Monday 7 January 2013

Birthday Baileys Cupcakes

My Auntie Allison has her birthday on New Year's Eve, so a few weeks before this she subtly informed me that she had a 'big' birthday coming up. She was 45. That's not a big birthday. She just wanted cake. I don't know why because she didn't even eat it but anyway... As it was the festive season, and one of her favourite tipples is Baileys, I made chocolate cupcakes with Baileys buttercream decorated simply with red lettering and fondant hearts and flowers.


For the chocolate cupcakes:

Ingredients:

  • 4oz margarine
  • 4oz caster sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 3oz self-raising flour
  • 1oz cocoa powder
  • a touch of baking powder (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Method:

  • Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4/170° fan
  • Line your baking tray with some pretty cupcake cases :)
  • Cream the butter and sugar together until it's pale and creamy
  • Beat the eggs together a little until they are just broken up
  • Add the beaten eggs a little at a time to the sugar/margarine mixture
  • If the mixture starts to curdle, add a small tablespoon of flour to the mixture to bring it back. But don't use it all!
  • Fold in the rest of the flour and the baking powder in two batches to the mixture
  • Divide into cupcake cases so they are about 1/2 - 2/3 full and bake for 18 - 22 minutes
 
      

    Just a note on oven temperature: 170° fan is a little lower than gas mark 4 but if your fan oven is anything like mine, it will be enough! I used to always bake my cakes on gas mark 3 but recently it seems like it isn't hot enough. I need to invest in a thermometer...and to clean the oven!

    For the Buttercream:

    Ingredients:
    • 110g unsalted butter
    • 500g icing sugar
    • 60ml baileys
     
    Method:

    • Mix the butter with the icing sugar, making sure the butter is soft and that you add the icing sugar a bit at a time so it doesn't go everywhere!
    • Slowly add the Baileys and mix into the mixture
    • Beat the mixture until all the ingredients are incorporated and it's lovely and smooth
    • Decorate away!
     
    The best thing to do with this buttercream is just to add the Baileys a bit at a time because you might not need the full 60ml; it all depends on how you want the consistency. I didn't add enough, so, as you can see from the below picture, the icing was a bit stiff, which meant the finish on the rose swirls wasn't very neat.


    I didn't worry about this too much as I knew the icing would be partially covered by the fondant I was putting over them, but for those that I was leaving as rose swirls, I added more Baileys to the buttercream to make them flow a bit better:



    Chocolate and Baileys work so well together. The chocolatey sweetness and the creamy liqueur make such an indulgent cake - perfect for a birthday treat! The chocolate cupcake recipe is based on my fail-safe cupcake recipe, which is nice and simple and can be tweaked when you need a different flavour. The smell from baking them is a wonderful cocoa aroma and the finished cupcake is light, moist, and most importantly...chocolatey!

    With these cupcakes, I have previously used and apple corer to remove the centre of the cupcake and filled it with a chocolate and whiskey ganache before icing. This wonderfully smooth filling gives off just enough whiskey to compliment the Baileys without being too overpowering. 

    I hope you like the recipe! Let me know if you give them a try :)

    Tallulah xx







    5 comments:

    1. Vicky the rose swirl on that cupcake looks fantastic! And the Baileys buttercream sounds delicious.

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      1. Thank you, Lauren! You're far too kind! :)

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    2. These sound divine and they are beautifully decorated as are all of your creations :-) I think I will have to try them! I just found your blog and it is lovely!

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      Replies
      1. Thanks, Sooz! It's lovely to hear from you and see what you've been up to.

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