Ironcupcake London - Fruit

Last night was the 11th ironcupcake london event and as usual there was a fabulous turn out and more than 30 great entries to taste. Here is a sample of the line up.....

and these are the ones I shared with my friends - yum!!!! So hard to pick a favourite.....

The theme this month was fruit so I decided to try something new and came up with blueberry and earl grey cupcakes, topped with earl grey buttercream and a handmade vintage rose decoration. Nice and dainty......

Here's the recipe if you want to make them.....

Earl grey and blueberry cupcakes

Ingredients

Cupcakes (makes 12)

• 125ml semi-skimmed milk
• 4 Earl Grey tea bags (I used twinnings)
• 110g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2 medium eggs
• 125g self-raising flour (sifted)
• 125g plain flour (sifted)
• 1 cup of blueberries (washed)

Buttercream

• 250g unsalted butter (softened)
• 400g icing sugar (sifted)
• 2 tbsp semi-skimmed milk
• 2 tsp of earl grey tea leaves

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Heat milk in a saucepan to the boil, then remove from heat and add teabags. Infuse for 20 mins or until cooled. In the meantime, beat sugar and butter with electric beater for 5 minutes until light and fluffy (butter will change to a lighter colour). Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add flours and the tea-infused milk in two batches, mixing well each time. Lastly stir through blueberries (I like to keep them whole, but you can chop them up also). Spoon mixture into lined muffin trays (about two-thirds full), then bake for 15-20 minutes. Insert a toothpick into the centre of one of the cupcakes to see if they are done. If it comes out clean, it’s done! Remove cupcakes from oven, and let them cool for 10 minutes in the muffin tray before transferring them to a wire rack. Once they are completely cooled, decorate with a buttercream swirl.

To make the buttercream beat the butter and icing sugar on a slow speed for 5 minutes. Add milk to make icing a slightly softer consistency if desired. Sitr through tea leaves then put in piping bag, fitted with a star-shaped nozzle to pipe swirl on the cooled cupcakes.

To decorate the cupcakes, I used pale pink flowerpaste in a rose mould (Karen Davies) to make vintage rose toppers. Here's the mould......

I then used lustre dusts to colour the rose and the leaves. So pretty......

Next month is the 1 year birthday of ironcupcake london. Stay tuned for an update on my entry!

Happy baking xx

Earl Grey Cupcakes

There's no better way to celebrate the start of Spring (and hopefully the beginning of better warmer weather!) than making, and eating, a batch of pretty cupcakes decorated with spring blossoms. Here's the recipe if you want to try them:

Earl grey cupcakes

• 125g unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2/3 cu[p caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/4 cups self-raising flour (sifted)
  
• 1/3 cup skimmed milk
• 2 earl grey teabags

Lemon buttercream

• 125g unsalted butter
• 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
• 2 tbsp skimmed milk
• zest of 1 lemon
• juice of half a lemon
• yellow food colouring (optional)

Method
Preheat oven to 160C (fan forced). Beat butter, vanilla extract, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with an electric mixer until mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the flour and milk in 2-3 batches until the mixture is well combined. Lastly, stir through the tea leaves from the 2 teabags. Divide the mixture evenly between cupcake cases (fill cases no more than 2/3 full) and bake for 15-20 minutes. Allow the cakes to cool completely before frosting.

To make the buttercream, beat butter and sugar on a slow speed for 5 minutes until the mixture is as white as possible. Beat in the milk, lemon juice and zest and mix well to a smooth but firm consistency. Add yellow food colouring if desired. Pipe swirls of buttercream onto the cooled cupcakes with a star nozzle (I used a wilton 2D), then add sugarpaste or royal icing decorations if desired. The cherry blossoms I used were made by piping pink royal icing petals with a #57 tip (let flowers dry completely before using them as decorations).

Happy baking!