Last-minute Christmas recipe for 4 - 8 people, takes only 45 mins; recipe has muscovado sugar, butter, dried fruit, glace cherry, ginger, orange, rum, pecan, egg, almond, plain flour, baking powder, mixed spice, cinnamon, marzipan, apricot, icing, icing sugar, muffin, almond and sprinkle.
Christmas cupcakes
Course: Last-minute Christmas
Servings
4 - 8
servings
Prep time
40 mins
Ingredients
- Egg: 3 large eggs, beaten
- Butter: 175g butter, chopped
- Cinnamon: 1 tsp cinnamon
- Apricot: 4 tbsp warm apricot jam or shredless marmalade
- Orange: zest and juice 1 orange
- Ginger: 2 tsp grated fresh root ginger
- Almond: 85g ground almond
- Plain Flour: 200g plain flour
- Baking Powder: 1/2 tsp baking powder
- Muscovado Sugar: 200g dark muscovado sugar
- Muffin: 6 gold and 6 silver muffin cases
- Mixed Spice: 1 tsp mixed spice
- Glace Cherry: 50g glace cherries
- Pecan: 85g/3oz pecan nuts, roughly chopped
- Icing Sugar: icing sugar, for dusting
- Rum: 100ml dark rum, brandy or orange juice
- Dried Fruit: 700g luxury mixed dried fruit
- Sprinkle: snowflake sprinkles
- Icing: 500g pack fondant icing sugar
- Marzipan: 400g pack ready-rolled marzipan (we used Dr Oetker)
Directions
- Tip the sugar, butter, dried fruit, whole cherries, ginger, orange zest and juice into a large pan. Pour over the rum, brandy or juice, then put on the heat and slowly bring to the boil, stirring frequently to melt the butter. Reduce the heat and bubble gently, uncovered for 10 mins, stirring every now and again to make sure the mixture doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan. Set aside for 30 mins to cool.
- Stir the nuts, eggs and ground almonds into the fruit, then sift in the flour, baking powder and spices. Stir everything together gently but thoroughly. Your batter is ready.
- Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Scoop the cake mix into 12 deep muffin cases (an ice-cream scoop works well), then level tops with a spoon dipped in hot water. Bake for 35-45 mins until golden and just firm to touch. A skewer inserted should come out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
- Unravel the marzipan onto a work surface lightly dusted with icing sugar. Stamp out 12 rounds, 6cm across. Brush the cake tops with apricot jam, top with a marzipan round and press down lightly.
- Make up the fondant icing to a spreading consistency, then swirl on top of each cupcake. Decorate with sugared almonds and snowflakes, then leave to set. Will keep in a tin for 3 weeks.
