Quick and Easy cupcakes

Hello, Im back with another blog post after so long.

  So at the weekend Me and my friend made some cupcakes and I thought I would share with you how we made them, seeing as they're so easy. We put a little twist on the original recipe and added hundreds and thousands.

Equipment you will need:

Large Mixing bowl
Wooden spoon

 A whisk (Optional)

A sieve

Scales 

Cupcake tin

Cupcake cases
oven gloves
teaspoon
tablespoon 

Ingredients you will need:
175g (6oz)  Unsalted butter, softened 
175 (6oz) Golden caster sugar
3 Large eggs, beaten
175g (6oz) self-raising flour
2 tbsp milk
2 drops vanilla extract 
Hundreds and thousands 
Malteasers/Mini Eggs/Smarties

For the Icing you will need:
55g (2oz) Butter, softened
55g (2oz) icing sugar, sifted
1 to 2 drops Vanilla 
2 desert spoons high quality cocoa powder


Okay so on with the recipe :) 


Step 1:  place your cupcake cases into the cupcake tins and then pre-heat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4

Step 2: Place sugar and butter into a large bowl and beat together until pale and fluffy

Step 3: Beat eggs well in a separate bowl, then add the beaten eggs, a little at a time, beating well in between, into the butter and sugar mixture

Step 3: Sieve the flour and then mix. (It says to use a metal spoon but I normally just use the whisk, make sure the flour doesn't go everywhere) Then add the milk and and vanilla extract and continue mixing until the mixture softens enough to drop easily from the spoon.

Step 4: Add the hundreds and thousands to the mixture and mix with a spoon. Then spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases using a teaspoon and fill the cases three-quarters of the way up (Also make sure they're roughly all the same size)

Step 5: Place into the oven for 15-20 minutes until risen and golden. They should also feel springy to touch. A trick to check that they're cooked all the way through is to poke a skewer into the middle of all the cakes, if it comes out clean then the cakes  are done! 

Step 6: Get the cup cakes out of the tin and place on a wire mat and leave to cool. Whilst you do this you can make the butter icing. 

Step 7: Put the butter and sieve ice sugar into a bowl and mix until creamy (Be careful because the second you start whisking the icing sugar creates a cloud and goes everywhere. This normally happens to me because I use an electric whisk) 
Once the butter and icing sugar are mixed together sieve your cocoa powder and vanilla extract and mix once more until smooth.

If you try it and it doesn't taste quite how you like it, just add a bit more, depending on what you think needs to be added. 

Step 8: Ice your cakes and put the sweets of your choice on top (make sure they've completely cooled down because other wise the butter icing melts.) 

Step 9: ENJOY EATING!!!  


I hope you enjoy baking these cupcakes and more eating them! 

Thank you for reading.

Immy xx

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2015

2015

We're now a month into 2015 and for me, so far, it has been great. 

I have performed in my first pantomime, met friends I hadn't seen since secondary school (5 years), I've read 2 books in the last 2 weeks, for me that's good because I'm a slow reader, I managed to go to London to see the Christmas lights and the best part of January is that I passed my driving test first time. 

There are so many more things for me to look forward to this year, I'm going to see Olly Murs a week before my birthday, S club 7 a week after, my 21st birthday, I'm going to see Matilda the musical some when and hopefully I'll be going to Disneyland Paris with my best friend (it will also be my first holiday with friends). Obviously a lot more exciting/spontaneous things will happen during the year. 

"The best memories are usually unplanned and spontaneous"

I've decided to write this more positive blog post because so many people are negative about their years. The more I see the things people write about on Facebook, especially around New Year's Eve, about that year, the more I start to realise that we should all focus on the positive things we have done during the year, all the fun times we've had with friends and family. Obviously your year isn't going to be perfect, no one has a perfect life, but thinking back on all the fun things you did is a lot more fun than picking out all the negative things or the things you didn't do during that year. You have your whole life to do them so don't panic :) 

Personally I really enjoyed 2014 and did a lot. I went to so many concerts, went to the theatre, saw Les Miserablés (which is so good), I saw Wicked, Miranda Hart, I went to the cinema with friends, went to Ascot races, games evenings, ice skating with the girls from panto and then with my sister and so much more. Although there were a few negatives, more toward the end of the year, the positives definitely outweighed them. I've saved all the tickets from concerts or from the cinema etc so I can look back at them  and remember what I've done. 

I sometimes feel that people want to be miserable or feel bad about themselves, that's why they pick all the bad things that have happened. To be honest on New Year's Eve I just felt really deflated and I have no idea why, the last couple of years we've gone out and this year we decided to stay at home with our friends. 

I also think it was probably because I had such a fun Christmas with so many people around and the house if full of people, laughter and joy that when they all go it's so quiet and you're not too sure what to do. I was on Facebook and saw so many people saying how crap their year had been, it made me think of all the positive things I had done and I instantly felt so much better. 

Basically what I'm trying to say is that even if you don't think you've had a great year try and think about your favourite thing you've done, don't worry if you can't think of many at first because I guarantee when you do start, all through the day you'll remember more things, you can get your family involved and see what their favourite thing was about the previous year, it always nice to hear other people's favourite things.

Also think of the exciting things you have planned for the year, it doesn't matter when, whether it's for tomorrow or December it's nice to have something to look forward to or if you haven't got anything planned maybe plan something, it doesn't have to be expensive or extravagant it could just be a movie night with friends. The simplest things sometimes turn out to be the best.

I hope you enjoyed this and it made you think about all the stuff you've done, it certainly made me smile about last year and got me excited for this year. I'm looking forward to reading this back and remembering what I did. 

Leave a comment with your favourite thing you did or are going to do :)

Immy x