Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting

I'll start with an apology as this recipe is nearly a week late in being posted. Pete and I have spent the last seven days trying to finish decorating our flat so I just haven't found the time to blog - one room left to go! It's been a pretty epic task and we're both all tidied out, but I'll be posting a second recipe tomorrow to make up for it! Something delicious, savoury and tall, it's a good one I promise.

These cupcakes were inspired by a new tea I've been having at work, it's chamomile, apple and cinnamon - one of those fruit and herbal infusions. It's meant to be calming - believe me I need all the help I can get, the civil engineering trade is mighty stressful at the minute. It's a really nice blend and while I can't claim it has completely helped keep me calmer I always find a nice smelling hot drink by your side to be comforting.

I've taken elements from two of my previous cupcake recipes to produce this one - the milk infusion method from the earl grey and the main batter method from the fresh strawberry. It's not often that a first time recipe comes out perfect but I think these turned out beautifully - nice moist cake with a good high domed top. The chamomile flavour isn't immediately apparent but is a nice undernote that comes through a little more in the after taste. The spiced vanilla buttercream is really lovely, leaving a soft warmth on your palette - they are probably more of an Autumn time treat, but I'm sure I'll be making them again before September.

Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcakes with Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Chamomile and Spiced Apple Cupcake Ingredients
1 tbsp butter
1 large (or 2 small) golden delicious or cooking apple, peeled, cored and cut into a half cm dice
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 chamomile tea bag, contents removed and ground as fine as you can in a pestle and mortar
2 tbsp apple juice (from concentrate gives a more pronounced flavour)
80ml milk
2 chamomile tea bags
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting Ingredients
115g butter, softened
3 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
500g icing sugar
2 tbsp runny honey - preferably manuca honey

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan and then add the diced apple, cook on medium heat for a minute or so and then add the brown sugar, cinnamon and ground chamomile tea. Cook for a further minute before adding the apple juice. Lower the heat and cook until the apples soften enough to be lightly mashed with a fork. Set aside to cool while you infuse the milk.

In a seperate saucepan heat the milk with the two chamomile tea bags until it just comes to a simmer, then turn off the heat and leave to infuse until the milk is at room temperature and then remove the tea bags. The milk will have reduced down - you need around 60ml so measure what you have left and if you need to top it up with more plain milk. Mix with the stewed apples and set aside for a moment.

In a mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the stewed apple and milk mixture and beat before finally adding the second half of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then place them a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Honeyed Cinnamon Nutmeg Frosting Method
Cream the butter, milk, vanilla essence, cinnamon and nutmeg until well combined and then gradually mix in the icing sugar. You should be left with a smooth creamy white frosting flecked with the spices.

Spread or pipe onto your cooled cupcakes and then drizzle over the runny honey.

I believe the picture below shows one of the best ways to eat a cupcake... cakey sandwiches y'all!!!

Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting

Unfortunately it seems that Summer has already ended in little old Loughborough. Sunny afternoons sat in the beer garden with friends has now turned to staring out of the window at grey drizzly skies and wishing for sunburn and Pimms. It does not seem to have affected the deliciousness of British strawberries however, and this Saturday I tottered into town and bought up as many boxes as I could carry home (along with some luscious looking blueberries...) restraining myself from elbowing over excited teenagers in the face if they bumped into me and bruised my lovely berries. Word to the wise - do not squish a tattooed cook's fruit, she may poke you with her pairing knife.

The previous weekend we had dined on these lovely strawberries drizzled with balsamic and strewn over homemade (pink) meringues and vanilla whipped cream. Absolutely heavenly and one of the most perfect desserts ever. Every time I make meringues I just can't seem to stop myself tinting them pink, much to Pete's amusement - I am very used to that 'you are SUCH a girl' look.

As I spoke about these cupcakes at work today I got a few funny looks when people heard strawberries and vinegar in the same sentence, but believe me this is a magical combo. The Italians have been doing it for ages and we all know they don't tend to get food wrong. I don't know what it is but something in the balsamic seems to suck out the juicy sweetness of the berries, amplifying it much louder than if you ate them with sugar or indeed nothing at all. Try it for yourself it is just so versatile - over ice cream, with angel food cake, alongside white chocolate mousse or as the topping for the most divine pavlova you could dream of.

Fresh Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes with Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
Makes 12 standard American size cupcakes

Strawberry Balsamic Cupcakes Ingredients
150ml fresh pureed strawberries
1.5 tsp good quality balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp caster sugar
60ml milk, at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
110g butter, softened
400g caster sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
2 large egg whites, at room temperature

Strawberry and Raspberry Vodka Frosting
115g butter, softened
75ml fresh pureed strawberries
2 tbsp raspberry vodka (I used Absolut Raspberry)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
800g icing sugar

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F and line a tin with a dozen standard American cupcake liners or muffin liners.

Mix the pureed strawberries, balsamic vinegar and 1 tablespoon of sugar together and set aside for five minutes to develop before adding the milk and vanilla extract. In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside. Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes and then gradually add the sugar. When well combined and fluffy add the egg and egg whites and mix until just combined. Now add half of the flour mixture and blend, then add the strawberry milk mixture and beat before finally adding the second half of the flour. Mix until just combined.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners and bake for 22-25 minutes until the tops are slightly golden and spring back to the touch. Leave to cool for ten minutes in the tray, then place them a rack to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting Method
Cream the butter with the strawberry puree, raspberry vodka and vanilla extract and then add the icing bit by bit until you reach a spreadable consistency - you may not need all 800g.

