Cupcakes!

My sister passed her Leaving Certificate exams with flying colours this week and to celebrate, I decided to bake some cupcakes (not that I needed an excuse!).

In honour of her wanting to study French in college, I made them red, white and blue.

Madeira Queen Cakes with Vanilla Buttercream Icing
Makes: Roughly 12
Ingredients:
100g Caster Sugar
100g Butter
2 Medium Eggs, lightly beaten
Vanilla Essence
150g Self Raising Flour
75g Butter
150g Icing Sugar
Food colours if desired
1. Preheat oven to 180°C
2. Cream butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
3. Add half egg mixture and half flour and beat in.
4. Add rest of egg mixture and 2 drops of vanilla essence. Add in food colouring if using.
5. Fold in rest of flour until fully folded in. Add to cupcake liners and bake in oven for 10-15 min, until golden brown and a skewer is dry when placed into the centre and removed.
To make buttercream icing, beat icing sugar and butter together until mixture comes together to a smooth consistency, add vanilla essence and beat to evenly distribute.
To ice, wait until buns are cooled and apply icing with a spatula or using a piping bag and star shaped tip. And enjoy!