Lay the table » Cupcakes

Millionaire’s cupcakes

Becs — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 22:02:21 +0000

I’ve had a busy week of baking in the ramp up to Christmas. At the weekend it was mandatory to make sausage rolls, because actually no Christmas tree decoration is complete without it (and of course, your choice of alcoholic beverage). We bought a tree and discovered that whilst it was perfect height-wise, width-wise it takes up about ¼ of our living room! Plus the new baubles we bought took twice as long to attach the strings to as it did to hang them on the tree! Still, I enjoy the process and spending time with Mr Lay the table. And of course, eating the sausage rolls!

I also made these millionaire’s cupcakes at the weekend – I got the idea after making one of my colleagues millionaire’s shortbread. It was the first time I’d ever made it to be honest! There were complaints from Mr LTT that that was his favourite thing and why did I never make it for him? I swear he says this about everything I bake that’s not for him…Over the past few months I’ve been lacking in cupcake ideas, feeling a little more melancholy every time I see someone else’s blog with these amazing looking cupcakes on and feeling the green-eyed monster inside of me stir. I will not be jealous, I will just try harder next time.

So this is the frui of my labout and they’re not too hard, I think the drizzle of dark chocolate at the end really finishes the cupcakes off. Warning: extreme sugar rush!

First we make our cupcake base…

Once they’re baked and cooled, we’re going to cut a bit out, like a butterfly cake, except you can eat the bit we cut off because we’re not going to use it.

Now we’re going to make our caramel, it’s really easy! It’s just sugar, butter and condensed milk. Be sure to keep stirring, I recommend a rubber spatula as you can wipe around the edge of the saucepan much more easily (that’s where it’s more likely to burn).

Now spoon in enough caramel to fill our cupcake hole, then leave to cool.

Finally, we make some chocolate buttercream and pipe a swirl on top! Then drizzle a bit of dark chocolate on top of the buttercream if you like.

{Makes 12 cupcakes}

60mins – Prep time: 40 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

For the cupcake

115g self raising flour
115g unsalted butter (room temperature)
115g caster sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla bean paste
½tsp baking powder

For the caramel

1 tin condensed milk 397g
100g unsalted butter
100g soft brown sugar

For the chocolate buttercream

100g milk chocolate (I used patissier’s chocolate)
150g unsalted butter
300g icing sugar
2tbsp milk

To decorate

About 8 squares of dark chocolate

Instructions

Oven temp: 160°C/320°F

Lay out cupcake cases in a muffin bun tin. Sieve the flour with the baking powder in a bowl.
Whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 4 minutes in a mixer with the vanilla essence.
In a separate bowl I like the beat the butter to make it fluffy and pale using a hand mixer (but if you’re lucky enough to have a spare bowl for your stand mixer…)
In two goes, add in the flour and bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases and smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
Put the cupcakes into the oven for around 15 minutes until they feel spongey and the tops have got some colour.
Once out of the oven, place on a wire cooling rack to cool down, then cut out a hole from each of the cupcakes.
To make the caramel, place all the ingredients in a pan, bring to a slow boil, then turn down to a low heat for 3 minutes. Stir constantly to prevent burning.
Spoon the caramel into the cupcake holes and leave to cool.
To make the buttercream, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. Once melted, take off the heat and leave to cool a little.
Meanwhile, take 50g on the butter and mix with the icing sugar for a minute or so until distributed. Add the chocolate and mix well. Finally add the remaining butter and milk and mix on a medium/high speed setting until creamy and smooth.
Pipe the buttercream onto the cupcakes, then melt the dark chocolate over a saucepan of boiling water. Take a spoon and dip it in the dark chocolate and swing over the over cupcakes to give them a stripy drizzle.

Mini loaf orange and cinnamon cake with sultanas

Becs — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 22:34:46 +0000

Hurrah! We finally have some studio flashes I can use! Considering what a grey weekend it was over here I made full use of the new flashes and the inclement weather to get down to some baking and cooking. I’ve been hatching plans for a couple of weeks as Mr Lay the table and I have been off visiting our families, but prior to last weekend’s expedition we paid a visit to Lakeland in Harrogate (always dangerous to let me in there) and I came away with some pretty awesome single use mini loaf paper cases which I just knew I had to use straight away. And thus, my little loaf sponge cakes were born.

