Recipe: Beetroot Cupcakes with Orange & Poppy Seed Icing

We are all so used to carrots being used in baking and whilst Carrot Cake is definitely one of my favourites, I wanted to try something a little different, so I decided to experiment a little by replacing beetroot in my standard Carrot Cupcakes recipe. I felt that a cream cheese icing would clash with the earthy sweet and very distinct flavour of the beetroot, so finished these cupcakes with a simple orange glacé icing and a sprinkling of poppy seeds.

The cupcake batter is quite a deep purple colour prior to baking but this mellows a bit in the heat of the oven. However the beetroot flavour remains wonderfully intense. These cupcakes are incredibly easy to make and a must for anyone who loves beetroot!

Beetroot Cupcakes ingredients

INGREDIENTS:

Cupcakes:

200g self-raising flour, sifted

175g light muscovado sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp mixed spice

Finely grated zest of 1 orange

2 large eggs, lightly whisked

150ml sunflower oil

200g beetroots, peeled and grated

Icing:

150g icing sugar

Juice of ½ orange

1 tblsp poppy seeds

METHOD:

Prior to baking

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4 and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.
2. Place the flour, sugar, spices, bicarbonate of soda and orange zest in a large mixing bowl and mix briefly with a wooden spoon to combine all the ingredients.
3. Add the lightly whisked eggs, sunflower oil and grated beetroot and mix together until thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture between the cases and bake for approximately 20 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen and a thin skewer inserted into the centre of one comes out clean.
4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the muffin tin for 5 minutes before transferring the cupcakes to a wire rack to finish cooling.

Icing:

1. Place the icing sugar in a small mixing bowl and add enough orange juice to create an icing with a fluid consistency, but don’t make it too runny. Drizzle some of the icing over each cupcake and scatter over some poppy seeds before the icing sets.

Makes 12 Cupcakes.

The finished Beetroot Cupcakes

 

1st Birthday and a recipe for Lemon Cupcakes with Limoncello Glacé Icing & a Lemon Curd Centre!

Tomorrow is my blog’s 1^st Birthday!!!

WOOHOO!!!

In the past year, I have loved sharing some of my favourite recipes and the memories that many of these dishes evoke for me. As the year progressed I found that I was becoming far more adventurous and experimental with some of the foods that I was cooking. The thing that has probably amazed me the most is that I don’t find it burdensome cooking, photographing and writing up the recipes and that it is in fact a process that I enjoy very much.

So on the eve of my blog’s birthday, I would like to thank all those who follow me, those who have commented on and those who have given me feedback about my recipes. I am truly grateful and extremely humbled whenever anyone takes time out of their busy lives to do so.

Given my celebratory mood, I wanted to bake something to mark the occasion, but was determined that it would be something special and representative of my favourite things. I didn’t have to think much about this. I love cake; I love lemon and I love daisies!!! You will see in the photos accompanying this post that I have decorated my cupcakes with individual sugar daisies that I had left over from another cake that I had baked for a christening. I think they look so beautiful delicately perched on top of these cupcakes.

 

In many ways this is a really simple cupcake… the sponge is light flavoured with finely grated lemon zest and it is topped with a simple glacé icing! I have embellished it a bit, by hollowing a little of the cooked sponge cake out of each cupcake and filling the cavity with homemade lemon curd and have also flavoured the glacé icing with the Italian lemon liqueur Limoncello - what I was trying to achieve was a really lemony cupcake and in this regard, I feel that I definitely achieved my aims.

 

What I particularly like about these cupcakes is that they are not decorated with a thick layer of buttercream icing but instead a rather restrained (but VERY flavoursome) glacé icing. I flavoured the icing with Limoncello, but if you don’t have any, just substitute some freshly squeezed lemon juice – the cupcakes will still taste fab.
 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
175g butter, softened

175g caster sugar

Finely grated zest of 1 lemon

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour, sifted

Lemon Curd:

4 unwaxed lemons, juice and finely grated zest

200g caster sugar

100g butter, cut into small cubes

3 large eggs plus 1 yolk, lightly beaten

Glacé icing:

200g icing sugar

2-3tblsp Limoncello

To finish:

9 sugar daisies (optional)
 

Method:

Cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place 9 cupcake cases in a cupcake/muffin tin and set aside.

2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Add the finely grated lemon zest and beat again to fully incorporate.

3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and fold into the creamed mixture. Once all the flour has been added and fully incorporated, spoon the mixture, dividing it equally, into the prepared baking cupcake cases.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 17-20 minutes until the cupcakes are golden brown cooked through and well risen. Allow to cook for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Lemon curd:

5. Place the lemon juice and zest, sugar and butter into a heatproof bowl. Place the bowl sitting over a pan of barely simmering water making sure that the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.

