Cupcakes for all

Everyone loves a cupcake. A miniature cake in your hand. Mess-free and fuss-free. Handy serving portions to easily pass around.  Easy to store and great for picnics too. They can be dressed up for high tea or casually left unadorned for easy outdoor treats. There's a cupcake for any age, for any occasion.

I have a basic cupcake recipe that I manipulate to suit the occasion. Piped, coloured butter icing to top it off creates a pretty finish but isn't absolutely necessary to fully enjoy these flavoursome treats.

I sometimes add cocoa or coconut to this cupcake mixture as well. You could also flavour with orange or lemon zest if desired.

I recently made these blue marbled cupcakes by colouring half the cupcake mixture with blue food colouring and then marbling the two colours together in the cupcake liner. Be imaginative!

Recipe

You will need:


125g margarine (or butter- see comments below)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1.5- 2 cups milk

Icing:
125g butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Beat together the softened margarine and sugar till smooth and creamy. Add the eggs and beat together.
Add the flour, baking powder, vanilla essence and mix together lightly. Gradually add the milk to achieve a dropping consistency.
Place the cupcake liners in a muffin tray. Fill the liners till three-quarter full.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180°C for about 25 minutes till done. A toothpick inserted in the middle of the cupcake should come out clean.

You can enjoy them just as is or ice with butter icing.
To make the icing beat together the softened butter and icing sugar till smooth and creamy. Add vanilla essence. You can adjust the consistency of the cream to make it easier to pipe onto the cupcakes by adding milk.
They're a treat for anytime!