cupcakes with fresh fruits

My neighbour has a beautiful Japonica tree in his garden which is hanging over our fence, and this makes me so happy every time I look out the window. It is in full bloom now, and the sight of it made me acknowledge that finally Spring is definitely here! Exciting times ahead as every year when we shift from Winter to Spring, then into Summer. I love this time of year so much, and the kids feel the same.

So, without any further ado, let me bring you these simple but very delicious Raspberry Cupcakes on the table. There. Enjoy.

You’re welcome.

Ingredients :

-1 cup sugar

-125 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

-2 eggs

-2 tsp Vanilla extract

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 + 1/3 cup flour

-1/3 cup milk

-250 g fresh raspberries

Frosting:

-125 g unsalted butter (room temperature)

-half tsp Vanilla extract

-4-5 cups icing sugar (according to your personal taste)

-few drops pink food color (depending how light or deep pink you want your icing to be)

Method:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake tin with paper cases.

In a mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until you get a smooth and fluffy consistency. Add the dry ingredients and only mix until everything is combined, but please don’t overmix your batter.

Throw in the raspberries, and mix lightly, reaching down with a spatula to coat the fruits, but don’t crush them.

Scoop the batter into your lined cupcake tin, only filling 3/4 of the way up because they will rise. Bake for 20 minutes, then let them cool completely on a wire rack before frosting with the butter cream.

To make the frosting, start with creaming the butter with 1 cup icing sugar, gradually adding the vanilla, pink color and more sugar, until you get your desired icing color and consistency.

You might want to add fresh raspberries to your icing too, in this case make sure you buy more in the first place, and bare in mind that in this case you will need more icing sugar too.

It is World Baking Day tomorrow, which I didn’t even know exists until now, but watching the Food-Network channel I saw an advert about it and this gave me a good reason to bake.

Ha-ha, like I would ever need one 🙂

When I saw these gigantic blueberries at the grocery store yesterday, I immediately bought 2 packs, one for my kids -they love it, and one for baking. They looked so fresh and juicy and they really were like that!

Ingredients:

125g softened unsalted butter
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
blueberries (as much as you think is good enough for you, I used 350 g for this recipe, about 200 g in the batter and the rest in the frosting)

For the frosting:

Blueberries crushed in a food processor
300 ml double cream
2 Tbsp icing sugar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Food colouring (optional, I put 2 drops of Lilac)
Glitter or other decorations (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 200C.

Beat the butter with the sugar, add lemon juice and zest too in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes on medium-high speed).

Beat in the eggs one at a time, until well combined. Stir in flour and milk in two batches until all ingredients are mixed but don’t over beat!.

Lastly stir through the blueberries with a spatula.

Spoon the mixture into a lined 12-hole muffin tray. Bake the cupcakes for 15-20 minutes then leave to cool on a wire rack before adding frosting.

To make the frosting, put 1 tablespoon of icing sugar, the lemon juice and about 150 g blueberries in a small food processor and make it a fine mixture.

Beat the double cream with the remaining sugar and the blueberries from the food processor until you get a stiff consistency.

Pipe swirls of blueberry cream onto cooled cupcakes, then decorate as desired. I used edible glitter on some and fondant flowers as a finishing touch.