Since I used Edd Kimber’s scone recipe and read about soaking the sultanas, I thought it would be fun if I soaked these one in some amaretto I had kicking around. I just used a small handful and then splashed in some of the alcohol, with just enough to cover then strained them before I put them into the sponge mix. I then used a little of the leftover juices mixed with orange juice for my drizzle icing.

The recipe is fairly simple, first you need to rind your orange…

Then cream your butter and sugar

Add the other sponge cake ingredients, orange peel plus our strained amaretto sultanas and mix well…

Spoon the mixture into the loaf moulds and bake for around 18 minutes…

Whilst they’re baking, we need to make a drizzle…juice half of the orange we use the rind mixed with a tablespoon of amaretto. Slowly add drop by drop to icing sugar until we have a runny drizzle.

Once the cakes come out of the oven, poke holes using a kebab stick then drizzle with the icing and allow to cool

Pipe an orange zig zag onto the tops to finish

{Makes 6 Lakeland mini loaf cakes}

Ingredients

A small handful of sultanas
A good slosh of Amaretto
1 orange
&fract14; cinnamon
&fract14; baking powder
2 large eggs
85g self raising flour
30g ground almonds
115g unsalted butter
115g granulated sugar
85g icing sugar
Orange food colouring

Instructions

Soak the sultanas overnight in a small bowl or cup, ensuring that you cover the sultanas well with amaretto and you’ll have a little to spare afterwards for the drizzle icing (If you don’t have time you could them for 15-20 minutes). Strain sultanas and reserve juice.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°c;/350°F. Place 6 cases on a baking tray
Rind the orange and save the orange for use later.
Sift the flour, ground almonds, cinnamon and baking powder together.
Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy on a medium speed, then add the eggs in one by one ensuring that they are thoroughly mixed in each time. Add in the sultanas and orange peel.
Turn the mixer down to medium/low and add half of the flour mix and mix in, then repeat.
Spoon the mixture into the cases evenly and wipe any residue from the sides.
Place baking tray with cases on in the oven for around 18 minutes. Near the end you may wish to cover with brown paper to present the tops browning before the middle is cooked. Test with a cake tester inserted into the middle before removing from the oven.
Whilst the cakes are in the oven, take 55g of your icing sugar and put in a bowl. Juice half of the orange we saved and add in a tablespoon of the amaretto. Spoonful by spoonful add this to the icing sugar until it resembles runny honey.
Once the cakes come out of the oven, place on a cooling rack. Take a kebab stick and make a few piercings in each cake, then spoon the runny drizzle icing over each (around 2 tablespoons per cake) and ensure you have fully covered each top with glaze. Allow to cool.
With the remaining icing sugar, make a thick icing (like cold custard) with water and a little orange food colour, then pipe zigzags of orange onto the top to finish!

Cheesecake Brownie Cupcakes

Becs — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:58:46 +0000

No-one wants to admit that they have an ugly baby. But this time I will. These aren’t the prettiest things ever to grace my table but they sure do taste good. The creamy cheesecake swirled with strawberry jam combined with a dense and squidgy chocolate brownie underneath is the perfect combination, although I did end up wanting to eat them all myself rather than give any of them away. It was like parting with a super cute puppy.

Cheesecake brownie cupcakes combine three of my favourite things. I found the brownie cupcakes in my Leila Lindholm book I was given recently and wondered how I could add my own touch. I’ve been making these Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies by Baking Bites for a good long while and thought I could adapt the recipe. Here’s the resulting baby!

You’re going to need to check these cupcakes regularly. My gas oven is wild and untamed – something that drives me mad because the temperature difference from top to bottom is mad and makes it impossible to cook two sandwich cake layer at once. The cupcakes sink a bit in the middle once they come of the oven, this is completely normal! You haven’t done anything wrong…

I popped some blueberries into the topping for a touch of healthy fruity flavour, but you can leave them out if you want! You could also try mixing up the jam flavours too.

