Recipe for Big Cat Week: lion cupcakes!
In celebration of Big Cat Week, here’s a simple recipe explaining how to make your own light and delicate lion-themed fairy cakes - why not bake them to raise funds for your local Cats Protection branch or adoption centre?
Makes 24 cupcakes – adapted from original recipe in Cupcakes by Susanna Tee.
Ingredients
- 225g margarine
- 225g caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 225g self-raising flour
For the topping
- 175g butter, softened
- 350g icing sugar
- Yellow food colouring
- 48 chocolate cereal hoops for the ears
- 48 sugar coated chocolate beans (such as Smarties) for the eyes
- 24 jelly sweets for the noses
- Strawberry laces for the mane, cut into 1cm length
Method
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit/gas mark 4. Put 24 paper cupcake cases in a muffin tray and put aside.
2. Put the margarine, sugar, eggs and sifted flour in a large bowl and beat together with a whisk until smooth.
3. Spoon the mixture into the paper cupcake cases.
Photo by Amelia Wells via flickr / Creative Commons
4. Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until well risen and golden brown.
5. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.
6. Make buttercream by putting the butter in a mixing bowl and beating until fluffy. Stir in the icing sugar and beat together until smooth. Add yellow food colouring until desired shade is achieved and mix well.
7. When the cupcakes have cooled, spread the buttercream on top of each one.
8. Decorate by adding strawberry laces around the edges of each cupcake to make the mane. Add two chocolate cereal hoops to each cupcake for the ears; two chocolate beans for the eyes and one jelly sweet for the nose.
Enjoy – but please note these cupcakes are for humans, not for cats!
