Children's Pastry Chef Experience at home

At The Rubens we offer our very own Pastry Chef Experience which enables little ones to see our Chefs at work and create their very own cupcakes.

You can re-create our Pastry Chef Experience at home, the perfect at-home activity. You can complete your cupcakes sweet treats that you have in your house already, whether that's sprinkles, chocolate or fruit.

If you enjoyed this recipe, we would love to see your photographs by tagging @RubensHotel on Instagram.

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes: 

• 125g butter softened/margarine 
• 125g caster sugar 
• 125g self-raising flour 
• 2 large eggs, beaten 
• 1tsp vanilla extract 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/gas mark 4. 
2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl. 
3. Stir in the beaten eggs. 
4. Sift in the self-raising flour and mix until just combined. Take care not to overmix. 
5. Transfer the mixture into cupcake cases, filling halfway. 
6. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. 

When the cupcakes are ready they will have risen and should be a golden brown colour. If in doubt, check they are cooked throughout by inserting a metal skewer/cocktail stick and see if it comes out dry. 

Ingredients: 

For the frosting:  

• 140g/5oz softened butter
• 280g/10oz icing sugar 
• 1-2 tbsp milk 
• ¼ tsp vanilla extract 
• Few drops food colouring 
• For the orange buttercream variation: 1 large orange, zest and 2 tbsp juice 
• For the chocolate variation: 25g cocoa powder, 75g milk or dark chocolate, melted 

Method: 

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth. 
2. Add the remaining icing sugar and one tablespoon of the milk and vanilla extract and beat the mixture until creamy and smooth. Beat in the remaining milk, if necessary, to loosen the mixture. 
3. Stir in the food colouring, if using, until well combined. 
4. For the orange buttercream variation, omit the milk and vanilla from the basic recipe. Stir in the zest and juice until thoroughly combined. 
5. For the chocolate variation, omit the milk from the basic recipe. Cream the butter and sugar, as above, also adding the cocoa powder. Allow the melted chocolate to cool for 10 minutes before adding to the whipped butter and sugar. Beat until well combined.