Christmas cupcakes.

I picked up these cute Christmas cupcake cases and candy cane sprinkles at ASDA a few weeks ago and I have been obnoxiously excited to use them (along with some edible glitter I had in the cupboard) for some super Christmassy cupcakes, which I finally got around to doing this week!

This recipe, which is actually from Jenny Colgan's novel Meet Me at the Cupcake Cafe, is probably my favourite cupcake recipe to use because it always produces light, fluffy cakes, and just the right amount of icing. My cakes are a little small this time because they fell a little in the middle while cooling but that's definitely something I did wrong because it has never happened before with this recipe.

It's just typical that it would happen the one time that I want to take pictures of them, isn't it? Oh well, they still taste just as yummy!

Ingredients

For the cupcakes

• 125g unsalted butter
• 125g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 125g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk

For the icing

• 125g unsalted butter
• 250g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp milk (optional. I'll get to that in a minute.)

Method

• Preheat your oven to 190C/fan 170C and line a 12 hole cupcake pan with cases.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until smooth.
• Add the eggs, flour, vanilla, and milk and beat together until smooth. 
• If you want to make coloured cakes then I recommend using gel food colouring. Add the food colouring a little bit at a time while mixing the cake batter until you're happy with the colour, but make sure not to over-mix the batter.
• Spoon the batter into the cupcakes cases and bake for 12 minutes before checking them.
• Once you're happy that the cakes are cooked (skewer comes out clean, top springs back when pressed lightly etc) place them on a wire rack straight away and leave to cool completely before icing.
• Once the cakes are completely cool, cream the butter for the icing until it's soft.
• Add the icing sugar and beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy.
• Beat in the vanilla extract and then check the consistency of the icing. If the icing is a little thick, add a tablespoon of milk and mix again. If it's still a little thick, add another tablespoon of milk and mix. If you're happy with the consistency of the icing without milk though, you can leave the milk out.
• Add your food colouring if you're using it (again, I recommend gel) and pipe or spread onto your completely cooled cakes.
• Top with cute Christmassy sprinkles and edible glitter!

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