Okay so I was very excited about having caramel as the flavour for this week and I was tossing up between baking caramel spice cupcakes and caramel mud cupcakes. My ever so lovely husband decided that the caramel spice cupcakes sounded nice so I set out on my baking mission. Once they were all baked I sampled one of the cupcakes to make sure they were worthy of frosting (something I do with every batch) - and guess what? They don't taste like caramel at all! In fact I would say they taste more like gingerbread. So while that was a bit disappointing - I must say for a spice/gingerbread cupcake these were darn tasty! So I present to you Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream.Spice Cupcakes
(Caramel cake from The Australian Women's Weekly - More Cakes and Slices)
Makes 16
185g butter
150g brown sugar
80ml golden syrup
2 eggs
40g almond meal
125ml milk
300g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line 2 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake liners.
- Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat well with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
- Bake for 15 minutes (again remember my oven is silly - so this time may vary for you).
Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream
4 egg whites
1 cup brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
- Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
- With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
- Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
- Add vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until you get a good piping texture.
The ratings?
Me - 8/10 - very light, spongy, moist and tasty!! The cake is great and the buttercream is very subtle. My only complaint was that it didn't taste like caramel at all.
Mat - 10/10 - unexpected flavour - but they were sensational (and Mat doesn't even like gingerbread)!
Mat's work friends - 12/10 :o)
