Cute Easter Cupcakes!

Hey! Happy Easter!

I hope you're having a day full of chocolate, hot cross buns and spring fun!

I love baking all the time, but, there is something special about Easter, Christmas, Halloween etc leaves my inner baker desperate to get out, so what better time to get creative in the kitchen. I don't proclaim to be the best cook in town, but half the fun is in trying out new recipes and different flavours until you get it just right!

So after alot of weighing, sieving and icing, here is my recipe for Easter cupcakes!

To make 12 cupcakes you will need:

• 150g of caster sugar
• 150g of butter (softened)
• 3 large eggs (free range if possible)
• 150g of self raising flour
• a pinch of baking powder
• a drop of vanilla essence (optional)

For the decoration you will need:

• 175g butter (softened)
• 375g icing sugar
• 3 to 4 teaspoons of milk (may need more)
• 2 to 3 teaspoons of vanilla essence (more or less dependant on personal taste)
• Food colouring in Easter colours (I chose yellow but pink would also look great)
• mini eggs/ crumbled flake (both Cadburys) or other decorations of your choice

So, to begin you need to cream the butter and the sugar, until the consistency is light and fluffy. This may take some time and a lot of elbow grease, and don't be afraid to give it some serious whisking! Next, whisk the eggs in a separate cup and add them into the butter and sugar mixture. Last but not least, add the flower, baking powder and vanilla essence. Again elbow grease is required, and once mixed the mixture will initially be quite thick and heavy. When the mixture becomes lighter and more pourable you are ready to bake! Place an equal amount of mixture into twelve cake cases, and bake in the oven at Gas Mark 5/190 C for 18-20 minute or until they are golden brown.

Whilst your cakes are cooking, you can move onto the icing. In another bowl mix the butter, icing sugar and vanilla essence, adding the milk a teaspoon at a time. Having practised this recipe many time, an electric mixer is preferable here, to make the butter icing as light and fluffy as possible. However not to worry if you haven't got one, you will just have to work a lot harder! If the mixture is not very malleable then add another teaspoon of milk. When done, add a drop of your chosen food colouring, and mix by hand until it is the desired colour!

Now the fun part, once your cakes are cooked, and fully cooled (about 15-20 minutes) you can begin decorating them. When icing them you can go free style, however I have recently discovered Asda's Disposable Icing Bags and they have been a life saver! At £2 for 20 you can't go wrong, and they save a lot of time, mess and create the most amazing designs on your cakes! For somebody who is slightly artistically challenged when it comes to free hand decorating, these nifty bags have rejuvenated all manner of cakes, bakes and biscuits!

On top of my cupcakes I decided to place some Cadburys flake, I loved the colour combination and thought it looked quite fancy! However you can decorate with whatever you choose.

Here is a picture of one of my finished products below! Yum!

I love the way the icing looks using this piping nozzle, another cute icing idea, would be to make little sheep! Keep the icing white, and then using some ready to role icing in black and white, make a little face and stick it on the top! I've done this many times before, but decided to keep it simple today! Other ideas include chicks (carrying on with the yellow theme), or maybe bunnys! I'd love to see your creative suggestions, leave links below to what you've baked or show me on twitter with the hashtag #ellaseasterbakes

I also made some with green icing and a mini egg on...here's one below!

I hope this post has inspired you to do some of your own Easter baking, and remember to pop a link in the comments or #ellaseasterbakes on twitter, I'd love to see!

Happy baking, I hope you all have a fantastic Easter time!

Lots of love until next time,

Ella.x