Pull-apart Santa cupcakes

Method

• step 1

  For the icing, mash the butter, sugar, vanilla and milk together in a large bowl using a spatula (this will prevent a cloud of icing sugar when you beat it together). Beat using an electric whisk until smooth and fluffy, about 2 mins.

• step 2

  Spoon half the icing into a second bowl, then half of what remains into a third (so you have two small bowls of icing, and one large). Add a few drops of food colouring gel to one of the small bowls for Santa’s face and a few to the other for his hat, leaving the larger bowl plain (or colour this, too, if you like) to make the trim of his hat and his beard. Mix well until the icings are evenly coloured.

• step 3

  Arrange the cupcakes as per the diagram below. Spread the icing for the face over the three central cupcakes in the widest row, and the two central cupcakes directly below that. Reserve a small amount of the icing to pipe on his nose. Fill any remaining gaps in the icing to create a solid shape for his face.

• step 4

  Transfer the icing for the hat to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle, and pipe swirls over the top cupcakes, leaving a row plain between the face and hat (this will be the trim of his hat), as well as one on the left-hand side for the bobble.

• step 5

  Transfer the large bowl of icing to a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe swirls over the row of plain cupcakes underneath the hat, and the plain cupcake on the left, for the bobble. (The icing for the trim should slightly overlap Santa’s face.) Pipe dots of the remaining icing all over the plain cupcakes around and under the face to form Santa’s beard, then pipe on the moustache under the nose and arrange two chocolate buttons above that to make eyes. Will keep in an airtight container for two days.