Alice in Cupcakeland

I've already started thinking about what kind of cupcakes I can make for Christmas, and figured that there could be nothing better than combining my favourite cookie with a cupcake! I've teamed these up with a chocolate cream cheese icing, but you could use butter cream, sugar or plain cream cheese icing.

Ingredients

1/2 c self-raising flour
1/2 c plain flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 c brown sugar
1 egg
90g softened butter
1/4 cup milk
2 TBS golden syrup


Preheat the oven to 170 C and line a 12 cupcake pan.

Sift the dry ingredients into a bowl, in another bowl, whip the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy. Add the rest of the wet ingredients and beat on high until combined.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, adding a bit at a time and then beating thoroughly to knock air into the batter. Once you've added all the dry ingredients, beat the batter on high for 2 minutes, until it's smooth and lighter in colour.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with the batter, and bake for 30 minutes.

Icing

1/8 c softened butter
120 g cream cheese
44 g chocolate broken into small pieces
tiny pinch salt
1.5 c icing sugar
1/4 cup cream
1/4 tsp vanilla essence


Heat the cream until it's just under boiling. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate to the heated cream. Stir until the chocolate is melted into the cream, then let the mix cool completely.

Cream together the butter and cream cheese. Add the melted chocolate mixture, salt, icing sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth.

note: This makes enough for 24 cupcakes, you you might like to halve the mix if you're only making 12!

These cupcakes instantly make me visualise summer! I'm not a big fan of hot spice, so I reduced the amount of chili by about 70% and added some white chocolate to 'cool the mouth' just like milk would.

Very tasty, very pretty (especially if you add a couple of cocktail umbrellas to the plate for some extra spunk) and a great talking point!


Ingredients

1 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/3 c butter
3/4 c milk
1/2 c white chocolate chips (or 1 small milky bar!)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chili powder (increase this if you like more bite)
1 egg
1 fresh mango roughly cubed OR
3/4 canned mango roughly cubed
1/4 cup mango pulp (if fresh mango) or juice (if canned mango)

Preheat oven to 175 and line a 12 hole cupcake pan. Heat the milk in a bowl over a saucepan of boiling water until it's just below boiling. Remove from the heat and add the white chocolate to the milk, stirring until it melts completely. Let the mixture cool completely before moving to the next step.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar, then add the egg, stirring until combined. Add flour, baking powder, chili powder, and salt to the mixture.
Next, add the cooled chocolate milk and mango juice/pulp and beat until well combined. Finally, fold in mango.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with the batter, trying to spread the mango chunks evenly if you can. Bake about 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Icing

120 g cream cheese
1 1/2 c icing sugar
1 TBS lime juice
1 drop green food coloring

In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar until it's smooth. Add the lime juice, then just enough green food colouring to give the icing a pale lime colour. Mix again until blended.

I went out to dinner last night and a friend started talking about the Margarita night she'd had down at the Mexican Cafe, which started me thinking about how I could mix tequila into a cupcake! I came across a vegan recipe for Margarita Cupcakes, which I decided to adapt to a non-vegan version. I then decided to up the ante and make this a Strawberry Margarita Cupcake... MMMMM!

There's a lot of recipes out there for this using thing like coolade (which we can't get here and why would you want to use something so artificial anyway?) or strawberry margarita mix, but I think my version is pretty much as close as you can get to a REAL strawberry margarita in cake form.. Well, other than the canned strawberries!

Ingredients

1/4 cup lime juice
1 cup canned strawberries, drained (keep the syrup to the side)
1/2 c of the strawberry syrup from the can
1/2 c milk
1/4 c vegetable oil
2 tsp tequila
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 c sugar
1 1/3 c flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat your oven to 175 C and line 2 x 12 hole cupcake trays. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients and beat the mixture for at least 3 minutes, until it's smooth and fluffy.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with the batter and bake until the cupcakes spring back when pressed, around 20-24 minutes.

Icing

1 egg white
1 1/4 c icing sugar
3 c fresh strawberries pureed OR
1 c strawberries in syrup pureed (drain the syrup first)
2 TBS Tequila

Beat the egg white until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in icing sugar, then the pureed strawberries and finally the tequila. Mix until combined.

Once you've iced the cupcakes, roll the edges in the loose sugar, to give the same effect as a salted glass, and you're done!

I was in the supermarket the other day and came across those cute little bottles of baby cham they sell. I don't actually drink the stuff, but I've always thought those bottles were extremely cute so I decided to find something to do with them!

Ingredients

2 3/4 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c butter
2 c sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup champagne*
3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and grated OR
1 cup canned pears, grated and well drained


Preheat your oven to 170C and line 2 x 12 hole cupcake pans.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until they are fluffy and create light peaks, this will take a couple of minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each one is thoroughly blended before you add the next.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into another bowl, then slowly add it to the batter, little by little to ensure that you're knocking in as much air as you're knocking out. This method of adding the dry ingredients ensures a really light cupcake, so be sure not to skip this as we've got a heavy ingredient to add yet! Make sure it's completely blended.

Add the vanilla and champagne to the mix and beat on high for at least 3 minutes. You should have a nice smooth and airy mixture at this point. Finally, add the pears to the mix on a slow speed.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake pans, filling to around 3/4. Bake for 20- 25 minutes or until they are golden brown, and spring back.

Icing

1/8 c softened butter
120 g cream cheese
1 1/2 c icing sugar
1 TBS champagne

To make the icing, cream the butter and cream cheese and add the icing sugar using a low speed. Switch to a high speed and mix until blended - you can add more icing sugar if you feel it's a little wet.

Variation

You can make these cupcakes even more special by using a rose champagne, and adding a tiny drop (about the size of a pin head - no more!) to each your batter and icing to create a light pastel pink colour.

