spring cupcakes

For these cupcakes, I used a very simple cupcake recipe and just had fun decorating them.

The lamb is my favourite...

Vanilla Cupcakes
adapted from Nigella Lawson, makes 12 cupcakes

1/2 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
*1/2 cup flour
*3/4 tsp baking powder
*1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
2-3 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put paper liners into 12 muffin cups.

Put all the ingredients except the milk into a food processor. Process until well blended. Add the milk, a tablespoon at a time, until you have a smooth batter.

Divide the batter equally between the paper-lined muffin cups. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a cupcake comes out clean.

*You can substitute 1/2 cup self-rising flour for the all purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. It makes the recipe even simpler.


Buttercream Frosting
makes enough for 12 cupcakes

1/4 cup softened unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tsp milk

food colouring (optional)

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Tint with food colouring if desired.

Decoration ideas!

A Google search will turn up plenty of fun ideas for decorating cupcakes. I went with these:

Lambs/sheep: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Cut a handful of mini marshmallows in half (or leave whole, for "fluffier" lambs). Press the marshmallows into the frosting to adhere. For the faces, I flattened a large black gumdrop with the palm of my hand and used a toothpick to make nostrils. The candy eyes were purchased. For the ears and tail, I used black licorice Goodies. Little pieces of black string licorice would work too.

Easter eggs in the grass: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Make the "grass" with tinted coconut by putting a cup of coconut and 2-3 drops of green food colouring into a small plastic Ziploc bag. Shake and rub the contents until evenly tinted. Nestle 3 candy coated mini eggs into the frosting, and then sprinkle the coconut over the frosting, pressing lightly to help it stick.

Baby Chick: Frost the cupcakes with vanilla buttercream. Pour yellow sprinkles into a small bowl. Press the frosted cupcake into the sprinkles, turning a little from left to right to make sure the whole cupcake top gets coated. I sort of rolled the edges around in the sprinkles while I was pressing them to make sure they got a solid yellow coating. Then use what you like to make the faces: I used black licorice Goodies, cut in half, to make eyes. For the beak, I cut some triangular shapes from orange gumdrops.