Cooking with kids: Chunky fish fingers
A touch of turmeric turns these crispy haddock bites golden - perfect for cooking with children of all ages
Moon cycle cupcakes
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook: -
- plus cooling
- More effort
- Makes 12 cakes (you will need 8 for the moon cycle)
Skip to ingredients
- 175g softened unsalted butter
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 150g self-raising flour
- 50g cocoa powder
- 4 tbsp icing sugar
- 100g blue ready-made fondant icing
- 100g black ready-made fondant icing
- 140g white fondant icing
- gold edible glitter(optional)
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal363
- fat14g
- saturates8g
- carbs54g
- sugars44g
- fibre1g
- protein4g
- salt0.2g
Method
step 1
Line a 12-hole muffin tin with 12 dark brown or black muffin cases. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Put all the ingredients in a large bowl and using a hand-held electric whisk, beat for 2-3 minutes, until fluffy.
step 2
Divide the mixture between the muffin cases, then bake for 20 -25 minutes, until risen and springy to the touch – ask an adult to help you with this bit. When the cakes are cooked, take them out of the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely – ask an adult to help you with this bit too. You will need 8 of the cakes to make a full cycle of the moon. If you need to, you can trim the tops of the cakes so that they are flat.
step 3
Mix 3 tbsp of the icing sugar with enough water to make a spreadable paste and set aside. Knead the blue and black fondant icing together until the colours are almost blended together, leaving a few streaks of blue running through.
step 4
Dust a work surface with a little icing sugar and roll out the coloured icing so that it's large enough to cut out 12 x 7cm rounds. Spread a little smear of the icing sugar paste on top of each cake and stick an icing round on top.
step 5
Roll out the white icing to about 0.5cm thick. Using a small sharp knife, cut out 2 thin crescent shapes to make the waxing and waning crescent. Using a 7cm cutter, cut out 4 rounds. Cut one round in half to make the first and third quarter of the moon. Leave one round as it is to make the full moon and cut a small crescent away from the remaining 2 rounds, to make the waxing and waning gibbous moon. Using a little of the icing paste, stick each shape on to a cake. Leave one cake with nothing on – this will be the new moon. Use a star-shaped cutter to decorate the 4 cupcakes not included in the cycle with the leftover white icing.
step 6
Using a pastry brush, apply a tiny bit of water over the darker icing then sprinkle a little glitter over the top – the water helps it stick in place. Have fun arranging your cakes in a lunar cycle!
