I made these cupcakes to celebrate my partner’s mum’s birthday. As a testament to how delicious they are, when we took them to the party, my pregnant sister-in-law had an entire conversation with us while simply staring at the cakes. We had ceased to exist. There was only cake. In all seriousness, though, I’m glad she appreciates my baking.
Vanilla Cupcakes
Adapted from Marry Berry’s recipe
Ingredients:
175g softened salted butter, cut into small pieces
175g self-raising flour
175g caster sugar
1/2 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. vanilla
3 eggs Note: most versions of this recipe online, for some unknown reason, list the eggs after the icing ingredients. I almost forgot to include them when I tried out the recipe from Red.
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 180C and add cupcake liners to a twelve cup muffin tin.
Add all ingredients to a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well combined and fluffy.
Bake for about 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl Icing
Is this icing? Not really. Is it ganache? No. Is it the best thing that will ever happen to you? Quite possibly.
Adapted from raspberricupcakes
75g raspberries (need about 1/4 cup purée)
Grated rind of half a lemon
25g (2 tbsp.) sugar
170g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
125g (3/4 cup) white chocolate, finely chopped
Warning! this icing needs to be prepared the night before, or at least several hours in advance of use.
Melt butter and white chocolate in a saucepan over low heat. It will look gross because the solids will separate, but go with it. Once completely melted, put your weird popcorn-scented goop in the fridge to harden. This will take several hours, and I suggest leaving it overnight.
Meanwhile, heat the raspberries in a saucepan over low heat until juicy and mushy. Press through a fine sieve, and you should be left with about 1/4 cup. Place purée, lemon rind, and sugar in a saucepan on low heat and cook until dark, about 10 minutes. Put in fridge and cool overnight, or until your chocolate mixture is solid.
Take the chocolate mixture from the fridge 30 minutes before you want to decorate so that it softens.
Beat the chocolate mixture in a large bowl with an electric mixture until fluffy (like buttercream).
Remove 1/3 of the mixture and, in a separate bowl, fold it in with the raspberry purée.
To get the swirl pattern, use a star tip on your piping bag. Fill one side of your bag with the pink icing, and the other with the white. This is best done by layering a tube of icing down the seam of the piping bag with a small spoon. Actually, 1/3 pink to 2/3 white works best. I piped from the outside in, rotating my hand slightly to get the colour on top to alternate. Let the icing set slightly on the cupcakes before eating.
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