Valentines Day Cupcakes – 2016

Last year I made some yummy Valentines Day cupcakes and took some pretty photos of them, I posted the pics here but I didn’t post a recipe, because I made them last year and couldn’t remember what recipe I had used. This year I made more! And I’ve posted the recipe. These cupcakes require a little bit of planning, the batter needs to be made several hours (ideally left over night) before baking. These are oil based cupcakes. My friend good friend Sarah introduced me to oil based cupcakes, if you haven’t tried oil based before, give this recipe a go. You won’t regret it!

 

Valentines Day Vanilla Cupcakes, with butter cream frosting.

Ingredients

200ml Vegetable Oil. I used Sunflower (Do not use Olive Oil)

375g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

200g Natural Yoghurt

50ml Lemon Juice

300g Self Raising Flour

2 Teaspoons of Vanilla extract

 

Method

Lightly whisk the eggs with vanilla extract then add the oil and sugar, mix until just combined.

Sift in flour. Mix lightly until just combined

Stir in yoghurt and juice. Stir gently until all ingredients are combined.

Place in the fridge for several hours or overnight. I usually place the bowl straight into the fridge, but if you’re short on space in the fridge you can transfer the mixture to a small plastic container. Cover with cling film.

 

When you’re ready to bake, pre heat your oven to 160C (fan forced)

Fill each cupcake case approximately 3/4 full with batter, allowing room for the mixture to rise. I spoon in my mixture and I weigh each case as I go so I make sure my cupcakes are all the same size and will cook evenly. You can pipe in the mixture or use a cupcake spoon.

I baked my large cupcakes for 25mins.  Be sure to keep an eye on your cupcakes because if your oven is like mine your batch may cook unevenly due to hot and cool spots. I turned my tray around after 10mins for a more even bake.

I baked the mini’s for 15 mins. Once again, turning half way through

 

Butter cream Frosting

250g butter, room temp

3 Cups of icing sugar

1-2 tablespoons of milk

Using an electric mixer (I used my hot pink Kitchen Aid which I LOVE ) beat the butter until pale and creamy. Add the the icing sugar (sifted) one cup at a time. Once you add a cup of the icing sugar, make sure you start off on low speed so it doesn’t go everywhere!! Do not add all the milk at once, add small amounts at a time, you may not need the full 2 tsp. Once you have added all of your icing sugar and the amount of milk you desire, mix well until all the icing sugar is combined and you have a smooth creamy consistency.

Cupcake recipe adapted from “Base Cup Cake Mix” by Sarah Brigden from Babycakes

 

 

I then decided to mix it up a bit with colouring the butter cream

I’m super happy with how they turned out.

Photography skills are improving, ever so slightly 🙂

Happy Valentines Day x