RECIPE: VANILLA CUPCAKES

Iknow I am going to sound really silly in this posting and most of you will be thinking it is no big deal but I am pretty proud of myself for my efforts here as this is the first time I have ever piped frosting/icing in my life! I have always found the idea daunting as I thought I would muck up a perfectly good cake or cupcake. I know it is only a simple pattern and I could have finessed the cupcake a bit more but hey, it is after all my first effort. Now that I have the confidence, you bet I am going to be using my icing press a lot more often!

Enough of the ‘self patting’ exercise; the texture of this cupcake is so light and fluffy that I am seriously considering making a large cake and sandwiching it with either cream or raspberry jam. Yes it is that good. I have to confess that I ate one without the frosting as it was that good. I seriously recommend you make double the batter – they lasted only a day in my house! Here's the recipe.

Ingredients – makes 12 medium cup cakes

150g softened butter
150g castor sugar
175g self raising flour
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 175°C (fan forced). Line a 12 capacity medium muffin tray with paper cups. Set aside.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Break in eggs one at a time whilst still beating the mixture. Add in the vanilla. Mix for 10 secs and then sift the flour into the mixture. Beat for 1 min.


Spoon the mixture into the paper cups. Bake for 18 to 20 mins, or until skewer when inserted, comes out clean. FYI: I turned the mixture around at the 12 min mark to allow for even browning.


Allow to cool completely on wire racks before icing with BUTTER CREAM FROSTING .