Father christmas cupcake

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4) and line a 12 hole cupcake tin with cases.

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the eggs one by one mixing well in between, then add the vanilla extract. Fold in the flour then spoon into the cases until they are about 2/3 full.

Place in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool completely

To make the father christmas cake topper, use the red sugar paste icing and roll out a ball about 5cm in diameter then flatten the base. Next roll out a sausage about 10cm long and 1.5cm diameter for his arms and finally make a cone shape for his hat and squash the pointed end over to one side.

Take some of the white icing and a little of the red and roll them together until the red blends in to give you a pink colour for his head.

Next take some black icing and roll 2 small balls for eyes, 2 larger balls for his gloved hands and then roll out a little for a belt. Cut this out using a sharp knife. You can use a small star for his belt buckle.

To assemble, use a little water to glue the black belt onto the red body. Next finish the arms by attaching the black hands to the ends of the red ‘sausage’ shape. The roll out some of the white icing until it is about 5mm thick and cut 2 strips using a sharp knife, roll these around the end of the arms for his cuffs, using some water to glue. Then cut the arms leaving a diagonal edge. Attach these using a little water, squashing the arms around the body.

Next make a small ball using the white icing for a pom pom and attach to the top of the hat, then attach the hat to the top of his head using some water. Take a strip of rolled out white icing and place this around the base of the hat to hide the join.

To finish, cut a disc of white icing using a fluted biscuit cutter and cut out a small edge piece for his beard, and 2 smaller pieces for his moustache, attach these to the face using a little water. Make a small ball using red icing for his nose and attach this. Then attach 2 small balls of white icing and smaller ball of black icing for his eyes.

To decorate your cupcake, roll out some chocolate icing and cut into a disc the same size as the top of the cupcake, place this on the cake using some warmed apricot jam to stick. Then sit your jolly father christmas on the top.