Celebration Cupcakes

If there is one thing I love (besides Interior Design) it's food and to that end, baking is one thing I enjoy. Over the Christmas season I made some amazing 'Celebration' cupcakes and thought being New Years I would share the recipe with you. Being from the Caribbean, Grenada to be exact, I added a few West Indian sweet spices including Nutmeg (our national spice), Pimento, Tankerbean, Sabot, Clove and Mace. Many of these unique spices are unavailable in the shops. 

What I loved about making these was using my mum's 1975 Kenwood mixer which she brought during a visit to the Ideal Home Show back in the 70s and it's still going strong! 

Ingredients:

250 g unsalted butter, softened

250 g caster sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp natural vanilla extract

185 g self-raising flour

60 g plain flour

A dash of Cinnamon

185 ml milk

Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4. Place cupcake cases into a 12-hole 125ml non-stick muffin tray.

Put the butter and sugar in a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until well combined. Sift cinnamon together with flours and fold in while adding the milk. Stir until almost smooth.

Divide the mixture between the cupcake cases then bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to sit for 10 minutes in the tin. Turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool.

Buttercream Icing:

140g/5oz butter, softened

280g/10oz icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

           

Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth. Beat in the milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture.

Add the soft buttercream icing to your piping bag and decorate cool cupcakes.

To add a little essence of celebration I added some coloured polka dot sprinkles (which I purchased from Asda).

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I have.