Very Pink Cupcakes AKA Beat and Bake Cake

Being a very girly house that this is (poor Flower Daddy - 2 girl dogs, 2 daughters and a wife to make him suffer), we rather like pink cupcakes.  Pink cake AND pink icing!  Sometimes, just sometimes, we add blue sprinkles to the topping - for a bit of added manliness.  He doesn't complain.  Just as well, or us girls would eat the lot.

These ones are quite a lot Pinker than our usual pink (see the blue sprinkles?)...the photo is pretty rubbish too.  This icing was icing sugar, fresh lime juice, pink gel food colouring and a little water to make the icing easier to spread.

These are more typical of our usual pink cupcakes.  Pink butter cream icing with pink sponge hiding underneath.  Not a crazy glow in the dark sort of pink, more of a respectable and edible sort of pink.  I'll have to take a photo of the sponge next time we bake them.

Much concentration and enjoyment goes into the decoration and eating of them.

The recipe that I like is actually my moms Beat and Bake cake recipe.  When we were kids she would double it and make a massive tray bake cake.  I remember the icing being either chocolate or granadilla flavoured butter cream icing.  Yum!

It makes a lovely flat topped cupcake.  If you fill the cupcake cases 1/2 way, you can easily spread a runny icing on top without losing it all overboard.  Fill the cases about 3/4's for a piped icing finish.

Enough yabbering, here is the recipe:

125g soft margarine, not melted

200ml sugar

300ml flour

2 tsp baking powder

125ml milk

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence
a few drops food colouring

Heat your oven to 180 deg C.

Chuck all the ingredients into a bowl - I use my Kenwood electric mixer - and beat slowly until everything is nicely combined (about 3mins).

Pour into your cupcake cases or baking tin and bake until golden brown ~ cupcakes: approx 12mins ~ cake: approx 25mins