These Christmas cupcakes were a hit with the kids at my daughter's school concert last week
I decided to use dark red & green colours for a real Christmas feelLast Friday my daughter performed in her first ever school concert, “The Littlest Christmas Tree”. She played the role of a child, part of a family group choosing the ‘perfect’ Christmas tree & she did so well & we were very proud of her ! (It was great that my parents were here for the concert, too – they specially timed their flights so as to be here in time for her ‘big day’!)
Anyway, after the concert the kids had a Christmas party and each set of parents was asked to bring a platter of eats. I wanted to make something really fun, colourful & Christmas-ey for the kids, and these Christmas cupcakes are what I came up with !
The highlight of the day was a visit by Father Christmas (who arrived in an old Landrover & a swirl of dust !) who had a present for each child. Afterwards my daughter whispered to me “He’s not the REAL Father Christmas, Mama – his beard was made of cottonwool & he wasn’t in a sleigh !” So I had to explain to her that as Father Christmas is extremely busy at this time of the year, he has several helpers all over the world who stand in for him for school functions etc. (I’m not sure if she bought my story, though !)
Here is the recipe, adapted from my ‘basic’ flop proof cake recipe which has been passed down to me by my mother, & is the only cake recipe I ever use -:
Christmas Cupcakes
200 gm’s Margarine
1 ½ cups Sugar
5 Eggs
3 cups Flour
4 level tsps Baking Powder
2 cups Milk
Cream the margarine & sugar together until light & fluffy. Add the eggs & beat well to blend. Sift in the flour & baking powder. Add the milk and beat until light & creamy. Place spoonfuls in greased cake cups & bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 to 30 minutes until done.
(Makes around 42 cupcakes).
How I iced them :
1 roll Ready Made Icing (similar to a ‘plastic’ type of icing, containing glycerine etc – mine was enough to cover a 23cm round cake)
Red & Green food colouring
Icing Sugar
Water
Edible silver balls
Mini peppermint candy canes (or any other decoration)
I took the roll of ready made icing & split it in two & coloured the one half with red food colouring, & the other half with green food colouring. I rolled both pieces until really flat & thin on a surface dusted with icing sugar & I then used a small star shaped cookie cutter to cut the star shapes out of each.
I set these aside to dry whilst mixing a 500 gm packet of icing sugar with tablespoon by tablespoon of water so as to form a very thick paste/icing sugar mix. I then coloured half of this with red & the other with green food colouring.
I iced half the cakes in the red icing and the other half in the green (dipping my knife into cold water as I went along, to make the icing more pliable) & before the icing started to harden, I placed a star on each (alternate colour e.g. red star on green icing) with an edible silver ball in the middle, & a few on the outside. I had some shop bought mini peppermint candy canes which I placed on the other cakes.
I iced these cupcakes the day before the function, you could make them up to 2 days before and keep them very dry as after 2 days they do begin to ‘melt’ a little and the colours tend to run a bit.
Anyway, after the concert the kids had a Christmas party and each set of parents was asked to bring a platter of eats. I wanted to make something really fun, colourful & Christmas-ey for the kids, and these Christmas cupcakes are what I came up with !
The highlight of the day was a visit by Father Christmas (who arrived in an old Landrover & a swirl of dust !) who had a present for each child. Afterwards my daughter whispered to me “He’s not the REAL Father Christmas, Mama – his beard was made of cottonwool & he wasn’t in a sleigh !” So I had to explain to her that as Father Christmas is extremely busy at this time of the year, he has several helpers all over the world who stand in for him for school functions etc. (I’m not sure if she bought my story, though !)
Here is the recipe, adapted from my ‘basic’ flop proof cake recipe which has been passed down to me by my mother, & is the only cake recipe I ever use -:
Christmas Cupcakes
200 gm’s Margarine
1 ½ cups Sugar
5 Eggs
3 cups Flour
4 level tsps Baking Powder
2 cups Milk
Cream the margarine & sugar together until light & fluffy. Add the eggs & beat well to blend. Sift in the flour & baking powder. Add the milk and beat until light & creamy. Place spoonfuls in greased cake cups & bake at 190’C/375’F/Gas Mark 5 for 20 to 30 minutes until done.
(Makes around 42 cupcakes).
How I iced them :
1 roll Ready Made Icing (similar to a ‘plastic’ type of icing, containing glycerine etc – mine was enough to cover a 23cm round cake)
Red & Green food colouring
Icing Sugar
Water
Edible silver balls
Mini peppermint candy canes (or any other decoration)
I took the roll of ready made icing & split it in two & coloured the one half with red food colouring, & the other half with green food colouring. I rolled both pieces until really flat & thin on a surface dusted with icing sugar & I then used a small star shaped cookie cutter to cut the star shapes out of each.
I set these aside to dry whilst mixing a 500 gm packet of icing sugar with tablespoon by tablespoon of water so as to form a very thick paste/icing sugar mix. I then coloured half of this with red & the other with green food colouring.
I iced half the cakes in the red icing and the other half in the green (dipping my knife into cold water as I went along, to make the icing more pliable) & before the icing started to harden, I placed a star on each (alternate colour e.g. red star on green icing) with an edible silver ball in the middle, & a few on the outside. I had some shop bought mini peppermint candy canes which I placed on the other cakes.
I iced these cupcakes the day before the function, you could make them up to 2 days before and keep them very dry as after 2 days they do begin to ‘melt’ a little and the colours tend to run a bit.
