Cupcakes for Mum

I always think its nice to have a homemade gift on Mothers Day. Don’t get me wrong I love the goodies from my favourite shops Cath Kidston and Joules but those cute homemade cards from school or a clay pot with glitter on melts my heart. This year I will be helping my two make some very special cupcakes for their Nanny’s.

We made tiny cupcakes and they are the perfect bite size piece of cake. I always use my Nan’s sponge recipe; which is basically 2oz of everything per egg you use. For me it never fails!

For 24 mini cakes you will need:

2oz soft butter

2oz caster sugar (I had run out of this so I just used normal sugar!!)

1 medium size egg

2oz self raising flour

1teaspoon vanilla extract

I basically just put all the ingredients in the mixer in the order they are listed and give it a blast between each new ingredient goes in. It really is super simple.

I then put a teaspoon of the cake batter into each cupcake case; I got my cases from John Lewis but they sell them in lots of shops and online.

They take about 5 to 8 minutes to cook at 180 degrees depending on your oven. Mine is a fan oven and they are closer to 5 minutes. I would stay close to the oven (think GBBO when everyone is sitting on the floor in front of their ovens!!!).

Once they are out leave to cool and then you can do the best part… Decorating!

For the decorating I used;

A tub of Vanilla Butter icing brought from Tesco (You could make your own but I was going for speed!)

White fondant icing

Wilton Food colouring paste (Violet and Red)

A selection of cookie cutters

A selection of sprinkles, sweets and decorations I found at Sainsbury’s (They always have a good range)

I used a toothpick to add a bit of food colouring to the fondant and then just rolled it about until it was the colour I wanted (you can add more food colouring if you need too). This was a messy job but the colours did look lovely. I then rolled out the fondant and cut the shapes I fancied using the cookie cutters.

Next I filled the icing bag with the butter icing and piped the cakes using a large open star nozzle. I love a great big blob on the top!! I added the fondant decorations, sprinkles and some little butterflies I brought.

For R and H I always give them a little plate with a small selection of things to decorate their cakes with. I find this keeps them happy while I perfect my own cupcakes. H does usually eat more than he puts on his cakes but that’s part of the fun!!

I think we will make some little baskets to put our cakes in and wrap them up in cellophane to make truly special gifts for two very special Nan’s. Watch our Instagram page for an update of this!