Red Sprinkle mini Cupcakes

Sometimes, its good to go back to basics, after visiting Selfridges on Friday i got some inspiration from the Primrose counter and decided to make some crowd pleasing mini vanilla cupcakes.

Primrose cupcakes are beautiful in a simplistic way, so the flavours really speak for themselves. After 'testing' some out with hubby (chocolate gananche with vanilla sponge and vanilla buttercream with vanilla sponge) i recreated my own versions for our guests this weekend.

I'm warming more and more to mini cupcakes, there is something less guilt inducing about them. The teeny morsels make for a dainty treat that almost appear to contain no calories at all... The downside of course, is that as a result you tend to consume more!

Following the recipe from Very Vanilla cupcakes, i made 24 Red Sprinkle mini cupcakes. For the ingredients you will need:

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

Topping
vanilla extract
icing sugar
red food colouring
1/2 tbsp boiling water
Multi-coloured sprinkles

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!

Momiji Vanilla Cupcakes

Sundays are Momiji bake days, its an unofficial law, and as i'd just received the cutest Momiji cupcake set i thought i may aswell honour the occassion with some cupcakes! You all need to check out the kit on the Momiji site, the cupcake cases are so sweet that i was almost reluctant to use them!

Armed with possibly the most retro equipment (I was using my Mum's Kitchen) i set about making vanilla sponge cupcakes with purple vanilla buttercream icing. This should have been a simple task, however a different oven and 30 year-old equipment resulted in me having to start over after the first batch ended in disaster!

I yet again learned the important lesson that Mother is always right, she had warned me that 190c was too hot in her swanky fan oven, yet i ploughed on regardless resulting in 'burned on the outside, gooey on the inside' cupcakes.

As this obviously wasn't the intended result, i set about making another batch, this time with Mother fussing over the temperature and timings. It was second time lucky and so Mum had an air of smugness for the rest of the evening!

This Momiji Vanilla Cupcake recipe makes 12 standard sized cupcakes...


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

Icing
175g softened butter
350g icing sugar
3 tbsp boiling water
Vanilla extract
Aubergine food colouring
White chocolate buttons


Preheat the oven to 190c OR if you also have a swanky fan oven, 160c!

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. Then fold the stiffened whites into the mixture - this will make a lovely light sponge.

Evenly place the mixture into the cupcake tin and bake for 12-15 minutes until the sponge is firm and golden. (swanky fan - 20 mins approx)Remove the cupcakes and leave to cool on a rack.

Now onto my second important lesson of the day, salted butter gives a much better flavour than the unsalted variety! I feel its important to try out different ingredients and after experimenting with unsalted butter this time around there definately felt as though something was missing!!

So, onto the buttercream icing... Beat the butter in a mixing bowl to soften and add the icing sugar, boiling water and vanilla extract into a bowl. Mix until smooth and add the aubergine food colouring and mix until desired colouring is achieved. Add the white chocolate buttons before the icing sets.

Very Vanilla Cupcakes

What present do you get when you haven't a bean to rub together? Very Vanilla cupcakes!!

Since hubby and I got back from honeymoon the purse strings have been extremely tight, so cupcakes were the perfect present solution for my Aunt & Uncle's recent 50th Wedding Anniversary.

To play it safe, i opted for cupcakes with a vanilla base and topping. To make 12 standard Very Vanilla cupcakes you will need:

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

Topping
vanilla extract
icing sugar
blue food colouring
1/2 tbsp boiling water

First-off if you want to make the vanilla caster sugar, put one vanilla pod into a jar of caster sugar for at least 2 weeks before using. If you don't have the time or the inclination to do this, you can easily use ordinary caster sugar with a tablespoon of vanilla extract.

Now down to the business of baking! Preheat the oven to 190c and prepare the ingredients.

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. Then fold the stiffened whites into the mixture - this will make a lovely light sponge.

Evenly place the mixture into the cupcake tin and bake for 12-15 minutes until the sponge is firm and golden.



Once the cupcakes have cooled you can start on the thick glace icing.


Mix the caster sugar along with the powder blue food colouring and a teeny bit of water. To make the cupcakes extra vanilla-y i used some posh vanilla extract from M&S' new basics range.

I find it much easier to decorate the cupcakes if the icing is almost cement like in texture, so use as little water as possible. Smooth the icing on with a knife to get an even topping, then to prettify place a sugared flower decoration in the centre.
As these Very Vanilla Cupcakes were a present, i choose a cheap but pretty cake tin from Tesco rather than dull old tupperware.