Mini beast cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 170˚C/Gas Mark 3. For the cakes, place the flour, baking powder and caster sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter until the mixture resembles very fine breadcrumbs. Pour in half the milk and beat to a smooth paste. Whisk the egg, vanilla and remaining milk together in a separate bowl, then pour into the flour mixture and whisk until fully combined and smooth. 

Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases. Divide the cake batter equally between the cases, then bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until the cakes are light golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool completely. 

For the topping, spread ½ tsp apricot jam over the top of each cake. Lightly dust the work surface with icing sugar and roll out the green sugarpaste to a thickness of approx 3mm (1/8in). Use a cookie cutter to cut out circles from the sugarpaste big enough to cover the top of each cake. Place a sugarpaste circle on top of each cake and press gently. 

Make bugs from sugarpaste, using water to stick the pieces together. Make a snail by rolling a piece of sugarpaste into a sausage and tapering it at one end. Use a cocktail stick to make two indentations at the wider end for the eyes. Roll a ball of sugarpaste into a sausage shape, then roll into a spiral and flatten to create the shell. Make the antennae using very tiny sausage shapes of sugarpaste. 

For the ladybirds, roll a piece of red sugarpaste into a ball and shape into an oval to create the body. Flatten a ball of black sugarpaste, then stick to one end of the body to create the head. Roll two tiny balls of white sugarpaste and press onto the head to create the eyes. Push a blunt knife down the centre of the body to create an indentation for the wings, then decorate with tiny balls of black paste, slightly flattened to make the spots. 

Make a butterfly by shaping four balls of sugarpaste into teardrops and flattening. Arrange on the cupcakes to create the wings, then decorate with flattened balls of sugarpaste. Roll a sausage shape of sugarpaste, taper at one end and create a round shape at the other end. Use a cocktail stick to make two indentations at the round end for the eyes, then arrange down the centre of the wings. 

To make a spider, roll black sugarpaste into two balls and shape one into an oval to create the body. Fix the other ball to the oval to create the head. Roll two tiny balls of red sugarpaste, then press onto the head to create the eyes. Push a blunt knife down the centre of the body to create an indentation. For the legs, flatten a ball of sugarpaste, cut into a rough eight-point star shape, then smooth and manipulate the points with your fingers.