Baking | Quick and Easy Cupcakes
17:00Recently I have become a little obsessed with baking and have found myself browsing blog's or Pinterest for baking ideas to try out for myself. I'm no where no means a professional or would even consider myself good at baking or cooking. I hated food tech at school and I'm definitely not a domestic godess in the kitchen. But I've found baking even the smallest treats so much fun and can be quite therapeutic! It's given me something to do whilst I'm still looking for a full time job. Also it has given me the opportunity to gain skills, be creative, learn new techniques and improve on mistakes from before, all whilst creating something that not only myself will be able to enjoy at the end of the day, but those close to me also and that gives me a little sense of achievement from!
Therefore, today I thought I would share with you a quick and easy cupcake recipe that I have been using the past month or so. The preparation time is only ten minutes, along with a baking time of 15-20 minutes depending on your oven and only five minutes for decoration. These cupcakes are great to do if you're a beginner like myself or you are wanting too use a plain cupcake base to add flavours or use to then experiment with decoration on the top of the cakes.
You'll need (for 12 cupcakes):
- 125 g self-raising flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 125 g caster sugar
- 125 g soft margarine
- 2 eggs
- Cupcake cases
- Vanilla butter cream style icing (or any type of icing of your choice)
- Multicoloured sugar strands (or any type of decoration of your choice)
- The first thing you need to do is to pre-heat your oven to about 180 degrees celsius.
- Next you want to get out all of the ingredients that you are going to be using, so that you can access them easily and can work methodically without having to worry what you need to get out next. This will save time. Also at this time you can place your cupcake cases into your baking tray.
- Once you have done this, you're going to want to measure out all the ingredients into the correct measurements. For example, weigh out 125 g of self-raising flour and place it into a bowl to use later on. Repeat this step with the other measurements and place each ingredient into separate bowls each time.
- Starting with the flour, you're going to sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Once these two ingredients have been placed into the bowl, you're going to want to add the sugar, margarine and eggs into the bowl. At this stage you may also want to add any of your own flavourings to add something a little extra to the cakes.
- Now you are going to want to mix all of the ingredients you have added together. You can do this manually by either using a wooden spoon or a metal fork. Or if you have an electric whisk, then I would definitely recommend using that for quickness and to ensure you have mixed it properly. The mixture should end up looking smooth and glossy!
- Next you are going to spoon your mixture into 12 cupcake cases onto your cupcake tray. It is essential that you evenly spoon the mix into the cases to make sure that your cakes turn out the same size once baked.
- Finally place them into the oven for around 15/20 minutes, the time they take to bake depends on your oven. So if you're going to set a timer, I would recommend setting it for around 15 minutes and once the time has passed, lightly place a knife into a couple of the cakes to check if they're ready or if they need a while longer. If your knife stays clean and no mixture appears on the object, then it is fine to take the cakes out of the oven! (However if you personally feel like they're not ready and may need a few more minutes, then feel free to put them back into the oven for another few minutes.)
- Once your cakes have finished baking, take them out of the oven and let them cool down for a couple of minutes. You are then going to want to place them onto a cooling tray to let them cool down fully. Once they have cooled down completely, you can then move on to the fun exciting part of icing and decorating the cakes!
- The next step gives you two options of what you might decide to do next. 1) If you fancy having a go at pipping your icing onto your cakes, then you are going to want to grab your piping bag and nozzle. Next spoon the cream icing into the bag and get ready to pipe! It is then up to you what sort of icing you wish to have on your cake. For example, you may decide to do swirls like I have or opt for something of your own creation! 2) On the other hand, you can decide to just spoon your cream icing or whatever icing you have chosen onto the tops of your cupcakes. I would recommend doing this if you've never pipped before and you want to do your icing quickly!
- Finally the last part of your decorating! I have decided to use some multi-coloured sugar strands to add something extra to the cakes! Of course you can chose whatever you want to go on your cakes, whether that is chocolate sprinkles or white shimmer pearls! There's so much you can do!
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