Welcome to Nigella

Ingredients

• 125g self-raising flour
• 125g caster sugar
• 125g soft unsalted butter
• 2 eggs
• Half a teaspoon real vanilla extract
• Approximately 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 packet instant royal icing
• Food colouring - for preference, colour pastes specialist cake decorations of choice e.g. wafer roses, sugar flowers, dolly mixtures, and sprinkles
• 1 x 12-bun muffin tin 12 muffin papers

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line the tin with the muffin cases.
2. It couldn't be simpler to make cup cakes: just put all the ingredients except for the milk in the processor and then blitz till smooth.
3. Pulse while adding milk, to make for a soft, dropping consistency, down the funnel. Or using a bowl and wooden spoon, cream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs one at a time with a little of the flour.
4. Then add the vanilla extract and fold in the rest of the flour, adding the milk to get the dropping consistency as before.
5. I know it looks as if you'll never make this scant mixture fit 12 bun cases, but you will. I promise you this mixture is exactly right to make the 12 cup cakes, so just spoon and scrape the stuff in, trying to fill each case equally, judging by eye only of course.
6. Put in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the cup cakes are cooked and golden on top. As soon as bearable, take the cup cakes in their cases out of the tin and let cool, right way up, on a wire rack.
7. Once they're cool, make up a big, uncoloured batch of royal icing, and then remove a few spoonfuls at a time to small bowls.
8. Using a bamboo skewer, add small dots of colours from the paste-tubs, stirring with a teaspoon and then adding more colouring, very slowly, very cautiously (pastel works best here, whatever your everyday aesthetic) until you get the colour you want.
9. Use teaspoons to coat the cupcakes with icing and leave each a moment to dry only slightly, on the surface, before sticking on a rose, daisy or whole stash of decorations.