I am not an arty/crafty mummy and I confess to rarely getting the paint and feathers out for the kids to play with. However as its half term and we are house bound whilst trying to persuade Marie to use the potty or toilet, I thought we had better do something.
On Monday we set about making the cupcakes and as you can see my little “helpers” had great fun licking the spoon and bowl. After years of trying to find the perfect cupcakes recipe I have found a very simple one that produces good results. I think it is the lower temperature oven that makes the difference.
Recipe for 24 small cupcakes:
170g Self raising flour
7.5ml Baking Powder
170g Lurpack Spreadable Slightly Salted
170g Caster Sugar
3 Eggs
Simply mix the butter and sugar until soft and smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time and mix.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and mix again.
If the mixture is a little dry then add a drop or two of milk.
Pop in the oven at 160C for 20 minutes or so until they are golden.
On Tuesday a friend with two young boys was visiting for the day, so we saved the decorating until then. The cupcakes had come out nice and flat and I had purchased some of the Silver Spoon coloured icing in blue, yellow, pink and green and a variety of sprinkles, hundreds and thousands and silver balls.
I couldn’t believe how much fun the kids had selecting the colour they wanted, squeezing it out of the tube into whatever pattern they wanted. Then selecting the sprinkles of their choice. Marie struggled a bit with squeezing the icing as some of the tubes were a little stiff. I think maybe next time I will make some batches of coloured butter icing and put into piping bags. The sprinkles, of course, went everywhere and even now, two days later, I am still coming across them as they have trodden all over the house!
To make their efforts look even more special I purchased a cardboard cupcake stand and don’t they look spectacular!
They’ve all gone now though….
I must confess that the more artistic ones you can see are down to my friend and her children 
