Monday, April 27, 2009

Baking Mondays - C is for Caramel?

Okay so I was very excited about having caramel as the flavour for this week and I was tossing up between baking caramel spice cupcakes and caramel mud cupcakes. My ever so lovely husband decided that the caramel spice cupcakes sounded nice so I set out on my baking mission. Once they were all baked I sampled one of the cupcakes to make sure they were worthy of frosting (something I do with every batch) - and guess what? They don't taste like caramel at all! In fact I would say they taste more like gingerbread. So while that was a bit disappointing - I must say for a spice/gingerbread cupcake these were darn tasty! So I present to you Spice Cupcakes with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream.

Spice Cupcakes
(Caramel cake from The Australian Women's Weekly - More Cakes and Slices)

Makes 16

185g butter
150g brown sugar
80ml golden syrup
2 eggs
40g almond meal
125ml milk
300g self raising flour, sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and line 2 12 hole muffin trays with cupcake liners.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and beat well with an electric mixer on low speed until combined.
  3. Bake for 15 minutes (again remember my oven is silly - so this time may vary for you).

Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream

4 egg whites
1 cup brown sugar
250g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
  1. Combine the egg whites and sugar into a heatproof bowl and whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until sugar is dissolved and the mixture is as hot as you can get it without the egg whites cooking.
  2. With the whisk attachment on your mixer whisk the egg white and sugar mixture on high speed until a stiff meringue is formed and the mix has cooled down to room temperature.
  3. Now put the paddle attachment on your mixer and with the mixer on a low speed add a tablespoon or two of butter at a time. Once all the butter is incorporated turn the mixer up to medium speed and mix until the mixture is light and fluffy again.
  4. Add vanilla extract and mix on medium speed until you get a good piping texture.

The ratings?

Me - 8/10 - very light, spongy, moist and tasty!! The cake is great and the buttercream is very subtle. My only complaint was that it didn't taste like caramel at all.

Mat - 10/10 - unexpected flavour - but they were sensational (and Mat doesn't even like gingerbread)!

Mat's work friends - 12/10 :o)

11 comments:

alissa said...

i give you a 10/10 on appearance - looks YUMMY

apparentlyjessy said...

You did a great job on presentation! I think they do look gingerbready, but there is nothing wrong with that! Gosh that SMBC looks so smooth, I would really like to taste it! Can I come taste one?? hehe

Amanda said...

Another lovely cupcake!

Isn't it disappointing when a cupcake gets overtaken with the spices? It happened to me with a batch of mocha spice cupcakes I made for Christmas. They were still good, but I think I mis-measured the spices and they were just... a dark spice cake.

In other news, I really really need to try this SMBC stuff. I know I say that all the time, but this time I mean it. :)

Paris Pastry said...

Your cupcake pictures always look sooo good!!! I can't wait till you bake a 'D' cupcake. I'm hoping it's Doughnut!

Mermaid Sews said...

Great job, they look terrific. Just re-name them! I hear you on the frustration part, but now you have a good spice cupcake.

Anonymous said...

Yummmy!

miranda said...

these look so scrumptious. i suppose they could taste like practically anything as long as the icing is this yummy-looking! ;-) great photo!

drollgirl said...

it is SO GORGEOUS!!! and i bet it tastes phenomenal. salivating now.

lori said...

Mmmm...they look and sound divine. And, lucky for me...I don't really care much for caramel, but spice cake...Yum!

How To Eat A Cupcake said...

I love gingerbread and SMBC, so I KNOW I'd love these!

alissa said...

ps ive tagged you! participate if you'd like :)