It's was my godson Xavy's fourth birthday and I made some cupcakes for his party. Xavy is a twin, the younger twin born minutes after his brother Alexandro. They are so cute! I don't know why, but I'm one of the very few who can tell them apart. Some say my powers of perceptiveness are exceptional seeing as I only see them once a year. And even then, they we're more interested in the balloon art being created by a very talented balloon artist (I'm thinking of using him myself for one of my parties).
Birthday Cupcakes
from Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess"
I used candies found at the grocery to decorate these cupcakes, for a girls birthday party you could use mini marshmallows and color the icing in pastels. For adults, leave the icing white and decorate with a single sugar flower. The possibilities are endless, but a good rule of thumb would be to use decor with some height for these almost flat tops.
1 stick butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-3 tablespoons milk
2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons water or milk
assorted candies
12 cupcake papers
Preheat oven to 200 C.
Place the butter, sugar, eggs, flour, baking powder, salt and vanilla in a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while pouring milk down the chute. Spoon batter evenly into cupcake cases placed in muffin pans. Bake for 15-20 minutes.
Make the icing by stirring the icing sugar and water until smooth. Divide icing and color each with 1-3 drops of your choice of food colorings (I used blue, green and violet). Decorate tops with candy.
