Wednesday 7 October 2015

Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes





A while back I bought some of those amazing looking cupcake wrappers like you get round the muffins in Costa. And when I saw these cupcakes, I just knew that I had to use my wrappers on them. After all my Macmillan Coffee morning is a special occasion so let's make things look a bit fancier hey?!



I absolutely love the flavours of Bakewell tart, and living in Sheffield, it's hard for me not to be lured by the Original Bakewell Pudding Shop in Bakewell to devour one of their many delicious tarts. The original tart varies quite substantially to the good old Mr Kipling we all know and love, but both have those almondy flavours with jam. Yum!

I was also lucky enough to be given a bag of different flavoured pastes by a friend, one of which was almond. I've never used these before but they were amazing and I highly recommend them.



So here's all the flavours of the original tart and shop bought tart but in cupcake form. What could be better? Not a lot actually.

Now, I could have made my own cherry jam and under other circumstances I would have done. However, when I had 11 other cakes to make that day, the thought of adding one more homemade ingredient to the list sent me into a spiral of doom. So shop bought it is. If you want to be fancy and make your own, please do go ahead! Next time I promise I will.

So in essence what we have here is almond flavoured sponge filled with cherry jam and topped with a white chocolate almond flavoured buttercream topped with a cherry. If you can get hold of these cupcake wrappers, they definitely add a bit of wow factor to the end result. If not then plain old muffin cases will do absolutely fine.

Ingredients:
8oz stork
8oz caster sugar
8oz self raising flour
4 eggs
6-12 drops of almond extract/paste
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Cherry jam
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250g softened unsalted butter
400g icing sugar
6-12 drops of almond extract/paste
70g melted white chocolate
Glace cherries

Preheat the oven to 190/170c fan and pop your muffin cases into a 12 hole muffin tin. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the eggs, flour and almond extract. Carefully spoon into the cases making sure you don't drip any down the sides and bake for 20 minutes until golden and risen and cake tester comes out clean.




Once cooled core out the middle of each cupcake and fill with a large teaspoon full of cherry jam.


Next make your buttercream by beating together the softened butter and icing sugar and beat for around 5 minutes until lighter in colour. Beat in the melted chocolate and almond extract to taste.

Take a piping bag and the nozzle of your choice and swirl the buttercream over the tops of the cupcakes. Top with a cherry