Easy Cupcake Recipe

I baked these cute cupcakes for a belated baby shower my Mum threw for a work colleague last week. Apparently they went down really well and obviously I sneaked a few for myself which were heavenly, I'm the sort of girl that can't resist cake! They're really simple to make as well as being easy to adapt with other flavours so I couldn't resist sharing with you my tried and tested recipe to make the perfect cupcakes.

You will need:
110g Plain Flour
110g Caster Sugar
110g Softened Butter
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 eggs

For the Butter Cream Frosting:
125g Softened Butter
125g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Makes 12

• Preheat the oven to 180C/ 350F / Gas Mark 4.
• Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
• In a bowl beat the butter and icing sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Sift in the flour, salt and baking powder.
• In a separate bowl lightly whisk the eggs and vanilla extract and add to the rest of the ingredients.
• Mix for around two minutes until well combined so the mixture is light and airy.
• Evenly distribute the mixture between the paper cases (I like to use an ice cream scoop!) 
• Bake in the oven for 16-18 minutes until lightly golden. Test by lightly pressing the top with your finger, it should spring back.
• Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then place on a wire rack to cool fully

To make the butter cream frosting:

• In a large bowl lightly beat the butter and the vanilla extract.
• Add in the icing sugar a little at a time and mix until light in colour and fluffy in texture.

I used a round nozzle to pipe on the icing then decorated with mini marshmallows and hundreds and thousands.

Halloween Graveyard Cupcakes

Happy Halloween everyone, I hope you've all had a suitably scary day! I've been busy baking some yummy, sorry SPOOKY graveyard cupcakes which were so easy to make so I thought I'd share a quick recipe for how I made them. I was inspired by this recipe for a Haunted Graveyard Bake which looks amazing but takes a little longer to create. The cupcake cases and bat decorations came as a pack which I bought from Asda last year but I've seen plenty similar in the supermarkets this year. 

Makes 12
125g (4 oz) plain flour
125g (4oz) caster sugar
125g (4oz) soft margarine
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla essence
2 eggs

For the decoration
Nice biscuits of Rich Tea Finger Biscuits
Chocolate to melt
Chocolate sprinkles
Chocolate frosting
Icing sugar for Decoration 
Icing bag 

-Mix all the cupcake ingredients together in a bowl for around one and a half to two minutes until smooth.
-Evenly distribute the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake in a preheated oven at 180C (350F), Gas Mark 4 for 15-20 minutes. They should be slightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed.
-Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely

For the decoration
-Melt the chocolate then brush it on the biscuit. Try to use biscuits with rounded edges to look like gravestones. 
-Mix up a bowl of icing which is thick enough to write with. Using the icing write some spooky phrases on to your chocolate grave stones
-Top each cupcake with a thick layer of chocolate frosting and sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles. You could also use crumbled biscuits or Cadburys Flake.
-Stick the biscuit in to the cake pushing down firmly. It might help keep the biscuit in place if you let the icing slightly set before you add it to the top of the cupcake.

    

Don't forget to check out my other Halloween themed posts; Halloween Nail Art and Party Make Up. Have a Happy Halloween!