Vanilla Cupcakes with Sprinkles

We were at Brands Hatch on Sunday at the first round of Touring Cars. It was a brilliant day and I made some vanilla cupcakes to take along 🙂

You will need:

> 2 x 12 hole cupcake trays
> Piping bag and wide star nozzle (optional)

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Ingredients:

> 200g plain flour
> 2 tsp baking powder
> 200g caster sugar
> 1/2 tsp salt
> 100g butter/stork (whichever you prefer)
> 3 eggs
> 150ml milk
> 1tsp vanilla extract

For the icing:

> 400g icing sugar
> 2tsp vanilla extract
> 200g butter (you can use margarine, but I find proper butter sets better when used as a buttercream)
> Sugar sprinkles (if you want, or any other decoration)
> Food colouring (optional)

> Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and line the cupcake trays. I managed to get 18 out of this batter.
> Basically this is an all on one mixture, I sifted the sugar and flour, but apart from that I just put everything in the bowl.
> Using a hand mixer beat together until well incorporated and light and fluffy. Usually you can see the mixture is lighter than the unmixed batter around the top of the bowl.
> Fill the cupcake cases to about half full, I find an ice cream scoop is wonderful for making sure you get an even amount in each case.
> Bake in the oven for around 20-25 minutes or until springy, but firm to touch and golden brown.
> Leave the cupcakes to cool completely.
> Put the icing sugar, vanilla extract and softened butter in a bowl and beat together with the hand mixer until light and fluffy.
> I chose pink, yellow and blue so I divided the icing into three bowls and added the colouring slowly until I got the colour I wanted.
> I piped my cupcakes, but you can use a spoon or spatula if you want. In that case you’ll probably need about half the amount of icing.
> Once piped, I put sugar sprinkles on and serve 🙂