These cupcakes are gluten free,contain fresh fruit - you could almost pretend they were healthy if they weren't really just mini baked cheesecakes! They can be frozen too, so they're great to make in advance and then just pull out the night before you need them :)

Ingredients

1 1/2 c sugar
710 g light cream cheese, softened
1 tsp vanilla essence
4 eggs
1 1/2 c raspberries (frozen is fine - just thaw them first)

Preheat oven to 176C and line 2 x 12 hole cupcake tins.

In a large bowl, use a hand mixer to blend the sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add eggs to cream cheese mixture one at a time and blend after adding each egg.

Fill the cupcake liners 3/4 of the way full with cream cheese batter and divide the raspberries evenly between the 24 cupcakes by sprinkling them on top and pushing them in lightly.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 5 minutes.
Note: A well will form in the middle of each cupcake - this is fine!

Turn the oven up to 230C, you'll put the cupcakes back in once you've added the topping!

Topping

235 g light cream cheese
1/4 c sugar

Beat the ingredients together, then place a dollop in the centre of your cupcakes. Return the cupcakes to the oven, and bake for 5 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and let them cool for a while. Once cool, pop them in the fridge and let them set for about an hour before eating.

These cupcakes need to be kept refrigerated.

These cupcakes are perfect for summer! It's important that you use real passionfruit though, as artificial pulp is just too syrupy. This is topped with a ganache to make it ultra decadent, but you could use a normal passionfruit icing if you prefer.

Ingredients

50 g butter, softened
1/2 c castor sugar
2 eggs
1 c self-raising flour
1/4 c passionfruit pulp, strained (must be real passionfruit or it doesn't work!)

Preheat oven to 180C and line a 12 hole cupcake pan.

Beat butter until soft and fluffy, add eggs and beat until pale. Stir in sugar and flour and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in passionfruit pulp and mix until combined.

Fill cupcake liner until they're about 3/4 full. Bake for 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Ganache

(this is a white chocolate ganache)
90ml cream
180 g white chocolate, smashed up to make it easier to melt
1 TBS passionfruit pulp, strained

Warm cream and pulp in a saucepan until almost boiling (keep an eye on it - it boils pretty quickly), then stir in chocolate pieces until melted.

Cool, and then refrigerate for up to 4 hours, which will allow the icing to thicken. It is easier to pipe this on, but if you are spreading it, warm it just a little first, or use a warm knife to make it easier.

The name of these speak for themselves! They're also super easy to make, and can really be used with just about any type of icing. I go with strawberry, because really, what's better than white chocolate and strawberry?

Ingredients

125 g unsalted butter
1/2 c castor sugar
3 eggs
80 g melted white chocolate (I just do this in the microwave!)
3/4 c plain flour
1 tsp baking powder

Line a 12 hole cupcake tray with wrappers. and preheat your oven to 180C.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each (this makes the mixture light and fluffy) then add white chocolate and stir to combine.

Sift flour and baking powder over cake batter and fold in until combined. Divide the batter among the cases and bake for 20 minutes or until cakes spring back when lightly pressed.

Icing

1 egg white
1 c icing sugar
3 c fresh strawberries pureed OR
1 c strawberries in syrup pureed (drain the syrup first)

Beat the egg white until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in icing sugar, then the pureed strawberries. Mix until combined.

These cupcakes are heaven in a patticake wrapper! The more retro a cupcake is, the more I love it, so naturally I adore these with their cute pink icing.

Ingredients

115 g butter
300 g white sugar
2 eggs
235 ml buttermilk
30 ml red food coloring
5 ml vanilla extract
7 g baking soda
15 ml distilled white vinegar
250 g all-purpose flour
30 g unsweetened cocoa powder
6 g salt

Preheat oven to 175C and line 2 x 12 hole cupcake pans.

In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs, buttermilk, red food coloring and vanilla. Stir in the baking soda and vinegar. Combine the flour, cocoa powder and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Spoon the batter into the prepared cups, dividing evenly.

Bake until the tops spring back when lightly pressed like a sponge - about 20 to 25 minutes.

Icing

250gm unsalted butter
1 cup Icing Sugar
150gm frozen raspberries

Allow the raspberries to defrost. Once they're soft, puree them, and strain through a sieve to remove all the lumps and bumps.

Whip the butter until it is light in colour and fluffy, then add the icing sugar. Beat until soft peaks form. Finally, add the raspberry puree and beat until combined. You don't want this too soft, so you might like to add a little more icing sugar if you like.

These cupcakes obviously have their origin in Persia, which is why I wanted to give them a go! There's a lot of preparation time involved in these compared to normal cupcakes, but they're certainly worth it. Try them plain or with thin layer of Rosewater Icing (made simply with icing sugar and rose water).

Ingredients

250 g all-purpose flour
5 g baking powder
4 eggs
250 g white sugar
340 g butter, melted
235 ml plain yogurt
3 g ground cardamom
15 ml rose water
70 g blanched slivered almonds
10 g chopped pistachio nuts

Preheat the oven to 175C. Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl and set aside. Place your cupcake liners into 2 x 12 hole cupcake tins.

Combine the eggs and sugar in a large heatproof bowl and set on top of a pan of simmering water. Beat an electric mixer on medium speed until thick and pale (about 8 minutes). Remove from the heat and continue to beat until cooled, which should take about 10 minutes. Mix in the butter, yogurt, cardamom and rose water and then stir in the flour mixture by hand and fold in the slivered almonds.

Fill your cupcake tray, taking each one to about 3/4 full.

Bake in the oven until firm to the touch and golden brown which should take about 25 - 30 minutes.