Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes
Yesterday I had my birthday party. I rarely go all out for birthdays, but because this was a special one, I hired a pub function room and invited all my friends to come and celebrate with me. Of course, this also meant baking cupcakes! I made the coffee cupcakes again from the previous week, as they were really popular. I also made basic vanilla cupcakes, with 2 colour buttercream icing. This recipe was from the Hummingbird Bakery, and it works really well. I just subbed the butter for Pure Margarine and the milk for Oat Milk.
I chose the icing to match the flowers I decorated the room with. I asked my local florist (which I adore, and not just because their name is Doris Florist) to make small bunches to go into some jam jars that I decorated with hessian. They did a brilliant job!
I wanted a third kind of cupcake, one that didn’t have buttercream icing. After thinking (and browsing Pinterest) for a while I decided on a Cherry Bakewell cupcake.
A Cherry Bakewell Tart has four very distinct parts:
- An almond frangipane layer
- A raspberry jam layer
- A thick layer of fondant icing
- Half a cherry on top
It is usually encased in a sweet pastry case, but I didn’t want to include that part.
I started by making an almond cupcake with half flour and half ground almonds. However, when I took it out of the oven it had an odd granulated texture. The cake itself was quite dense and sank in the middle. So I went back to the drawing board!
The next batch I made were basic cupcakes with almond extract for the flavouring. This worked perfectly. They were light and fluffy with a satisfying almond taste and smell. Once they were cool, I used a cupcake corer to remove the middle from each cake.
I then filled the holes with raspberry jam, I didn’t want the jam to be too sweet (the cake with icing was going to be overwhelmingly sweet!), so I bought some Bonne Mamon Raspberry Intense, which said it had more fruit and less sugar. I can confirm that it does! It is delicious, not too sweet and packed with raspberries.
I then mixed up icing sugar with lemon juice, to get that thick fondant icing that has a satisfying tart aftertaste. With hindsight, I realised that I should have saved the cupcake cores, so I could cover the jam centres before icing. Once the icing set there was a definite sinkhole where the jam was.
Fortunately, I still had to add the cherries, so I made sure to cover each sinkhole with half a glace cherry. Again, I wanted to try and avoid that overly saccharine taste with the cherry, so I chose the Waitrose Cook’s Ingredients ones, as they were slightly less sweet than the bright red version.
I asked my guests to let me know what they thought and the feedback was very good. Everyone agreed that it tasted very similar to a Bakewell Tart. I’ve already been asked to make them again.
Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes (Dairy-Free)
Equipment
- cupcake tin
- Cupcake Corer (or a teaspoon)
Ingredients
Almond Cupcakes
- 120 g Plain Flour
- 140 g Caster Sugar
- 1 ½ tsp Baking Powder
- 40 g Pure Margarine
- 120 ml Oat Milk
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Almond Extract
- Raspberry Jame
Icing
- 500 g Icing Sugar
- Lemon Juice
- 6-12 Glace Cherries
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 170°c
- Put the flour, sugar, baking powder and margarine in a bowl and mix until you have a breadcrumb-like consistency (this is much easier if you do it with a freestanding mixer).
- Add the egg, milk and almond extract and mix until the mixture is smooth. It will be very liquid, don't worry!
- Divide the mixture into 12 cupcake cakes. This is easier if you decant it into a jug and pour it into the cases.
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 20mins. A cocktail stick should come out clean, if not then give them a few more minutes.
- Leave the cakes on a wire rack to cool.
- When they are cool, use the corer to remove the centre of the cupcakes (or use a teaspoon). Spoon raspberry jam into the hole.
Icing and Decoration
- Put the icing sugar in a large bowl. Add lemon juice 1 tsp at a time mixing well. You are aiming for a thick icing.
- Spoon or pipe the icing over the top of the cakes. Make sure the icing covers the whole of the cake top.
- Leave the icing to fully set, otherwise, your cherry will sink.
- Cut the glace cherries (I cut ⅔ of a cherry because I wanted a more generous cherry on top of the cake).
- Place the cherry on top of the icing.
The final batch of cupcakes for my birthday were Apple & Maple Syrup cupcakes. These turned out to be quite popular (I called them Caramel Apple Cupcakes). They are very easy to make and, once again, I managed to make them dairy-free.
Apple & Maple Syrup Cupcakes
Ingredients
Cake
- 125 g Pure Margarine
- 225 g Soft Brown Sugar
- 300 g Self Raising Flour
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 120 ml Maple Syrup
- 4 medium Eggs
- 180 g Grated Apple about 2 Bramley Apples
Frosting
- 175 g Pure Margarine
- 500 g Icing Sugar
- 2 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 2 tbsp Oat Milk
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 175°c
- Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add an egg, followed by ¼ of the flour and cinnamon and mix well.
- Repeat until all the egg, flour and cinnamon is mixed in.
- Mix in the maple syrup
- Mix in the grated apple.
- Spoon the mixture into cake cases, I found that it filled 18 cupcake cases, each about ⅔ full.
- Bake for 20 mins, or until a cocktail stick comes out clean.
- Leave to cool, while you make the frosting.
Frosting
- Mix the margarine, icing sugar, maple syrup and milk until well combined. It should be quite stiff!
- Spoon into a piping bag and pipe a swirl of frosting onto the cold cupcake.
- If you don't have a piping bag then you can spoon the frosting on.
The finished cupcakes were moist and delicious.
It’s my birthday party next Saturday. I have decided to make the coffee cupcakes again, but also to make plain vanilla ones (with coloured icing) and hopefully Cherry Bakewell cupcakes. So watch this space, I’ll let you know how they go!
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