Cupcakes!

I am a big fan of baking. I find it relaxing and fun, especially when you're baking with 2 kids. I'm a nanny, if i haven't already mentioned that, and each Friday we pick a recipe and bake! We make a nice big mess, we do tons of mixing, and we each take turns in liking the bowls and spoons and various other implements. This week was cupcakes. Vanilla for Bella and i, and chocolate for Ben.

Here's the recipe:

120g Butter

2/3 cup caster sugar (i used brown as i prefer the flavour)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs (around 59g if you can)

1 + 1/4 cups self raising flour

1/2 cup milk

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees.

Cream butter and sugar until a pale smooth consistency. Add vanilla extract and eggs one by one. When eggs are incorporated sift in flour and add milk. At this point i halved the mixture and added 2 tsps of cocoa powder to one bowl to make delicious chocolate cupcakes. I suspect melted chocolate would work even better. Stir until mixture is smooth and no longer lumpy. Spoon into cupcake tins, mixture should make 12 medium sized cupcakes.

Allow cupcakes to cool before putting icing on them. Use any icing recipe you enjoy, personally i like to add a tiny bit of melted butter to mine as it adds to the flavour and also gives the icing a nice texture and glossy finish. Decorate with cachous, sprinkles, icing pens or any other edible treats you enjoy. And voilà!

Sadly i did not get a chance to photograph the fantastic Halloween cookies i baked with the kids. I cut out all the shapes by hand, we had a witches face, a ghost, a broomstick, a few signs, some pumpkin faces, some cute little BOO, AHH and EEK cookies, and a Frankenstein monster. I will post the recipe another time as it was actually quite tasty. Also, keep a look out for a Halloween post, it will be up sometime this week. For now you can look at lovely Ellen's Halloween update (i am a kitty!!! and she is a sexy Vampire).

Petunia

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