I asked a while ago on my Instagram poll if people wanted to see non SW food on my blog and the majority did so here is one to start off with. This is a very easy and simple cupcake recipe, my go to recipe, it is so easy to make that even my younger kids can make them (they’re 8 & 10 years old) without any supervision from me. Obviously if your children have never cooked before, please make sure you supervise them at all times.

If you’d like to work out the syn values for the cupcakes, you’ll need to work out the syn values for each ingredient and then divide it by the number of cupcakes made. The recipe below makes 12 cupcakes and I’ve worked out the syns value for you this time (without the icing) but that is not something I will be doing for future recipes – I have a lot of dessert and cake recipes to share and knowing the syn values will shock me and you! I will leave that for every reader to work out for themselves.

So, when using a light margarine such as Flora light to make these, the syn value for each cupcake will be 5.5 syns. If you choose to use regular margarine then the syns go up a little, each cupcake will then be 7 syns each. It is not that high to be fair and homemade goodies always taste so much better than shop bought, so definitely worth the syns. You could potentially have 2 cupcakes within your daily syns allowance!

The kids decorated the cupcakes simply by mixing icing sugar with water (until they got a sightly runny consistency) and topped them with sugar strands and balls and mini marshmallows. You can buy halal mini marshmallows from your local Asian supermarket but I like to get mine from Leicester – from a place called Mr. Burger! (yeah it is not a restaurant, they sell a whole range of frozen goodies and things from South Africa too, as well as tubs of halal sweets).

Don’t forget to tag me on your posts when you make these, I love looking at everyone’s posts, and feel free to share the recipe x

Cupcakes made & decorated by the kids

Makes: 12 cupcakes

Time Taken: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 115g margarine
• 115g self raising flour
• 115g caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Beat the sugar and margarine together till light and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly after each addition.

Add the flour and try not to overmix at this stage. Add the vanilla.

Pour the mixture into 12 muffin cases and cook in a pre heated oven for 15 minutes on gas mark 4.

You can check if the cupcakes are cooked by inserting a toothpick in the middle of one cupcake. If it comes out clean, then your cupcakes are done! If not, then leave them to cook a little longer. Try not to be tempted into opening your oven door too early, this may result in sunken cakes!