I spent Saturday at the beach with my boyfriends 5 nieces and nephews which was great fun.  It was one of their birthdays so I took some cupcakes with me.  The beach always makes me think of ice cream which gave me the inspiration to make some ice cream sundae cupcakes. Here they are..

I used the vanilla cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery which is my personal favourite.

The recipe is very simple to follow.  You will need the following:
110g unsalted butter, at room temperature
225g caster sugar, preferably golden
2 large eggs, free-range or organic
150g self-raising flour, sifted
125g plain flour, sifted
120ml semi-skimmed milk at room temperature
1 teaspoon good-quality vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 160°C (fan)/ 180°C/ 350 °F/ gas mark 4 and line a 12 hole muffin tray.

• Cream the butter and sugar until the mixture is pale and smooth, this can take 3 to 5 minutes with an electric hand mixer. 
• Add the eggs to the creamed mixture one at a time mixing after each addition.
• Combine the two flours in a speparate bowl.
• Put the milk and vanilla extract in a jug.
• Add one third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat well.
• Pour in one third of the milk and beat again.
• Repeat these steps until all the flour and milk have been added.
• Fill the cupcake (muffin) cases to approximately 2 thirds full.
• Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes until they are raised and golden brown.
• If you are making mini cupcakes then reduce the time in the oven to 15 minutes.
• To check they are cooked, insert a skewer in the centre of one of the cupcakes and it should come out clean.
• Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 minutes and then place on a wire rack.
• Once they are completely cooled they are ready to be decorated.

Filling the cupcakes with Jam:

To fill the cupcakes with jam I first cut out the centre of the sponge using my potato peeler.  Now the potato peeler may sound odd but I have found this easier than using a knife or a cupcake corer.   Removing the centre of the sponge means you can have jam going all the way through your cupcake and the other great thing is that you have loads of bits of sponge samples at the end to eat.  I used seedless raspberry jam for the filling but it is of course up to you.

To decorate:

I used the Primrose Bakery vanilla buttercream recipe.  You will need:

110g unsalted butter at room temperature
60ml semi-skimmed milk at room temperature
1 tsp good quality vanilla extract
500g icing sugar, sifted

• Mix the butter, milk, vanilla extract and half the icing sugar until smooth.
• Once smooth add the remaining icing sugar and mix again until smooth and creamy.
• If you want to colour your icing add a drop of food colouring and mix again.  Keep adding 1 drop and mixing until you have reached the colour you desire.

I used quite a lot of buttercream so I had to make another batch.  There is no need to go quite so crazy with the buttercream so do one batch which should be enough if your ice cream swirls aren't too high...

Once all the cupcakes were iced I added a flake, a cherry made out of fondant, a wafer, sprinkles and chocolate drizzle (for which I melted a small amount of 70% cocoa dark chocolate).  I did have fresh cherries to use but then remembered they have small stones in which aren't good for small children.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to comment or send me a message and I will get back to you shortly.

Happy baking