Rocking Horse Vanilla Chiffon Cupcakes (with a tinge of lemon and less sugar)

I have a request for horse cupcakes for a little girl's birthday so here they are!

The design may look simple but to do them in bulk....

This is not all!

...is quite a lot of work! I was seeing stars by the end of assembling 16 cupcakes as the individual parts of the horse has to be cut out with a small knife, and then glued together with melted marshmellow. Only the external outline of the rocking horse was done with a cookie cutter. As usual, the cupcakes are fondant-free.

Vanilla flavour with a tinge of lemon and less sweet was requested so the recipe is specially tailored. You may refer to this recipe for the basic vanilla cupcake but with 3 egg yolks instead of 1, milk with 1 tsp of lemon juice used instead of water.

Freshly baked cupcakes

Bake some white, pink and purple layer cakes for the horse design.

Remember to brush the tops of the cupcakes with simple syrup (1:1 ratio of water:sugar) to keep them moist as they will be left out in the open for quite a while at the party. You may store the cupcakes in air tight container in the fridge for a few days to keep them fresh.

All packed! 

Thank God that the cupcakes were well received together with Susanne's awesome cake!

This bake is also just in time to bid farewell to the Year of the Horse!

Have a Blessed Chinese New Year everyone! Thanks for supporting us this past year since we started blogging!

With love,
Phay Shing