Ribbon rose cupcakes

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

Cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, then add the beaten eggs one by one and the vanilla extract, mixing well between each one to ensure the mixture doesn’t curdle.

Sift in the flour and carefully fold in until just incorporated, do not over mix.

Spoon into the cupcake cases until they are 2/3 full then place in the oven for 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the cakes are golden brown.

Remove from the oven, leave to cool then transfer to a cooling wire to cool completely.

Whilst the cakes are cooling you can make the ribbon roses.  Knead the red and white icings and to make pink, add some red to the white and knead until the colour is uniform, repeat until you have the desired shade of pink. Next take small pieces of the icing and roll into a thin sausage, then using a small rolling pin roll this out until it’s flat and quite thin. Fold in half lengthways then begin to roll the short end over quite tightly until you’ve made a small rose bud. You may need to cut off the excess icing from the base. Put to one side to set whilst you make the rest.

To make the buttercream, place the butter and icing sugar in a large bowl with the vanilla extract and start to beat together slowly to start with then increase the speed and beat until the buttercream is light and fluffy. You can add a few drops of food colour here if you wish. Then spoon into a piping bag with a star nozzle fitted.

Pipe swirls of buttercream onto the top of each cake then place the roses on top.