Pink Shrimp Cupcakes

Hubby was away climbing again this weekend, so off I went up the M1 to have a girly weekend of shopping, gossip and most importantly tea and cupcakes! The Northampton Bicycle Bazaar was on this weekend, so off we headed in search of vintage treasures.

Seeing this as a perfect excuse to bake something, i decided upon vanilla sponge cupcakes with pink foam shrimp for decoration.....

Base
125g soft butter
125g vanilla caster sugar
2 medium eggs
125g self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk

Topping
vanilla extract
icing sugar
pink food colouring
1/2 tbsp boiling water
12 Pink shrimp (available at M&S)

Mix the vanilla sugar in a large mixing bowl along with the butter. Then crack open the eggs and seperate the whites and yolk, whisking the whites until stiff. Add the self-raising flour, egg yolk and milk into the bowl and whisk until creamy. Finally, fold the stiffened whites into the mixture. Place the mixture into the cupcake tin, spreading evenly with the back of a teaspoon. Bake the cupcakes for 12-15 minutes until the sponge is firm and golden.

Put the cupcakes onto a cooling rack and leave for approximately one hour.

To create the icing, mix the icing sugar and food colouring in a mixing bowl along with teeny amounts of boiling water. Its best to add tablespoon by tablespoon in order to get the correct consistency. Spread the icing onto the cupcakes with a butter knife, adding the pink shrimp decoration before the icing sets.

Finally, get all your best girlfriends over for an afternoon of tea, cupcakes and gossip!