Easy Cupcakes

I set  Alison a challenge to try and help me to cook so I shall be having a go at this on monday so over to Alison 

" If you have read my blog Dragons and Fairy Dust  you know that I love baking and will share recipes on a regular basis. Being a regular read of Claire's blog I know that she has had a few cupcake disasters so I thought I would try and share a very easy cupcake recipe with her and give her the challenge to make them herself! I am going to try and make the steps really easy to follow and hopefully nothing will go wrong.

I had a fruit bowl full of bananas which were not being eaten so I decided to try banana cupcakes. These are a first for me as well but I was pleased with the way they turned out in the end. So here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 3½ oz (100g) butter
• 3½ oz (100g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 4 oz (125 g) self raising flour
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ripe banana, mashed up - if they are small use two
• 3 oz (75g) sultanas

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C, 350F, Gas Mark 4 and set the cupcake cases out on a baking tray.
2. Make sure the butter is soft before you start. Put the butter and sugar into a bowl and mix together until it looks fluffy.
3. Add the eggs and mix them in.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
5. Add into the cupcake cases, they should be about half full as shown in the picture. The recipe is meant to make twelve but I got a couple more.

6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes or until just risen and form to the touch.

7. Leave to cool.

This is what they looked like when finished:

yummy cup cakes.

I then decided to ice them with a simple buttercream icing but to give it a little twist I added a banana. This is how you make the icing.

Ingredients

• 5 oz (150 g) butter
• 8 oz (250 g) icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 mashed small banana 

Method

Make sure the butter is soft before you start and gradually add the icing sugar a bit at a time, mixing as you go. Continue until all the icing sugar is mixed in and it looks smooth and creamy. Finally add the banana and the vanilla essence and mix them in. If you add the icing sugar all in one go you are likely to get a huge cloud of it flying out of the bowl and all over the kitchen so it is best to do it slowly. Finally dollop on the cakes and if you have any decorations add them as well. I used chocolate chips to make smiley faces. This is the finished result

Now the challenge is on, can Claire follow the instructions and make lovely cupcakes? I am waiting in suspense to find out."

I hope I can live up to Alison's great looking cakes...!