Vanilla vanilla love heart glitter cupcakes

Hot pink iced and decorated vanilla cupcakes.

I like to make cupcakes in millions of different flavours, but there is something amazing about a simple vanilla cupcake with good buttercream icing. 

I am still working on my piping skills. My sister has her own cupcake business, so I am very lucky to have her ongoing advice. If you'd like to see her handiwork, or even order cupcakes or speciality cakes, her Facebook page is here. 

I use a recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery's cupcake book as the basis for all of my cupcakes. I then vary it as needed, eg: add cocoa for chocolate cupcakes, add handfuls of fruit for raspberry cupcakes, etc, etc. I also add in a bit of extra butter. You can never have too much butter. Fact. 

Today I made vanilla cupcakes. I used my standard mixture for the batter. My sister gave me a few extra tips on icing earlier this week. I can't reveal her secrets though! You'll have to ask her...

I will say re: icing that in order to get it to hold its form on the cake, always ice them when they're cool and make sure the icing is quite stiff. It should not fall off a spatula when you pick up a lump of it.

Cupcakes ready for icing.

As far as icing goes, the best way to learn on you own is to find some tutorials on YouTube. Then practice, practice, practice. It takes a while, but it is worth it. Also helps to have a sister who is a pro... ; ) 

There are tonnes of videos on not just piping itself, but also how to fill the bags, how to hold them and which tips create certain effects. 

Pink hearts, natural pink food colouring and edible pink glitter.

Decorating the cupcakes after icing them is definitely my favourite part. Especially when you get to use glitter. Edible glitter is available in speciality cake stores. It doesn't really photograph well but it looks amazing.

Cupcakes are a lot of fun to make, but also to share around. They seem to make people happy. At my last job, I took in three dozen for a morning tea, and they literally all disappeared before the boss had even had a chance to deliver his monthly update.

Great success!

Mmmmm... ready to enjoy.