Vanilla Cupcakes

A couple of weekends ago I made almost 150 cupcakes for the village fete. It was all part of something that I was working on with Halifax, which I will elaborate more on another time, but you can find out more about the Halifax Pledge and how you can help your community here.

Since then I have caught the cupcake making bug again and last week I whipped up a batch of vanilla cupcakes to take with me to a picnic in the forest, where myself and friends watched Jessie J. I can't say that Jessie J is particularly my cup of tea but it was a great night out with friends and the cupcakes went down a storm, along with our picnic of cheese, crackers and strawberries.

I used the Madagascan Vanilla Grinder that came in the June Desgustabox, which is a small grinder of dried Madagascan vanilla pods that can be finely or coarsely ground and used in baking or to top hot drinks. I love this as a simple way to add real vanilla to cakes and icing without the hassle of vanilla pods. It may seem quite pricey at £4.99 for such a small post, but I can see it lasting a long while.

Vanilla Cupcakes - makes approx 18

225g Butter, softened

225g Caster Sugar

4 Eggs

Few twists of Dr Oetker Vanilla Grinder

225g Self Raising flour, sifted

For the Icing

150g Butter, softened

300g Icing sugar, sifted

Few twists of Dr Oetker Vanilla Grinder

• Beat the butter and sugar together until light and creamy
• Beat in the eggs, one at a time
• Add a few twists of the vanilla grinder
• Fold in the flour
• Spoon into cupcake cases in a muffin pan, approx 2/3 full
• Bake in a preheated 180C oven for approx 18 minutes
• Allow to cool on a wire rack whilst making the icing
• Beat together the butter and half of the icing sugar until light and creamy
• Add the rest of icing sugar and a few twists of the vanilla grinder
• Beat well until smooth and creamy - if it's a little stiff, add a teaspoon or two of room temperature water - you could add room temperature milk but come on, who has room temperature milk?
• Pipe icing onto the cakes and top with decorations of your choice

This month the contents were as follows :

• Estrella Damm Spanish lager (alc 4.6%)
• Urban Fruit snack pack
• Dr Oetker Madagascan Vanilla grinder
• Bear Alpha Bites alphabet cereal
• Veetee Microwaveable rice
• Cawston Press sparkling rhubarb drink
• Lambrini Strawberry (alc 5%)
• Be Fast Breakfast on the go x 2
• Elizabeth Shaw Amaretto flutes

totalling over £22

I have a discount code which will entitle readers to a £3.00 discount off their box when registering - regular price £12.99 including p&p.

code : 2N4MJ

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I was provided with a Degustabox free of charge