Mince Pie Cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery

I bought a copy of BBC Good Food magazine a few weeks ago and they had a recipe for some lovely mince pie cupcakes from the Primrose Bakery. But they're not in the Primrose Bakery book. So the recipe follows for those of you who would like to try them. I love mince pies and this year I was surprised that the best mince pie I've had was from Gregg’s bakery. Please try them if you can. The best thing is, you can buy them in singles rather than a pack of 6, if you're inclined to eat all of them in one go like I want to do!

I took these cupcakes into work and gave them out instead of Christmas cards, because you can't eat a Christmas card, well I suppose you could if you wanted to...


Mince Pie Cupcakes

225g butter
225g sugar
4 eggs
250g good quality mince (I just used Robinson's traditional)
200g self raising flour
25g cornflour
1tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp mixed spice
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger

Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs one at a time until mixed thoroughly before adding the next.
Stir in the mincemeat.
Fold in the dry ingredients.
Fill the cupcake papers 2/3rds full and bake for 17-18 minutes until golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out mostly dry. They will still be quite moist cakes.
Makes 18

Just a couple of notes on the recipe:
I use muffin papers rather than dainty cupcake papers, mainly so there's more cake.
I felt they needed spices so I added some but feel free to leave them out if you want.
I found the 25 minutes cooking time given by Primrose far too much and my first batch nearly burnt after 21 minutes. I think 17 minutes should be fine for most.

The magazine suggests topping with a brandy flavoured buttercream but I simply brushed mine with apricot jam and topped them with cut out rounds of icing. I also used apricot jam as glue to stick the decorations on.

Happy Christmas!

Celebrity cupcake?

I've previously posted how difficult I find it to come up with names for cupcakes well I'd like to introduce two new ones:

Belle de Jour, a dark chocolate cupcake with dark chocolate frosting complete with a red heart dragee and red glitter.

Jane, a vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting topped with a fondant flower and matching glitter - this one just happens to be blue. This cupcake is named after my mum.

I know I don't have a Twitter link here but I am active on Twitter. In fact I would probably go so far as to say that I am a little addicted.

A couple of months ago I began following a certain Belle de Jour, the author of The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl on Twitter. A few weeks later she outed herself to the media. So in honour of this brave act I have named a cupcake after her. I really enjoyed the blog, book and the television adaptation. Over the years I've really warmed to Belle and I've often thought that she is the type of person I'd love to be friends with.

So, anyway, I twittered her to let her know that I was dedicating a cupcake to her and she twittered back. I was absolutely made up! It's not exactly an endorsement but it made my day. Maybe I should send her some...