Yesterday I decided to bake cupcakes. I had some time before going to my friend Claire’s flat so I quickly put them together. I went for 3 different flavours all with vanilla sponge - plain frosting, chocolate frosting, and a swirl of nutella.

To make the sponge I followed Nigella’s recipe, with minor changes:

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g soft unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• Half a teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

In a bowl, cream together the sugar and butter (I melted half to make it easier). Add the vanilla extract and mix the eggs in one at a time. Then add the flour, a bit at a time, until there’s no lumps and add the milk if needed until it becomes a soft, dropping consistency. Finally spoon the mixture in to the cases so they are all roughly even.

For the nutella cupcakes, at this stage I swirled in a spoonful of nutella in to the top of 4 cupcakes.

Then place in to the oven for 15-20mins until golden. Mmm I love the smell that comes out of the kitchen during this part!

For the buttercream frostings, I put around 100g softened butter in a bowl and added icing sugar bit by bit until I was happy with the texture and taste. Make sure the butter is soft as it aches your arm if it’s not! I usually leave the oven door open after baking the cakes and it helps soften it up nicely. I spreaded half of the frosting on to 4 cupcakes, and the rest I mixed with cocoa powder to make 4 chocolate cupcakes. Then decorate with whatever sprinkles you have - I used gold stars and purple shimmer sugar.

Delicious! I think I’ll try doing 3 different types each time I bake them so I can try out lots of new flavours.

S. xo