The loyal reader might be surprised to find a post like this on Met Mum’s blog – especially as I publicly admitted to be crap at all things housewifish. On said confession, my friend Emily commented: ‘Are you kidding??? You are a kick ass housewife!’ Thank you, Emily, it’s really nice of you to say that, but it just ain’t true. What I do know is when to get my act together and pour all my energy into this one, oh so important event. Such as Big M’s birthday breakfast.

For the sake of his happiness, our marriage and my reputation (erm…, erm…), I consulted my consultant friend Ginni in NY to obtain the lazy housewife’s cupcake recipe. Ginni is great at a lot of things, with the more girly things clearly not adding to her greatness. The more impressed I was a few years ago when she presented her homemade cupcakes called Yosef.

You need:

1 – 1 – 2 – 3 – 3 YOSEF

1 Yoghurt

1 Oil

2 Sugar

3 Eggs

3 Flour (self-raising)

You can use the yoghurt cup to measure the other ingredients. Just in case your housewife abilities are even worse than mine, here’s a killer tip: use a neutral vegetable oil as opposed to olive oil. Mix all well together with a hand mixer.

Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan or 350°F or gas mark 4) and line a muffin tray with cupcake cases. Fill them about two-thirds full. Bake 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown. Let them cool completely before spooning on the icing. And don’t prepare the icing too long before you are using it, it will turn rock hard quickly and you will have to throw it all away (been there, done that…).

110g unsalted butter

60 ml semi-skimmed milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

500g icing sugar

Mix all ingredients and half of the icing sugar until smooth. Slowly pour in the second half of the sugar until smooth and creamy. Divide into different bowls to add a few (i.e. 2 or 3, no more!) drops of food colouring or lemon zest. Spoon onto the cupcakes with a palette knife.

Et voila: Slummy mummy turns into yummy mummy. At least her cupcakes do.