Up Your Cupcake Game!

Cupcakes are an integral part of everybody's lives (or if they're not they really should be). But how can you make yours really shine? By using these tips of course!

1. Make them from scratch

tastycupcakerecipes.com

I know that it's really tempting to make cupcakes from a packet, but they really just don't taste the same. And what's the point when there are so many easy cupcake recipes out there? To start, you can just use the 2, 4, 6, 8 recipe. Preheat the oven to 180°C, and mix together 4 ounces butter and 6 ounces sugar. Add 2 eggs and mix, before adding 8 ounces of self-raising flour and 1/4 cup of milk and mixing again. Then spoon it into cupcake pans and bake for 20 minutes or until golden on top and cooked. Easy peasy!

2. Mix it up!

cupcakes-plain-and-fancy.com

Once you've mastered the 2,4,6,8 recipe, why don't you try the chocolate version? Simply add 1/2 a cup of cocoa at the same time as the flour and change the amount of milk to 1/2 cup. Then you can mix up the type of sugar ( brown sugar gives a more caramelly flavour. Caramelly is a word), flour (whole meal flour is healthier and give a bit more texture which is delicious in chocolate cupcakes. Just make sure to add 4 teaspoons of baking powder).

3. Stuff 'em

aspoonfulofnom.weebly.com

Putting something in the middle of a cupcake makes a nice surprise! My favourite fillings are cookie dough and caramel, but even Nutella or M&Ms work well. Find ideas and instructions here and here

4. Delicious icing

wickedgoodkitchen.com

Icing (frosting) is the easiest thing to make. Simply mix 2 parts icing sugar and 1 part butter. If you are having trouble mixing add a couple of drops of boiling water. From there the possibilities are endless! Add cocoa for chocolate icing, or some malted milk powder for malt icing. Further possibilities can be found here (look at the buttercream recipes)

5. Pipe your icing

encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com

Piping is intimidating, I understand, but it truly looks so much prettier and it's easier than it looks! Here are some tips to get you started.

6. And the cherry on top!

static.squarespace.com

Putting something on top of your cupcake make it look way more professional. Even if you just buy a packet of Maltesers and put one on top of each cupcake. If you have some more time, there a few ideas here and here !

Have fun!