6. Stir the mixture occasionally until the butter has melted. Add the eggs into the lemon mixture and whisk together until everything is well incorporated. Cook for about 15 minutes, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened.

7. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely (NOTE: This makes more lemon curd than you need for this recipe, but any excess can be poured into sterilised jars and stored in the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks.

Glacé icing:

8. Mix everything together to create a thickish glacé icing (about the same consistency as golden syrup). Set aside.

To finish:

9. Using a small melon baller hollow out a small cavity from the centre of each cupcake. Fill this with a teaspoonful of lemon curd and then top with some of the glacé icing. Place a sugar daisy on top and allow the icing to set.

 

Makes 9.
 

 

 

 

Chocolate Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream

A while back, I went absolutely cupcake crazy, baking them all the time and desperately trying to invent new and wacky flavour combinations. Without a doubt, cupcakes were the darlings of the baking world for a couple of years. But, as with most trends, time moves on and something new comes along to take their place; since then macarons, whoopee pies, éclairs and doughnuts have all had their moment in the sun. Whilst I am an eager participant in all these baking trends, I also like good old retro style bakes.

When I was a child we never made cupcakes, though we were aware of them courtesy of American television shows and films. What we had were ‘buns’ or fairy cakes (buns with glace icing and if you were feeling very decadent a few coloured sprinkles on top), but we didn’t have cupcakes which were considered completely extravagant, being so much bigger than our little sponge cake buns. Also, cupcakes tend to always be covered in rich blousy coloured buttercream icings; my grandmother would have considered them vulgar and ostentatious!

But I do love cupcakes and they definitely have a place in my baking arsenal. Having discarded my misplaced desires to seek out unusual flavour pairings just to appear different and a bit of a baking trend-setter, I find that I much prefer using classic combinations. One of my favourite flavour mixes is that of chocolate with raspberry or chocolate with vanilla, but I’m not sure which of the two I like better. Loathe to force myself into making a decision, I decided to use all three flavour elements in these cupcakes. I have baked a simple chocolate sponge cake, covered it in vanilla flavoured buttercream icing and finished it off with fresh raspberries. These are really tasty and incredibly simple to make. The quantities given make 12 cupcakes, but you may want to consider making a double batch, because they are popular and disappear in minutes!
 

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:
150g butter, softened

150g caster sugar

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour

25g cocoa powder

Vanilla Buttercream:

125g butter, softened

250g icing sugar, sifted

1 teaspoon vanilla paste

To finish:

12 fresh raspberries
 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place 12 cupcake cases of your choice into a 12-hole cupcake tin and set aside.

2. Using a hand-held electric mixer. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixing bowl until very light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs mixing well after addition to avoid the mixture curdling.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together and fold into the butter and egg mixture until fully incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the 12 cupcake cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, until well-risen and a thin skewer inserted carefully into one comes out clean.

4. Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely before topping with buttercream icing.

Vanilla Buttercream:

5. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Place the buttercream in a disposable piping bag fitteld with a 1cm star nozzle and pipe a generous swirl of buttercream on top of each cupcake.

To finish:

6. Place a fresh raspberry on top of each cupcake.

Makes 12.

    

Chocolate Cupcakes

I have baked many chocolate cakes over the years in my hunt to find “THE perfect” chocolate cake. I have come close but I always feel that there are improvements that could be made. I have also baked score of different recipes for chocolate cupcakes; and I think that I have finally cracked them and found a recipe that I love. This is the one that I present here.

The batter for these cakes is made in an unconventional way, as the creaming method is eschewed in favour of melting the chocolate and butter together and then adding the eggs and all the other dry ingredients. Initially, I thought that this would create a dense, heavy cupcake, but they are surprisingly light but still rich and with a good chocolate “hit”. The batter is looser than the traditional creamed versions but it creates the most fabulous cakes.

So often, chocolate cakes, cupcakes and biscuits disappoint because they just don’t taste of chocolate; well I promise you these ones won’t disappoint! Once you make them, I am confident that you will make them again and again. They are just fab. But don’t just take my word for it. My children are absolute chocolate addicts, and would eat chocolate laced cakes, brownies and the like very regularly if given half a chance and they have declared these the best chocolate cupcakes EVER!
 

My eldest daughter in particular, loves chocolate flavoured bakes. She has recently started doing a lot of baking herself and likes to experiment, trying out different recipes. It is not surprising that many of these experiments are centred on the inclusion of chocolate as a key ingredient. I am delighted that she has become interested in cooking and baking as I think these are skills that everyone should be encouraged to develop.

