary to place the chocolate in the freezer for 5 minutes first.
Then there we have our Spaghetti pasta and meatball cupcakes!
This has to be one of the easiest and most fun shaped cakes to make. It’s great to create with children, and there’s very little chance of doing anything that can’t be fixed. It incorporates both buttercream and fondant, but there are many variations that can be introduced. Instead of buttercream cheese, grated white chocolate can be used. A fruit pie glaze would work as tomato sauce instead of buttercream cookie frosting, and a variety of candies and cookies can be used as toppings.
To keep things simple for this recipe, a refrigerated sugar cookie dough was used. You can use a cake mix instead; just keep in mind that you’re using a pizza pan with a much larger surface area and will need less cooking time for your cake. For sugar cookie dough, be sure that your dough is soft enough to easily spread across the entire pan using either your fingers or a spoon. Bake the cookie at 350 degrees for about ten minutes, and you should end up with a nice edge that is high on the outside, looking very similar to pizza crust.
Use Refrigerated Cookie Dough as Pizza Crust.
Sugar Cookie Pizza Crust
Baked and Cooled Cookie Dough Pizza Crust
Next comes the fun part. After your cookie has cooled, use a cookie buttercream frosting in red to make tomato sauce. Let it firm, and then use buttercream (in a shade of ivory) coupled with a straight decorating tip to create strands of mozzarella cheese.
Buttercream Mozzarella Pizza Cheese
Pizza Cake Tomato Sauce
Let the buttercream cheese dry and form a crust (at least an hour) so that it will better hold its shape when you add your fondant meats and veggies. Color and cut out fondant pizza toppings (this pizza cake features black olives, pepperoni, green pepper, and onions), place them on the pizza, grab a pizza box from a local pizza place to use for presentation, and you’re done.
