Christmas Fruit Spice Cupcakes

Of course, you probably know me very well for invading Vocal with my film studies stuff and articles entitled ‘a filmmaker’s guide’. I have often explained that I love to bake as well. Since I was young, I have loved the idea, the creativity and the relaxation of baking different things. I love to make macarons, layer cakes and gingerbread in particular and the activity of it really gets me away from my laptop (where I’m sure you know that I spend most of my life). So, I hope you enjoy me talking about what I bake and why I bake it complete with pictures (if not very good) of me actually baking, my baked goods in the process of being created and when they’re finished. I’m really happy to share this with you. And if you like, you can show me your baking (yes, I spend a lot of time writing, but I also spend a lot of time reading other people’s articles!), I would love to see it. Since I was in school, I was always interested in creating things, whether that be pieces of writing, welding things to make small statues or baking foods and making sweets (candy, if you’re American). I hope you enjoy looking at some of the stuff that has honestly kept me sane, because I seem to be going slightly mad.

Christmas Fruit Spice Cupcakes

When it comes to Christmas baking, there are a number of flavours I love to use. As you know my love of lemons already, I would also like to tell you about my love of oranges. Oranges are amongst the perfect Christmas fruits because of their relation to the most intimate Christmas celebrations. Everyone loves a good tasting tangy orange. When it comes to spice, cinnamon is something that is underrated on its own. Usually used as a back-up to ginger or nutmeg, cinnamon has fallen too far into the background.

So, here's the recipe for those delicious cupcakes.

You will need

• 110g Caster Sugar
• 110g Softened Butter
• 110g Self Raising Flour
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Lemon - Zest
• 1 Satsuma Orange - Zest
• 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and line a cupcake tray with cases. I used stripy ones that my mother bought me. I am very grateful because they are gorgeous.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar. To make it light and fluffy, whisk them up for about five minutes until the mixture turns white.
3. Add in the eggs, zest and spices and mix. I tend to add the flavourings before putting in the flour because it blends into the cupcakes better and has less of a chance of clumping up.
4. Mix in the flour for another three or four minutes.
5. Put one and a bit tablespoons of the mixture into each cupcake case and then, put them into the oven for about fifteen to twenty minutes. I bake mine at seventeen minutes. It keeps them springy and yet, turns the top part a light brown colour.
6. Allow them to cool for fifteen minutes or so.

Decoration

1. Whilst allowing your cupcakes to cool, whisk 140g of softened butter until it turns white. This should take about three minutes or so.
2. Add 250g of icing sugar, 30g of caster sugar and whisk for another three minutes
3. Tip: I use Whittard's Toffee Popcorn White Hot Chocolate powder to flavour the buttercream
4. Split the buttercream up into two parts, one slightly bigger than the other. Colour the bigger one with a pinkish red and the other with a sky blue.
5. Get the piping bag and a spatula. Fill one side of the piping bag with blue and the other with the pinkish red - you should have some pinkish red left over - and decorate four to six of your cupcakes.
6. Use the remaining pinkish red to decorate the rest. This will make the double coloured ones stand out more.
7. Put them in the fridge for about ten minutes and upon getting them out, sprinkle some desiccated coconut atop.

Enjoy!

There is one last tip though: If you really want to enjoy these cupcakes properly, I suggest grabbing yourself a coffee based drink such as a Mocha, a Latte, a Cappuccino, or - my favourite, a Black Americano with a hint of mint and dark chocolate in it.