Page 45 - Real Rochdale Issue 10 Summer 2021

Cupcakes

by Natasha Brown - owner of Brown’s Cakes

At Brown’s Cakes, we make a lot of cupcakes!
Nearly all our cupcakes start from our basic recipe…

Ingredients:
2 eggs
125g Stork margarine
125g self raising flour
125g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

We put all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and
beat them together until smooth and well
combined. The mixture is then spooned into
paper cases.

This recipe makes 10 cupcakes. We always bake
in tens even though we use the traditional 12
hole tins.
Our basic recipe can be adapted to create all sorts of interesting cupcakes.
We bake these in a pre-heated oven (180°C) for Instead of vanilla extract, we sometimes substitute the flavourings and add
approximately 15 minutes until they spring back extra ingredients.
when pressed and an inserted skewer comes out
clean. Changing the jam can change the overall flavour too. Here are some of the
variations…
Once cooled, squeeze a bit of raspberry jam into
the cupcake and top with delicious buttercream.
Flavouring Add extra Jam

Buttercream Blueberry Fresh blueberries Blueberry jam
Coconut Chopped cherries Cherry jam
125g butter (at room temperature) Almond Sprinkling of ground almonds Strawberry jam
200g icing sugar Lemon Grated lemon rind Lemon curd
½ tsp vanilla extract Salted caramel Caramel

Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla extract I find vanilla buttercream works well with most combinations but you can
together with a whisk. This can be very messy! play around with the flavouring in the buttercream too or add a dab of food
Clouds of icing sugar can waft up and fill the colouring paste or gel to give a bit of colour. Choosing different sprinkles
room so if possible cover the bowl with a clean also adds variety to the cupcakes.
tea towel while you beat the buttercream.

The possibilities for creating new flavours are endless and we love to
The whipped buttercream can be spooned or experiment with new ideas. We also create grown-up cupcakes by adding
piped with a piping bag and nozzle onto the alcohol such as gin, Baileys or rum, but these are then only suitable for
cooled cupcakes and sprinkled with hundreds customers who like a tipple.
and thousands.
The best thing about our cupcake recipe is its adaptability and the fun we
have experimenting with it!

REAL ROCHDALE - SUMMER 2021 44 45 REAL ROCHDALE - SUMMER 2021