How to Make Chick Cupcakes

* 170g Soft Butter or Margarine

* 170g Caster Sugar

* Zest of 1 Large Lemon

* 3 Medium Eggs

* 170g Self-Raising Flour

* 1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder

* Vanilla Buttercream Icing

* Food Colouring Gel - Yellow and Orange

* Orange Fondant Icing

* Icing Sugar

* Black Edible Soft Pearls

* 12 Cupcake Cases

* Cupcake Tin

* Sharp Knife

* Cooling Rack

* Daisy Plunger Cutter

* Rolling Pin

* Piping Bag

* Large Round Nozzle

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan/180°/gas mark 4.

Beat together the sugar, butter and lemon zest in a stand mixer or with an electric whisk until pale and creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time and then sift in the flour and baking powder.

Mix until the dry ingredients are just incorporated and then stop mixing to ensure your cakes are light and fluffy when baked. Put the cases into a cupcake tin and evenly divide the mixture between the cases.

Bake until risen and golden - approximately 20-25 minutes. Remove the cupcakes from the tin and cool on a wire rack.

Take a golf ball sized amount of orange fondant icing and roll it out on a surface dusted with icing sugar – the icing should be approximately 4mm thick. Use a medium sized daisy plunger cutter to cut out one daisy for each cupcake.

Cut each flower in half with a sharp knife and remove a petal from each half so that you have pairs of feet with 3 toes.

Gather up the off cuts of icing and make small cone shapes for the beaks of the chicks. Set the icing feet and beaks to one side to dry slightly whilst you pipe the cupcakes.

Tip: You can make these icing shapes ahead of time if you wish – the icing will dry out and be easier to handle.

Decant the vanilla buttercream icing into a bowl and beat together with a few drops of yellow food colouring, and a touch of orange if you prefer a warmer shade of yellow. Add a tablespoon of sifted icing sugar to the frosting to make a stiff mixture that holds its shape well when piped. Fit a piping bag with a large round nozzle and fill the bag with the coloured frosting.

Hold the nozzle directly over the centre of the cupcake and squeeze continuously to pipe a mound for the chicks body. Pause squeezing momentarily, and then pipe a smaller mound on top of the body for the chicks head.

Push the feet into the frosting at the base of the body and the beak onto the face. Finish with black edible pearls for the eyes.

Your chick cupcakes are now complete!