My name is Tracey-ann Edwards and I live in a little town called Hadleigh in Essex UK with my husband, two gorgeous teenage girls, and my two, even more beautiful Bichon Maltese fur-babies. In 2012 we were living overseas in Spain when I was unexpectedly made redundant from my job and found myself at a bit of a loss of where to go in my next career. So whilst I was at home, getting bored, twiddling my thumbs, I found myself most days in the kitchen baking cookies and cupcakes and that is where The Costa Cupcake Company was founded, everything happens for a reason as they say !
I started my cake decorating company in 2015, initially to specialize in quirky, niche, shabby chic style cakes, but popularity has grown and I just about cater for all trends now. I am completely self-taught, everything I have done, I have researched and followed online tutorials, joined some fantastic groups like Sugar Ed Productions and practiced (lots). I love learning and have been so lucky to attend some recent courses with Barbara Luraschi ( Sweet Janis) from Italy, Nadia Flecha Guazo (Chokolate) from Belgium and Lynsey Wilton-Eddleston (SugarWhizz) from UK to perfect my modeling skills.
I have come such a long way in such a short amount of time, due to my sheer passion and commitment to learning new skills and techniques. 2017 has been an amazing year already ! I was featured in Cake International Magazine March Edition for a beautiful Cinderella Castle Cake for a winter wedding. I was also invited to be part of the Venetian Carnival Collaboration where 92 international cake artists from 21 different countries came together to celebrate Carnival through sugar art, which was published in Cake Decorating and Sugarcraft Magazine and later this year I am stepping into unknown territories by entering into my first international competition at the Alexandra Palace in April for Cake International London !
My long-term goal is to own a little shop to be able to take orders, sell cake supplies, hold courses and teach from – if little old me from Essex can learn how to make great looking cakes, then anyone can ! My Facebook page is www.facebook.com/costacupcakecompany and the website is www.costacupcakecompany.co.uk
My favorite recipe and one that I use to make my lovely tasting cupcakes has to be the classic Victoria Sponge it’s light, fluffy and totally moreish !
500g of Stork (tub)
500g of Caster Sugar
500g of Self Raising Flour
8 medium free range eggs
1 tablespoon of Vanilla Bean Paste or Vanilla Extract
For the buttercream filling:
250g of salted butter
250g of icing sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla bean paste or vanilla Extract
Strawberry Preserve or Jam
Preheat the oven to 170 degrees fan or 180 degrees non fan. Cream the Stork and Caster Sugar together then for the one minute beat on high till really fluffy. Put in half of the flour and 4 of the eggs and mix gently then add the remainder of the flour and eggs and beat well till everything is combined. Finally add the vanilla and mix in well.
Line one large deep 8” tin with parchment paper pour the batter in and bake on the middle shelf for 1 hr and 20 mins.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
How to make the buttercream:
Place the 500g of salted butter (I love salted butter with the icing sugar as it cuts through the sweetness) into a mixer and beat on high until pale 3-5 mins then add the icing sugar (sieve if necessary) and beat for 4-5 mins until it has doubled in size and it lovely and fluffy add the vanilla at the end and give a quick mix in.
The cake should bake and rise to approx 4” in height you can torte it three times to give lovely deep portions. When you have leveled it off on the top and you have three deep slices, use the leveled top of the cake as the base and the base of the cake as the top so it gives a nice sharp edged finished. Spread the jam on the base slice then pipe or spread a layer of the buttercream on top, stack the next slice of cake and repeat, finally place the last slice on the top and sieve some icing sugar or dusting powder on the top to give a rustic finish.
You can also use this recipe to make 36 large cupcakes simply spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cakes and bake for 18-20 mins at 170 degrees for fan assisted or 180 non fan. If you prefer to bake in two smaller tins line 2 x 8” tins and spoon approx 940g of mix into each pan and bake for 50 mins at the same temperature.
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