A funny thing happened today when I was baking these cupcakes. I happened to mention to James how cheeky I thought it was to name a cupcake bakery SugarDaddy. Dont you think? Just coz these are two guys and two best freinds and yes - may have a lot of money (after all they are in Dubai), it is still weird to be calling your cupcake shop Sugar Daddy. It's just plain cheeky. I think they may have changed their name since - but it's not much better than the previous one - Hey Sugar!!. But this is just me. I think for something like a cupcake shop, it should be named something seriously fun. Not just another name. That you can do with blogs but not with brands that you expect to sell in drowning economic times to a serious and skeptical retail market.
But anyhow, so there I was whilst whisking away my eggs into the batter, critiquing the brand name of a cupcake shop and Nathan (my 8 year old smart ass) yells out from the gaming room "May be they have a dad that sells sugar". Two things just spring to mind. One - isn't it absolutely amazing how kids naively just take the complexity out of life. Have a dad that sells sugar? name your shop "Sugardaddy", how much more simple can it get? And two - that boy shows every industrious sign that has been built into his DNA by both sides of the family. He didn't say a dad that is sugar farmer or discovered sugar or working in a sugar factory, but one that sells sugar. Speaking of which, I wasted 300gms today whilst making the icing.
I absentmindedly added castor sugar instead of icing sugar while making the icing. But then having made the cupcakes and the icing, I realized the icing was so not necessary. The cupcakes are great as they are. There is no need for icing if you want to avoid it. But if you do I suggest a light fluffy butter cream. Also to make life easier I got one big block of Cadbury Dream, it's the white chocolate block. You could use white chocolate chips or pistoles if you have any on hand but either ways do ensure you use good quality white chocolate for these cupcakes. Although the recipe didn't call for it, I still added pieces of strawberry and white chocolate as you can see in the picture below.
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| Strawberry and White Chocolate Cupcakes |
Ingredients
Dry
- 150g (1 cup) self-raising flour
- 80g (2/3 cup) almond meal
- 100 g white chocolate chopped
- 200 g strawberries cubed
- 185ml (3/4 cup) buttermilk
- 90g white chocolate, melted
- 125g butter, at room temperature
- 155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature (approx 125 gms)
- 1/2 cup strawberries, puréed (or use jam)
- 2cups unrefined powdered sugar
Cupcakes
- Preheat oven to 180C. Line twelve 80ml (1/3-cup) capacity muffin pans.
- In a bowl mix all the dry ingredients, including strawberries and chocolates. This is done so the chocolates and strawberries don't do a Titanic on your cupcakes.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy.
- Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Begin to add the dry ingredients alternating with the buttermilk. Move quick through this step so as to not overwork the batter.
- Gently fold the fold in the chocolate until smooth.
- Fill each cupcake patty until 2/3rd full and bake for 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centers comes out clean.
- Set aside in the pans for 5 minutes to cool before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until smooth.
- Add the strawberry purée and mix until thoroughly combined.
- While the mixer is running on low, gradually add icing sugar until it’s incorporated.
- Turn the mixer to medium-high speed and beat for 2 minutes, until fluffy. Adjust the powdered sugar adding a little milk to create the right consistency, if needed.
- The buttercream should be pliable, but firm enough to hold a peak.
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