Christmas Spiced Cupcakes

I can't believe it's only just over week until christmas! All of the festive cooking shows on TV (I have an unhealthy addiction to cooking shows FYI) got me in the mood to create a christmassy baking recipe. After the success of my bakewell cupcakes I thought i'd try another cupcake variation, as they are easy and also what I have the most experience with so all being well there's less that could go wrong!

 To create a festive smell and taste I added a small amount of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and ground cloves into the batter; I guessed with how much would give  a good balance and I don't think it went too badly. I also put a little bit of grated clementine peel and a few drops of clementine juice into the buttercream icing, which added a bit of citrus flavour without being too sharp as none of my family likes orange or lemon.

There were also a few sultanas in the sponge to add texture; in this photo it looks as though they have all sunk to the bottom but I promise they didn't!

Something else which I haven't mentioned but which might be quite exciting is that I applied to be on the Great British Bake Off series four! Entries don't close until the end of January so it will be a while before I hear back, if I do at all, but i'm still looking forward to the possibility of taking part in my favourite TV show (along with Doctor Who of course).