Name: Celebration cupcakes
Prep time: 2 h 30 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 3 h
Yield: Makes 24
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 3 large eggs; 200g natural yogurt; 2 tsp vanilla extract; 250g caster sugar; 280g self-raising flour; 140g ground almond; 250g pack butter softened; 250g pack butter softened; 300g icing sugar sifted, plus extra for rolling; 500g pack ready-to-roll icing for the tops; few different food colourings; extra icing and decorations of your choice (see method section for ideas)

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Celebration cupcakes

Celebration cupcakes

Good Food team

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Makes 24

More effort

Prep: 2 hrs and 30 mins

Cook: 25 mins - 30 mins

A star rating of 4.5 out of 5.4 ratingsRate

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Make these individual party sponges ahead then follow our suggestions for decorating and icing

Freezable (Freeze un-iced)

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Ingredients

Nutrition

Units:

MetricUS

3 large eggs
200g natural yogurt
2 tsp vanilla extract
250g caster sugar
280g self-raising flour
140g ground almond
250g pack butter

softened

To decorate

250g pack butter

softened
300g icing sugar

sifted, plus extra for rolling
500g pack ready-to-roll icing

for the tops
few different food colourings
extra icing

and decorations of your choice (see method section for ideas)

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Nutrition: per serving

kcal408
fat22g
saturates12g
carbs49g
sugars42g
fibre1g
protein4g
salt0.5g

low

Method

step 1

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Line 2 x 12-hole muffin tins with paper cases. Put the eggs, yogurt, vanilla, sugar, flour, almonds and butter in your largest mixing bowl and beat until smooth and lump-free. Divide between the paper cases and bake for 25-30 mins (swapping the trays after 15 mins if you have to use 2 shelves) until a skewer poked into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. They can be frozen for up to 1 month or kept in an airtight container overnight.
step 2

To decorate, beat the butter and icing sugar together until smooth and light. Use a teaspoon to spoon a heaped dollop into the centre of each cake or, for speed, spoon into a food bag, cut about 2cm off the corner and pipe a dollop onto each.
step 3

Divide the icing into as many colours as you want – plus a piece left to be white, or to brush with glitter, if you like. Knead a little colouring into each piece until you have a good colour, then roll out onto a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Use a 6.5cm fluted cutter to stamp out rounds and press down onto the icing to flatten it a bit. Repeat with the other colours to cover all the cakes. Now decorate as you wish, or see our ideas, below.

RECIPE TIPS

PRETTY ROSE CAKE DECORATION

Colour a small lump of icing pink. Pinch off small marble-size chunks. Roll into thin-ish sausages. Flatten sausages between your fingers, then from one end, roll up like a wonky Swiss roll, pinching one side tighter, while the other stays more open to be the rose top. Use small scissors to trim bottom for a good base, then stick to cake with buttercream. Pinch chunks of another colour into fat diamonds for leaves, use a knife to mark line down the centre of each. Add to cakes with buttercream.

PEARLY HEART CAKE DECORATION

Spread a thin layer of buttercream over icing hearts. Tip some edible pearls into a small saucer, then dip in the hearts, icing-side down, to cover in pearls. Stick onto cakes with more buttercream.

HIP-HIP-HOORAY CAKE DECORATION

Colour a little more ready-to-roll icing with different colours, and again roll out on an icing sugar-dusted surface. Stamp out circles using a 4cm fluted cutter and letters using alphabet cutters – make sure you use colours that will show up against each other. Dab a little leftover buttercream on the bottom of each letter, stick onto a circle, then dab more buttercream under the circle and stick on top of a cake.

SPARKLE CROWN CAKE DECORATION

Roll out a small amount of white ready-to-roll icing and brush with silver edible glitter or lustre. Using a mini crown cutter, stamp out shapes. Decorate with small gold star sprinkles – if you have a small paintbrush, use it to dab a little leftover buttercream on the back of the stars to stick onto the crowns. Use a little more buttercream to stick the crowns on top of the cakes.

BUYING DECORATIONS

To decorate these cakes we recommend: coloured cupcake cases, edible pearls and silver glitter, gold star sprinkles, mini crown cookie cutters, 2.5cm alphabet cookie cutters, edible sugar diamonds, food colouring pastes, heart cake toppers and edible gold spray.

Recipe from Good Food magazine, June 2012

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A star rating of 4.5 out of 5.4 ratings

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