Our love for the Cupcake

If you type 'cupcake' into any major search engine, what would you anticipate back? Its quite shocking to find that you would retrieve 9,390,000 answers in just under 0.23 seconds. Cupcakes have come a long way since they were an accepted dessert at a kids party. Their nostalgic edge has now been given a sophisticated front with piping tricks a plenty and just when you thought that was fancy enough: a touch of gold leaf.


We as a nation are pretty much obsessed with cupcakes and you can read 10,000 plus blogs declaring this. We can buy them almost anywhere and they feature in most major supermarkets in some form. Waitrose's sophisticated deli counter serves a variety of cupcakes and weddings are adorned with cupcakes as an alternative to the more traditional fruit cake offering. So what has brought us to the point where a simple mixture of eggs, sugar, flour and butter creates such a buzz and a stir?

The cupcake has long been the decorated and celebrated cake of the US and there are plenty of cupcake shops, cafes and bakeries selling theirs around the various cities. The one I'm sure many women will know of is the one featured in a 'Sex and the City’ episode, the 'Magnolia bakery' at 401 Bleecker street in the West Village where the ultra fabulous Carrie devours a vanilla iced cupcake decorated with tiny flowers.

Yet you do not have to travel to New York to get a taste of the best as even in my local area near Mossley Hill, Liverpool there are plenty of places offering these pretty little cakes including 'kupcake kingdom'. http://www.kupcakekingdom.co.uk/index.html

Popularity however, will always bring with it something unwanted in my opinion, and in this case it’s the price. A cupcake can reach the heights of the £4.00 mark is some bakeries in London. Which is why I have created my own at home and while I assure you I definitely am under no illusion: these cakes will look homemade. I reckon that might be just what the cupcake needs to give it a good old British makeover.

Makes 8 large Cupcakes

For the cakes:

125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

150g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

For the frosting:

75g unsalted butter, very soft

250g icing sugar

75g sweetened condensed milk

75ml double cream

1. In the bowl of an upright electric mixer, beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla for three minutes on the highest speed until light and fluffy.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder two or three times, then add to the butter mix and beat for 30 seconds.

3. Spoon into eight muffin cups placed in the pockets of a muffin tray, and set aside to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and firm. Leave to cool.

 5. For the frosting, get the butter as soft as possible without melting, then put in a bowl with the other ingredients. Whisk until smooth and fluffy, then top each cupcake with a large dollop and smooth with the back of the spoon. I topped mine with some little marshmallows but you can literally let your imagination go.  Using piping bags is difficult with the frosting but if you're very confident with it you should be fine.