Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C Fan / 350F and line a muffin tin with cupcake cases.

Get your kids to measure out all the cupcake ingredients (except the bananas), and add them to a free-standing mixer or a large mixing bowl. You can add them in any order you like but we tend to do it in the order the ingredients are listed so we don’t miss anything out.

Start by adding the flour, the butter/margarine and the sugar. You can either use a baking spread like we did here or butter. I find the butter easier to measure out, but you need to make sure it’s soft enough to mix. Either take it out the fridge half an hour or so before you start or pop it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Get your kids to measure the baking powder and add it to your bowl. Make sure they level the teaspoon with their finger before it goes in so you add just the right amount.

Add the vanilla extract. If you children are still quite young you might need to hold the teaspoon while they pour in the vanilla or vice versa. Older children may manage it themselves, just make sure they hold the spoon level.

Finally, get your kids to crack the eggs into a small bowl before adding them to your mixing bowl. We tend not to crack eggs straight in just in case any shell goes in. If it does, simply fish them out with a larger piece of shell – it sticks to that much better than it will your finger.

Using the k-paddle of your mixer or a hand held mixer or even wooden spoons, mix everything together until it forms a nice, smooth batter.

Get your kids to peel, chop and mash the bananas. This is a great job for little kids as ripe bananas are very soft and easy for kids to work with. Add the mashed bananas to your mixing bowl and gently fold them in with a spatula/spoon so they are thoroughly mixed through.

Get your kids to spoon half of the cupcake batter into the cupcake cases. Then add a teaspoon of caramel into each cupcake. Fill the cases with the remaining batter.

Bake the cupcakes for 20 – 25 minutes. They're ready when they have risen and turned nice and golden brown. They should feel springy to the touch.

Remove them from the oven and leave them to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before removing them and leaving them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Start by making the buttercream icing. Get your kids to measure the caramel, icing/confectioners sugar and butter out and add them to your free-standing mixer or a large mixing bowl. Again, if your butter isn’t soft chop it up and pop it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it easier to mix.

Cover your bowl or mixer with the lid or a clean dish towel (just to save some mess). Turn your mixer on to slow and mix the butter icing with the k-paddle of your mixer or hand held mixer.

Once the icing sugar has mixed in, turn the speed up and keep beating it for at least 5 minutes. The longer you beat it the softer it will become.

Put a star shaped nozzle in a piping bag and carefully add the icing. You can add a food bag clip to the top to make it easier for kids to pipe without worrying about the icing coming out the top.

Help your kids to swirl the icing on top of the cupcakes or if they are older they might manage this themselves. We find the easiest way to do this is to hold the piping bag at the top with our right hand to squeeze the icing out and use our left hand to guide the bag round. Start at the outside and go round in circles until you get to the middle.

Decorate each cupcake with a slice of banana, left over caramel, or fudge pieces.

Serve and enjoy!