Pretty in pink..

Saturday 2 November 2013


Baking is one of those things that, I absolutely love doing, yet am probably not that great at!
Inspired by the great British bake off, and now having a week off (kinda) for half term, I raided my mum's cupboards, had a scout online and made some pretty little cupcakes!
I thought I'd show you how I made them, as they got quite a few likes on instagram! (holljc)
The original recipe is from (here). However I decided to add a few more steps in, and experiment! Which in all honesty could have gone completely wrong, I'm still kinda unsure how it didn't tbh!
But I'll stop rambling and show you guys how to make the little cuties you see above!
This also includes the steps on how to make the buttercream icing too, but if you already have that then you can skip those steps if you want!

You will need;
For the cakes:
110g/4oz of butter or margarine (softened at room temp)
110g/4oz of caster sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla extract (you can add more if you think you need it!)
110g/4oz self-raising flour
1-2 tbsp of milk
Chocolate chips (I used white chocolate)
Food colouring
For the buttercream icing:
140g/5oz of butter (softened at room temp)
280g/10oz of icing sugar
1-2 tbsp of milk
Food colouring

You may want to weigh out all your ingredients before starting, I did it as I went along, but do whatever is easiest for you.

Here we go! 
1.Pick an appropriate sound track! (Michael Bubble's Christmas CD was mine)
2.Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4


3.Put your butter and caster sugar into a large bowl and cream until pale, or for those who like me got confused as to what, creaming, was. Stir with a wooden spoon until it looks something like the left picture below.

4.Add/beat in the eggs, a little at a time. Then stir in the vanilla extract (if you want more than 1 teaspoon than go ahead!)
5.Fold in the flour, adding the milk when needed. Until it is of a 'dropping consistency'(?) (The picture below demonstrates it better than that silly phrase!)


This is the point where I started to add in my own steps and experiment a little! 
6. Add a few drops of food colouring to your mix, add as much as you want! I wanted a light pink colour (as shown below) however didn't add enough colouring, so you may need to add more than you think!


7. Stir in your chocolate chips. I originally used a handful, then added more as stirred them in.
8. Put your cake cases into your cake tin/tray


9.Spoon the mixture into the cake cases until they are half full, or you have used up all of the mixture. I have a funny feeling I could've filled mine a little bit too full!


10.Put in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until they're golden brown on top, and a skewer/cocktail stick is put into one of them and comes out clean!
11. Once done, take out, and leave to cool!


12. Whilst they are cooling; wash the dishes, make yourself a brew and start on the buttercream icing!
Buttercream icing;
13. Put the butter into a bowl, and beat until soft and creamy.
14. Add half of the icing sugar, and beat/stir until smooth.
15.Add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of milk, adding more milk as and when necessary, until the mixture is smooth, creamy and buttercream like!
16. Add the food colouring, and stir!


17. Use the buttercream and any decorations you have, to decorate your cupcakes and make them look pretty! (make sure they're cool before adding the buttercream)

There you have it ladies and gents!
I hope you enjoyed this, and let me know if you try it out yourself! Tweet me (Holl_JC) or instagram me (holljc) if you do!
Oh and please don't make the mistake I did, and drop your phone in the butter and sugar! Although I have a sneaking suspicion only I could do that!

Love and cuddles
God bless