How to Make Mermaid Cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170°C fan/375°F/Gas Mark 5.

In a stand mixer or with an electric whisk, beat together the margarine/butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla extract. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and mix until the flour is just incorporated.

Top Tip: Stop mixing as soon as all trace of the flour has disappeared – over-mixing will result in a heavy, dense cake.

Use a cupcake tin and put a cupcake case in each hole. Fill each cupcake case 2/3 full with the cake mixture and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen.

Remove the cakes from the tin and cool on a rack before decorating.

To make the mermaid tails, take the pink modelling paste and divide into four equal balls. Colour one ball aqua blue by kneading in a couple of drops of blue food colouring. Colour another ball a dark lilac shade using the purple food colouring. Leave the remaining two balls pink.

Take one pink ball and the aqua ball and lightly knead them together to marble the two colours. Lightly dust your work surface with a little icing sugar and roll the icing out thinly (approximately 3mm). Cut out mermaid tails using the small cutter. Repeat with the other pink ball and the lilac ball, marbling them together and rolling thinly.

When you have cut out as many tails as you can, leave them to dry on a flat piece of sponge or a board lined with kitchen roll until they are hard.

Top Tip: You can make the mermaid tails ahead of time and keep them in an airtight container until you need them.

For extra shimmer, you can spray your mermaid tails with silver glitter spray or use a dry brush to dust lightly with silver or pearl lustre dust.

Colour the vanilla frosting with a few drops of the blue food colouring to make a pale aqua shade.

Top Tip: You may need to add a tablespoon or two of icing sugar to the frosting to make the consistency a little firmer.

Put the frosting in a piping bag fitted with a plain round nozzle. Hold the nozzle directly over the centre of the cupcake and squeeze a dome of frosting on top of each sponge.

Dip each cake in a bowl of mermaid sprinkles to fully coat the frosting.

Put any remaining frosting in a bowl and colour it a slightly darker shade of blue with a little extra food colouring. Put the frosting in a bag fitted with nozzle 2D. Pipe small rosettes on top of the sprinkles.

Push a mermaid tail into the top of each cupcake to finish.