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Easy cupcake recipe

Ingredients
Serves: 24 
  • 170g (6 oz) butter or margarine
  • 170g (6 oz) sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 170g (6 oz) self-raising flour
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
  2. Cream together margarine and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating continuously. Sift in flour and mix gently.
  3. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes (dependent on cake size) until golden brown and skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Icing
Most cupcakes are decorated with butter cream, though for a flat top to decorate on, you can just mix icing sugar and water, then add food colourings.

Simple Butter-cream icing or frosting

  1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

  2. Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

  3. Add the food colouring and mix until well combined.

  4. Spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe the icing using a spiralling motion onto the cup cakes in a large swirl.
Decorating

Then comes the exciting bit...
(In fact, you can buy ready-made plain cupcakes or fairy cakes and go straight to the decorating!)

It's hard to know where to begin, so here are some photos to inspire you. Some just have a swirl of butter icing then petals made of jellies or sweeties, some have a flower made of a few cupcakes and some some are more ambitious...


Flower ideas
Easter ideas
Book inspired ideas
Bugs and other garden creatures
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