To Finish
Spread onto the cooled cupcakes with an angled spatula, tilting it to do a little swirl in the middle to finish, then sprinkle with a little pearlised sugar or the decoration of your choice. Or leave them plain, they're your cupcakes after all, and enjoy the fruity goodness.

As you can see I was too impatient to let the frosting set. Or to take the photographs before eating half of the above cupcake. Oops...

Lego Cupcakes

These were for my little sister's boyfriend Jack's 18th birthday.



Apparently he gave one to his teacher and it got him an extra weeks extension on a project deadline. Win!



I'm not very experienced with fondant - I am ALL about the buttercream - but I think the little Lego bricks came out great!

I think I'm gonna get some bricks of fondant this weekend and just have a play around and make some lil models. I'll post some pictures if they come out ok (don't hold your breath).

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Cupcakes are my realm. I've been making them for the last 4 or 5 years, originally just as a hobby, then as a little business on the side of my full time job, but always for pleasure. I just find baking a lovely way to spend time, the alchemy of the mixing and the baking and the beautification process of tinting the buttercream, piping pretty swirls and sprinkling with glitters and sugar shapes or crafting little icing roses and deities. Making things pretty has always been my bag.

This said I have never thought my process of baking to be in any way professional. I have never had any training other than watching my Granny Joyce throwing together a sponge from a recipe ingrained into her psyche, or Nigella sexily spooning glossy globs of batter into shiny golden cases. This has all changed now. I have a new found caking confidence, I feel I can take on those more exotic recipes whose many many steps used to make me recoil in fear. This confidence is all due to the lovely glossy lady shown in the photo below... sorry for the awful quality.

Meet Dita, my newly acquired KitchenAid mixer. She's gorgeous yes? I feel I can write about her on a food blog much more easily than I can talk about her in person. There is only a small section of the world that can comprehend and understand spending £350 on a mixer, and that small section does not include a lot of my friends and colleagues. Pete only gets it because of the sheer amount of times I have ranted at him about how amazing they are and how I've wanted one since I was nine years old (yet again, Nigella's fault). But now his ears and my vocal chords may rest as she inhabits our kitchen, glinting away on the worktop and making my life a hell of a lot easier.

And so here is the first recipe I tried out with her, originally from Southern Living. I know salted caramel may sound a little scary to some, but just think of peanut butter cups - the slight salty edge offsets the sweetness of the chocolate perfectly.

Chocolate Salted Caramel Cupcakes

Adapted from Southern Living

Makes around 36 regular sized cupcakes

Cupcake Ingredients
115g (half pat) butter, softened
100g full fat cream cheese, softened
285g caster sugar
165g packed dark brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
375g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
200ml sour cream

Ganache Ingredients

200g dark chocolate, chopped
60ml plus 2 tbsp whipping cream

Salted Caramel Buttercream Ingredients
115g (half pat) butter, softened
75g full fat cream cheese, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 tsp sea salt
400g icing sugar
3 tbsp plus 1 tbsp milk
20 caramel toffees

Garnishes
Sea salt flakes
Caramel toffees, chopped
A little extra dark chocolate, for drizzling

Cupcakes Method
Preheat oven to 180 C /350 F.

Mix butter and cream cheese until well combined and creamy, then beat in the sugars until light and fluffy (around 2-3 minutes). Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each and then add the vanilla extract.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl and gradually add to the butter and sugar mixture alternating with the sour cream, beating well after each addition and then for a further 3 minutes. Spoon the batter into the cupcake liners filling each to around 2/3 full.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean with no liquid batter attached. Let cool completely.

Ganache Method
Put the chopped chocolate and 60ml of whipping cream into a microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds. Remove and stir, then cook for a further 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave, add the further 2 tbsp cream and whisk until it slightly thickens. Dip the tops of the cupcakes in the ganache and let stand for at least 30 minutes to set.

Salted Caramel Buttercream Method
Mix butter, cream cheese, vanilla extract and salt until creamy and well combined. Gradually add the icing sugar alternating with the 3tbsp of milk until smooth.

Place the caramel toffees and further 1tbsp milk in a microwavable bowl and microwave on high for 30 seconds, remove and stir, heat for a further 30 seconds. Remove from microwave and allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before adding to the buttercream and mixing until silky smooth.

Pipe or spread onto the cupcakes and then top with a sprinkling of sea salt flakes and chopped toffees and a drizzle of dark chocolate.

Notes
I didn't think the actual cake recipe used here was all that good. They were quite dry despite the use of sour cream which usually moistens cakes up, and I felt they had a too pronounced eggy flavour that I wasn't keen on. Next time I think I'll use Ina Garten's chocolate cupcakes or my secret mudcake recipe to knock up the cocoa factor a notch.

I used Maldon salt which I crushed up a little in my pestle and mortar as it has a lovely rounded flavour that I thought would work perfectly with the sweet caramel toffees. Maldon salt is available in all major supermarkets and comes in a little green and white box, if you can't find it any good quality sea salt will do.

Irish butter toffees are my favourite and so were the ones I used. It is basically any chewy butter toffee that you need so that they melt, not a hard one like Werther's Original.

Try your hardest not to open the oven door until the minimum cooking time has passed, this will stop any heat escaping which could make the cupcakes sink.

As I had some caramel buttercream left over and needed to make a cake for an afternoon tea session with my lovely friend Polly, I added some crunchy peanut butter to it along with a little additional milk to loosen the mix and used it to sandwich together the layers of a chocolate cake which I then covered in chocolate fudge frosting. It went down a storm, so I suggest you do the same if you have any spare!!!