Gorgeous girly cupcakes

Our mini cakes are just the thing for a special tea, gift or fundraising event. Whatever you opt for, they're simple to make and taste utterly delicious

We've topped our cakes with cream cheese frosting and used a mix of liqueurs, syrups and chocolate for natural flavour and colours rather than using synthetic food colourings, which don't add any flavour.

Preparation time: 10 Minutes
Cooking time: 18 to 20 Minutes
Makes: 36 mini cupcakes

225g (8oz) plain flour
1 level tsp baking powder
pinch salt
150g (5oz) caster sugar
85g (31/2oz) butter, softened
2 eggs, lightly beaten
150ml (1/4pt) milk
For the frosting
300g (10oz) full-fat cream cheese
150g (5oz) golden icing sugar, sifted
a little lemon juice

For colouring
crème de menthe (green), Camp coffee essence (cappuccino), melted dark chocolate, grenadine (pink), blue curaçao, Dulce de Leche (toffee), orange juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest

To decorate
sugar or rice paper flowers. You can buy sugar flowers from Jane Asher's shop (020 7584 6177; www.jane-asher.co.uk) or Squires (0845-2255671; www.squires-shop.com)

You will also need
mini muffin trays and paper cases. Mini muffin trays are available from John Lewis, Lakeland Limited and all good cook shops.

1 Preheat the oven to 180 C, 160 C fan, 350 F, gas 4.

2 Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the sugar and butter with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.

3 Gradually whisk in the eggs, then add a little of the flour mix and milk alternately until the mixture is smooth. Be careful not to overbeat the liquid.

4 Line a mini muffin tray with mini paper cases and fill each with a large teaspoon of the mixture. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until slightly golden on top. Remove from the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack. If you need to bake them in batches, the mixture will happily sit at room temperature.

5 To make the cream cheese frosting, mix together the cream cheese, icing sugar and lemon juice in a large bowl. Divide the mixture among the same number of small bowls as you want colours. Add a little of the colour or melted chocolate gradually until you achieve the shade you require.

6 Decorate each cupcake with cream cheese frosting and sugar flowers. The easiest way to decorate is to use a small palette knife with a blob of frosting on it, spread it over the cupcake then gradually build it up.

Per serving: 116cals, 6g fat, 4g saturated fat, 14g carbohydrate

Get ahead: The cupcakes can be made the day before and stored in an airtight container. Alternatively, you can freeze them once they're baked. The decorated cupcakes will keep well for six hours, again stored in an airtight container. The frosting will keep for three days in the fridge, but let it get back to room temperature before using.

Smart idea: To make chocolate cupcakes, like these ones below, simply replace 1tbsp of the plain flour with 1tbsp cocoa powder.

Check out our pick of the ready-made cakes, for those times when you don't have time to bake.

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