Sometimes Life Calls for Simplicity

Sometimes it's best just to stick to something simple. It can be just as rewarding and satisfying. I have found a great recipe in a very old cookery book (older than me, probably almost twice my age). It is for cupcakes. Now I know there are millions of recipes out there, all sorts of ingredient combinations. Now this recipe is definitely the simplest one I have ever seen and it works perfectly!

Ingredients

85g Butter, room temp
85g Castor Sugar
2 Medium Eggs
115g Self Raising Flour
1tsp Vanilla Extract or 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste


Method

1) Preheat oven to 170℃. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy - I never used to do it for long enough but it's about 2-3 mins with an electric whisk.

2) Add one egg and whisk thoroughly for about a minute or so until fully incorporated and then add the second egg. Whisk again until fully incorporated. If the mixture looks like it's curdling (looks like a very runny scrambled eggs) you can add a few tablespoons of your flour.

3) Sift in flour and fold with a large metal spoon in a circle of 8 motion to keep the air in the batter.

4) Line cupcake tin with cases. Half fill each case and cook for about 12-15 mins until a light golden brown. Cool on an airing rack.

This recipe will make 12 small cupcakes or 6 regular size cupcakes. These days cupcake cases are a bit bigger than back in the day.

What I did with this recipe was 6 Vanilla and tested out the Vanilla bean paste which is pretty potent, I then did 6 cinnamon and orange. To do this I simply added half a teaspoon of cinnamon to the flour and the grated rind of 1 medium orange and 2tbsp of orange juice.

I decided to turn these ones into Hallowe'en Treats for the upcoming holiday.