I prepared those mini cupcakes with my dear friend and favorite writer Nicole who wants to learn how to bake – and I know cupcakes often look intricate, basic cupcakes are actually one of the easiest thing you can bake and the whole thing is done in less than 30 minutes (plus cooling time)! The only part that needs some practice is the piping of the frosting, but trust me, no one will notice a couple of dodgy cupcakes in between anyway. So for our first baking lesson, we made basic vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate frosting – in miniature form! The recipe is good for 12 normal sized cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes. So here we go:

Ingredients:

Cupcakes (12 large, 24 small)
60g butter (soft, room temperature)
160g sugar
160 g flour
1 sachet vanilla sugar
½ teaspoon Vanilla powder (or a vanilla pod scratched out)
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch salt
1,20 dl milk

Chocolate Frosting:
250g icing sugar
20g cocoa powder
125g butter (room temperature)
3 tbsp milk
1 pinch vanilla powder
Preparation:

Cupcakes:
Whisk the butter until creamy. Add sugar, vanilla sugar, vanilla powder and egg, mix until creamy. Add flour, baking powder, salt and milk and whisk again until the mixture is smooth.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line the muffin tray with paper moulds. Fill the dough into the paper moulds (approx. ⅔ of the moulds should be filled, the dough still rises in the oven). Bake mini cupcakes for 14-15 minutes (large cupcakes for 22-25 minutes). Take them out of the oven and let them cool completely before they can be decorated with frosting.
Frosting:
Cut the butter into pieces. In a bowl, add butter, icing sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla powder and milk and mix until the mixture is even. Fill the frosting into a piping bag and let it rest at room temperature until the cupcakes can be decorated. When the cupcakes have cooled down, pipe frosting evenly onto the cupcakes (I start with an outwards circle towards the inside and finish in the middle of the cupcakes). Garnish with chocolate sprinkles if you like and let cupcakes cool in the fridge for 15-20 minutes so that the frosting can set a bit  – and enjoy!

Tip 1: For the frosting, if the mixture is to thick, add more milk, if it is too runny, add more icing sugar.

Tip 2: If you want to bring your mini cupcakes to a party or give them to someone as a present, use an empty egg carton for transportation, the mini muffins are the perfect size for it – and if you paint or decorate it a bit, the egg carton also makes for a pretty gift!