Ingredients:

175 g. self-raising flour

175 g. Caster sugar

175 g. butter ( room temperature)

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 large eggs

FOR THE ICING:

125g Butter (room temperature)

225g Icing sugar  

1-2 tbsp milk

Decoration:(Optional)

A few drops of food colouring

I decided to go with orange icing this year, so I used orange food colouring.
If orange is unavailable in the store just mix red & yellow.
For chocolate topping, add Cocoa Powder to the mix.

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2) Easiest way ever: Just add all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat with a whisk, hand mixer or use a standing mixer like I usually do until the mixture is smooth and evenly mixed.
3)Divide the mixture evenly between the paper cases.
4)Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean. Set aside to cool for 5-10 minutes.
5) Time to make the buttercream icing. Beat the butter until soft then add half of the icing sugar and beat it until smooth. Add the remaining icing sugar with 1 tbsp milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
Add food colouring (optional) and mix well.
6)As my piping set did not arrive on time, I couldn't do creamy icing on the top, so I ended up adding a slice of fondant on the top.

If you would like to make creamy icing :

Spoon the buttercream into a piping bag and add a nozzle of your choice. Pipe swirls of the icing on top of each cupcake. Voila! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween everyone! xx