Recipe: Monster Cupcakes

Way back in the Summer I brought a couple of packs of edible eye cake decorations and initially I didn't know what to do with them but then one day as I was scrolling through Pinterest I was found the perfect use for them. Monster Cupcakes were not only the best way to use my edible eyes but were a great excuse to play with different coloured and flavoured icings and make a great Halloween treat.

Ingredients 
For The Cake
100g Caster Sugar
100g Stork, softened
100g Self Raising Flour
2 Eggs
2 Tsp Vanilla Extract

For The Buttercream
200g Butter, softened
320g Icing Sugar
1 Tblsp Milk
3 Food Colourings Of Your Choice
3 Flavourings Of Your Choice
1 Pack Of Edible Eye Decorations

Method 
1- Pre heat oven to 180C. Line a twelve hole muffin tin with paper cases.
2- In a bowl place the caster sugar and softened stork. Beat until creamy, pale and light in texture.
3- Add one egg in at a time followed by a tablespoon of flour. Beat until everything is combined, making sure to scrape repeatedly around the sides to make sure everything gets included in the mixture.
4- Once both eggs have been added, gently fold in the rest of the flour alongside the two teaspoons of vanilla extract. I used to add the vanilla extract after I;d folded the flour in but found that continously mixing the batter caused it to lose any air the folding of the flour had built.
5- Once everything is combined, spoon into the paper cases and bake in the oven for 15-20mins or until a skewer/cake tester comes out clean. Leave to cool for five minutes in the tin then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
6- As the cakes are cooling, place the softened butter into a bowl and beat until creamy. I find this does take a while but patience certainly pays off once it's complete.
7- Add half the icing sugar and a tablespoon of milk, then beat until smooth. I used to think that icing sugar had to be sieved to make a good consistency buttercream but it actually doesn't. I just throw it in and let my mixer work it's magic.
8- Once the mixture is smooth, add the rest of your icing sugar and beat again until everything is completely smooth. You can also add another spoonful of milk if you feel that your buttercream isn't the right piping consistency.
9- Seperate the buttercream between three small bowls. Into each bowl add each of your desired flavourings and colourings. For mine I went with Orange, Coconut and Lemon flavourings and I chose blue, purple and yellow for my colourings. The blue is coconut, the purple is orange and the yellow is lemon. I haven't given a measurement for how much you need to add to the buttercream as it's all about the way you want it to taste and the colour you wanted it to be.
10- When your happy with the colour and flavour of each buttercream, spoon each one into a piping bag with a nozzle of your choice and decorate your cakes. I thought that the blue monsters were going to be the best but the purple actually turned out to be my favourite with it's unique and intricate pattern.
11- Once all your cakes are iced, take your edible eyes and place them however you want on your cakes. I liked the idea of having a cyclops as well as a multi-eyed monster but you can do whatever you want and could even add more decorations to them if that's what you felt they needed.
12- Now all that's left for you to do is store them in an a airtight container and enjoy whenever you want.