Kitty Heaven

Vanilla Cupcakes with Marshmallow Icing

Gorgeous simplicity..These cupcakes made a great birthday treat for Ralph, who's preference is always white on white.

Ralph's birthday is a stressful time for me. Seeing as I'm a girl who loves birthdays, and Ralph tries to avoid his as best he can. I try to make him feel a bit special but very subtly :-). Baking is the easiest way! Seeing as I bake all the time, it's nothing out of the ordinary, but can be tweaked for certain cat lovers.

Kitties are a favourite around here so these went down really well. They were simple, light and absolutely scrumptious. The marshmallow icing is such a lovely contrast to the normal butter butter butter. It might be silly, but I don't feel the least bit guilty eating these :-)

The recipe is very simple- Nigella herself says so! I adapted this slightly from "How to be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking" by Nigella Lawson. Published by Chatto & Windus 2003:

Vanilla "Fairy Cakes"

125 g unsalted butter, softened
125g castor sugar
2 large eggs
125g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/3 cup milk

1) Preheat oven on 200 C, and prepare a muffin pan.
2) Mix everything except the milk in a bowl. You need a proper mixer for this,
3) Add milk until it's just before pouring consistency,
4) Divide carefully between 12 muffin cups
5) Bake for 15-20 minutes. When they're golden on top they should be done.


The icing I got from here:

Marshmallow Icing

2 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/3 cups water
1 1/2 tsp glucose syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup miniature marshmallows (can use cut up normal marshmallows)

1) Take a heatproof bowl, and put in the egg whites, sugar, water and glucose syrup. Beat until mixed.
2) Place the bowl over boiling water, make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water itself.
3) Keep mixing for 5-10 minutes until it can make soft peaks, and remove from heat. It looks too liquid to begin with, don't get scared- it will come together.
4) Now add marshmallows and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly until the marshmallows are melted.

I started making the cupcakes before I realised I was out of milk! I ran downstairs to the new neighbors, and borrowed some, replacing it later with a couple of cupcakes. A great way to start a relationship..