An Asian Spin

After being in Vietnam I deperately wanted to make some cupcakes that were even a tiny bit Asian...which is kind of a big ask, as they don't do cupcakes at all, and even cakes or muffins are not done well - everything's spongy and bland, with maybe a hint of lemon or coconut. The closest thing to cupcakes was donuts - for their interesting toppings and funky icing designs. But even then, you get a dry donut underneath not a moist delicious cupcake.

Anyway, much googling ensued, and the most popular "Asian" cupcake I could find was a cherry blossom design, which is very Japanese, not Vietnamese, but close enough! In Nigella Lawson's "How to be a Domestic Goddess", there are several cupcake recipes, so I thought I'd try my hand at chocolate-cherry cupcakes. The promise of melting chocolate to add to the batter was certainly tempting me.

The only ingredient not usually in my pantry was the cherry jam, which was expensive and delicious, so I begrudged using it all. I ended up substituting some plum jam and adding some chopped glace cherries to keep up the cherry-ness.

For the icing, I started with a swirl of plain vanilla icing.

Then I piped chocolate icing, a few lines on each cake, to look like branches.
The final step was to add delicate little pink blossom's, some ended up quite messy, but I decided that I rather liked the messy look rather than perfect identical little flowers. Since when are all the flowers on a tree the same anyway?

As I've done many times, I tested the taste and icing design on my only-too-willing homegroup, who were all satisfied, and the girls, especially, loved the pretty blossom design.

Bon Appetit!

Holiday reverie cupcakes

recently there was a full-family holiday...by that I mean my parents, my siblings, their spouses and children (only 3 so far!). I just knew that I had to make cupcakes at some stage, and why not involve the oldest nephew, who would delight in being included. He already helps his Mum with her baking, I had previously noticed him playing with sand at the beach - stirring, scooping, declaring " just a little bit of ginger for the gingerbread man!"

But!! Trouble ensued - I had brought my traditional cupcake recipe, and over the few days of coffee and pancakes, we had used up ALL the sugar. My husband unknowlingly saved the day by giving me a present for our 2 year wedding anniversary that very day..."How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson. And it had a recipe...for brown sugar cupcakes! I didn't do exactly as the recipe said, but after having a look at quantities and method, ended up simply replacing the white sugar in my traditional recipe with brown sugar, and it worked really well!! And no, I won't keep the recipe to myself greedily. Enjoy!

Cream 1 cup butter (softened) and 1 cup sugar (usually caster sugar, in this case brown sugar!)

Add 3 egss, beating well until light and fluffy.

Add 1/2 C milk, 1 and 1/2 C self-raising flour, and 1 tsp vanilla. Keep beating with an electric beater til creamy.

Divide mixture between 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tray. Depending on the type of paper, you may need to grease them (I use a ricebran oil light spray, so easy!)

Bake for 15-20 minutes at 160C, until risen and a delicious golden brown on top.

I iced these with an easy icing sugar, butter and hot water icing, so as to be child-friendly, I wasn't going for gourmet! I had also brought some chocolate candy-covered sprinkles up to the holiday house, Caleb delighted in dipping his spoon into the pot and sprinkling generously on the cupcakes.