Easy Easter Cupcakes

Our kitchen is in a huge state of disarray; there are cupboard carcasses installed in some areas, piles of tools everywhere, no flooring, no sink, no worktops… but we do now have our range in and hooked up to the electric. Alas, still no gas connection, so we can’t use the hobs, but we can at least use the oven! With minimal space, utensils and bowls/pans etc, I needed a really quick and easy recipe to make my Easter bake this year. Enter these easy cupcakes; they’re simple lightly spiced sponges with loads of Mini Eggs added for Eastery goodness. Obviously Mini Eggs are seasonal, but Smarties or M&Ms would work just as well!

Ingredients:

8oz unsalted butter, softened

6oz caster sugar

4 eggs

50ml whole milk

1/2tsp baking powder

1 tsp mixed spice

8oz self raising flour

3 100g bags of Mini Eggs, crushed

Icing sugar and whole Mini Eggs to decorate

Pre-heat your oven to 180c and line a muffin tray with paper cases.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, milk, baking powder and mixed spice and give it a good mix.

Add the flour, and fold it all together before adding the crushed Mini Eggs and stirring until well distributed.

Fill the paper cases with the batter, to about 4/5^th full – I got 16 cakes from this batter, but it will differ slightly depending on the size of your cases/tin.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until risen, golden and springy to the touch. As always, a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake should come out clean.

Leave to cool on a wire rack while you make up the icing.

Make up about 3 heaped tablespoons of icing sugar with enough water to make a simple white icing with a pouring consistency. (You can add a few drops of food colouring here if you want coloured icing.) Dip the points of whole Mini Eggs into the icing and lightly push them into the top of the cooled cakes. Drizzle the rest of the icing over the tops of the cakes and leave to set before tucking in.