These little floral petal cupcakes are a nice way to ice a cake, as they look complicated but are actually very simple. These can make perfect gifts especially for bridal occasions/ mother’s day. I used 3 different colours of icing (white, light pink and fuschia pink) for an ombre effect. My version does require a piping bag and different nozzles for the flower effect, however you can get this for £4.99 on amazon, so is worth getting.

Ingredients: (makes 12 cupcakes)

• 120g plain flour
• 130g caster sugar
• 5 tsp baking powder
• 40g butter, soft
• 120ml milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 12 cupcake cases ( I used silver ones)

For the vanilla icing:

• 250g icing sugar
• 80g butter, soft
• 25ml milk
• 4 drops of vanilla extract
• Pink food colouring

To decorate:

• Decoration:
• I used Sainsbury’s white roses 
• Sainsbury’s rose sugar decorations
• Sainsbury’s White shimmer pearls
• Christmas edition macarons from Marks & Spencer
• Gold dust (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celsius/ 338 F/ Gas mark 3 .
2. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and butter with an electric whisk until a grain like consistency.
3. Then gradually pour in half the milk and continue to whisk.
4. Mix the rest of the milk, egg and vanilla extract together in another bowl.
5. Slowly pour this into the dry mix and whisk together. Continue this for a few minutes until a smooth mixture.
6. Line a 12 hole baking tray with cupcake cases.
7. Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases. I usually use a ice cream scoop for this, for consistency.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes.
9. Then once cooked, remove from the oven. With a skewer, insert into the cake- it should come out clean.
10. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and leave to cool.
11. Meanwhile make the icing. Beat the icing sugar and butter together with an electric hand or freestanding whisk until well combined.
12. Separately, mix together the milk and vanilla extract.
13. Then add this mixture slowly into the sugar and butter, whisking as you go.
14. Continue beating this on a high speed for about 5 minutes. The longer you whisk it, the fluffier it will become.
15. Separate the buttercream into thirds. Leave one white.
16. Put a dash of pink food colouring into one of the other thirds, and mix. It should make a light pink colour.
17. Put a bit more pink food colouring than before in the last batch, it will make a deeper pink colour. Mix until you get your desired colour.
18. Put all 3 icing colours into separate piping bags. I just played around with which nozzle I wanted. I used the small zig zagged edged ones (‘rosette boarder’ and ‘shell boarder’) for the white icing and dark pink icing. I used the ‘star boarder’ one for the light pink icing. I placed the sugar flowers on the cake as a starting point and just had fun with decorating each cupcake how I felt. There is no rules with this, you can make each cupcake different.
19. Top with the white pearls and macarons. Finish with gold dust.