Melbourne Cup - cupcakes

I love my recipe for the cupcakes it basically involves throwing everything together and beating it up, which is exactly what I did on Melbourne Cup eve evening in order to bake and decorate some 80 plus cup cakes for our Pink Thai themed lunch.

The cup cakes went down a treat our pink theme went particularly well - I just remembered I lost at the track but managed to pick up the best dressed at the office! I was particularly proud of the men who donned their best pink bits to participate the office was particularly pretty instead of drab that day. Funnily enough though the next day we three women from my team turned up the next day head to toe in black. Maybe it was the memories of celebrity head played on the day that made us think we better turn up and look like we mean business again!

Cup Cakes

125g. butter, cut into small cubes
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Icing:
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 heaped teaspoons butter
lemon juice

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180deg.C. Line a 12 cup patty cake or muffin tin with paper cases.

2. Place all ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with electric mixer until ingredients are just combined. Scrape down with spatula and beat again until the mixture is thick and has lightened in colour.

3. Place about 1 1/2 tablespoons of mixture into each patty case and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until golden and the cakes spring back when gently pressed on the top. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

4. Combined icing sugar and butter in food process and process until well mixed. Add lemon juice, a little at a time, until icing is of spreadable consistency. Using a small icing palette or spatula, top each cake with icing and decorate as desired with silver or coloured cachous, chocolate sprinkles or hundreds and thousands or marshmallows cut into thirds width ways with some good kitchen shears.