Showtime: cupcakes
Last year I spent several painstaking hours decorating cupcakes for the class entitled 6 small decorated fairy cakes, to win not a jot. I must admit, I was miffed. Especially as the winning cakes were nowhere near as elaborately decorated as mine. After some soul searching I figured that the judges were not so much focusing on the decoration as on the fairy cakes themselves, so decided to take a different tack and give it another go this year. Being me, I couldn’t resist a little decoration, but I do swear by this cupcake recipe!
Prizewinning vanilla cupcakes (from the ever popular Primrose Bakery cupcake book)
1. In a large mixing bowl cream 110g unsalted butter (at room temperature) and 225g caster sugar with an electric hand mixer until pale and smooth. Add 2 large eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
2. Combine 125g self raising flour and 120g plain flour in a separate bowl. Put 120ml semi-skimmed milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract in a jug. Add one third of the flours to the creamed mixture and beat well. Pour in one third of the milk and beat again. Repeat until all the flour and milk have been added.
3. Divide the mixture between 12 large cupcake cases (half of this mixture is just perfect for 12 fairy cakes) and bake at 160 C/gas mark 4 for about 25 mins. Once cool, ice with anything you like – these are vanilla buttercream with fondant flowers. They may have only won third prize, but I’m still calling them my prizewinning cupcakes!
Third prize is still a prize! They look yummy
x
Congratulations, they are lovely!