Ingredients

For the brownie cupcakes (adapted from Leila Lindholm’s brownie cupcakes)

2 large eggs
180g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
50g butter
50ml olive oil
80ml golden syrup
120g plain flour
50g cocoa powder
1tsp baking powder
1 pinch of salt
100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), chopped into pieces

For the cheesecake topping (adapted from Baking Bites Raspberry Cheesecake Brownies)

225g full fat cream cheese (like Philadelphia)
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
½tsp vanilla essence
3tbsp strawberry jam
24 blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/Gas Mark 3. Line a muffin tin with paper/foil cupcake cakes. I used British style extra large muffin cases (they’s be smaller than American ones but bigger than your normal cupcake cases, but if you’re using smaller ones then you will make more than 12 so you’ll need an extra tin.
Make the cheesecake by whisking the cream cheese, egg, sugar with the paddle in your stand mixer (or you can use a hand mixer or by hand too) on a medium speed until creamy and smooth. Set aside.
In a seperate bowl beat the eggs and sugar until fluffy and pale.
Melt the butter and mix with the oil and golden syrup in a large mixing bowl then stir into the egg mixture.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt, then fold into the butter mix.
Melt the chocolate pieces in a bowl over bubbling water. Don’t let the bowl touch the water.
Fold the chocolate into mixture.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the muffin cases, and even the surfaces out with a spoon. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture on the top.
Using a kebab skewer, swirl jam through the cream cheese, then push two blueberries into the top.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then check to see if they’re done by placing a skewer into the middle of one of the cupcakes. The skewer should come out clean. If not, check it every 5 minutes or so until done.
Remove from the oven, leave in the muffin tray for 5 minutes then leave to cool on a cooling rack.

Honey pistachio muffins with chocolate cardamom eggless custard

Becs — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 21:27:27 +0000

What I love about blogging and chatting to fellow foodies is that it gets me started in all sorts of hair brained creative ideas. I found this wonderful blog post: Food Endeavours of the Blue Apocalypse: Chocolate and cardamom soft centred pudding and I thought hmmm, chocolate….and cardomom. I also had a chat with Mike of Indie Ices at the Leeds Loves Food festival a few weeks back and that gave me a few ideas too! I tried his mango kulfis at one of the TestSpace events last year and since I found out he makes pistachio kulfi AND it’s won prizes at The Great Taste Awards, I’d been dying to try even just a spoonful of this magic frozen treat. I wasn’t wrong about how delish it was, and guess what? It had cardomom in!

Last weekend it was Mr Laythetable’s friend’s birthday. I was set the task of “make him a cake, the more chocolatey the better – something I won’t like” (because Mr Laythetable likes chocolate, and cake, but not chocolate IN cake!) and I knew just the recipe! How many recipe books are sitting on your shelf gathering dust? Quite a few in my house, but they’re taking up real estate on my book shelf, so damn it I’m gooing to use them! I made the Brooklyn Blackout Cake from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook and happened to have some of the eggless custard left over – I’m in denial that this was a deliberate move. I totally didn’t lick any off the spoon either, you didn’t see me do it so you can’t prove anything.

So what else do you do when you’re left with a surplus amount of eggless chocolate custard and a need to bake something tasty? When in Rome, or, when in the kitchen, bake muffins. Spoon a bit of the custard inside, slap a bit on top and don’t get fussy about the way you put it on, they’re not meant to be the prettiest things in world! A bit of a sprinkle of pistachio and you’re done…enjoy

{Makes 15 muffins}

Ingredients

For the eggless chocolate custard

Adapted from Hummingbird Bakery book

125g caster sugar
¼tbsp golden syrup
35g cocoa powder
50g cornflour
25g unsalted butter
3 cardamom pods

For the muffins

310g plain flour
250ml full fat milk
130g granulated sugar
110g unsalted butter
1tbsp baking powder
4tbsp honey
2 eggs
40g shelled pistachios

