Ahh, love it or hate it, you can’t escape it. So we figured you might as well go all gooey and make sweetheart cupcakes for your Valentine- or yourself. This is just a simple vanilla cupcake recipe, sweet, fluffy and delicious- that with a cup of tea and I’m in love..
- 125g (4.4 oz) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1 tsp real vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ cup (185mL) milk
Icing
- 50g unsalted butter
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- Sprinkles or lollies (e.g. mini marshmallows or jaffas) to decorate
Preheat oven to 180°C (355ºF)
Place cupcake papers in two 12-hole cupcake trays, or grease each one, you could use mini-cupcake pans here too (cute!). In an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar for about 2 minutes, until pale in colour and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about a minute between each addition. Add the vanilla essence and beat until combined.
Sift flour and baking powder and add half to butter mixture with half the milk, mix until well combined. Repeat with remaining flour and milk.
Fill cupcake papers ¾ full. Bake muffin size cupcakes for 20-25 minutes and small cupcakes for about 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Transfer to wire racks and allow to cool completely.
Icing
Cream butter until pale and smooth. Add the milk and half the sifted icing sugar. Beat until well combined. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat until mixture is light and fluffy. The mixture should be a spreadable paste; if it is too dry add some more milk, if too wet add more icing sugar.
When cakes are cold, spread generously with icing and dip into sprinkles or decorate with small lollies. Happy (cheesy) day!
[...] could also try our Valentine’s vanilla CUPCAKES from last year. [...]