Valentines Hearts

It may have escaped your notice, but somehow I doubt it, that 2 months ago, it was St Valentine's day. In light of this, I decided to make some Valentine's themed cupcakes.


These were very simple to make, based on a normal vanilla fairy cake, and then just decorated especially.


Ingredients - makes about 18


100g (4 oz) margarine
125g (5 oz) caster sugar
150g (6 oz) self raising flour
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk
0.5 tsp vanilla essensce


Icing


100g (4 oz) royal icing sugar
cold water
2 tbsp sieved strawberry jam
200g (8 oz) pink ready-roll icing

1. Preheat the oven to 190*C.
2. Either process all the cake ingredients together, or follow this step wise route: Cream the margarine and sugar together. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Then add the milk and vanilla essence. Finally fold in the flour.
3. Spoon the mixture into baking cases (1/2-2/3 full) and bake for 15 minutes.
4. Remove from oven a cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Icing - mix the water and royal icing sugar to make a thick paste that is still spreadable. The jam should be sieved through either muslin or a fine sieve will do.
6. While the cakes are cooling roll out the pink icing and cut the correct number of heart shapes out of the icing. The icing should be 0.5-1 cm thick. Spoon the white icing onto the cakes in a thin layer.
7. Place one heart in the centre of each cake. Spoon the jam into a piping bag, and pipe a line onto each heart, a few mm away from the edge.

These really do look like a special kind of cake, and are a nice little touch for valentines. Obivously you might not manage 18 between two people, so you could half the mixture. If you are feeling fancy, you can add a touch of rose water to the mix. Replace 1 tbsp of milk in the cake with it, and replace the water for the white icing to taste. It makes a good addition to the cake, and adds a bit more depth to it.


Hope you enjoy!


MMFC