Tuesday 15 April 2014

Easy Thank You Cupcakes


We are very lucky to have a lovely wee garden in the middle of a group of gardens, and our over-the-fence neighbours are a lovely elderly couple who have lived in their home for 47 years.

I can't even begin to imagine how nice it must be to be able to stay put for so long.  I still very much dream of owning my own house - the stress and pressure of finding somewhere suitable to rent is very hard sometimes.

However, we are enjoying where we are for now, and are very lucky to have some fab neighbours!

And these neighbours have been very kind and offered us a planting box so we can grow our strawberries free from the snails which roam our garden.

There are things I always take with me when I move, and as a keen gardener, my strawberry plants are a must.  Once they start fruiting, they keep producing year upon year and my children love nothing more than to harvest the patch all through summer, so I always make sure they come with us.  The boys love a strawberry harvest!

Strawberries can be planted anywhere really - they are quite forgiving plants and endure a lot.

Our planter is coming over tonight when Dave gets home from work, but in the meantime I'm keeping the karma going by baking some cupcakes as a Thank You for such a lovely gift (after much bartering, that's all they will accept!)

So here are my...



Ingredients:

3 Large eggs
175g Caster Sugar
175g Soft Butter (unsalted)
175g Self-Raising Flour
3/4tsp of Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Vanilla Extract (or other flavouring if you like to mix it up!)

For the icing:

350g Icing Sugar divided into two
3/4tsp Vanilla Extract (or other flavour)
175g Soft Unsalted Butter
Cake crumbs (chocolate preferably)  I had an odd end of cake left from another project, but a crumbed bourbon biscuit or even sprinkles mixed in would do, and look just as nice.

Method


PREHEAT your oven - 160degrees should do it!





Bake for 20 mins or until a sharp knife comes out clean after poking the cakes in the middle

While they are baking, make the icing.

First, put the butter, milk, vanilla and HALF of the icing sugar into a bowl and mix.  Then, add a drop more milk (about a tsp) and the rest of the icing sugar.

Next, get your crumbed cake/biscuit and sprinkle in.  Mix in until evenly spread through the icing.


When iced, admire your work and feel smug about how little time and effort it took to make something this awesome.

Sprinkle extra chocolate crumbs on top for effect.  Perfect!

Gift to neighbours and make a friend for life.  Share the love, people! 




































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