Retro cupcakes

These little cakes are perfect for any birthday or tea party. They also make a brilliant present. The recipe below makes around 28 small cakes but it is easily doubled. You can also add cocoa, lemon juice or coffee to put a twist on the flavour.

Ingredients for the sponges:

150g caster sugar

150g butter

2 medium eggs

150g self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Cream the butter and sugar.

3. Then add the eggs, flour and vanilla essence.

4. Mix until smooth then separate into cupcake cases and bake for 15 mins.

5. To decorate you can either make the classic water icing (in picture) - mix icing sugar with small amounts of water until you get a thick flowing consistency, or butter cream - recipe below:

Ingredients for the buttercream:

140g butter, softened

280g icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

Method

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft.

2. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

3. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth.

4. Beat in the milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture.