This cupcake recipe is the one that I’ve been using since I was a little girl and it’s super easy

Ingredients

6oz softened butter or flora

6oz caster sugar

6oz self raising flour

3 medium eggs

teaspoon vanilla extract

Put butter, eggs, vanilla extract and sugar into a bowl and mix with electric mixer for a few minutes.  Add sifted flour and fold into mixture

---

This recipe will make either 24 small/medium sized cupcakes or 12 of the larger ones in muffin cases

Bake at 180 degrees (fan oven) for 15-20 minutes and then place on cooling tray

Buttercream icing

4 oz softened butter

8 oz icing sugar (sieved)

2 tblesp milk

Teasp vanilla extract

Beat butter and vanilla extract then gradually add in icing sugar and milk beating all the time until creamy and smooth

Now spoon into piping bag and pipe onto cooled cupcakes

I’ve tried a few different kinds of piping bags and the Wilton featherweight one is by far the best. They are available from Lakeland

I decided to make some sugared flowers to decorate the cupcakes and also used some cute little sugar letters from Asda.

For the sugared flowers you need to buy edible flowers from someone who knows that you intend to use them as a food item so that they haven’t been treated with pesticides. I got them locally from the fab Slemish Market Garden.

These are lovely to decorate cakes and desserts just as they are and I used them like this for another blog post which I was writing for Laura Ashley but I wanted to make some sugared ones as well as they can be stored in a sealed container for up to 3 months. I’ve taken some step by step pics to show you how to do this.

Choose flowers with nice clean petals and snip them off with scissors placing them all on a tray or board.

Gently whisk one egg white with a tablespoon of water to form an egg wash and then use a small paint brush to cover the petals.

Then sprinkle the flowers with caster sugar, I found this was easiest by putting them into a small bowl of sugar and then sprinkling them as this covers both sides

Carefully place each flower onto a tray lined with baking parchment and leave to dry for 24 hours

Once dried put them into a sealed container and they are fab to have at hand for decorating cakes, biscuits and desserts.

I used the little sugar letters from Asda to add a fun element and the end result was very cute and pretty

The gorgeous Liberty cake cases are from Meri Meri and matched the flowery theme beautifully

Now I’m off to eat one with a cup of tea!

Lots love

Louise

xxx