Cooking Blog • Valentine's Day Cupcakes

Ingredients

• 325g butter (125g for batter, 200g for icing)
• 125g granulated suger
• 125g self raising flour
• 2 tabelspoons milk
• 2 eggs
• 200g Icing sugar
• Mini marshmallows (or normal marshmallows cut into halves)

Preparation Instructions 
Before you start making your cupcakes, preheat your oven to 170 degrees. Also, take a baking tin and fill each socket with a cupcake case, ready for when you need it. Make sure your butter is melted, so it's easier to stir into the batter and icing, by heating it in the microwave for 30 seconds. To make the process faster, measure all your ingredients correctly before hand so you bake with ease!

Instructions 

To begin we are going to start with the batter, so add 125g of the pre-melted butter to a large bowl. Next add the sugar a little at time. Make sure the butter and sugar and mixed together well so they look fluffy, before moving on. To follow, add the eggs one by one mixing each one in well before adding the next one. After that, add the flour little by little mixing it well using a whisk or if possible an electric mixer. Lastly, add the milk a bit at a time beating it into the batter. Once all the ingredients are together mix the batter until it's smooth and fluffy!

Once your batter is complete, it's time to get your ready organised cupcake cases. Using two spoons, fill each case a third of the way, leaving space for a marshmallow and another layer of batter. Once you have finished, place the marshmallow to the middle batter in the cupcake case. Now all the cases have marshmallows, grab your two spoons and place batter over the top of the marshmallow, so they are hidden.

Put your tray with the cupcakes into the preheated oven for twenty minutes at 170 degrees. After twenty minutes have passed, pierce a cupcake with a toothpick to see if the cupcake is fully cooked. If your toothpick comes out wet, your cupcakes still need a little time, if the toothpick comes out dry, your cupcakes are ready! Note: while your cupcakes are cooking, the marshmallows might rise so they are visible. This is normal, so there is no need to worry!

While your cupcakes are in the oven, you can make your decorative icing! To do so, first place the rest of your pre-melted butter in a bowl. Gradually, while stirring, add your powder sugar to the butter. Mixed these together until you are left with a smooth and delicious smelling icing butter!

When your cupcakes are ready, take them out of the oven with a pair off oven gloves because they will be very hot! Leave them to cool in the baking tin for a minute as they will be to hot to handle. Once they are cool enough to touch take each cupcake case and place them on a cooling rack to cool further.

Once the cupcakes are cool, you can decorate your cupcakes with the icing! You can do this in a number of different ways, one of which is taking a generous amount of icing and smoothing it onto the top of the cupcake using a spoon. If you have an icing tube however, you can make your cupcakes look very professional. When I decorated the cupcakes I made them Valentine's Day styled and added little pink and purple hearts to top of the icing for even more decoration. Decorating is personal so do whatever you think will look great!