Introducing Junior Chef!  Easy and fun recipes to cook with your child

Simple Cup Cakes

Children love cup cakes and they are easy to make together and then decorate. Choose healthy alternatives if you wish such as naturally flavored food coloring and natural sweetener instead of sugar. Adjust the natural sugar according to the instructions on the brand you buy.

Ingredients

Serves 24

170g (6 oz) Butter or Margarine

170g (6 oz) Sugar

170g (6 oz) Self-Raising Flour

3 Eggs

For the Frosting*:

280g (5 oz) Butter, softened

560g (20 oz) Icing Sugar

1-2 tablespoons of milk

Few drops of food coloring

*Healthy alternative! Cream Cheese Frosting: Just add half a teaspoon of rice malt syrup and a squeeze of lemon juice to taste and enjoy this creamy, easy to spread alternative to butter frosting.

Sweets or fruit to decorate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C / Gas 4 and line a muffin tin with paper cases

Cream together the margarine or butter with the sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time beating continuously then sift the flour gradually and mix in gently.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Decoration

Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth. Beat in a little more milk if necessary to loosen the mixture.

Stir in the food coloring if desired until well combined.

Once the cup cakes are cool have fun smoothing on the frosting and decorating with sweets or fruit if you wish.