patty cakes

These are one of my standbys that are great for a last minute thing or entertaining, I often take these if I have to take a plate for morning tea, particularly for a large number of people.
These are also known as cup cakes, but I still call them patty cakes because I think of cup cakes as being slightly larger.
This recipe makes 24 -30 and if I double it I usually get almost 3 batches, but it will depend on the size of your pans. I love all things passionfruit, so passionfruit icing is a must. Here are some pink ones as well because B4 insisted on helping and wanted pink. I used cochineal which is a natural colour, but you could use some raspberry juice or other red coloured fruit.
You can make these into fairy cakes by cutting the tops off and adding jam and cream to the hole, cutting the top in half and replacing it so it looks like wings, dust with icing sugar to finish.

Patty Cakes:

125g butter melted
1 t vanilla essence
3/4 C castor sugar
2 eggs
1.5 C SR flour
1/2 C (125ml)milk

1. Line patty pan trays with paper patty cases
2. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with an electric mixer on low speed until ingredients are combined.
3.Then beat on medium speed until mixture is smooth and changes to a lighter colour. Drop a heaped tablespoon of mixture into paper cases.
4.Bake at 180 c for 15-20 minutes, turn onto a wire rack to cool.
5. Ice or decorate as you wish.

Icing: I like a hard icing on my patty cakes, so I usually just mix icing sugar and hot water together until I get a spreadable consistency.
For passionfruit use pulp from a passionfruit instead of water.
You can add lemon rind and juice for lemon icing, or orange rind and juice for orange icing
add some carob or cocoa powder to make chocolate icing.