The Cupcake Challenge: White Chocolate Mud with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Since visiting the Crabapple cupcake bakery in South Yarra I've wanted to bake my own White chocolate mud cupcakes. I knew that Jennifer Graham had written a cupcake cookbook with all of Crabapple's famous recipes, but true to my style, I couldn't be bothered going out and purchasing the book. I know, I'm terrible, But I'm sure this book will join my collection sooner or later. I happened to come across Katie's Kitchen Blog and found that like me she loves to bake cupcakes. A little digging found the Crabapple cupcake recipe.

The cup cakes are actually called Lady Tarryn’s wedding cakes, what a quaint little name. To be honest when I first tried these from the bakery I wasn't so impressed. They seemed a little dry and tasted a little old. But I've heard that Crabapple doesn't have the best reputation going around. I still enjoyed them enough to seek out the recipe.

So here's the recipe, courtesy of Katie's Kitchen Blog

Lady Tarryn’s wedding cakes

4 cups plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

500 g/1.1 lbs butter, chopped

2 cups milk

4 cups Castor sugar

300 g/10 oz white chocolate, chopped

4 eggs, whisked

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 155 c/310 F. Lightly grease 20 dariole moulds.

Sift flour and baking powder together into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Set aside.

Put butter, milk, Castor sugar and white chocolate into a metal bowl and place over a large saucepan of simmering water. Stir continuously using a flat-bottomed wooden spoon until chocolate has melted and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the eggs and vanilla extract into the cooled chocolate mixture. Pour this mixture into the well in the flour and fold together until well combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the dariole moulds. Bake for 30 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Place moulds on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool for a further 30 minutes before frosting.

To frost them I thought blackberries would go perfectly with the white chocolate. So I made a blackberry puree and made a buttercream frosting from there. Here's the recipe.

Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

1 punnet (150gram) Blackberries

25 gram Castor sugar

200mL water

250gram butter (cut into cubes and at room temperature)

3-4cups of icing sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons of milk

1. In a small saucepan, add the water, Castor sugar and blackberries. Over a low heat cook blackberries until they are soft and the most of the water has evaporated, about 45minutes. Cool completely

2. Strain mixture through a fine sieve. making sure the extract as much liquid as possible. The more puree you can push through the sieve the better. I like to add the skins and pips to the puree as well, but if you want a perfectly smooth frosting then discard them. If you have added the skins and pips to the puree, you will no be able to pipe the frosting onto your cupcake.

3. Beat butter with and electric mixer on high until it is very pale and fluffy. Add blackberry puree and beat until combined.

4. Add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating for at least 1 minute between cups, until you reach the consistency and sweetness you desire. I like mine not too sweet so usually 3 cups are enough. Beat until very fluffy, usually 5-6 minutes

5. At the very end add 2 tablespoons of very hot milk to the frosting, while beating on high. Beat mixture for 2-3 minutes. Frost your cupcakes!

I've actually made this recipe twice, the first time I made a half batch and true to my style again, I cut down on the sugar and butter. About 1 cup less sugar for the full recipe and about 100grams less butter. They turned out perfect, not too sweet and not too buttery. But the second time, I thought I would be brave and use the whole lot. It was WAAAYYYY too much butter. When I took my cupcakes out of the muffin tin, the bottoms were swimming in butter. The next day, Daz said he couldnt taste the white chocolate anymore and could only taste butter! So I would suggest cutting down on the butter. I will definately make these again, but with the slight changes.

I've been meaning to have a little play with rolled sugar paste for a while, and never really had an excuse to use it before. The first time I made these I decorated them with cute but simple fondant flowers. I thought this would be a perfect topper again, and they are really dead simple to make. So here is a simple step by step on how to make them.

You'll need a couple of things before starting:

Fondant, you can by this in the supermarket, Orchard makes some

Toothpicks

cornflour

Petal cutters, these are miniature cookie cutters or you can buy special fondant cutters

rolling pin

sugar glue, I make this by boiling together equal part sugar and water in the microwave. About 40ml will be more than enough

Step 1. Take a small ball of fondant, about the size of a squash ball and knead it until it is smooth and soft. Dust your worksurface or a piece of baking paper with cornflour, you can use icing sugar but cornflour is best. Roll your fondant out until it is fairly thin, about 2-3 mm thick.

Step 2. Take your petal cutter, and making sure that it is dusted well with cornflour cut petals from your fondant

Once you have cut enough petals to make the flowers, cover them with a bowl or some gladwrap, that way they don't dry out

Step 3. To make the centers of the flowers, take a small pinch of the fondant and roll it into a small ball between your fingers. While rolling, pinch the end so that it forms a tear drop

Try to make all your centers roughly the same size. Difficult....I know! Make enough centers to make all your flowers, then leave them out in the open. I find them easier to work with if they are a little dry.

Step 4. Take 3 petals and a center and begin the assemble. Using a toothpick, place a tiny drop of sugar glue on the end of the petal. Then stick the center to the petal. Wait at least 30 seconds to move onto the next step. I try to set a whole heap up so I have a mini production line

Step 5. Place a small drop of glue on your second petal and stick the center/petal combo onto this. Repeat for the last petal

And viola! Flower is made, simple huh? leave them to dry upside down for about 2 hours. That way they are nice and firm and easy to stick into your frosting.

The Cupcakes were a huge hit. It was the first time I had given them to Daz to transport in the cupcake courier, so there were a full 36 of them! They were gobbled up quickly and thats exactly how I like it!