Cute Christmas Cupcakes

These cute cupcakes could be a case in point when it comes to how addictive baking and cake decorating can be. I decided last night that I would whip up a "quick" batch of Christmas pudding cupcakes, but 6 designs and several hours later this was the result! I have to say I was a little cross-eyed by the end!

The cupcakes are vanilla using my new favourite cupcake recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days recipe book. The result is a lovely moist sponge, probably due to the addition of milk:

• 80g unsalted butter
• 280g caster sugar
• 240g plain flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 240ml whole milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 2 large eggs

Preheat your oven to 190c/170c fan/gas 5. Then slowly beat the butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt together until they form a fine breadcrumb consistency. Next beat together the milk, vanilla essence and eggs. With your whisk on a slow speed, pour three quarters of the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and mix well before adding the remaining milk mixture and beating to a smooth consistency. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

For regular cupcakes the recipe calls for the cases to be two thirds full but for these cupcakes you don't want the cake to rise too far above the top of the case so I filled them a little less. You should be able to make 12-16 cupcakes from this recipe, if not more.

To decorate I buttercreamed the top of each cupcake and cut out circles of sugarpaste using Ateco circle cutters before adding the embellishments. For one or two of the elements, regular sugarpaste would be too soft, so I added some CMC to the paste in advance which causes it to set harder and therefore allows you make things such as the robin's wings and reindeer's antlers! The antlers also have a spaghetti support inside!

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... 12 yummy cupcakes and a partridge in a pear tree!