Jaffa Cake Cupcakes

Good morning everyone! 

(I understand that you may not be reading this in the morning - hell, I'm not even writing this in the morning - but "Good evening everyone..." sounds a bit ominous to me).

I have been BUSY. And by busy, I mean working all day and then crashing as soon as I arrive home. Literally, in these past few days I have fallen asleep whilst reading, whilst watching a movie and whilst watching Breaking Bad (if you watch Breaking Bad you'll know it's pretty excitement-inducing and very difficult to sleep through).

So yes! This is why I have not been so faithful to you, dear bloggy, although I have been doing the odd bit of baking!

The following recipe comes from the new Hummingbird Bakery Book, Home Sweet Home. If you're a regular here, you'll know that I quite bloody adore Hummingbird Bakery recipes for one simple reason: THEY WORK. And taste delicious. And look pretty. Okay that's a lot of reasons. 

ANYWAY. Jaffa Cake cupcakes do pretty much what they say on the tin. It's a normal sponge, with an orange filling and a chocolate topping. Just like a normal Jaffa Cake...but topped with...a Jaffa Cake! I've typed the word Jaffa too much. What does Jaffa even come from?!

Jaffa. 

Jaffa Jaffa Jaffa.

Jaaaffffaaaa....

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes

- 70g softened butter

- 210g plain flour

- 250g caster sugar

- 1 tbsp baking powder

- half a teaspoon of salt

- 210ml milk (semi-skimmed or whole is fine)

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 100g marmalade

For the frosting

- 450g icing sugar, sifted

- 60g cocoa powder, sifted

- 150g softened butter

- 60ml milk

- mini Jaffa Cakes, to decorate (n.b. you don't actually need two packets for this recipe; we just bought two... for science)

The bottle of wine as pictured is optional but highly recommended. 

- Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) and line a muffin tin with paper muffin cakes - this recipe made 17 cakes for us)
- If you've got access to a freestanding electric mixer (like I did thanks to my friend Becca and her lovely kitchen), throw in the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix till they form a sandy consistency. This can also be achieved by hand, it might just take a couple more minutes.

- Mix together the milk, eggs and vanilla extract in a separate jug.

- Mixing slowly, add in the milk mixture bit by bit until fully combined. Once you've added half the liquid, mix at a higher speed until everything is combined. Then gradually add the rest and, again, mix until fully combined.

- Spoon the batter into the paper cases (two-thirds full) and cake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

- If you've got a vanilla cupcake recipe that you adore, then definitely feel free to use that instead of this: it makes no difference whatsoever.

- For the icing, mix the icing sugar, cocoa powder and butter together until combined. The texture might at first be quite sandy and dry but fear not.

- Whilst mixing, gradually add the milk and beat until the butter icing has a light and fluffy texture. 

Eat all of the frosting from the bowl...mmm...wait...no...try NOT to do that.

-Once the cupcakes are cooled a bit, use a knife to make a hollow in the centre of each one, keeping a hold of the cut-out piece of sponge.

- Fill each hollow with the marmalade and replace the cut-out piece of sponge, trimming it if you need to.

- Ice the cupcakes using your chocolate butter icing in whatever manner you wish. Top each cupcake with a mini Jaffa Cake

- Enjoy with aforementioned wine - I've now decided that actually, it's not optional at all.