Raspberry & Vanilla Cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for my friend Chloe's hen weekend.  Pink, glitter, hearts & cake .... surely a combo that any girl would appreciate!

I bought ready made & coloured  icing, which I rolled out & cut heart shapes out of, I then sprayed the hearts with a little water & sprinkled some edible glitter over. 

Sponge

110g butter

110g caster sugar

2 eggs

110g self-raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

Vanilla Buttercream Icing

150g butter

300g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional filling

A few tablespoons of raspberry jam for the filling

Preheat the oven to 160oC

To make the cupcakes, mix all of the sponge ingredients together in a large bowl.

Put a spoonful of sponge mixture (around 50g) into a cupcake case.

Bake for around 20 minutes, or until springy when touched.

Leave to cool.

Beat together the butter, icing sugar & vanilla with an electric whisk until smooth & fluffy.  You may need to add a little milk if your icing appears too thick.

Place the icing into a piping bag.

If you are filling your cupcakes with jam, use a small round object (a small cosmetic bottle lid works well), or a knife to cut a round circle out of the top of the cupcake sponge.  If using a lid, push down into the surface of the sponge & twist a little, this should ease the sponge out from the centre & leave you with a small hole.

Put a couple of tablespoons of jam into a piping bag & pipe the jam into the holes.

Pipe the buttercream onto the cooled cakes in a swirl shape.

Roll out the coloured icing using a little icing sugar to stop it from stick to your work surface, cut heart shapes out of the icing using a cookie cutter.  

Spray the heart shape pieces of icing with water & sprinkle over the glitter, leave to cool then place on top of the buttercream icing.