Instructions

Soak the cardamom pods in boiling water for about 5 minutes until the pods soften, then pop open and remove the seeds. Dry on a kitchen towel then crush with a pestle and mortar.
Put the sugar, golden syrup, coca powder and cardamom seeds in a large saucepan with 150ml water and bring to the boil. Mix cornflour with 50ml water in a bowl then stir into saucepan, whisking vigourously. It should thicken fairly instantly. Bring back to the boil then leave for a minute or so to cook. Turn off the heat and stir in the butter.
Take a baking tray and line with foil, then spread out the custard. Leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 and line muffin tray with muffin cases.
Melt the butter in the microwave then leave to cool but not solidify. Place the pistachios in a blender and pulse until nearly smooth but not quite. Remove two tablespoons of the finest bits in a separate dish for garnishing the muffins.
Mix the flour, ground pistachio, salt and baking powder together and in a separate bowl mix the eggs, milk, honey and sugar. Bit by bit, add the butter to the flour mixture, then add the eggy milk mixture until it has just mixed – it will be quite a lumpy mix but that’s exactly how we want it to be!
Spoon 1 tablespoon of mixture into cases, then take a teaspoon of the chocolate custard and spoon into the centre of the muffin. Then add another tablespoon of mixture over the top. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, then remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
Once cool, load the spatula end with the custard then slap down on the middle of the muffin and pull spatula backwards, giving it that “wiped on” look. Top with a sprinkle of the reserved pistachio to finish.

Lavender vanilla cupcakes

Becs — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 08:14:54 +0000

Lavender! So easily overdone – I’ve had several incidences of making shortbread and cupcakes with too much in and getting a mouthful of flower; completely overpowering and unpleasant to eat. I’ve done the same with violet flavouring, and let me tell you that DOES NOT taste good in a cake, much more suitable in a topping but even a single drop is powerful! Having seen the beautiful lavender flowers growing on the hedge around our herb garden, I was inspired by the lovely sunny weather and afternoon tea in the garden with cups of Earl Grey and a pretty cupcake to eat. These cupcakes have a gentle lavender flavour, I think I’ve finally got the amounts right!

I found some lavender sugar in the cupboard that I’d bought ages ago and never used. It had flowers mixed with the sugar and had gently infused its flavour subtly in the sugar. This was perfect for the cupcake mixture! You could make your own lavender sugar instead of buying it from the shop and storing it for a few weeks. Just turn the sugar from time to time, to keep the flavours mixing. You can pick it up from Waitrose too if you can’t wait!

The lavender is complimented by the vanilla (I finally got some more vanilla paste, hurrah!) which I think enhances the flavour.

I just got a new Wilton 1M tip and I haven’t made any cupcakes for a while – today was the perfect opportunity to try and do some piping roses. They’re so pretty and don’t need much decoration. But I wanted to mix it up with some sprinkles to accentuate the purples and add some lavender flowers on top, so I did a swirl with a spatula and added the toppings. I think the latter looked better, don’t you think? I had a bit of emergency with it, I ran out of normal icing sugar and only had royal icing left! I had to make it half and half and they seemed to come out ok, but I would always recommend using normal icing sugar so it doesn’t go hard. The recipe for the buttercream is from Primrose Bakery’s Cupcakes book.

{Makes 12 normal sized cupcakes}

1 hour 10mins (including cooling time) – Prep time: 15 mins – Cooking time: 15mins – Icing time: 15 mins

Ingredients

For the cupcake

110g self raising flour, sieved
110g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
55g caster sugar
55g lavender sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla bean paste
½ tsp baking powder

For the frosting

500g icing sugar
110g unsalted butter
60ml milk
½tsp vanilla bean paste
Purple food colouring
For garnish: purple sprinkles, lavender flowers

Instructions

Oven temp: 180° (170°C Fan)/350°F/Gas Mark 4

Put your cupcake liners in the muffin tin.
Beat the eggs with the caster sugar and lavender sugar until light and frothy. About 3-4 mins with a mixer or longer by hand.
Add butter, flour and baking powder into the mix in two parts, making sure the first is well mixed in before adding the second.
Spoon the mixture into the cupcake liners evenly. Place the cupcakes in the oven for 15 minutes, until they feel springy to the touch.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Make the frosting: Mix the vanilla, butter, milk and half the icing sugar until it is nearly smooth. Then add the rest of the icing sugar. Add a little food colouring to achieve a pale lavender colour.
Frost the cupcakes however you like then add a few lavender flowers (rolled gently in kitchen paper to release the smell) and sprinkles.

