Best cupcakes ever

If you can't watch BBC television - you are missing a real treat. In fact I would venture to say, "You are missing the best show ever"...The Great British Bake Off.

I am so happy to be in England now that Series 2 is showing. 

To ease the distress of having to wait one whole week for the next episode, we started searching online for ways to keep baking feeling going. 

The Bakewell tart cupcake recipe ticked all the boxes for our first attempt from the BBC website.

Holly Bell inspired us to try her recipe, albeit our way - with less than perfect icing (sorry Holly).

Holly and Janet are my favourite contestants - hope they stay in till the final.

It was love at first taste. 

These Bakewell tart cupcakes are the easiest and tastiest we have ever made.

 Alice and Louise carefully scooped out a little hole in the centre, to be able to drop a tiny dollop of raspberry jam. Tilly was on hand to eat every little crumb that was removed - and let them know if they were not quick enough to supply her.

Twelve cupcakes quickly disappeared

Here is Holly's recipe with a couple of changes :

Raspberry Bakewell Tart Cupcakes

The mix:

75g margarine - at room temp

75g butter- at room temp

150g caster sugar

100g self-raising flour

3 free range eggs- at room temp

1 teaspoon baking powder

60g ground almonds

1 Tbsp milk

After baking:

good quality raspberry jam

Icing:

200g icing sugar

2-3 Tbsp lemon juice

12 raspberries

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas4. Use paper cases in a 12 hole muffin tin.
2. Cream the margarine and butter in a bowl till light and fluffy. (I thought this was a typo as I always have creamed butter and sugar together first - but now I think this makes the cupcakes extra light)
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until combined
4. Spoon the mixture into the cases - just half full. Bake for 15-20 mins. They will be golden brown and when tested with cake skewer, it comes out clean when they are ready.
5. Remove from oven, cool on a wire tray and try to resist for 10 minutes.
6. Use an apple corer and a tiny teaspoon to carefully remove a plug from the centre of each cupcake. Fill the hole with good raspberry jam.
7. Make the icing by sifting icing sugar into a bowl and stirring in the lemon juice. Carefully spoon it onto the top of each cake and try to cover the top of each cupcake neatly. (I failed to do this to Holly's standards, but will try harder next time)
8. Add a fresh raspberry onto the centre of each cupcake and enjoy!

Info for other GBBO junkies:
Be sure to read Red, Red's blog on cupcakes.
For info on the contestants: Maison Cupcake
Holly's blog
Mary-Anne's blog
Jo's blog
BBC food blog
Miranda (from series1)
Jason's blog

Need the book?

Available at Amazon

Want to watch the show from outside the UK? Find the link here

Let me know if you get hooked on it too.