The art of cupcakes

I had a few moments to spare so I decided to make cupcakes for Penny and Michelle. I went on a cupcake making course last year for work so I used the recipe from that, which is a bit more complicated than I usually use:

It was:

Cakes:

110g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Two medium eggs

150g self raising flour

125g plain flour

100ml milk or buttermilk

A splash of lemon juice

Cook at 180 degrees in a fan oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

Butter icing:

300g icing sugar

150g butter

For the cakes cream together the butter and sugar, add the vanilla bean paste, then the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour. Mix. Then fold in the rest of the flour. Add the lemon juice and milk. The scoop into cupcake cases.

For the butter icing cream together the butter and the icing sugar. Pipe on top of the cakes.

The cake is quite dense I think and not as spongey as I am used to. The vanilla bean paste really does make a difference though as it has a strong vanilla flavour.

I am still not as good as I would like to be with the piping bag but I tried two effects. I later added fudge pieces to the top, which were really good.