Holi Cupcakes

Holi, also known as the Festival of Colour, is a spring festival celebrated in north India. It is celebrated by dancing, singing, and most famously through the throwing of powder paint and coloured water.

I was lucky enough to win a Twitter giveaway last week by PME, JEM & Cakeit (@PMEcake) and get all these goodies:

The colourful lustre powders reminded me of the bright powder paints used during the Holi festival, and inspired me to produce these Festival of Colour Cupcakes!

I wanted to create a large contrast between the intensity of the powders and the icing – so I used the tiniest touch of purple gel food colouring to counteract the pale lemon shade provided by the butter.

These are really easy and a lot of fun to make. Their design is also very imprecise, so these would be perfect to make with children where they can have fun and get messy too!

I hope you enjoy!

~

Festival of Colour Cupcakes

You will need: 

For the cupcakes

• 110g margarine
• 110g golden caster sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110g self-raising flour
• 1-2 tbsp milk

For the icing

• 40g softened butter
• 280g icing sugar
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• Purple food colouring gel, just enough to cover the tip of a cocktail stick

For the decoration

• Edible lustre powders in a variety of colours

Method:

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas 4. Line  a cupcake tin with colourful paper cases.
2. Beat together margarine and caster sugar until light and creamy.
3. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, then add the vanilla and a spoonful of the flour.
4. Beat again, then fold in the rest of the flour.
5. Spoon the mixture into the cases. (I like to use an ice cream scoop to do this to get identical amounts in each case)
6. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and “spongy” when lightly pressed. 
7. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

For the icing:

1. Beat the butter in a large bowl until soft.
2. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.
3. Then add the remaining icing sugar with one tablespoon of the milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
4. Add a single dot of purple gel food colouring and mix thoroughly. More can be added if necessary to enhance the white colour.

For the decoration:

This is the fun bit! Liberally sprinkle the cupcakes with the various lustre powders, ensuring a good distribution of shades to make them as colourful as possible.

Love, Chloe xx

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