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11 July: At lunch time today I am down at the Capital on the Quay shop giving out Orange Cupcakes. These are like little mouthfuls of summer –  a perfect pick me up for a grotty winter workday.

I also wanted to show people what amazing things they can do with just a few bits and pieces of decoration. We sell very reasonably priced icing decorations and cupcake papers, because we pack our own from bulk – to keep the retail price down. I’m also rocking some chocolate butterflies, like in the photo, and may just be doing a lunch time demo at the same shop soon, if there is enough interest. And I’ll post the instructions too. Do comment below if you’d like this to happen!

Orange Cupcakes

Makes 24 normal size, 48 minis

• 200g butter, soft to point of being melted, but not liquid melted.
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 cups self raising flour (or 3 cups Simple GF Baking mix plus 2 tsp baking powder)
• 3/4   cup milk
• grated zest of one orange
• 2 teaspoons orange essence

Preheat oven to 180 C. Place cupcake papers into the cupcake tins.

Put all ingredients into a cake mixer and beat until smooth, satiny and light.

Using two dessert spoons, take a spoon of mix, and use the other to push it into paper case. (for mini cupcakes use teaspoons). Fill the cases about ½ only and gently smooth any noticeably uneven tops. You want your cooked cupcakes to only fill the papers 2/3 deep, so there is paper above the cake line.

Bake in the upper middle of the oven at 180⁰C for about 15 minutes, check by gently pressing the middle of a cake. If it springs back they are ready. If not, return for another two minutes and repeat.

Cool on a rack. Ice when cold. Resist the temptation to ice sooner or icing will melt!

Buttercream icing

• 3 cups icing sugar plus extra

• 100g soft but not melted butter

• Finely grated zest of one orange and juice of two

Put icing sugar, zest and butter in the cake mixer and starting very slowly (to avert a snowstorm) mix them together. Add a small dash of juice and increase speed. Work the speed up, adding a little juice if needed. Icing should be light and fluffy. If you overdo the juice, add a bit more icing sugar.

Pile about a third of the icing into a disposable icing bag – easier to do if you stand it in a mug – and snip the end off so the hole is about 1cm across. Applying gentle pressure, start from the outside edge of the cupcake top and spiral inwards. Let the pressure ease and flick away to create a point in the middle. Repeat, refilling the bag as you need to (better to do this than put too much in as the warmth of your hands makes the icing go yuk)

Decorate with a dash of orange jelly crystals, an icing flower a chocolate butterfly (white choc coloured with lake powder), or with a few strands of candied or fresh orange zest.  Or mould some flowers from orange coloured Regalice fondant. the options are endless! For boys, try our pirate or dinosaur or bug decons. It’s not all about pretties!