Kitty Cat Cupcakes

I love the opportunity to make a novelty cake and recently had the perfect opportunity by way of a fundraiser for Hounslow Animal Welfare Society (HAWS). HAWS had a stall at Ham fair, near Richmond and I thought these kitty cat cupcakes would go down a treat, raising valuable funds for the charity.

A bit about HAWS.

Founded in West London in 1976, HAWS takes in hundreds, if not thousands of domestic animals each year. Cats, dogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, birds, reptiles - even fish, any animal finding itself in a desperate situation. Unlike many animal rescue centres, HAWS has no facility at which to house the rescuees so they rely on a network of foster carers to take them in, nurse them, love them and often re-rehabilitate them until they are able to be rehomed. 

Earlier this year we became foster parents to a lovely young cat, Sophia and her four kittens, two of whom have been successfully rehomed. When they were roughly three weeks old we had a phone call from HAWS saying that unfortunately, despite the best efforts of vets, another young mum, Betty had died - would we be able to see if Sophia would take to her two kittens? Well, we had to try! Later that day two tiny six-day-old bundles of fluff arrived and to our great relief Sophia took to them straight away, saving their lives!

Betty's gorgeous kittens Teddy (L) and Coco (R)

As HAWS pay for all veterinary costs incurred prior to adoption, fundraising is a vital part of their day-to-day business. As soon as I heard that the focus of the Ham fair was to help pay for poor Betty's vet's bills I was even more keen to help out, after all its thanks to Betty we have the adorable Teddy and Coco in our lives!

And so to cake...

I made two flavours of cupcake using my basic vanilla and chocolate recipes then gave them a splash of vanilla buttercream.

I wanted something that would grab the attention of fair-goers so began the kittifying process by creating the ears. For this I took white chocolate buttons, cut them in half and then cut each half into a triangle. This meant that one button provided both ears for each  cat (it also meant there were a few offcuts to be nibbled on later!)

Next up an inverted chocolate drop gave the perfect triangular shape needed for the characteristic cat nose. For the eyes I used smarties. I tried a few using whole smarties but they just didn't look right. After a brainwave moment I chopped them in half and bingo, it worked! All that was left was to pipe on the whiskers using chocolate flavoured icing. I addedd a few characteristics to the odd cupcake, sometimes outlining the ears, sometimes adding pupils to the eyes. They were a sell out!

One battalion of Kitty army!

For further information on HAWS:

Hounslow Animal Welfare Society, Registered Charity No 1065060

Web: www.haws-animals.org.uk

tel:020 8560 5443

Find on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/HounslowAnimalWelfareSociety