Fluffy Vanilla Cupcakes

I made this for my friends birthday last year and it seemed to go down pretty well, also these cupcakes are so easy to make and great for when you have friends coming over or if you’re bored and fancy exploring the depths of your kitchen.

makes 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 175g Softened Butter
• 175g Caster Sugar
• 2tsp Vanilla Essence (optional)
• 3 Eggs
• 175g Self-Raising Flour

Method:
1. Preheat oven to gas mark 3 and place the cupcake cases into the cupcake tins
2. Whisk the butter and sugar till they’re light and fluffy
3. Add the eggs (and vanilla extract) to make a yellow batter
4. Add the flour and mix/whisk till smooth (should take about 5 mins) – essentially the longer you mix the fluffier your cupcakes will be, which to me, is the most important bit
5. Put the mixture into the cupcake cases, distributing the mixture evenly
6. Bake for roughly 14-20 mins (if your oven is dodgy like mine you may want to alternate which tray goes at the top and turn up the heat half way through

Some people don’t like putting icing on their cupcakes but if you do I suggest using butter icing (because it is superior to all other icings). However, if you do choose to go down the icing path here is what I suggest you do:

Ingredients:
140g Softened Butter
280g Icing Sugar
A splash of milk
1/2 drops of food colouring (optional)

Method:
1. Whisk the butter
2. Add half the icing sugar until smooth
3. Once smooth add the other half and the milk and beat till smooth
4. Add the food colouring if you have chosen to use it
5. Spread onto your cupcakes – to get the same effects as I have done in my photo (below) use a piping bag

To do the decorations (ladybugs) like the one in the you will need royal icing. You can either buy dyed icing or dye it yourself with food colouring. As you can see I used red icing which I rolled into ovals and flattened the bottom. I then used a small paintbrush to paint the black patterns onto the red ovals. Once they had dried I then pushed two small white balls and painted dots on them to make the eyes.

Making roses out of royal icing is so easy! All you need to do is take your preferred colour of icing and roll it into line/tube, afterwards, flatten it with your thumb. If you then roll it pinching it at one end to make it tighter, it will then make a rose like shape.

Last updated: April 16, 2020