This month's recipe comes courtesy of our friend Alice, who shared these delightful cupcakes over on her Instagram @alicespake this week!
They're the perfect way to get the little ones involved with feeling festive - and of course you get to enjoy them with a cuppa afterwards.
Makes 12-16.
Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
110g butter
110g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
110g self-raising flour
1-2 tbsp milk
For the icing:
150g icing/powdered sugar
75g unsalted butter, diced and softened
1tsp caramel flavouring
To decorate:
Chocolate coated pretzels
Sugar eyes
Red Smarties or M&Ms
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line 2 x 12-hole cupcake tins with paper cases.
- Combine all your wet ingredients in a bowl by creaming the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale. Then, beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.
- Once the wet mixture is done, gently fold in the flour using a large metal spoon. Add a little milk until the mixture is a soft dropping consistency and spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full. Careful not to over-fill them, or you'll end up with overflowing cupcakes!
- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack.
- To make the icing, slowly add the icing sugar a few spoonfuls at a time to the softened butter and caramel flavouring and stir thoroughly. I recommend using an electric beater for this, but it can be done with a metal spoon. Mix until all of the sugar is used, and you should be able to make peaks with your icing that hold. If the mixture is too dry to spread easily, add a tea spoon of milk. If the mixture is too wet, then keep adding icing sugar a tablespoon at a time until it is perfect.
- Once the cupcakes have cooled, spread a layer of buttercream icing on to each.
- Break your pretzels in half and stick them in the top of the cupcake to become antlers, followed by two sugar eyes and a red nose.
- Enjoy!
Do your Christmas baking in style