She also knows her own mind and is quite insistent on banishing me from the kitchen when she is doing her baking as apparently, “I take over” if allowed to remain!!! There may be a small grain of truth in her assertion.

I post this recipe today in her honour, as it is her birthday and to let her know how much I love her. I am astonished that she is now a teenager as it only seems a short time ago that she was a small baby. Hopefully, as she continues to grow older, her love of baking and cooking will continue to flourish.
 

Ingredients:

85g dark chocolate, melted
200g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract/paste
225g caster sugar
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
175g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
½ tsp baking powder
Chocolate icing:
150ml cream
200g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
25g butter

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with paper cases and set aside.
2. Place the chocolate and butter into a large saucepan and melt together over a moderate heat, stirring all the time. When the chocolate and butter have meted, remove the pan from the heat and set aside to cool for about ten minutes.

3. Add the vanilla extract and sugar to the melted chocolate mixture and stir using a wooden spoon until fully incorporated. Then add the eggs mix again. Sift the baking powder and flour together and stir into the mixture – the resulting batter will be quite loose.

4. Divide the batter equally between the paper cases until they are about three-quarters full. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 25 minutes until the cupcakes are well risen and a thin skewer inserted into the middle of one comes out clean.

5. Leave to cool in the tin for about ten minutes, before removing to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. When cool decorate with chocolate icing.

Chocolate icing:

6. Put the cream and chocolate into a small saucepan and heat over a gentle heat, stirring all the time until they have melted together. Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring to ensure that everything is well mixed together. Set aside to cool for a couple of hours to allow it to firm up a little.

7. When the icing has firmed up sufficiently it can be spread on the cupcakes, using a small palette knife.

Makes 12. 

Easter Cupcakes

There's nothing about these cupcakes which is historically authentic in terms of traditional Easter baking, but sometimes it’s far too easy to be excessively rigid about such matters. The only thing that makes these ‘Easter’ cupcakes is the fact that I have plonked a few mini, sugar-coated chocolate eggs on top. The cupcakes don’t even include any chocolate which appears to be a mandatory ingredient in foods for modern Easter celebrations. However, these are really simple cakes to bake and children and adults alike just love them; they can be rustled up in no time at all and use basic store-cupboard ingredients, so as far as I am concerned they are a winner!

So many commercially produced cupcakes don’t use butter in the buttercream icing. I realise why this is; margarines and vegetable based fats are a cheaper ingredient. However, I firmly believe that this is a false economy as nothing beats butter for flavour. I also hate the almost greasy film that margarines leave in the mouth, especially when used in icings and buttercreams. Despite having experimented extensively with many alternatives, I always come back to butter because it just tastes the best. I have said it before and I am proud to say it again… I think that we have the best butter in the world, available to us here in Ireland!
 

These cupcakes can be varied to suit the particular occasion.  I have labelled these Easter Cupcakes by virtue of the fact that I have topped them with mini Easter eggs, but they could also be topped with sugar flowers, or other sweets and edible decorations and served at birthdays and other celebrations.

 

Cupcakes are hugely popular and are so much more over-the-top than the traditional queen cakes and fairy cakes that I was brought up on. Both these are also individual sponge cakes or buns but they are far smaller in scale than their American cupcake cousins. Both queen cakes and fairy cakes can be unadorned but they are also often topped with a thin layer of chocolate or glacé icing. I am really fond of them and they hold a certain nostalgia for me, reminding me of school cake-sales and birthday parties when I was a child.

Cupcakes on the other hand are larger and tend to be covered in thick swirls of buttercream icing, which some people find a little too much, but I do love them despite these characteristics. There’s something very kitsch and a little vulgar about a cupcake compared to the restrained simplicity of fairy and queen cakes. Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients:

175g butter, softened
175g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla paste/extract
4 large eggs, lightly beaten

175g self-raising flour, sifted

Buttercream:

100g butter, softened

200g icing sugar, sifted

1tsp vanilla extract/paste

1 drop of pink food colouring

Mini candy-covered Easter eggs to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Place 9 paper cupcake cases in a cupcake/muffin tin and set aside.
2. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer, beat together until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla paste/extract and beat again to fully incorporate.
3. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition. Add the sifted flour and fold into the creamed mixture. Once all the flour has been added and incorporated, spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases, distributing it equally. Bake in the preheated oven for 18-20 minutes until the cakes are golden brown, cooked through and well risen.
4. Remove from oven and allow to cool for five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling completely. The cakes can then be decorated with buttercream icing.

Buttercream:

5. Place all the ingredients in a bowl and beat together until light and fluffy using a hand-held electric mixer. Place the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe generous swirls of buttercream on top of each cupcake. Press two or three mini eggs on top of the icing on each cupcake.
 

Makes 9 cupcakes.