Oh help - please - and yes you may all laugh at me - I have icing sugar..........

[BaroqueAroundTheClock]

I need to make some icing for 12 cupcakes.........what do I do

The instructions on the back of the packet are for vast quantities of icing and as baking is quite a feat for me I'm not making more cakes just to use it up.

I've told DS1 we'll go and ice them once I've finished my coffee - so I have about 10 minutes at the end of which I have to pretened to know what I'm doing

Yes you may laugh as me as MUCH as you like - if you please please please tell me what to do

thank you Toby

This is like tackling Mnt Everest for me

yes you do double everything BUT you need to cook all the cakes at once because once mixed the cake batter starts working and will go funny if it is left too long before cooking

oh - poo - will have to do 2 seperate batches then as only have one cake case whatsit tray

chocolate icing: 1 tablespoon icing sugar, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder (unsweetned) a few drops of water.

do you have a baking try as you can put the paper cases on the tray, may end up a bit wonky but will taste lovely

Snorting at my desk so much people are starting to laugh at me...

Yes, you do just double it. For cup cakes it's fine, with one big cake the cooking time gets harder to predict. So not a completely blond sort of question, honest.

If your icing is too runny, use raw egg white not water. This makes it set solid. If you use a whole egg white you do need a lot of icing sugar, and so get too much icing. I think you would be ok if you are making 24 cup cakes though.

Meh, I always do more than one batch and it's fine.

How does the cake batter 'start working'? At worst a few air bubbles might pop on standing, so they might not be quite as light, but standing for 15 mins while the first lot cooks will not make a difference.

'tis ok friday - you're allowed to snort - you've given advice

The baking powder starts to react as soon as it's mixed with liquid, so you're supposed to get it into the oven as soon as you can.

I used the nigella cupcake recipe - there was no baking powder - just self raising flour

Self-raising flour already has the raising agent added to it, so you don't need baking powder. I've never had a problem with baking in 2 batches, though.

Apparently most baking powder works in two stages, with the second not occurring until the mixture comes into contact with heat. Therefore it is perfectly possible to leave cake mixture to stand for 15-20 mins with no loss of quality.

Every day's a school day!

have you done it yet?

I got some new bun/cake trays from a charity shop for about 20p.
failing that, a deep baking tray and push the cases close together.

yes - finally.............another afternoon from hell though

AND my brand new (only used it once for the first time yesterday!) hand blender has died

ah. :(

how new is it?
not been sitting around for months before you used it?
take it back!

no - not old at all - only bought it on Sunday! Thankfully the cake mixture was pretty much done so was able to finish off with the wooeden spoon with little effort - but not impressed given that it's so new

Try it again now it's had a little rest. No ,seriously sometimes the machines overheat if you leave them on for ages whilst you stare into the sky, whistling

did it overheat?
did it start to smell of burning rubber?

then try trumpton's trick.

if it's stopped completely, you'll need to get it replaced.

trumpton - left it ages - even tried changing the fuse

I knew it was cheap (£7.99 Morrisons own jobby) but you'd expect it to last longer than 2 uses grrrr

it doesn't matter how cheap it is - you can expect a reasonable amount of use out of it before it dies.
otherwise they shouldn't be selling it.

it didn't really do anything when it died. DS2 was using it - with me supervising closely. He switched it off to give DS1 a turn and when DS1 switched it on it was dead !

Ok....didn't really think you were stupid !!! Orff you pop to the shop then.

(I am quite stupid at times........but I can change a fuse in a plug even if I'm totally inept at baking LOL)