Vanilla cupcakes

This is an absolutely failsafe recipe for cupcakes. It has never gone wrong for me. It is light, not too sweet, and always rises.

The great thing about these cupcakes is that you can decorate them to your heart's content. Some examples of my decoration are below, followed by the recipe. 

Plain vanilla icing with sugar stars (I live in Jersey and the Jersey butter is yellow - no need for food dye to create yellow icing here!)

French flag

German flag

Manchester City FC colours

A mixture of chocolate and vanilla icing with chocolate sprinkles

Vanilla icing with holly sugar sprinkles 

Ingredients (makes 12 cakes):

Cakes:
120g plain flour (sifted)
140g castor sugar
1.5 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
40g unsalted butter, softened
120ml whole milk
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Vanilla icing:
250g icing sugar (sifted)
80g unsalted butter, softened
25ml whole milk
1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate icing:
300g icing sugar (sifted)
100g unsalted butter, softened
40g cocoa powder (sifted)
40ml whole milk

Baileys/malibu icing: 
250g icing sugar (sifted)
80g unsalted butter, softened
25ml baileys or malibu

Method:

Cakes: 

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C. Line muffin tin with paper cases. 

2. Add butter, sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt to a bowl and beat using a hand mixer or stand mixer until you get a crumb texture

3. In a separate bowl, mix milk and eggs with a whisk or fork

4. Gradually pour milk/eggs mixture into the crumb mixture until combined into a thick mixture

5. Spoon or pour the batter into the cases approximately 2/3 full

6. Bake for 20-25 minutes 

7. Cool on wire rack

Icing: 

1. While cakes are cooking, use your mixer to beat the butter and icing sugar until combined before slowly adding the milk

2. Beat the mixture on high for at least 5 minutes (this is very important to get a good airy icing)