Muffin Bouquet with Doctor-Hat

Yesterday, a colleague of mine celebrated her birthday and doctorate degree and for this occasion, I thought it a good idea to combine a cupcake rose bouquet with little doctor hats. Of course, not everything went as planned, especially in the transport department, there were a few minor hiccups. After the first two doctor hats had a tragic accident with a fallen electric mixer (onto the hats), the last doctor hat inexplicably broke on the transport by bus :-(
Luckily, we could re-assemble the hat for a few photos and since the doctorate exam had already been passed, it cannot mean any bad luck :-)

Ingredients for 12 muffins: 
200 g sugar 
1 egg
100 g butter or margarine
finely grated zest of 1 orange
juice of half an orange 
225 g flour 
1 tsp baking powder 
150 g yoghurt

butter cream:
125 g butter
1 pack Vanilezucker
130 g powdered sugar
a little milk

doctor hats:
small hemispherical chocolates (e.g., Lindt Fioretto mini)
small chocolate squares (e.g., After Eight)
gummy cords (e.g., licorice or Haribo)
some melted chocolate

decoration: 
flower pot
cabbage
ribbon 

toothpicks 
napkin


Energy: 316 kcal per Cupcake


Preparation:
Stir sugar, eggs, margarine, and orange zest until fluffy.

Add flour, baking powder, yogurt and orange juice and stir briefly. Divide the batter evenly into 12 muffin cups and bake at 180 ° C for 20 min, test with a skewer.

For the doctor hats, some sweets work better than others. My sister gave me the hint that the mini Fioretto Lindt have the perfect hemispherical shape and size, on top of it is an After Eight.

With a toothpick, make a hole in the middle of the After Eight, cut a piece of gummy cord and cut it in at one end. Dip the other end in a little melted chocolate, pull it through the hole and stick it onto the Fioretto with melted chocolate. Set to dry and do not let the mixer fall on them!

Put the cabbage into the pot, possibly remove the outer leaves, such that just one hemisphere sticks out. Tie the ribbon around the pot. Stick the muffins onto the cabbage with toothpicks.

I should have been picked up for the transportation of my masterpiece by car. Unfortunately, my driver couldn't come after all and I had thought about how I could manage the transport of the bouquet in this weather with public transportation. My idea was to use a box from a lamp packaging, which already contained a cardboard spacer that would center the whole thing, and also fit perfectly in size (as I checked again for safety's sake).

In addition, the box already had an opening on the side, which was very helpful to maneuver the bouquet into the box and out again. 

once all muffins are placed on the cabbage, you can fill out the spaces with folded little strips of the napkin.

Then we need the buttercream for the roses: beat butter until fluffy.

Stir in vanilla and powdered sugar, drizzle a little milk if necessary. The buttercream tastes extremely sweet alone, but together with the muffins, it actually tastes quite nice!

Fill the cream into a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe from the inside outwards to make roses.

 Finished is bouquet!

 Place the (last remaining) doctor hat and pray for a secure transport.

Place the bouquet in the box, stow the box in a large bag as evenly as possible, and take it into the snow storm!

On the journey, check the box and see with dismay that the stupid After Eight has broken even though completely unprovoked. :-( 

Fortunately, it was still possible to stick it back together for a photo with the Dr., so that the gift was still a success :-) 

Cheers and congratulations again!