Confetti cupcakes

Simple and delicious confetti cupcakes, perfect for kids’ parties of any age. Made with a classic vanilla cupcake batter and filled with colourful rainbow sprinkles, these cupcakes are topped with creamy mascarpone frosting and finished with an extra sprinkle of confetti. So sweet and fun!

Makes 12 cupcakes.

Ingredients for the confetti cupcakes:

• 160 g butter
• 120 g caster sugar
• 180 g plain flour
• 1½ tsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (or seeds from 1 vanilla pod)
• 3 Tbsp milk
• 30 g rainbow confetti sprinkles

All the ingredients should be at room temperature. Sift the plain flour with the baking powder and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla paste and mix to combine. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the mixture and fold gently with a spatula until just combined. Pour in the milk and mix gently. Finally, fold in the confetti sprinkles.

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake cases. Divide the batter evenly, filling each case to about three-quarters full.

Bake at 170°C for about 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Ingredients for mascarpone cream:

• 700 ml whipping cream, chilled
• 250 g mascarpone, chilled
• 2 – 3 Tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla paste (or seeds from 1 vanilla pod)
• sugar confetti sprinkles for decoration

Add all the ingredients, apart from the confetti sprinkles, to a mixing bowl. Beat until light and fluffy.

Note: If you only want to pipe one layer of cream onto each cupcake, reduce the cream ingredients by half (I used a generous amount of frosting on mine).

Transfer the mascarpone cream to a piping bag fitted with a decorative tip (e.g. Wilton 1M). Pipe the cream onto the cupcakes, then sprinkle with confetti sprinkles. Store in the fridge.

Enjoy!