These Easy Halloween Cupcakes are basic enough for kids to bake and don't involve a tonne of food colouring or anything too creepy. They're simple vanilla fairy cakes with a water icing topping and coloured sprinkles. Googly eyes complete the look of these cute Halloween buns!
Preheat the oven to 180c or equivalent. Put 12 paper cake cases into a muffin tin and set aside.
Weigh 120g Butter and 120g Caster Sugar into a mixing bowl.
Use an electric whisk or stand mixer to beat the butter and sugar until it is light and fluffy.
Add 2 Eggs one at a time.
Give the eggs at least one minute of beating before adding the next egg. This is where the batter gets lovely and light. Don’t worry if the batter splits. Keep going.
Weigh 120g Plain Flour into the bowl and add 2 tsp Baking Powder and 1 tsp Vanilla Extract. Use a spatula to fold in the flour – you do not want to use any electric power here.
Stir through 2 tbsp Milk.
Use two teaspoons to add a heaped teaspoon of the batter into each cake case. Use the second spoon to push the mix off the first and into the cases. It will not look like much. If you want to make sure they’re even, you need 25g of batter in each case. It doesn’t look like enough but it is.
Bake the cakes for 15 minutes. Take them out when golden brown and they spring back when pressed.
Leave the cakes to completely cool.
Mix 150g Icing Sugar with 3 tbsp Lemon Juice in a small mixing bowl. Add the juice one spoon at a time.
You are looking for it to be a paste which just drops of a spoon slowly. It needs to be thin enough to make its own level but thick enough that it doesn’t run everywhere.
Spoon roughly 1 tbsp of the icing over each cake. Gently smooth it over with a spatula or back of a spoon so it reaches the edges.
Put the cakes onto a tray ready for decorating. The tray should catch and contain any runaway sprinkles.
Place 2 Googly Eyes onto each cake.
Sprinkle roughly 80g Halloween Themed Sprinkles over the cakes. I recommend putting the sprinkles into a small jug with a lip so you can be vaguely accurate.
Try to ensure that all of the white icing is covered. You can gently press the sprinkles down with the palm of you hand then shake off any excess.
You can occasionally collect any sprinkles from the tray and add them back to your shaking vessel.
Once all 12 cake are decorated, they’re ready to serve!