When we feel a little bit under the weather and when the weather outside does not help too, we bake. It is more about the baking process than the outcome.  It is more about being and making together rather than thinking too much about how sugar should be avoided. It is also about sharing. Who will we share it with today? That’s the question we ask before we start. Bake and share, make somebody a little bit happier if possible.

So here is one of our favourite recipes, easy and foolproof, which I bake together with my older son who is four years old, just FYI.

(The inspiration for this recipe comes from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.)

You will need:

120 plain flour

100 g caster sugar

1 and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

40 g butter (we use just normal salted but can be replaced with unsalted if prefered)

120 ml whole milk

1 egg

1/3 teaspoon vanilla extract

colourful sprinkles

How to make them:

Turn on the oven (well we sometimes forget 🙂 and preheat to 170°C

We always prepare and measure all the ingredients first and keep them in separate bowls or other containers, e.g. for the milk we use a baby bottle as a measuring jar 🙂 and we add the baking powder to the bowl with the flour when preparing the ingredients. At this time we also melt the butter in a microwave (just melt, don’t cook!) We also prepare the cupcake tray at this stage as the kitchen is not a total mess yet.

When all ingredients measured, butter melted and the tray for cupcakes ready, whisk the egg and the sugar in a large bowl with an electric whisk until smooth and creamy. It takes about 2-3 minutes.

Add the flour with the baking powder, milk and the melted butter to the creamy mixture.

First stir gently with a spatula so the flour is a little bit more incorporated with the rest of the ingredients, otherwise, the flour might go everywhere when using the electric whisk. Add the vanilla extract and whisk all the ingredients until everything is nicely incorporated and the texture is smooth and creamy. It usually takes about 2-3 minutes.

Use a tablespoon to fill the paper cups. About two tablespoons and a little bit will go to each one and we usually have about 8-9 cupcakes in total.

When you have divided the mixture into the individual cups, sprinkle the tops with the sprinkles (what a sentence right?) and this is the part which my son loves the most! (I should mention that he keeps eating the sprinkles at that stage too, so back to the cupboard with sprinkle jar and keep it there until the next weekend bake!)

Ta-da! And they are ready for the oven.

How long should they stay in the oven?

15-20 minutes

Note on the baking time:

In my oven, they are done in 15 minutes sometimes even less, so I  usually check them after 10 min. You don’t have to always open the oven to check them, just see if the top looks crispier and done. I always check with a wooden skewer as well. So if you insert it in the middle of the cupcake and it comes out clean without anything sticky, you know they are done.

When they look like they are done, take them out, leave them to cool down for a while and then enjoy and SHARE!

We use the Little Helper stand when baking.