Cupcakes and Spring....

This morning it was 3*F when I left the house to go out. This is cold...not as cold as some places in the U.S. today. But for me it was freakin' cold. I was looking through my pictures tonight and found my Easter Sunday dinner cupcakes. They made me feel like Spring was not far off and my Pansies would be blooming again...I miss them so.

I make lots of cupcakes and love them all. But this recipe by Nigella Lawson is so easy and one of my very favorites. They are delicate little babies, so delicate you can eat several without ever knowing you did. I think these will be lovely for Valentines day with the royal icing tinted the palest pink...and I am thinking of Spring tonight...it is not that far off.

These are so rightfully called....

Fairy Cakes
adapted from Nigella Lawson
Cupcakes:
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon soft butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 to 3 tablespoons milk

Royal Icing, recipe follows

Special equipment: 12 bun muffin pan, lined with muffin papers.

Take everything you need out of the fridge in time to get to room temperature - and this makes a huge difference to the lightness of the cupcakes later - and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Put all of the ingredients for the cupcakes except for the milk into a food processor and blitz until smooth. Pulse while adding the milk down the funnel, to make a smooth dropping consistency.

Divide the mixture between a 12-bun muffin tin lined with muffin papers, and bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. They should have risen and be golden on top. Let them cool a little in their tins on a rack, and then take them carefully out of the tin to cool in their papers, still on the wire rack.

Ice with Royal Icing.

Royal Icing:
*2 large egg whites (or substitute powdered egg whites)
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice ( I use vanilla extract instead of the lemon juice)

Combine the egg whites and confectioners' sugar in a medium-size mixing bowl and whip with an electric mixer on medium speed until opaque and shiny, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the lemon juice, this will thin out the icing. Beat for another couple of minutes until you reach the right spreading consistency for the cupcakes.

Yield: sufficient to generously ice 12 cupcakes