Alice in Cupcakeland

Here's a plain vanilla cupcake recipe which you can use for just about anything!


Ingredients

125 g softened, unsalted butter
250 g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
185 g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 c milk

Preheat your oven to 180C and line 1 and a half cupcake trays.

In a small bowl sift in the flour, baking soda and salt and place to the side for now.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add the vanilla. One by one add the eggs, beating well after each to keep the air in.

Using a very low speed, add a quarter of the flour to the egg mix, then a quarter of the milk, removing the beater as soon as they're mixed. Continue until all the flour and liquid has been added. It's important to not over mix the batter on this one - always use the lowest speed and stop often.

Divide the batter evenly into the trays, and bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or until they are golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Icing

60g icing sugar
2-3 tsp hot water
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Sift the icing sugar into a bowl then add the liquid and mix until smooth. Drizzle the icing over cool cupcakes so it drips a little down the sides. If you're serving these for a party, top with fresh raspberries or even little chucks of mango. Yum!

Note: You can half the amount of vanilla extract and top it up with a different flavour in both the cake and icing. For example you could use, 1/4 tsp vanilla and 1/4 tsp of strawberry essence. keep the vanilla in the mix however as it gives a great depth to the flavour.