Nigella’s Cupcakes

Once you have children, you quickly realise how important it is to have a go-to cupcake recipe on hand. They get requested often and can be the perfect answer to boredom on a cold or rainy day. I tried many a cupcake before my sister put me onto these ones. They are Nigella’s basic cupcake recipe and really are foolproof.

With everything going into the food processor to mix, the batter is ready in just minutes. Taking under 20 minutes to cook they are fast enough to keep small people interested. I tend to make the icing while the cupcakes are cooling as it again will keep the kids entertained – my oldest loves to watch the butter mixing and will pass commentary on the colour changing! By the time the icing is ready the cakes should be close to cool enough to ice.

They keep well in the fridge for a few days – if they last that long! Its best to bring them to room temperature for half an hour or so before eating which softens bother the cake and icing. I have also frozen the un-iced cupcakes which can also come in handy.

Generally I would just do one colour of icing, but the cupcakes pictured on the left were a request for rainbow cupcakes.   we agreed on two colours. To do the swirl, I popped each of the coloured icings into a separate freezer bag then put both into large piping bag with nozzle attached. Then it’s just a matter of cutting the ends off and icing as you normally would, making sure you are squeezing  both colours in the bag. My girls are fans of edible glitter at the moment so a sprinkle of fairy dust on the top is a must!