Cupcakes

With Tobey's 1st birthday party looming nearer, I've decided to learn to make some simple cupcakes, in hope that I can actually make some edible and presentable ones for the party itself.

"Splurged"(hehe...credit crunch time OK) or invested in several key items, like a good muffin pan £2.25 and the real Vanilla Extract that cost me £4.25! Vanilla "flavour" only cost 40p, but I believe in having one luxurious ingredient to lift the taste. These items can be used more than several times, so it was worth it.

Used this recipe for the cakes. It turned out quite lovely. Sk liked it. As to keep to the credit crunch spirit, I've decided to make my own butter icing (edible by baby, rather than the raw egg white icing ). Basically just beating butter and icing sugar with a few drops of vanilla extract and some water to reach piping consistency. A few drops of those food colouring goes a loooong way.

Here's the end result

Cost: less than 20p each in total
Best part: I've enjoyed the whole 1 hour process other than the...
Worst part: Washing up
What I've learned: I am crap at icing piping
What I would do differently for the party: is to not pipe too much butter icing onto one cupcake (to avoid overdosing Tobey's guests with sugar) and also make fresh cream icing as well for the sake of variety (if time permits of course).