*CupCakes*

I was feeling a little sorry for myself yesterday...it was my birthday and no one had made me a cake (*boohoo*), anyway! I decided to whip up some cupcakes! Bear in mind I'm not the most creative of people, so the cupcakes look a little gaudy...but what they lack in appearance, they make up in taste!

Farmboy and I have been having a lot of fun in the kitchen (I must admit he does most of the actual work and I take the pictures but enough about that) check out our lemon cordial, hummus, stirfry and pasta!

The recipe below makes 24 cupcakes...

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups self raising flour

1 1/4 cups cake flour

1 cup unsalted butter (I used Butro here and it worked like a charm)

2 cups sugar

4 large eggs

 1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

Icing

1 cup unsalted butter

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

6-8 cups icing sugar

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180C and set out your cupcake cases.  In a small bowl, combine the flours.

Step 2: In a large bowl (electric mixer), cream butter until smooth. Add sugar until fluffy and add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each.

Step 3: Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the milk and vanilla.

Step 4: Fill the cupcake cases and bake for 20-25 mins and leave to cool.

Icing

Mix the butter, 4 cups sugar, milk and vanilla essence in an electric mixer (3-5 mins) until smooth and creamy (add a few drops of food colouring if you'd like).

Add the remaining sugar (1 cup at a time) beating for 2 mins between each cup, until icing is thick. Use an icing plunger thingy to decorate (or just use a spatula) and go wild!

Thanks to the FoodNetwork for the above recipe!