Butter Cupcakes three ways

Maximum impact, minimal effort. This is my life mantra.

As much as I could make cupcakes until the cows come home, that wouldn’t leave me much time for important things like curling my hair, applying eyeliner & selecting the perfect pair of heels now would it? My best friend in the whole world  Maggie recently moved into a new apartment & scored her dream job. That sounds like an occasion for cake to me! I was short on time so I decided to make one massive batch of butter cupcakes & give them all an individual twist so it looked like I had been slaving for hours.

Butter Cupcakes

(recipe adapted from wilton.com)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups butter room temperature
• 2 1/2 cups caster sugar
• 6 eggs
• Seeds of 1 vanilla pod
• 3.5 cups self raising flour  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1.5 cups buttermilk

 Preheat oven to 180°c. In mixer bowl cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Mix in vanilla. Mix flour & salt. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, starting with the flour.

Divide batter into 3 equal portions & place in the fridge until ready to add mix In’s & bake.

Bake 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan on rack; remove and cool completely before decorating.

 Makes about 30 standard cupcakes.

Peach & Almond Crumble Cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup of canned peaches juice drained well
• 1 tablespoon of peach or apricot jam
• 2/3 cup plain flour
• 2 tablespoons caster sugar
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 3 tablespoons melted butter

Roughly chop the peaches & mix with the jam. Fold the peaches through the cupcake batter & put aside. In a clean bowl combine the flour & butter & mix. Add the almonds, oats & sugar & mix with your hands until a nice crumbly consistency is achieved. If it looks a bit too wet add some extra flour.  

  Pour batter into cupcake liners & top with crumble mixture. Bake for 20-25 mins..

Blueberry Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients:

• 1 125g punnet of fresh blueberries
• 1 tablespoon blueberry jam
• 65g butter at room temp
• 125g cream cheese at room temp
• 2 cups icing sugar

Simply add 1 punnet of blueberries & 1 tablespoon of blueberry jam to 1 portion of butter cupcake batter. Fold gently to combine & pour into cupcake liners. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Leave to cool completely before frosting

For the frosting place all remaining ingredients in a bowl & blend with a hand mixer until smooth & creamy. Pipe onto cooled cupcakes & top with a single blueberry.

Passionfruit Cupcakes with Meringue Frosting



 Ingredients:

• 3 tablespoons canned passionfruit in juice
• 3 egg whites at room temp
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 2/3 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of water

Gently fold in passionfruit to create a marbling effect. Pour into cupcake liners & bake for 20-25 mins.

For the meringue combine the sugar & water in a saucepan over high heat to create a sugar syrup. In a clean glass bowl whisk egg whites until stiff peaks form, add cream of tartar. When sugar syrup reaches 160c turn off heat & pour syrup in a thin steady stream into the egg whites while mixing. Continue to mix for 3 mins until smooth & shiny. The mixture is cooked by the hot syrup. Pipe onto the cupcakes & either put back into the oven for 5 minutes to toast the meringue a bit or use a kitchen torch to achieve a golden brown finish. (I used the oven because Mr Bake and Bloom thought that my bag from kitchen warehouse direct was rubbish & threw out my unused, unwrapped kitchen torch!)



The results?  Crumbly crunchy peach cupcakes, blueberry cupcakes riddled with fruit & falling apart they were so soft & tart but sweet passionfruit cakes with a lovely light topping.