Love Potion Cupcakes

Cupcakes

• Preheat your oven to 180C (356F) or 160C (320F) for a fan forced oven. Line a cupcake tin with cupcake liners.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour, baking powder, caster sugar and salt. Turn mixer on low speed and allow it to mix for a couple minutes to help everything combine well (alternatively you may do this by sifting the ingredients together). Add the softened butter and let it mix until it resembles a fine sand like texture.
• Next, add milk, eggs, yogurt, oil, cherry essence or brandy, cinnamon, 4 drops of purple food dye and vanilla extract in a large jug and whisk well.
• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients in a slow and steady stream until no dry ingredients are visible. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds.
• Once your batter is done. Separate it into three separate bowls. In one bowl add 1 extra drop of purple food dye and a drop of pink food dye. Gently fold in until well combined. Add 2 drops of purple and two drops of pink into the third bowl and repeat.
• Transfer the batters into piping bags or zip lock bags by placing your bags into a cup or glass to help them stand up. Pour the batter in filling up just over half way, then twist the end of the bag and tie it with an elastic band if you have any handy. You should end up with three different shades of purple in three separate bags.
• Start off by piping a layer of the darkest purple into your cupcake liners, followed by a layer of the middle shade of purple and finish with the lightest shade. You want to aim to fill your cupcake liners up about ¾ of the way. Bake for 20-25 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Allow them to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before frosting.
• While your cupcakes are baking and cooling you can prepare your buttercream frosting by adding pink food dye and mix it in until well combined
• Fit the end of your piping bag with a round tip. Frost your cupcakes in a donut swirl as demonstrated in the video. Right before serving add a little mound of fairy floss and sprinkle some love heart sprinkles on top.
• It’s important that you put the fairy floss on right before serving because it will melt within 10 min.