Star Cupcakes!

I've been baking again now I have some free time ! They were so easy and simple to make and the recipe was by far the best cupcake recipe I have found:

Ingredients:

• 100g butter or margarine
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g self raising flour
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/Gas 4. Line a muffin tin with paper cases.
2. Mix all the ingredients together into a smooth, even batter.
3. Divide the mixture between the cake cases, filling each one to about 2/3 full.
4. Bake for 25 minutes or until golden and firm to the touch.
5. Cool on a wire rack before icing.

The decoration of the cakes was so easy !  I bought so ready to roll white icing from my local ASDA, so you could find it in any supermarket. I also bought some lilac ready to roll icing from my local cake craft shop, you may also need some pink and blue food colouring.
1) Spread a thin layer of jam on the top of your cupcake to act as a glue for the icing,
2) Roll the icing out on a surface sprinkled lightly with icing sugar to stop it from sticking to the surface. Roll it until about 0.3cm thickness
3) Using a cookie cutter around the same size as the top of the cupcake and smooth it over with your fingers until no cake can be seen
4) Add food colouring to a section of the ready to roll icing and mix well until the whole icing is the same colour to limit marbling.
5) When the icing is at 0.3cm thickness using a small cookie cutter of any shape you wish
6) Repeat cutting these shapes out and spreading a tiny bit of jam on the back again to act as a glue, and place them randomly on top of the cake

They taste exactly like birthday cake! It's great, and they look very pretty as well, they're also practise for if you want to make a larger fondant iced cake as they use the same techniques. You can buy cookie cutters off eBay or amazon in various different shapes and sizes to perfect the design on your cake.