Peanut butter Easter egg nest cupcakes

Becs — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:03:19 +0000

Thought I’d get round to making these this Easter, as I made them last year too but never posted them! I made the cupcakes with peanut butter but you could leave this out if you have allergies. Chocolate buttercream piped using a Willton multi-tip gives that great twig nest look.

{Makes about 20 normal size cupcakes}

95mins (including cooling time) – Prep time: 35 mins – Cooking time: 20mins – Icing time: 15 mins

Ingredients

Peanut butter cupcakes

6oz self-raising flour
6oz caster sugar
6oz butter/margarine, softened
3eggs
3tbsp peanut butter (preferably peanut butter)

Chocolate buttercream

500g icing sugar
200g plain chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids, I used 85%)
110g butter (30g piece and 80g piece)
70ml milk

You will also need a multi tip piping tip like Wilton #233

Mini eggs to decorate

Instructions

Oven temp: 180°C/320°F/Gas Mark 3

Lay out cupcake cases. If you use silicon you can lay them on a flat baking tray, if you use paper ones, I advise using a bun tin to make the cakes hold their shape
Whisk the eggs and sugar for about 4 minutes with an electric hand whisk and beat air into the mix so it fluffs up.
Bit by bit, sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed, then mix in the peanut butter.
Spoon the mixture evenly into the cupcake cases, ensuring you smooth the tops down (it doesn’t have to be perfect!)
Put the cupcakes into the oven for 15-20 minutes until they feel spongey and the tops have got some colour.
Once out of the oven, place on a wire cooling rack to cool down
To make the buttercream: melt the chocolate and 30g butter in a glass bowl over a saucepan of boiling water, stirring until smooth. Remove from the heat and leave to cool down.
In a large bowl, sieve the icing sugar and add the remaining butter plus milk and cooled chocolate. Whisk together with an electric whisk gently to keep the mixture smooth and prevent too many air bubbles getting in. It also stops the icing sugar causing a storm in the kitchen!
Filling your piping bag with the buttercream, use about half at a time or it’s too hard apply the right pressure. Holding the piping bag upright, pipe a little squidge in the middle, then very slowly pipe the nest, building up the side of the nest bit by bit rather than going round and round. The pressure you apply will give it the “spaghetti” look.
Finish off by putting two mini eggs in each nest!

Christmas tree cupcakes

Becs — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 20:20:34 +0000

Who wants boring cupcakes when you can have something much more Christmassy? These cupcakes looks pretty and taste of Christmas – just by adding a little bit of mixed spices, they’re instantly transformed in an amazing Christmas treat for everyone.

Ingredients

Cupcakes

1tsp mixed spice
1 portion basic cupcake recipe mix

Buttercream

500g icing sugar
100g butter, room temperature
60ml milk
Green gel food colouring
1tsp mixed spice

To decorate

Sugar or chocolate stars
Pearl lustre food spray like here
Silver balls
Large round piping tube + piping bag

Instructions

Make the cupcakes in pretty cases, mixing in the mixed spice at stage 3 on the instructions for the basic cupcake mixture.
To make the buttercream, mix the butter and milk together with the mixed spice. Then add the icing sugar bit by bit making sure the mixture is smooth.
Using a cocktail stick, add green food colouring until the desired colour is reached – I went for a lightish green but you could use a more traditional fir green if you like.
Place the tube into the piping bag and fill bag with buttercream. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Pipe one large circle around the cupcake to make the base, then fill the middle. Squeeze directly into the middle of the circle and, pushing down gently, squeeze the bag so it forms another level on the tree. Stop before it reaches the size of the lower level.
Repeat with the top but pull up gently to create the peak.
Top with star and decorate with “baubles” using silver balls. Spray tops with lustre spray to give them a snowy effect.

