Lucky Charm Mini Cupcakes

I got VERY excited courtesy of pinterest and cutestfood.com (Seriously, check it out you will pin EVERYTHING!). I found these babies and was desperate to make them, well something like them at least. Being in the UK, Lucky Charms cereal is difficult, not to mention expensive to come by. Lucky for me my lovely boyfriend spoils me and had bought me some already... As well as a mini cupcake tin and the cases for my birthday! My photography presentation for food isn't quite professional yet...

To make the Lucky Charm Mini Cupcakes:

Ingredients

2 cups Self Raising flour, sifted

3/4 cup Milk

3/4 cup Caster Sugar

125g Butter, melted

2 Eggs, whisked

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Icing

75g Butter

3/4 cup Icing sugar

Green food colouring

1/4 cup Milk

2 cups Lucky Charms

Makes
About 48

Cupcake Preparation

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees centigrade. Whisk the butter and sugar together until creamy. Add eggs, milk, 1 cup of flour and mix till smooth with a wooden spoon. Fold in the last cup of flour and teaspoon of baking powder with a metal spoon. Spoon about one heaped teaspoon into each mini cupcake case lined in a mini cupcake baking tray. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 minutes in the tray then 20 minutes on a wire rack before icing. Note: The cupcakes will be pale because of the milk.

Icing:Add the green food colouring and butter to the icing sugar and mix gently with a fork. Combine until the mixture resembles little green beads (this will be of different green tones if done right but not essential) then add the milk and mix with a metal spoon to make it icing, with the tiny dark green beads of sugar!


Top the cooled cupcakes with the icing and dip in Lucky Charms.

I made some large cupcakes too as my mini cupcake dish makes 12 at a time and I am impatient...

Alternatively arrange the Lucky Charms as you wish to get the prettiest look.

Lucky Baking! 

National Cupcake Week!

SO EXCITED!

If only I had known about NCCW 2 days ago I would have much more to share. Ever feel like you are the last to know about something?

I was dithering around deciding what cupcakes to make, checking what ingredients I had, opening the fridge, checking the cupboards, pulling everything out, putting it all away again, scouring recipe books, applications and the internet. Eventually I gave in and went with the old 6,6,6,3 tried and tested.

For those of you who weren't taught to bake by a haphazard mother who goes on texture, desired thickness and eye more than actual measurements; 6,6,6,3 is your simple, stand by cake recipe to stop it all going wrong.

Equal Measures in Ounces (oz) of Butter, Self Raising Flour and Caster Sugar. Then half the generic oz measurement used for each ingredient above to give you the amount of eggs needed to bind.

In my case 6oz Butter, 6oz SR Flour, 6oz Caster Sugar and 3 Eggs.

I once made this cake mix in a blender. As long as you fold the last 1/4 of the flour (sieved) gently into the batter mix at the end it rises perfectly.

I made chocolate cupcakes...by chucking out a small amount of flour and replacing it with cocoa powder... Baking by eye again, that old chestnut. It was probably about a table spoon each way. I LOVE chocolate cakes so I don't scrimp.

Then the usual faff - oven temperature 180C or gas mark 4, about 20 minutes.

Then some icing -

1 cup of double cream, whipped. Add 1 cup of icing sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence. Dollop on said cupcakes, add grated chocolate and the last of the summer strawberries.

Last note. The pretty coloured cases are silicone, and somehow the cakes stay fresher longer when baked in these...Hopefully I will have one last installment before NCCW and summer are officially over! Autumn begins on 23rd September. Excited!