Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Christmas surprise cupcakes for the office


Today is my last day of work for the year. It's been a pretty big year starting with the floods that hit Brisbane, the manic clean-up, a new boss, two changes in job title, as well as lots of laughter, a few fights, tears and craziness. So how do we cap it off? With cupcakes of course. 

To say thanks to my workmates for putting up with me, I made some special Christmas surprise cupcakes. The surprise, my Christmas Cherry Jam from the weekend. The jam provides a tantalising sweetness to the cupcakes, perfectly offsetting the buttery icing. ENJOY and THANKS!




Christmas Surprise Cupcakes
Makes 9 cupcakes

120g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
140g caster sugar
pinch salt
40g butter
120g milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
Cherry Jam

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and butter with an electric beater until it resembles a sandy consistency. Slowly beat in half the milk. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the remaining milk, egg and vanilla. Add to the flour mix and beat until smooth. Be careful not to overbeat! Spoon mixture into cupcake cases and bake for about 20 minutes.

Frosting
230g butter, at room temperature
200g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup thick cream

In a bowl, beat the butter and vanilla until light. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Finally, beat in the cream. Taste and if too buttery or grainy from the sugar, add a little extra cream.

Decorating
Cut a small bit out of the top of the cupcake, make sure you cut just in from the edge. Spoon in a small teaspoon of jam. Cover with the top of the cupcake and using a piping bag, pipe the frosting on top. Finish with a fresh cherry.



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