Celebration CupCakes
- Makes 24
- Prep 2! hrs Q Cook 25-30 mins
- 32p a cake
- 408 kcals, 22g fat, 12g sat. fat, 42g sugar Freezable un-iced
- 3 large eggs
- 200g natural yogurt
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250g caster sugar
- 280g self-raising flour
- 140g ground almonds
- 250g pack butter, softened
TO DECORATE
- 250g pack butter, softened
- 300g icing sugar, sifted, plus extra for rolling
- 500g pack ready-to-roll icing, for the tops few different food colourings, extra icing and decorations of your choice (see To decorate, below)
Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line 2 x 12-hole muffin tins with paper cases. Put the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, sugar, flour, almonds and butter in your largest mixing bowl and beat until smooth and lump-free. Divide between the paper cases and bake for 25-30 mins (swapping the trays after 15 mins if you have to use 2 shelves) until a skewer poked into the centre of the cakes comes out
clean. Cool on a wire rack.
2 To decorate, beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and light. Use a teaspoon to spoon a heaped dollop into the centre of each cake or, for speed, spoon into a food bag, cut about 2cm off the corner and pipe a dollop onto each.
3 Divide the icing into as many colours as you want – plus a piece left to be white, or to brush with glitter, if you like. Knead a little colouring into each piece until you have a good colour, then roll out onto a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Use a 6.5cm fluted cutter to stamp out rounds and press
down onto the icing to flatten it a bit. Repeat with the other colours to cover all the cakes. Now get decorating!
To decorate your cupcakes…
Hip-hip-hooray cakesColour a little more ready-to-roll icing with different colours, and again roll out on an icing sugar-dusted surface. Stamp out circles using a 4cm fluted cutter and letters using alphabet cutters. Dab a little leftover buttercream on the bottom of each letter, stick onto a circle, then dab more buttercream under the circle and stick on top of a cake.
Sparkle crown cakes
Roll out a small amount of white ready-to-roll icing and brush with silver edible glitter or lustre. Using a mini crown cutter, stamp out shapes. Decorate with small gold star sprinkles – if you have a small paintbrush, use it to dab a little buttercream on the back of the stars to stick onto the crowns. Use a little more to stick the crowns on top.
Pretty rose cakes
Colour a small lump of readyto-roll icing pink. Pinch off small chunks of icing – about the size of a marble – and roll into thin-ish sausages. Flatten the sausages a bit between your finger, then starting from one end, roll up like a wonky Swiss roll, pinching one side tighter, while the other stays more open to be the top of the rose. Use a small pair of scissors to trim the bottom, to give a good base,
then stick to the cake with more buttercream. Pinch small chunks of another colour into fat diamonds
to make leaves, and use a knife to mark a line down the centre of each. Stick onto the cakes using buttercream.
Heart cakesSpread a thin layer of buttercream over icing hearts. Tip some edible pearls into a small saucer, then dip in the hearts, icingside down. Stick onto cakes.
