Valentine's Day Cupcakes

To make these vanilla cupcakes you will need:

110g butter/ margarine, softened to room temperature

110g caster sugar

2 free-range eggs, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

110g self-raising flour

1-2 tbsp milk

First you will need to pop your oven onto 180C/350F/Gas 4 and place your cake cases into a 12-hole muffin tin. Then add the softened butter to a large mixing bowl (I cube mine as it's easier to mix) adding the sugar and creaming these two ingredients together - use the back of a wooden spoon - until pale.

Add your beaten eggs a bit at a time and then pop your vanilla extract in and stir this all together thoroughly - you don't want one cupcake super vanilla tasting and another with nothing.

Sieve in the self-raising flour folding it into the wet mixture, this is when you can add a few drops of milk making the mixture of dropping consistency.

Place the mixture into cases - the recipe I used says it makes twelve, but I only made ten...I think I got too excited with some of the mixture in certain cases.

Place in the oven and leave to bake for around 10-15 minutes or until they are a nice golden brown colour (like the ones above). Once baked leave them to cool and move onto the yummy butter icing...

For the butter icing you will need:

140g butter, softened

280g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

piping bag

decorations of your own choice

This part is super simple...all you need to do is beat the butter into a bowl first then add your icing sugar (sieved) a little at a time using the milk if necessary.

I forgot how hard piping was so decided instead to spread the icing all over the cakes with the flat of a knife...worked much better. I decided to use red edible dust and paper heart cocktail sticks to add a little romance to the cakes but you could use whatever you like.

And voila! Some lovely cupcakes you could give to your other half or devour yourself (like I will) if you're a single pringle. Whatever you're up to tomorrow for this (silly) holiday, spread the love and the cake! I'll list everything used in this recipe just below.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

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Recipe taken from BBC food website here
Bowls, piping bag, edible dust, decorative hearts all Poundland
Cake cases and cocktail sticks set Amazon (supermarkets probably have a lot of alternatives)