A little bit of weekend baking led to these cupcakes, which I baked for my (soon-to-be) in laws, which my fiance took to their house last weekend. These are great for an afternoon tea, taking to the office or just for a children’s birthday party 🙂

I made Vanilla Cupcakes from Taste.com.au, a recipe that I am loving soo much right now. I frosted them with cream cheese frosting from Glorious Treats which is quickly becoming a staple frosting for my baking. To finish, I added some chocolate sprinkles and half a strawberry. Simple and yummy 🙂

Vanilla Cupcakes (adapted) from Taste.com.au Makes 24-30 cupcakes
200 g butter, left out to soften (or zapped with the microwave – just be careful not to melt it like i did!!.. then you have to start over :(:()
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 good slosh of vanilla essence
4 eggs, room temperature
2 + 3/4 cups of self raising flour
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 180. I usually turn it up higher to heat it faster, but bake at about 160.
Cream butter and sugar with the vanilla essence. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Switch to wooden spoon and add milk and flour in alternating batches. Using two tablespoons, spoon batter into a muffin tray lined with cupcake liners. Turn oven to 160 and bake cupcakes for about 15-20 minutes until they spring back lightly when touched in the centre. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting (sometimes to speed this up I stick them in the freezer for about 20 minutes.)

Cream Cheese Frosting (adapted) from Glorious Treats – loving this blog at the moment!
1/2 a cup of softened butter
1 cup of softened cream cheese (I use the Coles low fat version that comes in the round plastic containers – I just use the whole thing). To soften, chop into chunks and microwave for about 10 sec on high.
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3-4 cups icing sugar
(optional) 1-2 T cream or milk

Beat together butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer until fully combined. Slowly add sifted powdered sugar cup by cup. I tend to just use a bit less sugar so that the frosting is less stiff generally, but you can experiment by adding the full four cups and adding cream / milk to adjust the frosting consistency – I find this is something you can be fairly relaxed about and just adjust it until you get what is perfect for you 🙂

Assembly:
Insert large star tip into a pastry bag and fill with frosting. Pipe frosting in a circular motion starting in the centre of the cupcakes and moving outwards until you have piped to the end of the cupcake. Sprinkle with chocolate sprinkles and pop on a halved strawberry (I like to leave the leaves on for a bit of added colour but you can remove those if you like.) Voila! 🙂

Enjoy
xx
Christine