Vanilla Cupcakes

Hey my lovelies

Today I have a different type of post, some nice simple plain vanilla cupcakes

Nothing I love more than making cupcakes on a rainy afternoon and sharing with friends or family with a nice cuppa.The ones I make are basic and simple but taste yummy. I am a firm believer cupcakes or fairy cakes as I used to know them when mummy made them don’t need loads of ingredients to make them fab, and they don’t have to be expensive either.

I have truly fond memories of mummy making little “plain buns” as she would call them and dad and I would literally stand at the oven as they would come out and always burn our hands and mouths trying to eat them but it was just our little thing.  Mummy wasn’t the best of bakers which surprised me as her daddy was a master baker and made wedding cakes, but god love her the talent didn’t pass down. Mummys skills were sticky buns, rice krispie buns and these wee plain buns.

I always reach for this recipe if I am just wanting a nice plain base, sometimes I would add cocoa to make a chocolate sponge but the basic sponge mix is the same.

This receipe will make approx. 9 cupcake size buns or 12 smaller fairy cakes.

Mummys recipe

100g butter softened

100g self raising flour

100g caster sugar

2 eggs

As you can see its plain and simple, I will add a wee nip of vanilla essence in normally but that’s the only changes I make.

Method:

Preheat oven gas mark 4/180'C/170'C fan my oven is on the hot side so I normally do mine down at 160

2.Whisk all the ingredients until creamy and spoon into bun cases – I use an ice cream scoop to easily measure and when all in I give the tray a little tap on the workcase to level it out.

3.Cook for about 10-15 minutes - to check they are cooked just press gently and they should spring back

4. Take the buns out of tin and place on a wire rack to cool

Once cooled you can decorate if they haven’t already been eaten!

To keep things to a budget and easy, a nice vanilla buttercream is hard to beat for this you will need

140g butter softened

280g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

1 tsp of vanilla essence

Beat the butter until creamy

Add in the icing sugar little by little, add in a little of the milk

Add in the rest of the milk if the mixture becomes too stiff

You can get piping bags and nozzles on ebay or amazon and a nice large swirl can look very pretty

You can let your imagination run wild when it comes to decoration, sprinkles, drizzles of chocolate, wafer flowers, favourite sweeties.

A favourite of hubbys is chocolate sponge, with jack daniels flavour icing and a cola bottle on top.

This is a basic and cheap recipe that I am sure many people have used before but I thought I would share it with you guys.

I am now off to take these cupcakes up to my besties for a cuppa with her, her hubby and their gorgeous wee boy

Love you all

Ali xx