A Really Easy Family Bake
This recipe has always been the go to in our family for birthdays, parties, even just an afternoon tea treat, or a rainy day baking activity. Since my sisters and I were little, we have baked these cakes regularly. It’s super easy to put together, the all-in-one method makes it foolproof!
As soon as we were able, we baked by ourselves, carefully measuring out the ingredients and adding them to a big bowl. Graduating from a wooden spoon, to the hand mixer. The excitement when a stand mixer was bought! This cake recipe bakes up beautifully no matter what equipment you have. It requires very little. A weighing scale, a bowl and a spoon will do the job perfectly.
Mixing It Up!
You can easily adapt the recipe with other flavours, colours or decorations too. You could add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder to the cake mix for a chocolate cake, or pop a teaspoon of jam in the cake cases before filling them for a fruity surprise cake! The possibilities are endless.
In this recipe, I’ve filled 24 cupcake cases. The same mix will fill two 8-inch cake tins for a victoria sponge – just fill with jam and top with a sprinkle of icing sugar. You can also half the recipe really easily, for just 12 cupcakes, or 24 fairy cakes. For fairy cakes, you can use icing sugar mixed with water, or a little lemon juice for an easy glacé icing – children will love decorating these with sprinkles or little sweets like dolly mixtures or even chocolate buttons.
Want to go big, increase the mixture again by half (6 eggs, 12oz of flour, sugar & butter, keep the same amount of baking powder, add extra vanilla) to make a 3-layered 8-inch cake – a real showstopper for a birthday party!
- Chocolate cupcakes with a caramel centre & vanilla buttercream
- Vanilla butterfly cakes
- Funfetti cake with a raspberry pink buttercream
- Chocolate & vanilla marble cake with chocolate buttercream
- Jam surprise fairy cakes with lemon glacé icing
Use your imagination and have fun with our recipe below, we’d love to see what you come up with. Or use it to always have delicious cakes on hand.
Really Easy Vanilla Cupcakes
Course: Snack, DessertDifficulty: Easy24
Cupcakes10
minutes15
minutesAlways have delicious treats on hand with our flexible, fun cupcake recipe.
Ingredients
8oz self-raising flour
8oz caster sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
8oz baking margarine (see notes)
4 eggs
1-2 tsp vanilla
250g salted butter (room temperature)
500g icing sugar
A few tbsp milk
Sprinkles, sweets or chocolates to decorate
Directions
Preheat the oven to 180ºC fan and line 2 12-hole cupcake tins with paper cases.
In a large bowl or stand mixer, add the flour, sugar, baking powder, butter, eggs & 1 tsp vanilla.
Mix ingredients until just combined.
Fill cases to around 2/3 full & bake for 15 minutes until golden brown & a skewer comes out clean.
Whilst cakes are cooling on a rack, add the butter to a bowl or stand mixer & beat until pale & creamy.
Add icing sugar and vanilla & mix until buttercream comes together - add a few spoons of milk to reach desired consistency (see notes).
Spoon buttercream onto cakes, or use a piping bag. Decorate with sweets and chocolates!
Notes
- You can use baking margarine, or butter. Just make sure all butter is at room temperature before using.
- I like to place a clean tea towel over the mixer after adding the icing sugar - this really helps the clean up! Also, give it time to mix together. It always takes longer than you think & extra liquid is not always the answer!