Vanilla cupcakes with rosewater scented butter icing

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.

Cream the butter and castor sugar together in a bowl until pale. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time, and stir in the vanilla extract.

Scrape the vanilla seeds from the pod into the milk, or add the paste to the milk and stir well.

Fold the flour into the creamed butter mixture using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.

Bake in the oven until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean, about 10 – 15 minutes.

Set aside to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin and cool on a wire rack before icing.

For the icing, beat the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add half of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

Add the remaining icing sugar with 15ml (1 tbsp) of milk, adding more milk if necessary, until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Add the rose water and food colouring and mix until well combined.

Spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe the icing onto the cupcakes; decorate according to your theme.