Recipe: Jelly Chick Cupcakes

When I said that I had a lot of recipes to post, I wasn't joking. Today I'm back with my third recipe which again I made back during the Easter period. Now these have Jelly Chicks on them but can easily be replaced by standard Jelly Babies. These went down a storm with my work colleagues when I took them in and I'm sure I'm going to be making these a lot more in the future.

Ingredients 
For The Cupcakes 
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 100g Stork
- 2 Eggs
- 2Tsps Vanilla Extract

For The Buttercream 
- 200g Butter, softened
- 320g Icing Sugar
- 2 Tsps Lemon Extract 
- 1 Pack Of Jelly Chicks/ Jelly Babies
- Dr Oetker Orange Gel Food Colouring 

Method
1- Pre heat your oven to 180C. Line a twelve hold cupcake tin with paper cases.
2- Into a bowl place your caster sugar and stork. Cream together until pale and fluffy using either a spatula or a stand mixer.
3- Add an egg and a tablespoon of flour and beat until combined.
4- Repeat with your second egg and another tablespoon of flour. Beat until combined, taking time to scrape the sides of the bowl so everything is fully incorporated.
5- Fold in the rest of your flour and vanilla extract, taking time to add more air into the mixture instead of knocking it out. The air you add in now will help to create a light, fluffy cupcake that almost melts in the mouth.
6- Spoon into your prepared cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed.
7- Once the cupcakes are cooked, leave to cool in the tin for five minutes and then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
8- Now it's time to start on your buttercream. Place your softened butter into a bowl and beat until pale and creamy. Your best bet is to use a hand mixer or a stand mixer as this can take a while to do and it's a lot easier on the arms.
9- Sieve in half of your icing sugar and beat until fully combined, taking to scrape the edges of the bowl so no clumps of icing sugar are left sat on the side.
10- Sieve the other half of your icing sugar into the mixture and beat again.
11- Now I added a little bit of lemon extract and orange food colouring but you can use any flavouring/colour combination you like. These needed to be beaten into the mixture alongside a splash of milk to take it to that perfect piping consistency.
12- Spoon your buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle of your choice. I went with a 2D Star Nozzle as it gives me a really nice swirl finish.
13- Once all of your cupcakes are iced, place your Jelly Chicks/Babies on top and leave to set so they don't fall off. Then all that's left is to enjoy them by yourself or shared with family or work colleagues.