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Hi all!

Last week, I got to make some cupcakes for a gorgeous little girl's second birthday.
The brief was pink, roses and hello kitty.

What I came up with is a sweet little vanilla cupcake with pink and white marshmallow frosting and adorbs white chocolate fondant toppers.

What makes these special is that while they contain butter- that gives you the lush deliciousness you want in a cake, they also contain oil to amp up the (trigger warning) moistness .

The hack? No creaming the butter and sugar- save yourself 12 minutes of furious whipping and reap the rewards anyway!

I scoured the web for great tutorials I think deserve some attention- and modeled these little beauties after them, with my own little twist!

The cupcake recipe is by Lindsay from love and sugar, the only tweaks are that I replaced 60ml of the oil with melted salted butter, replaced the warm water with warm vanilla tea (optional) and added an extra egg yolk. Other than that, the recipe comes together quickfast in under 5 minutes, and 25 minutes later beautiful cupcakes are yours for the nomming!

VANILLA CUPCAKES (Makes 12 Large or 24 small cupcakes)

• 1/2 cups Cake Flour
• 2 cups Granulated Sugar
• 3 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Full Cream Milk (it adds to the richness, don't skimp with skim, these are cupcakes for crying out loud!)
  *60 ml Vegetable Oil and 60 ml Salted Butter, melted.
• 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
• 2 large Eggs and 1 Yolk
• 1 cup (240ml) water. (I made a cup of Lipton Vanilla Green Tea and let it cool , the tea helps balance the sweetness and reinforces the vanilla flavour, but the recipe is still great if just using water)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C or 365F
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a large bowl.
3. In a separate, microwave-safe bowl, melt butter before adding oil and milk to cool the butter before adding the eggs (no one wants a scramble in their cupcake) and whisking to combine.
4. Pour all the wet mix into the dry mix and whisk until a smooth batter forms.
5. Slowly whisk in the water or tea-if using until just incorporated, it makes a pretty thin batter, but all is well!
6. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners and fill 2/3 of the way up.
7. Give the tin 3 light raps on the table to burst any air bubbles in the batter (lifehack, it helps prevent the cupcakes from turning into angry, lopsided cone-head replicas) before popping in the oven for 15 minutes if making little ones, or 20 if using large cupcake tins.
   They're ready when a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean, but DO NOT TEST before the 15 minute mark or they will collapse.

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Let them cool on a wire rack and get on to that frosting.

You guys- this frosting...O.M.G. I've added cookiesandcups to the list of people I want to hug someday. I'll never use a regular buttercream again.
Her toasted version is amazeballs, but because I wanted them to look delicate and pretty-in-pink I just melted them in the microwave, but for something like red velvet or chocolate- toast them, the results are incredible!, I also added a splash of vanilla extract to up the flavour.

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Marshmellow Buttercream:

• 1 cup butter, room temperature (I used salted, but unsalted is fine)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk
• 1 Cup White Marshmallows, halved if they're regular-size to help the melting.

Method:

1. Place Marshmellows in a microwave-safe bowl with a teaspoon of the butter and nuke in 30 second bursts until puffed up.
2. Add the vanilla and the rest of the butter and whip like mad (an electric whisk is a lifesaver here)
3. Once it's fluffy , sift in icing sugar one cup at a time and whip thoroughly , if it's too stiff- add milk a teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
4. Place piping bag nozzle side down into a tall glass and fill half-way with frosting. Twist the end to help push the frosting through the nossle and go bananas.
5. Because this recipe is for a little one, I only piped a thin layer of frosting in a rose shape (start in the centre and work your way in spirals to the outside, couldn't be easier!)
6. I added a little raspberry juice mixed with some more icing sugar to achieve the pink.

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For the fondant toppers, I found this cute-as-heck tutorial for hello kitty here

And this adorable ribbon tutorial from CakesbyLynz (How sweet is her accent?!):

I used chocolate fondant, but gum paste, marzipan or even marshmallow fondant will work just fine!

I just dyed little bits of the fondant yellow and pink, and used some activated charcoal to achieve the black for the whiskers and eyes on the kitties.
Here's the recipe for easy-peasy chocolate fondant:

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Chocolate Fondant

• 200 grams White Chocolate
• 2 tbsp Liquid glucose

Method:

1. Place chocolate in a bone-dry, microwave safe bowl (water is the enemy of chocolate!) and nuke on medium heat in 30 second intervals until just starting to melt.
2. Allow to sit for a minute before you begin to stir, the residual heat should melt the rest of the chocolate, if not- pop it back in for 30 seconds until smooth.
3. Coat a tablespoon in a little cooking spray or oil and scoop out the liquid glucose, stirring in quickly. Don't overmix or the cacao solids will split. Allow to cool a little before placing on a surface dusted lightly with icing sugar and knead into a smooth ball. If it's too soft, just wrap it in clingfilm and let it sit for a few minutes- the fat in the chocolate will re-harden and make it easier to work with.
4. Any food colouring works beautifully, just sprinkle on a little icing sugar if the mixture becomes too wet to work with.
5. Try and keep dark colours on a separate surface- I learned the hard way with the activated charcoal and ended up staining half my pretty pink fondant grey.
6. Get your creative on! It's actually really easy and therapeutic and the results are pretty good I think.

As always, pop a comment below if you'd like to try these yourself and I'll skype or text you through any hiccups.

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Have a great week!