Preheat oven to 190°C. Sift the dry ingredients together into a bowl.
In a separate bowl beat together the butter and two sugars until creamy.
Meanwhile, in another bowl/jug whisk together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract.
Add 1/3 of the wet ingredients into the butter mixture and mix on a slow/medium speed followed by 1/2 of the dry ingredients.
Scrape down your bowl and beat in 1/2 the remaining wet ingredients followed by the rest of the dry ingredients. Once combined pour in the remaining wet ingredients.
Once the mixture is smooth, evenly divide it into the cupcake cases.
Bake in the oven for 18-22 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Buttercream
Sift the icing sugar into a bowl and beat it into the butter. Once sandy pour in the milk to combine.
Beat for a good 5 minutes until the icing is paler in colour and is light and fluffy. Add in blue colouring and beat until well combined.
Place the icing into a piping bag with a star tip and pipe swirls onto each cupcake.
Decoration
Roll the white icing out to 3 mm thick and cut round circles out using a cookie cutter smaller than the cupcake. Leave to set.
For the hat. Roll out red & white icing to roughly 1 centimeter thick and cut out circles using the wide end of a piping nozzle 2 centimeters wide. 3 red circles and 2 white circles per hat.
Starting with the red icing, stack the circles on top of each other using water as glue in between the layers. Roll in your hands to secure the layers together.
Tilt the top of the hat to the side and leave to set.
Once set glue the hats on top of the larger white circles and place on top of the cupcakes.