Stripy Cupcakes

Name: Stripy Cupcakes
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 10
Cuisine: International
Ingredients: 125 g Caster sugar (normal or golden); 125 g Vegetable or sunflower oil; 60 ml Milk (any kind); 2 Eggs; 1 tsp Vanilla extract (optional); 150 g Self-raising flour; ½ tsp Baking powder; A little Food colouring - 2 colours of your choice; 100 g Unsalted butter (softened); 250 - 300 g Icing sugar, sifted; 1-2 tbsp Milk (any kind); A little Food colouring paste / gel - colours as above

Love Baking Over a year ago 1,515 views

Cook: 20 mins

Serves: 10

Ingredients

125 g Caster sugar (normal or golden)
125 g Vegetable or sunflower oil
60 ml Milk (any kind)
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla extract (optional)
150 g Self-raising flour
½ tsp Baking powder
A little Food colouring - 2 colours of your choice
100 g Unsalted butter (softened)
250 - 300 g Icing sugar, sifted
1-2 tbsp Milk (any kind)
A little Food colouring paste / gel - colours as above

Accompaniment

Description

Fun cupcakes that can easily be adapted to your favourite colours / flavours. Good fun for children to make and eat, especially if iced, and the stripy sponge is a surprise!

Method

1
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C and line a standard muffin tin with 10 paper cases.
With an electric hand-whisk, beat the sugar, oil, milk, eggs and vanilla extract together, then sift in the flour and baking powder and beat until smooth.
Put half of the mixture into another bowl, and colour each batch with a little food colouring.
Put half a teaspoon of one cake mixture into the bottom of each paper case, then put half a teaspoon of the other mixture in the centre, and repeat until each paper case is just over half full.
Bake for 18-20 minutes, until they are risen and springy to touch, and a skewer comes out clean.
Cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the buttercream by beating together the softened butter with half of the sifted icing sugar. Add 1 tbsp milk (or hot water if you need to keep the cakes dairy free) and beat again, then add the rest of the icing sugar and more liquid if needed. Taste and check for consistency and add more butter / sugar / milk if needed, beating for at least 2 minutes until really light and fluffy.

You will need two piping bags if using two separate colours, as I did. Or you can pipe 2 coloured stripes together, or just use one colour, as you prefer. Put a star or plain nozzle in a piping bag and place it in a pint glass, folding at 5cm of the bag over the top. Dip a skewer, cocktail stick, or the tip of a knife into the food colouring and mark a stripe on the inside of the bag, from top to bottom. Repeat 3 more times (roughly in the 12 / 3 / 6 / 9 o-clock positions) if using one colour, or repeat once with one colour, and then use the other colour, if doing dual stripes. Spoon half the buttercream into the bag and pipe swirls onto half of the cooled cupcakes, starting on the outside and working inwards to the middle. Repeat with the other half of the buttercream (either in the same bag if just using one colour, or if doing dual stripes, or in a separate bag if using a separate colour, as I did).

Chef's Tips

Make any colour combination you want - e.g. to match your favourite football team, or school or university colours. You can also add other flavourings - see below for ideas. My orange and blue cupcakes had orange zest in the orange sponge.

Suggested variations:

Vanilla and chocolate - instead of using food colouring, put 75 g self raising flour in one batch and 50 g self raising flour plus 25 g cocoa powder in the other. Ice with chocolate buttercream, or spoon half plain buttercream and half chocolate buttercream into the same piping bag for chocolate / cream stripes).

Mint and chocolate - instead of vanilla extract, use mint extract and a little green food colouring, with 75 g self raising flour in one batch, and 50 g self raising flour plus 25 g cocoa powder in the other. (Optional - flavour the buttercream with mint extract, and pipe green stripes, or use chocolate buttercream).

Orange and chocolate - instead of vanilla extract, use the finely grated zest of 1 orange ( and a little orange food colouring if you like), with 75 g self raising flour in one batch, and 50 g self raising flour plus 25 g cocoa powder in the other. (Optional - flavour the buttercream with orange zest and pipe orange stripes, or use chocolate buttercream).