Spiced apple cupcakes

■ Makes 12 ■ Prep 30 mins plus chilling ■ Cook 35 mins uniced

125g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

50g brown sugar

2 eggs

200g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

150g apples, peeled, cored and grated

(prepared weight)

2 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp ground ginger

FOR THE BUTTERCREAM ICING

200g butter, softened

400g icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

FOR THE DECORATIONS green and brown fondant

2 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting red and green sanding sugar (find online

or in specialist shops)

YOU’LL ALSO NEED

12 paper cupcake cases,

6 red and

6 green

1 Make the decorations. Roll out the green fondant on a surface dusted with the sugar to a 5mm thickness. Cut out 12 small ‘leaves’ using a knife. Set aside on baking parchment.

Roll the brown fondant into 12 x 1cm ‘stalks’. Set aside with the leaves.

2 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line six holes of a 12-hole cupcake tin with red cases, and the other six with green. For the cake batter, beat the butter and both sugars with an electric whisk until fluffy.

Mix in the eggs, then fold in the flour, baking powder, grated apple and spices until mixed. 3 Fill the cases three-quarters full and bake for 30-35 mins, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool completely in the tin. Meanwhile, make the icing. Beat the butter until light and creamy, then add the sugar and vanilla, and beat for 5 mins more until fluffy and pale.

4 Spoon the icing into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle. Working from the outside in, pipe the icing in a swirl over the cupcakes. Use a palette knife to smooth into neat domes, then chill for 30 mins to firm up. 5 Tip the red and green sanding sugars into separate bowls. Dip the tops of the cupcakes with the red cases into the red sugar, and those with green cases into the green sugar, turning to fully coat the icing.

6 Make little indentations in the top of the icing for the fondant stalks, and add the leaves around them.

PER SERVING 477 kcals, fat 23g, saturates 14g,

carbs 63g, sugars 50g, fibre 1g, protein 3g, salt 0.8g