Tennis cupcakes recipe

Get in the Wimbledon spirit with these impressive tennis ball cupcakes. This cupcake recipe, with a simple tennis ball and grass design, will be a hit with the kids

Ingredients

For the cakes

• 150g caster sugar
• 150g butter
• 130g self-raising flour
• 20g cornflour
• 3 medium eggs
• 30ml milk
• 1tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients for the icing

• 500g icing sugar
• 250g unsalted butter
• Few drops of green food colouring
• 1tsp vanilla extract
• 3tbsp milk

For the toppers

• 250g white ready-to-roll fondant
• Yellow food colouring
• Gumtragacanth or Tylo (optional)

You will also need:

• 48mm circle cutter
• Wilton Grass Nozzle, optional
• Piping bag

Method

1. For the cakes
   1. Preheat your oven to 160°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3. Place 12 cases in your muffin tin.
   2. Beat the sugar and butter with the vanilla essence until light and fluffy.
   3. Add 1 egg, 1 third of the flour and a splash of milk and beat until just combined. Repeat until all the ingredients are combined.
   4. Divide the batter between the 12 cases and bake for 20-25 minutes.
   5. Remove and cool in the tins for 10 minutes before moving to a wire cooling rack
   For the buttercream
   1. Put all the ingredients into a large bowl and beat until smooth and shiny.
   2. Once the cakes are cool, spread or pipe using the grass nozzle tip onto the tops of the cupcakes.
   3. To pipe the grass, hold the nozzle to the cupcake and pipe 2cm as you are lifting away from the cake, pull up quickly to stop piping, repeat until the whole cake is covered.
   For the toppers
   1. Colour 220g of your ready to roll fondant yellow. Roll to 3mm thick and use the 48mm circle cutter to cut 12 circles. Leave to dry on greaseproof paper (Victoria used the ‘Purple Cupcakes Dome Kit’ to give the tennis balls a round shape.)
   2. Using the white fondant, roll long thin sausages. Brush with a touch of water and lay onto the yellow circles in tennis ball shapes. Cut the excess off with a sharp knife.
   3. Place the toppers on top of the grass buttercream on the cupcakes.

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