Vanilla Spelt Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing
Vanilla Spelt Cupcakes with Chocolate Icing
These are great ones for the weekend and are so easy to make. It’s pretty much just too stages; batter and icing. It’s also worth mentioning that the icing can also be used as a chocolate sauce for ice cream and it freezes well.
Makes 12 cupcakes
Ingredients:
170g unsalted soft butter, cut into cubes
200g caster sugar
3 eggs, lightly beaten together
6 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
100g ground almonds
100g spelt flour/gluten-free/plain flour
1 tsp baking powder, sieved
Pinch of salt
For the icing:
240ml double cream/whipping cream
170g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
20g unsalted butter, softened and chopped into cubes
70g caster sugar
1 tbsp Grand Marnier/Amaretto (optional)
Start with the icing! Add the double cream to a saucepan on a medium to high heat. Pour in the sugar and stir. The sugar needs to dissolve and the cream should start to get simmer but don’t boil.
Prep the chocolate pieces in a heatproof bowl and pour over the hot cream mixture. Leave to stand for 30 seconds. Then start to slowly stir and the chocolate will melt into a sauce. Keep mixing until all the
chocolate has melted. Then add the butter and liquor (if using). Leave this to cool completely and it will firm up. To speed up this process up you can put it in the freezer for 15 minutes but if you leave it completely then it will keep its amazing shine.
Preheat the oven to 170 C degrees and line a 12 mould standard muffin tray with cupcake cases.
In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and soft butter together until it is light and fluffy. Depending on how soft the butter is, this will take about 4 minutes with an electric whisk and longer by hand.
Mix all the dry ingredients together (flour, ground almonds, baking powder and salt). Stir in the vanilla extract and milk to the beaten eggs. Now slowly add a little of the eggy mix and beat. Then add a few tablespoons of the dry mix and combine. Continue adding a little at a time until everything is incorporated and you have a nice light fluffy batter.
Spoon in about 2 tbsp of the cake batter into each cupcake case and depending on the size of the case, you need to leave about 2cm gap from the top. This will give the cakes plenty of room to rise.
Bake in the middle of the oven for around 17 minutes or so. I would check in 15 minutes!
They are ready when they have puffed up, golden on top, springy to touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack completely.
Ice cupcakes using the back of a tablespoon to create nice swirls. Top with wildflowers or fresh fruit to be fancy!