Cacti Cupcakes

I’m going to be totally upfront and admit that I’m not 100% sure I nailed these… I think by looking at them it’s pretty clear that my playdough skills are a little rusty!  Oh well!  The recipe works in theory, but definitely required a little more patience to get the icing right!  They look better from far away!  But, here they are anyway – Cacti Cupcakes! 🙂

Cacti Cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cakes:

• 175g soft butter/marg
• 100g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 225g self raising flour
• 120ml milk

For the topping:

• Green Packet Icing
• Purple Food colouring
• Crushed light biscuits (I used malted milks)
• Buttercream

1. Set the oven to 180° and line a cupcake/muffin tin with twelve cases.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar and then whisk in the eggs.
3. Gradually stir in the flour and milk, alternating between the two.
4. Pour into the cupcake cases and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden brown.
5. Once the cupcakes are cooled, spread the tops with a layer of buttercream and then sprinkle with crushed biscuits to create a sand effect.  
6. Give the green icing a more succulent appropriate shade by adding a little purple food colouring, then carefully (unlike me!) mould into leaf and cactus shapes.  This is the most fiddly bit and requires some time and patience to get right.  It might be worth using flower or star-shaped cutouts to get the right shape.