Cupcake heaven

So, today, I made some cupcakes for a friend's daughter's birthday party (my first paid catering job!). The pink ones above are mini cupcakes with buttercream frosting and sprinkles and the ones further below with little butterfly toppers are regular size. I use my favourite orange cake recipe for these cupcakes as it is so moist and the orange flavour is wonderful. Here is the recipe that I have been using for years from my dear sister. It is so easy and quick too. Two of my favourite words when baking!

Orange (Butter) Cake

Ingredients

175g (6 ozs) butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 tspn vanilla essence

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups SR flour

1/2 cup orange juice (or milk for the plain butter cake version)

Method

Beat butter and sugar to a cream, add vanilla then eggs (and beat after each addition). Mix in flour and orange juice (milk) alternately and bake in a moderate oven for approx. 45 - 50 mins *. I usually line the tin with greaseproof paper if making the whole cake.

* This time is only if you do it as the full cake obviously. The cupcakes cook in a much quicker time. Just watch until they are a light golden colour and spring back when touched on top.

Other notes:

- Don't be tempted to use bought orange juice. Freshly squeezed is definitely best and I always squeeze enough to use for the frosting/icing as well.

- I also add the zest of about one or half an orange to give a little bit more flavour (I make sure it is fine zest if I am doing them for children). Thank you, my dear friend Emily, for showing me this!

These little cupcake toppers (below) are my first attempt at these. I haven't seen these in Australia (or elsewhere) but have been noticing them a lot in the US magazines I subscribe to. Anyway, I thought they would be a fun addition to these plainer cupcakes. They were dead easy to make. I just punched a bunch of butterflies out of three different papers (I would use more densely patterned papers next time), added a drop of glue to the back and stuck the toothpick to it. Quite effective!