I have tried a variety of cupcake cases in a quest to do justice to my gorgeous cakes. There are literally hundreds of choices – varying in size, colour, pattern and quality.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve settled for Hobbycraft’s coloured cases as I find they are the best in terms of keeping their colour. However they sometimes lose their shape and can be a tad fragile. So when The Shire Bakery were looking for testers I jumped at the chance to try their range of cases.
First up was a square metallic floral case – I’d estimate that it’s just over a cupcake size. While you can use these cases for any type of cake, I think they probably lend themselves more for creating individual fruit loaves rather than cupcakes. However on saying that, I made up a red velvet mixture, which seemed in keeping with the design.
The metallic cases are sturdy and don’t require any support – a definite bonus. I wasn’t quite sure just how much mixture to put in them, however this was just about right. I’d normally get six cupcakes from this mixture so that gives you an indication of their size as I filled four square cases.
The result is very nice – very different and I’m thinking that this would be a great way to make mini Christmas cakes. The cases come in three sizes – the shallow square, deep square and a loaf shape. And they are available in metallic pink and blue. At £1.50 it’s roughly 19p per case however it’s so worth it if you want to do justice to your cakes.
And the cake comes out of the case fairly easily and as you can see from the image, it provides a lovely clean edge to the cake – of course once this was out of the case, I just had to try it. There was a perfect even bake so again very impressed with these cakes.
Next up was a serious contender to the plain old cupcake case. A red polka dot baking cup – made from high quality food quality paper they have a slight waxy feel to them. And the choice of colours – well you need to take a look at the full range – there’s really something for everyone.
I opted for a vegan Victoria sponge mix to test these cases. It was very easy to fill them, in fact easier than my regular cases. However they are unforgiving once baked, so if you drip mixture on the sides, wipe it over before putting them in the oven. Of course if you are covering the cake with a ‘buttercream’ then it probably doesn’t matter.
The cases are quite deep and make a lovely base for the ‘buttercream’.
The main test for me again is the ease of getting the cake out of the case. Well it was very easy. The cake 
simply pops out by carefully pushing up from the bottom – no cake left behind in the case. And the shape retained too.
These cases come in two sizes – large in packs of 20 for £2.50, which works out at 12.5p each. The mini size, again in packs of 20, retail for £1.75.
The Shire Bakery has a range of gorgeous products for your baking needs – including party accessories. From those retro paper straws and cake displays to cutters, sprinkles and flavoured icing sugar. And there are more cases – including paper flan cases and gold/silver cases, which would be perfect for that special event.
I love these golden crown sprinkles and they would be perfect on a celebratory cupcake
What I really love is that a lot of their sprinkles are vegan and no stupid prices either – so I’m working on my order now as vegan sprinkles are so hard to get. And with free delivery on orders of £30 The Shire Bakery is definitely worth a look.
“This product was provided to me free of charge from The Shire Bakery in order to review it. However the opinions expressed in this review are independent and my own.”
The Baking Biker Chic 