Recipe: Mini Egg Cupcakes

I love Mini Eggs and surprisingly still have a few packets knocking around my house even though Easter is long gone. So today I thought I'd share with you my recipe for easy Mini Egg cupcakes with a light moist chocolate sponge, fluffy vanilla buttercream, topped with a cluster of Cadbury's best creations.

Ingredients 
For The Cupcakes 
- 100g Caster Sugar
- 100g Stork
- 100g Self Raising Flour
- 25g Cocoa Powder
- 2 Eggs
- 2 Tsp Chocolate Extract

For The Buttercream 
- 200g Unsalted Butter, softened
- 320g Icing Sugar
- 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
- A splash of milk
- 1 Bag Of Mini Eggs

Method 
1- Pre heat your oven to 180c. Line a twelve cupcake tin with paper cases.
2- Into a bowl place your caster sugar and stork. Cream together until pale in colour and fluffy in texture.
3- Add one egg and a tablespoon of flour. Beat until combined.
4- Repeat with the other egg and another tablespoon of flour. Beat until fully combined, taking care to scrape the edges of the bowl.
5- Fold in your chocolate extract, cocoa powder alongside the remainder of your flour. I always use two teaspoons of liquid chocolate extract when I make any kind of chocolate sponge. It helps to stop the cocoa powder catching as the cake cooks and gives it a delicious rich flavour whilst helping the cake stay moist even if you do accidentally leave it the oven a couple of minutes longer than you should.
6- Spoon your mixture into your waiting cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes or until the top springs back when pressed gently. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
7- Now it's time to start your buttercream. Place your softened unsalted butter into a clean bowl and beat until soft.
8- Sieve in half your icing sugar and beat until combined. If you're using a hand mixer to make your buttercream, start on a slow speed so your icing sugar doesn't fly everywhere because it coats everything and doesn't taste as good as it suggests.
9- Sieve in the remaining half of your icing sugar and beat until fully combined, taking care to scrape the edges and bottom of the bowl so everything is fully incorporated.
10- Beat in your vanilla extract and a small splash of milk to help loosen the mixture and take it to the perfect piping consistency.
11- Spoon your prepared buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a piping nozzle of your choice and pipe onto your now cooled cupcakes. I used my 2D Flower nozzle to create these swirls as it always works wonders with my shaky, still somewhat amateur piping hands.
12- Once all of your cupcakes have been decorated, gently place your mini eggs in the centre to create a small cluster. You can use four or even five but I used only three to keep it looking cleaner and simpler but still ridiculously tasty.
13- Leave to set and then enjoy. I can guarantee these will be a hit with family, friends and work colleagues.