Cupcakes.

Let me start by saying, I freaking LOVE cupcakes. I make them quite often and they're always loved. I wanted to share my recipe and some pictures for anyone else who is as obsessed as I am. I'll also most likely post every time I find a new favourite butter cream recipe or a better way to keep the cakes moist etc.

My 'go to' recipe is;

115g caster sugar

115g butter (room temperature or warmer will make it easier for you)

115g self-raising flour (the last 15g can be made up in cocoa powder if you want)

2 eggs

Any flavouring you like. I often use cinnamon but almond oil, vanilla essence, coffee and such will do. Just remember not to make the mixture too runny, if you add any more than around 10-15ml of liquid add a little more flour. If you add coffee always add a teaspoon of coffee to a small amount of boiling water and add it like that. Coffee granules are not something that add to a cupcake. And if your going to add more cocoa powder, remember that it's very drying, add a drop of milk to compensate.

For simple butter cream use 175g of icing sugar and 85g or butter. Be careful while mixing because icing sugar is prone to flying everywhere over your countertop if you're not careful.

For flavour I recommend using the little bottles from Silver Spoon brand. I often use the lemon and peppermint ones. Though you could also use fruit juices, spices or pretty much anything that takes your fancy. Just make sure to have some extra icing sugar on hand to make sure you can get the right consistency.

I'm going to add a few pictures and descriptions below, I'll start with the oldest picture I have of my cakes then get more recent. Obviously I don't take pictures every time I make them, I'm no hipster.

I made these for my best friend the other year, we were having a gathering of people and what better way to entertain people than with food? The left half are cinnamon cakes with lemon icing and the right are chocolate cakes with peppermint icing with a little green food colouring. The sprinkles are from Sainsburys. (Also you can find her blog at http://kristina-foodporn.blogspot.co.uk/ she's awesome.)

These ones were made with a cream cheese recipe which I have unfortunately misplaced. They did end up a bit too sticky and claggy but the cream cheese icing was lovely. I don't actually own a piping bag so I used a sealable sandwich bad and simply cut a cross in one corner. The pink sprinkles are relatively cheap from Sainsburys.

Chocolate cakes with lemon icing I believe. I'm not particularly fond of the taste of lemon so I think my mum ate most of these.

A gift for my Dad on Fathers Day 2012, chocolate cakes with lightly cinnamon flavoured icing. I used two shades of blue food colouring for the icing and piped it using a sandwich bag again. Classy.

These last two images are of some cakes me and Boyfriend made today. They're chocolate cinnamon cakes with a coffee flavoured butter cream. I used a straw to make a slight hole in the middle and piped some icing into that before adding the swirl decoration to the top. I've never made coffee flavoured icing before and it turned out really tasty but a little too thin. I ran out ot icing sugar so I couldn't thicken it any. They were still tasty anyway.

They're all the images I have so far. When I have a few more saved up I'll do another post. I may also post any other things I make as well. I made a cheesecake for the first time the other day but didn't take a picture (sorry) it ended up a bit wrong but Boyfriend and his parents ate it all anyway. Guess that's good, right?