Think Pink Cupcakes

Today's recipe is brought to you by the elder darling daughter. She decided to whip up a batch of cupcakes to take to school as part of an extension project she is doing. I take complete pleasure in seeing my children cooking (apart from when they wander off and leave the kitchen looking like it has just been ransacked by feral animals after a sugar fix). Without being too sentimental, it makes me feel that I have actually passed on a skill to them that will be useful for their whole lives and that they will hopefully pass on too. And making cupcakes or biscuits is very satisfying to kids because generally it is pretty quick and the results are so pretty. (She took the picture too!)

These cupcakes were made almost entirely without my assistance - this is a great recipe for kids to attempt single handed. Everything goes into the mixer bowl together for the cake, so there is no tricky procedure to follow. The only slightly delicate step is tinting the icing, but really, if the kids were heavy-handed and you wound up with shocking pink icing, that would be fine too. The recipe comes from a gorgeous book called "500 Cupcakes" by Fergal Connelly, which is a really delightful book to thumb through - the pictures and ideas are wonderful.

Think Pink Cupcakes

adapted from "500 Cupcakes" by Fergal Connelly

225g unsalted butter, softened

225g caster sugar

225g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 egs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Icing:

375g icing sugar, sifted

225g unsalted butter, softened

Pinch of salt

Pink food colouring

Silver balls

Preheat the oven to 175C. Line cupcake tins with 18 baking cases. Combine all cake ingredients in a large bowl and beat until smooth and pale, 2-3 mins. Spoon the batter into the cases. Bake for 20 mins. Remove from the oven and cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then remove and cool on a wire rack.

To make the icing, cream the sugar, butter and salt with the whisk attachment in a mixer until smooth. Add a few drops of colouring, mix well and continue until you are happy with the colour of the icing. Pipe the icing onto the cakes and sprinkle with silver balls.