Summer Cupcakes

On the weekend I made these cute cupcakes using my favourite summer fruits: nectarines, strawberries and passion fruit.

Here's what you'll need to make them: 125g butter, 1 cup caster sugar, 2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups SR flour, 1/2 cup milk, and 2 nectarines, chopped. I didn't end up using the passion fruit in the mixture. I just realised that egg has a frowny face :( aww poor egg.

Begin by beating the (softened) butter for a couple of minutes.

Next add the sugar a little at a time and beat until light and fluffy. The method I use to make cupcakes is from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook.

Once all the sugar has been added, add 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind. Oops forgot to put that in the ingredients list.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about a minute after each addition.

Then add a third of the flour and mix on low speed until just combined.

Then add half of the milk and mix on low speed. Repeat with the remaining flour and milk, ending with the flour.

Fold in the chopped nectarines.

Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases. I got 11 cupcakes out of this mix but I think the cupcake cases I used were a bit bigger than normal ones. I used Robert Gordon cases by the way- aren't they pretty?
Bake for about 20 mins in a 180 degree C oven.

To top the cupcakes off I made passion fruit icing from the Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook and put a strawberry on top. Unfortunately the cupcake cases ended up a bit greasy and lost their colour a bit so I slipped another one over the top to cover it for these pictures.

The cupcakes were really yummy- you could taste the lemon in them and the icing was passion fruity and not too sweet.The perfect summer treat!

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

Happy New Year everyone! I thought I would start off the year with a sweet treat, so I decided to make choc-chip cherry cakes, or as I call them Cherry Ripe cupcakes. The recipe is adapted from a recipe in the Australian Women's Weekly Cupcakes cookbook, which uses glace cherries instead of Cherry Ripe.

Here's what you will need to make them:

• 125g butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut essence
• 2/3 cup caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup desiccated coconut
• 1 1/2 Cherry Ripe bars, chopped
• 50g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 cup SR flour
• 1/4 plain flour
  
  
  

  Beat butter, essence, sugar and eggs in small bowl with electric mixer until combined. Next time I might add 1 teaspoon of the coconut essence because you couldn't really taste it.

Add the milk,

coconut,

chopped Cherry Ripe and chocolate,

and the sifted flours. Stir until combined.

Divide the mixture among 12 cupcake cases. I used cute Cherry ones that I got for Christmas. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees C for about 20 mins. I baked mine for 25 mins and they were a tad overdone.

For the ganache you will need 1/4 cup cream and 100g milk (or dark) chocolate, chopped. Easy!

Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan.

Pour over the chocolate in a small bowl and stir until smooth.

You can use the ganache straight away and dip the cupcakes or you can leave it to sit at room temperature and then spread it. I topped mine with fresh cherries. Delicious!

P.S. I got Pioneer Woman's cookbook for Christmas and I am going to attempt the Cinnamon Rolls I'll let you know how they turn out!