Pour your love into baking this valentines

With restaurants closed this Valentine’s Day, couples across the country are looking to create a romantic setting from the confines of their own homes.

Why not take this opportunity to test your baking skills for your partner and give our chocolate cupcake recipe, given to us by expert baker, Anna Newman from Sugar Bowl Bakes, a go?

Nothing says ‘I love you’ more than home baked goods, so roll up your sleeves, wash your hands and let’s begin!

YOU WILL NEED:

- Mixing bowl - Whisk - Scales - Cupcake cases - Ice cream scoop(or spoon) - Cake tin - Sieve - Spatula - Cooling tray - About 35 minutes of spare time

THE INGREDIENTS:

MAKES 12

For the cake batter:

- 150g caster sugar - 150g baking butter/stork - 3 medium eggs - 20ml vegetable oil - 1 tbsp golden syrup - 1 tsp vanilla extract - 110g self-raising flour - 40g cocoa powder

For the butter icing topping:

- 250g softened unsalted butter - 500g icing sugar - 1 tsp vanillia extract

THE METHOD:

For the cake batter:

- Pre heat your oven at 160 degrees (electric).

- First beat the butter and sugar together until it becomes light, fluffy, and lighter in colour.

- Weigh out all wet ingredients together in a bowl or jug and slowly add to the butter and sugar mix.

- Sieve the flour and coco together in a bowl, then add to the cake mix a spoonful at a time, ensuring your mixer is set to the lowest setting. Having the mixer on a low speed prevents air being knocked out of the cake batter, and therefore giving you light a fluffy cupcakes.

- Scope your cake batter into your cupcake cases, I use an ice cream scoop, 2 dollops is enough to fill a case ¾ of the way. Smooth over the mixture so its laying flat in the cases using a teaspoon.

- Pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes and leave to cool for an hour before decorating.

For the butter icing:

- Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until the mixture is light and fluffy. If you need to loosen the texture try adding tablespoon of boing water or milk.

- Now you can pipe onto your cupcakes in any pattern you wish, if you don’t have a piping nozzle and bag, simply spread on top with a knife.

TIP FROM THE EXPERT - When cracking your eggs, if you find any egg shell has fallen into the bowl, the easiest way to scoop it out is using the empty egg shell. The shell attracts it to itself, so you can scoop out without mess!