Cupcakes Tutorial

Following on from my last post, Sweet Treats, I thought I would post a cupcake tutorial just in case any of you fancied having a go yourself! I have also found (from a lot of trial and error) that this recipe is pretty fail-proof and always ends up tasting amazing, so you don't need to worry if you're not a baking expert!

As we are throwing a surprise 30th birthday party for my sister this weekend I thought I would make some girly '30th' cupcakes, but obviously you can just use this recipe as a foundation and use your own creative flair if you wanted to make a batch for a different occasion.

Ingredients

For 12 cupcakes you will need: 

115g/4oz butter

115g/4oz caster sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

115g/4oz self-raising flour

1 tbsp milk

10 Simple Steps

              

1) Preheat the oven to 180degrees/Gas Mark 4. 

2) Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat together thoroughly. 

3) Gradually beat in the eggs.

4) Beat in the vanilla extract.

5) Sift the flour into the bowl and fold into the mixture.

6) Fold in the milk.

7) Make sure the mixture isn't too thick/thin. Add more flour/milk to balance out.

8) Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases (only about 1/3rd full!)

9) Bake in the over for 20-25 minutes.

10) Leave them to cool before decorating!

Decoration!

This is my favourite part of the baking process as I usually go a bit mad with icing/sweets/sprinkles, but today I decided to keep these ones elegant and simple with vanilla frosting and wafer daisies.

To make the vanilla icing you will need:

150g/5.5oz butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

280g/10oz icing sugar

Method

1) Put the butter and vanilla extract into a bowl and beat until very soft and fluffy.

2) Gradually sift in the icing sugar (the more you beat, the softer the frosting will be!)

3) If the the consistency is a little thin to pipe (like I found mine was) keep adding a bit more icing sugar until you reach a thicker mix.

4) Place the icing into a piping bag with your choice of nozzle (I went for a wide flower-shaped one) and pipe it around the top of your cakes.

5) Decorate to your taste- for this batch I used Dr Oetker's Wafer Daisies which are available at most large supermarkets.

6) I also made a little flag out of paper and a cocktail stick to prepare them for the party!

 

I hope this tutorial is useful to you, feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Happy baking and happy longest day of the year! :)