I spent the evening baking. I spent the morning decorating. And Little Bee and her Busy Bee friends at the Nursery had a wonderful little party.

Ingredients:

CUPCAKE
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
190g unrefined granulated sugar
6 eggs
2tsp vanilla essence
Zest from 2 lemons
390g plain flour
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
120ml milk

ICING
226g unsalted butter, room temperature
370g unrefined icing sugar
2tsp vanilla essence
2tbsp milk
Food colouring

1. Preheat the oven at 180C or gas mark 4.
2. In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time and beat them well into the mixture. Beat in the vanilla essence and lemon zest.
3. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt into the wet mixture, a bit at a time, alternating with the milk and mix gently.
4. This mixture will make 24 ordinary size cupcakes and about 72 mini cupcakes. Line the cupcake tray with paper liner and evenly fill each cup half full. Put them in the middle of the oven and bake for about 17 minutes for normal size cupcakes or 12 minutes for mini cupcakes; or the skewer inserted into the cupcakes comes out clean.
5. Remove from oven and place them on a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
6. For the icing, cream the butter and vanilla essence. Gradually beat the sugar in. Add the milk and continue beating for about 3 minutes until the mixture is nice and fluffy. Tint the frosting with desired food colouring. I divided the mixture into two so I could use two different colours.
7. Pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes and add other edible decorations to your heart’s content!

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