Christmas Cupcakes

 In today's post, I am sharing a recipe for delicious Christmas cupcakes.

Ingredients 

125 g butter, softened

200 g caster sugar

4-6 drops almond exract

4 eggs, lightly beaten

150 g self-raising flour

175 ground almonds

For the topping

450 g white ready-to-roll fondant icing

55 g green ready-to-roll fondant icing

25 g red ready-to-roll fondant icing

Icing sugar for dusting

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and put 16 paper muffin cases in muffin tins.

Put the butter, sugar and almond extract in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the flour and fold it into the mixture, then fold in the ground almonds. 

Spoon the mixture into the paper muffin cases to half-fill them.

Bake the cupcakes in the oven for 20 minutes,or until they have risen well, are golden brown and firm to touch. Transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool. 

When the cupcakes are cool, knead the white icing until pliable, then roll out on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Using a 7 cm plain round cutter, cut out 16 circles and re-roll the icing as necessary. 

Place a circle on top of each cupcake.

Roll out the green icing on the icing sugar dusted surface. Using the palm of your hand, rub icing sugar into the icing to prevent it from spotting. Using a holly-leaf-shaped cutter, cut out 32 leaves, re-roolling the icing as necessary. 

Brush each leaf with a little cooled boiling water and place two leaves on top of each cupcake. 

Roll the red icing between the palms of your hands to form 48 berries and place in the middle of the leaves. 

There you have it, an easy and tasty Christmas treat!