Snowflake cupcakes recipe

The perfect food gift for Christmas, these snowflake cupcakes are ready in just eight easy steps.

Give your cupcakes a festive touch by topping them with this cute snowflake design made simply with white fondant and a snowflake mould. This cupcake recipe makes 12 cupcakes, ideal for giving as a homemade food gift for Christmas. Pop in a cupcake box and tie with a red ribbon.

Ingredients

• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 140g self-raising flour
• 10g cornflour
• 3 medium eggs
• 30ml milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

For the snowflakes and top

• 350g red fondant
• 150g white fondant
• 1 tsp gum tragacanth
• Trex

For the buttercream:

• 110g butter, room temperature
• 500g icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 60ml milk

Equipment

• Deep muffin tray
• 12 cases
• Snowflake mould
• Circle cookie cutters

Method

1. The night before you make the cakes you will need to add the gum tragacanth the white fondant, this makes it easier to use fondant in the snowflake mould.
2. Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 4. Line the baking tray with cases.
3. Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla essence until light a fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add 1 egg, 1 third of the flour and a splash of milk and beat until just combined and repeat until all the ingredients are combined.
4. Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 25-30 minutes depending on your oven. Remove and cool in the tins for 10 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack.
5. To make the buttercream, add butter, icing sugar and vanilla extract to a large mixing bowl, then beat for about 5 minutes with an electric whisk until smooth. Pour the milk gradually if you need to loosen the mixture.
6. Once cooled completely, spread the buttercream on the tops of the cupcakes as smooth as you can. Remember not to smooth it too far to the edges as the buttercream will squash out the sides when you add the fondant.
7. Cut 12 circles from the red fondant one size larger than the cupcake and stick over the top of the buttercream, smoothing the edges with your finger.
8. Using the white fondant and a touch of trex in the mould to stop the fondant sticking - mould the desired amount of snowflakes and stick with a brush of water to the top of the red fondant.

Top tips for making snowflake cupcakes

Swap the red fondant for green instead. You could also add these snowflakes to other Christmas cupcakes too.

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Hummingbird Bakery’s vanilla cupcakes recipe

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