Yesterday afternoon, the Mister decided he fancied some cupcakes. It's not something I ever make, although I've drooled over many pictures online. We looked up a recipe and went on our merry way to Tesco for ingredients.
I'll share the recipe with photos of the finished product below. Before that, I have a short, funny story to tell about our 1st attempt at these cupcakes...
Never again will I let my Better Half read out a recipe to me!! We followed the recipe to the dot. We get to the part where we add Baking Powder and he tells me I need to add one tablespoon. I add this and follow the rest of the recipe. After 5 minutes in the oven the cupcakes had TRIPLED in size!! The recipe actually called for 1tsp, which he interpreted as 1 tablespoon. Bless!
So, to make 6 large or 12 small cupcakes you'll need:
- 120g plain flour
- 140g caster sugar
- 1 and a 1⁄2 tsp (teaspoon!) baking powder
- a pinch of salt
- 40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 120ml whole milk
- 1 egg
- 1⁄4 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g icing sugar, sifted
- 80g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 25ml whole milk
- a couple of drops of vanilla extract
- Preheat your oven to 170°c and line a cupcake tray with paper cases
- Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a large mixing bowl and 'rub' with your fingers until it becomes a sand like consistency, like this:
- Pour half of the milk into the mixture and stir until the milk is mixed in.
- Combine the rest of the milk, vanilla extract and 1 egg together and add this to the mixture too. You'll need to mix for a while until you get a smooth consistency, like this:
- Divide the mixture between the paper cases until around two-thirds full and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until light golden. When they are ready, the sponge will 'bounce back' when touched
 |
| Before baking |
 |
| Ready!! |
- Beat the icing sugar and butter together until the mixture comes together and is well mixed.
- Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoons at a time. (Also add food dye at this point, if you want coloured icing like we had!)
- Once all the milk has been mixed in, mix again!
- Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.
- Spoon onto your cupcakes, or use a piping bag if you have one
