Hello spring!

Hello spring! Hello sunshine! Hello outdoor movies, lazy sunday afternoon beers and hello hayfever. But mostly, hello SPRING RACES! It was simmys birthday, and of course, the ever fabulous ever stylish sim chose a champange breakfast and a day at the races to celebrate her 24th. I volunteered to make her 'cake' - a collection of spring themed cupcakes.

So I whipped out my susannah blake cupcake book, went to coles to buy some ingredients and made a complete mess in mums kitchen cooking 24 cupcakes, and then icing them. Here is my recipe...

Spring Cupcakes (makes 24)
130g butter at room temp (unsalted is best)
130g caster sugar
4 eggs
4 tbsp milk
2 tspn vanilla essence

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line two cupcake tins with cupcake papers.
Beat the butter and sugar together in a bowl until light and fluffy (use electric mixer - gets the best results).
Beat eggs in one at a time.
sift the flour in, and then fold in by hand.
Stir in milk and flavouring to make a creamy, spoonable mix.
Spoon a tablespoon of mix into each cupcake tin - it doesn;t look like much.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean and when the top is pressed lightly it bounces back.
Cool on a wire rack.

Icing + decorations
125g butter at room temperature
1 1/2c icing sugar
2 tbspn milk
vanilla essence to taste
food colouring
1 box of smarties
1 packet of marshmallows
100s and 1000s

Mix butter, icing sugar, milk and essence in a bowl (I use a wooden spoon).
Seperate icing into two-three small bowls and colour as desired.
Cut marshmallows in half.
Spread icing ontop of a cupcake using a knife.
Place a smartie in the middle.
Pinch the ends of a marshmallow to make a petal shape then dip the cut half of a marshmallow into the 100s and 1000s.
Place marshmallows around the smartie to make a flower.

Take to a party and impress all your friends with your amazing cooking skills :)