Caxton magazines staff
Cupcakes are a favourite teatime treat and they’re super easy to make – simply follow the below recipes taken from the latest cookbooks
INGREDIENTS
- 3 cups (425g) cake flour
- 1½ cups (300g) sugar
- 4t (20ml) baking powder
- 1t (5ml) salt
- ¼ cup (62.5ml) light rum
- ¼ cup (62.5ml) strawberry liqueur
- ½ cup (125ml) milk
- 1 cup (250ml) apple sauce
- 4 large eggs
- 1t (5ml) strawberry essence
- Pink food colouring (optional)
For the icing
- ½ cup (115g) butter or margarine
- 2½ cups (280g) sifted icing sugar
- 4T (60ml) light rum
- Pink food colouring (optional)
- Garnish with mint leaves, sliced fresh strawberries or lime zest and a little cake glitter.
METHOD
1. Preheat your oven to 180°C and line 24 cupcake moulds or muffin tins with paper liners. Sift all the dry ingredients together straight into the mixing bowl. Add the rum, strawberry liqueur, milk, apple sauce, eggs, essence and colouring (optional) to the dry ingredients and beat well until smooth and creamy.
2. Fill the cupcake liners to halfway and bake for 17–20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcake comes out clean. Leave to cool slightly for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a rack.
3. To make the icing, cream the butter well. Gradually add half of the icing sugar until it is thoroughly combined. Alternate adding a little of the light rum at a time with the rest of the icing sugar until your icing looks thick enough to spread or pipe.
4. Ice the cupcakes, sprinkle with lime zest, or top with fresh mint leaves or sliced fresh strawberries, and dust with a little cake glitter.
Cook’s tips:
• To make a virgin daiquiri, use milk instead of vodka in the batter and lime juice instead of rum in the icing.
• When placing fruit that has been soaking in syrup or juice on top of icing, always make sure the fruit is completely dry. If not, the juice may run into the icing causing stains or resulting in the icing splitting around the juice making it look curdled. Dry the fruit well on a paper towel and allow to air dry for about half an hour before decorating.
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