I recently offered to make some cupcakes for the Christening of my friend’s baby. Actually I originally offered to make a cake or cookies but ran out of time so have resorted to cupcakes and an apology.
The cakes are my standard cupcake recipe of:
125g Unsalted butter (softened)
125g Caster sugar
2 Eggs (beaten)
125g Self raising flour
1 tsp Vanilla essence
Splash of whole milk
Method (I used double amounts for this batch):
- Preheat the oven to 180C
- In a freestanding mixer cream the softened butter and sugar until smooth.
- Add the vanilla essence to the beaten egg then slowly add the mixture to the mixer.
- Gradually add the flour while mixing on a slow speed.
- Add the whole milk slowly while mixing by hand until the mixture falls easily from a spoon or spatula.
- Set out the paper cupcake cases in cupcake tins and add the mixture.
- Bake for approx 17 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
For the icing (again I doubled the amounts):
80g unsalted butter
250g icing sugar
25ml whole milk
1 and a half tsp vanilla essence
- Cream the butter and sugar in a free-standing mixer on a low speed
- Mix the vanilla essence with the milk while continuing to mix
- Beat the mixture on a high speed for at least 5 minutes
- Separate about a quarter of the icing and colour with Wilton Royal Blue gel colour.
- Use a piping bag with a large closed star tip
- Place the uncoloured icing in first and add the colored icing down one side of the bag.
- Twist the top of the bag ensuring there are no air pockets trapped and use gentle pressure from the top of the bag.
- Pipe back into your mixing bowl until the colours begin to mix in the icing then ice the cupcakes in a spiral starting from the outside and working inwards to form a peak.
- At the end of the spiral push down slightly and pull straight up to finish with a peak.
- Add any sugar paste decorations you choose, I used a set of baby themed patchwork cutters and alphabet Tappits and floral paste coloured with the same royal blue gel colour I used for the icing.
