basic vanilla cupcake recipe

This recipe is borrowed and adapted from Dan Lepard's excellent book, Short and Sweet. The batter smells amazing while cooking and the mixture makes 8 decent sized cupcakes.

Ingredients
125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
2 tsps vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

1 quantity of your chosen frosting.

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/350F/Gas 4 and place 8 muffin/cupcake cases in to your muffin tin. 
2. Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla extract for around 3 minutes on the highest speed until light and fluffy. 
3. Next sift in the flour and baking powder and beat for another 30 seconds or so. You will end up with quite a thick batter. 
4. Put a dollop of the batter into each of the paper cases so that they are about 2/3 full then place the tray in the over for around 20-25 minutes until golden brown and firm. 
5. Let the cupcakes cool completely before decorating with the frosting.