Birthday cupcakes......

Today I dropped off some birthday cupcakes for a family friend. Her son turned 14 so she wanted some cakes with a few of the things he likes on top. Wallace and Gromit, Batman, Bart Simpson and Ben 10. I managed to mould some gromit heads and my boyfriend made the little batman cutouts, and for the other characters I made some little tags and attached them to cocktail sticks.

I found a great bargain last week whilst shopping, a big tin of black treacle for 12pence. One of the best recipes I have using this dark, luscious stuff is ginger cake. So I took out my trusted recipe that I was given at catering college and got to work. Its really easy to make and stays deliciously moist for up to a week if kept in an airtight container. Great as it is or topped with lashings of cream.

This will easily serve 10

250g butter

250g muscovado sugar

250g black treacle

300ml milk

2 eggs

375g plain flour

2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon allspice
3 teaspoons ground ginger

Butter and line a 9inch cake tin. Heat the oven to gas mark 3.

Place the butter, sugar and treacle in a saucepan and heat gently until dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the milk. Add the eggs beating well.

Mix the flour, bicarb and spices in another bowl then make a well in the centre. Pour in the treacle mix and mix well. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 70 minutes. Check if its done by inserting a skewer, if it comes out clean its done. Leave the cake to cool in the tin.

Will keep for a week in an airtight tin.

Enjoy.