Tip: Do one cupcake at a time, otherwise if the buttercream dries out it’ll be hard to put the stars and baubles on so easily!

Eton Mess cupcakes

Becs — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 21:13:05 +0000

I made these for the Iron Cupcake competition in Leeds for the theme “summer berries”. I took the idea of the traditional Eton Mess (fresh cream, meringue and strawberries) but used buttercream. The inside of the cupcake is stripy, which is a nice surprise when you bite into it!

60mins – Prep time: 40 mins – Cooking time: 20mins

Ingredients

Cupcakes

4oz golden caster sugar
4oz margarine (I use Stork)
4oz self raising flour
2 medium/large eggs (get them out of the fridge beforehand to warm up to room temp)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste/3 drops vanilla essence
Red food colouring

Buttercream

100g butter
220g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla essence

Strawberry sauce

15 strawberries
2 tbsp soft brown sugar

Decorations

Meringues – you could make your own or you could just use one of those meringue nests you can buy from the supermarket
Strawberries to decorate – try to use the smaller ones for decoration and larger ones for the sauce

Instructions

Oven temp: 160°C/320°F

Before making the cupcakes, make the strawberry sauce. Remove stalks and slice strawberries into about 6 pieces each. Place them in a saucepan with the sugar and simmer over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. The strawberries will go very slushy.
Use a masher to gently squash all the strawberries and simmer with the lid off for another 2 minutes.
Run the sauce through a sieve to remove all the pips and pulp and leave to cool.
Lay out cupcake cases. If you use silicon you can lay them on a flat baking tray, if you use paper ones, I advise using a bun tin to make the cakes hold their shape
Whisk the eggs and sugar for at least 4 minutes with an electric hand whisk and beat air into the mix so it fluffs up.
Bit by bit, sieve in the flour and baking powder and add bits of butter, whisking the mixture each time to ensure a smooth texture, until fully mixed, then mix in the vanilla paste or essence.
Divide the mixture evenly into two bowls. In one bowl mix 4tbsp of strawberry sauce. Add red food colouring the batter is strongly coloured.
Take a spoonful of the white batter and spoon into the middle. Gently make a well with the base of a spoon in the middle. Repeat with pink mixture. Fill cupcake cases about two thirds full.
Put the cupcakes into the oven for 15-20 minutes until they feel spongey and the tops have got some colour.
Once out of the oven, place on a wire cooling rack to cool down
To make the buttercream, cream the butter on its own for a couple of minutes using an electric hand mixer, then add the icing sugar and vanilla essence and beat until light and fluffy.
Make a cupcake swirl, but after you’ve scooped the buttercream on, gently drip on strawberry sauce so that it gently makes a strawberry ripple in buttercream.
Need help learning the swirl? Watch this fab video from youtube
Take your meringues and crumble it – I made my meringue quite fine to show off the sauce underneath but you can make it as chunky as you like. Sprinkle over the top of the buttercream.
Garnish with a strawberry, then try not to eat them all at once!

Pimm’s No.1 Cup-cakes

Becs — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:47:52 +0000

Whatto, it must be Pimm’s o’clock! For me, summer is officially marked by the first Pimm’s of the season, usually shared with friends at the Royal Norfolk Show or previously on Southsea Common. I love the refreshing blend of fruits that you put in it: strawberry, cucumber, orange and mint. I’ve been thinking about how best to combine all the flavours into a cupcake and this is the result. The buttercreams all work really well, none of them overpowered each other including the cucumber which I thought would be awful because it’s quite watery. Make it into a “virgin cupcake” (no alcohol) by warming the Pimm’s in a saucepan on the hob for a minute or so. If you wanted to strengthen the flavour of the Pimm’s, then I would suggest using more than specified and reducing it in a saucepan on the hob.

