When you work in a huge company, there seems to be a new person leaving every week! Another card signed and another handful of change thrown in the kitty.
This time I thought the occasion deserved cake!
Simple vanilla cupcakes are ideal for sharing and always go down well!
What you'll need for 12 cupcakes:
Preheated oven @ 170C (fan)
Cupcake Pan
Cupcake cases
Piping bag
Mixer
For the cakes:
110g Soft Margarine
110g Self-Raising Flour
2 Eggs
110g Caster Sugar
1 tsp Baking Powder
For the Icing:
160g Butter
500g Icing Sugar
50ml milk
1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
Food Colouring
Decorations/Sprinkles etc as you choose
I got some new bowls in the sale at Habitat which are perfect for baking.
This cake mixture is perfect for when you don't have much time- as it all goes into the mixer at the same time!
Start by mixing the flour, sugar, baking powder and margarine in a bowl, before transferring to the mixer.
then beat the eggs in a bowl
(I have 3 here as I have to make 1 1/2 times the mixture for all the hungry mouths!)
Pour the eggs into the rest of the mixture
And mix, stopping to scrape the sides
Set out the cupcake cases in the cupcake tray
Before dividing out the mixture and slotting in the oven for approximately 25 minutes.
Take out the oven when they have turned golden brown...
And then place on a wire rack to cool down
While the cakes cool it's time to make the buttercream icing.
Measure out the butter, and the icing sugar
And then add the vanilla essence, food colouring and as much milk as required, making sure that it is not too runny.
Unfortunately I made these cakes in 30C degree heat so my icing left a lot to be desired! I started with the piping bag but gave up when the shape wouldn't hold! It's more about taste anyway! Saying that I used as many decorations as possible to draw the eye away from my sloppy icing effort!
In order to make them a little bit more presentable I displayed them in cute polka dots cupcake boxes found in Sainsbury's.
And took them off to work to be devoured!
