They celebrated Teachers’ Day in school today. They are not supposed to buy gifts for their teachers so yesterday, #3 and #4 decided to make some Vanilla cupcakes for their teachers. They came back from school, quickly finished their lunch and got down to baking. They googled the web for the recipe. Those who tried said that it is very yummy. But the best part is that it is quite simple to do and is rather fool proof (as you will see later).
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| Pink is #3′s favourite colour |
Ingredients for cupcakes
110g butter (at room temperature)
110g castor sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tsp vanilla essence
110g self-raising flour
2 tbsp. milk
Buttercream icing
100g butter, softened
200g icing sugar
2 tbsp. milk
food colouring of your choice
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| Simple ingredients |
1) Heat oven to 180C
2) Line muffin tin with paper cases
3) Sieve flour then set aside
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4) Cream butter and sugar together in a bowl until it turns pale
(They forgot to use the beater to cream until pale. They just used a fork to mix it together)
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5) Beat in eggs a little at a time
6) Stir in vanilla essence
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7) After they added in the eggs then they realised they needed to cream it well! I told #3 that it’s probably not going to turn out well and they might have to do a new batch. However, #3 kept reassuring me “It’s ok mum, don’t worry, it will be fine” So they creamed it.
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| Hand-held whisk |
8) Fold in flour with a large metal spoon
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9) Add 2-3 tbsp of milk to get the right consistency
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| Nice and smooth |
10) Spoon into paper cases until half full
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| Steady hands |
11) Bake in oven 10-15 minutes (check by sticking a skewer in and it must come out clean)
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12) It’s ready! And to my surprise, it turned out fine (#3 told me that this was not the first time she did some steps wrong but it always turned out fine!)
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Now for the buttercream icing.
1) Beat butter in a large bowl until soft
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| This small beater is really handy |
2) Add icing sugar and beat until smooth
3) Add milk until mixture is smooth and creamy (add more milk if you need)
4) Divide the icing according to how many colours you are going to use
5) Add food colouring to one portion and mix it in well
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| Now comes the fun |
5) Spoon icing into piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe using a spiralling motion to get a large swirl.
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| We got this piping set from Cold Storage for $4.50 (includes tips) |
They were getting quite tired but they pressed on. It also took them awhile to wash the piping bag really clean to put in a different colour. I was really proud of their perseverance. After #3 and #4 were done with their decorations they helped #5 to decorate some for his teacher. We were clearing up the mess and preparing for dinner when #1 came back with her classmate. They were going to bake a carrot cake for their teachers. Round 2!
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| Their carrot cake was really delicious! |
Sane tip: When I looked at the mess they made, it was easy to go mad and start nagging. However, I had to keep reminding myself that it was such a great thing they were doing by taking the initiative, from searching for the recipe to buying the ingredients to baking and decorating, that the least I could do was support them.
Save tip: Cheaper than going out to buy a commercial gift.