Ingredients

For the cupcake

My basic cupcake recipe
60ml Pimm’s

For all buttercream

400g icing sugar
250g butter

For the strawberry buttercream

8 strawberries
1tbsp sugar

For the cucumber buttercream

30g cucumber (use skin, but not seeds in centre)
Small amount of green food colouring

For the orange buttercream

Juice ½ an orange
Rind ¼ an orange
Small amount of orange food colouring

For the mint buttercream

8 fresh mint leaves
Small amount of green food colouring

Instructions

Make the cupcakes as per the instructions on the basic cupcake recipe, adding in the Pimm’s at the end of stage 3.
Divide up the butter and icing sugar into 4 (100g icing sugar, 62g butter) and put in 4 separate bowls. Mix each until light in colour and fluffy. I recommend using a hand mixer (it saves on arm ache!)
Strawberry buttercream: Make the strawberry flavouring by roughly chopping the strawberries and putting in a pan with the sugar over a medium heat stirring often. Once softened, mash gently with the back of a spoon and leave to soften a little more (about 2 minutes). Pass the mixture through a sieve to remove seeds. Leave the mixture to cool, then mix into one portion of the buttercream.
Cucumber buttercream: Very finely chop cucumber and mix into one portion of the buttercream. Add a small amount of green food colouring, but keep it quite pale (the mint buttercream should be a stronger green).
Orange buttercream: Blend in juice and rind into one portion of the buttercream, then add a small amount of orange food colouring to give a gentle hint of orange to it.
Mint buttercream: Very finely chop mint and add to buttercream, then add a small amount of green food colouring, making sure the green is slightly stronger than that of the cucumber version.
Piping: I used a piping bag and a large open star piping nozzle to pipe. I put the nozzle in the bag, then placed it in a tall glass, spreading the top of the bag over the top of the glass. You’ll need to put all the buttercream in at once, otherwise all the colours will get mixed up.
Using a tablespoon, take a scoop of a one of the buttercream and gently push it to one side of the piping bag. Take another tablespoon and repeat with the next buttercream and so on and so forth. Once you’ve done one “layer” you can repeat again with the four colours – you don’t need to make sure each buttercream goes on the same side as the one before.
Pull the bag upright and knock out any air in the bag then twist it at the top to close it. Make your swirls, they’ll come out all tie dye! If you need help with swirls try this basic cupcake swirl tutorial.
If you want to add “lemonade” to your Pimm’s cupcakes, garnish with a ¼ slice of lemon.

Super strawberry cupcakes

Becs — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:15:26 +0000

Summer strawberries, mmm delicious! The strawberry flavouring you can buy in bottles has a very artificial taste, but making your own sauce is so incredibly easy, there’s no reason not make it. Plus any leftovers could easily be drizzled over some icecream. I loved opening up the cake box and letting the smell of fresh strawberry hit me.

Instructions

Strawberry sauce

15 strawberries
2 tbsp soft brown sugar

Cupcakes

My basic cupcake recipe

Strawberry buttercream

300g icing sugar, sifted
80g butter
1/2 tbsp milk

Decorations

Hot pink sanding sugar

Instructions

Remove stalks and slice strawberries into about 6 pieces each. Place them in a saucepan with the sugar and simmer over a gentle heat for about 10 minutes with the lid on, stirring occasionally. The strawberries will go very slushy.
Use a masher to gently squash all the strawberries and simmer with the lid off for another 2 minutes.
Run the sauce through a sieve to remove all the pips and pulp and leave to cool.
Follow the instructions from the basic cupcake recipe to make the cupcakes, spooning 2tbsp of strawberry sauce into the batter with step 3.
To make the buttercream: Using an electric mixer, mix the icing sugar and butter together until fluffy and creamy. Add 4 tbsp of strawberry sauce and the milk and whisk again until smooth. If you wish to make the cupcake swirl illustrated in the picture, you’ll need to make sure the mixture is stiff enough to hold until set, so add a little more icing sugar if needs be.
Frost cupcakes and sprinkle a little pink sanding sugar around the outside rim of the cupcake.

Need help learning the swirl? Watch this fab video from youtube – I just don’t reverse the palette knife back the other way.