Iced cupcakes in two flavours

Cupcakes will always be in fashion because they come in such pretty individual portions. No need to fuss with cutting a cake or deal with people who want just a thin slice please. Cupcakes are kinda like ice cream flavours: just experiment with the basic recipe and you can get lots of good variations. I use Nigella Lawson’s basic Victoria Sponge/cupcake recipe. Incidentally, Jamie Oliver’s cupcake recipe is pretty much exactly the same so I think we’re in good hands. I tried two flavours this season: lavender and orange flower.  Both worked very well. My friends certainly enjoyed them.

They’re not as pretty as I’d like them to be because the tops like to erupt too much, creating a slightly odd nub at the top of the cake. I’ve played around with oven temperatures and lowering it slightly seems to help. But the best thing to do is make sure the cake mixture is only just moist enough to be off dropping consistency. Go easy when adding the liquid at the end. I didn’t and ended up with what you see below.

I had some dried lavender used for herbal infusions and was inspired by Anne Mendelson’s exhortation to use milk infusions to concentrate flavour. Nigella also very helpfully gives a lavender variation in her recipe. If you have leftover lavender milk you can try drinking it with tea. Makes for a nice twist to the usual morning cuppa.

Lavender cupcakes, iced and ready to go

Lavender cupcakes

dried lavender
6 tbsp milk
125 g butter
125 g sugar
2 eggs
¼ tsp vanilla essence
125 g plain flour
½ tsp cream of tartar
¼ tsp baking soda
10 paper cupcake cases
100 g icing sugar

In a little saucepan, gently heat the milk and lavender until it starts bubbling. Cool, then strain and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 150 °C.
Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, stirring in a spoonful of flour in between, followed by the vanilla essence. Fold in the flour, cream of tartar and baking soda.
Stir in 2 tbsp of the lavender milk till you get a soft dropping consistency. Add a tiny bit more of the milk if necessary.
Divide evenly between the cupcake cases. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and a skewer comes out clean. Wait for the cakes to cool.
For the icing, combine the icing sugar and about two tablespoons of lavender milk till you get a fairly stiff and gooey icing. Spread generously over the cooled cupcakes and top each with a pinch of dried lavender.

Makes 10 cupcakes.

Citrus cupcakes

Freshly baked citrus cupcakes waiting to be iced

Use the same recipe as for the lavender cupcakes, using any citrus fruit to replace the lavender, vanilla and milk. I replaced the vanilla with the zest of a lemon and a lime, and the milk with the citrus juice. You can spike the mixture with one teaspoon of orange flower water if you have it.

For the icing, I used some finely ground almonds to replace some of the icing sugar. It makes for a slightly grainy but much less sugary icing. Here’s how:

70 g icing sugar
30 g finely ground almonds
1 tsp orange flower water
zest and juice of one lime
silver balls

Combine the icing sugar, almonds, orange flower water and lime zest. Add lime juice (about two tablespoons) and stir till you get a stiff, spreadable icing. Apply to cooled cupcakes and stud each with a little silver ball.

Not so pretty but really tasty

Tags: baking, citrus, cook, cupcakes, lavender, recipes, sweet