Cupcakes

It's a while since I've posted.  Work just seemed to get in the way, not good.

I'm not generally a lover of cupcakes, like the fairy cakes of the "old days" but with too much icing for my liking. I'm sure I would have loved that much icing as a child when I preferred icing to cake, but now I prefer cake.

Still, once in a while I will make some cupcakes, or my version of them. So here are a couple I made recently:

Gingerbread Latte Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

I found this recipe online.  There are few versions around.

Makes 12

1¼ cups plain flour
1½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cardamom
pinch ground nutmeg
½ tsp allspice
¼ tsp salt
½ stick butter (60g)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsulfured molasses (I used black treacle)
1 large egg, lightly beaten
½ cup very strong hot coffee
1 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)

Frosting
8 oz cream cheese , eg Philadelphia
1½ cups icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp thinly sliced crystallised ginger. (I didn't have any of this so I use the preserved stem ginger in syrup, drained of the syrup)

Gingerbread man shaped sprinkles

Mix flour, ground ginger cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice and salt in a bowl.

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses/treacle and the egg and beat until smooth.  Combine the hot coffee and baking soda and stir until dissolved.  Add to the molasses mixture.  Combine this mixture with the flour mixture, stir until well combined.

Fill cupcake liners halfway. Bake o the middle rack of the oven 180ºC Gas 4 for approx 15-20 mins until a skewer poked into the middle of a cake comes out clean.

Cool the cakes on a wire rack. Completely cool before frosting.

Mix the ingredients for the frosting together and then spread or pipe onto the cooled cakes.  Top with the gingerbread sprinkles.

Now it's getting closer to Christmas, so here's some cupcakes with a mincemeat filling.  

Mince Pie Cupcakes

175g / 6oz self raising Flour

100g / 4os light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar

1tsp mixed Spice

175g / 6oz softened butter

3 eggs

2tbsp milk

140g /5oz mincemeat

Heat oven to 190ºC  Gas 5.

Line 12 bun cake tin with cake cases. 

Put flour sugar butter spice eggs and milk in a bowl and mix with electric mixer or wooden spoon for 2-3 mins until light and fluffy. 

Put a spoonful of cake mix in each cake case then a rounded tsp of mincemeat. Cover the mincemeat with a spoonful of cake mix and smooth. 

Bake for 15-18 mins until golden brown and firm.

The suggestion was to sprinkle these with icing sugar to serve, but I wanted to use my Christmas sprinkles so I topped them with glace icing and sprinkles.