Oh Christmas Tree Cupcakes

Recipe's preparation

Method

 

1                    Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. Line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases – preferably green (green foil gives the nicest look)

 

2                    Put a large bowl on top of the Thermomix and weigh in the Fruit Mince and Brandy. Mix until thoroughly combined, then add milk and mix til combined. Put aside. (You could do this in the Thermomix bowl for 5 seconds on "Counter-clockwise operation" , Speed 5).

 

3                    Place butter and brown sugar in a clean TM bowl and cream for 1 minute on Speed 5. Scrape down the bowl. Replace the lid, but leave the MC off.

 

4                    Add eggs 1 at a time, through the lid, with the blades on Speed 5. Scrape down the bowl.

 

5                    Add Vanilla Extract and mix 10 seconds on Speed 4.

 

6                    Add Plain Flour, Baking Powder, Cinnamon, Cloves, Nutmeg and the Fruit Mince/Brandy/Milk mixture.  Blend 20 seconds on Speed 4. Scrape down the bowl and give it another 5-10 seconds on Speed 4 if needed, but DO NOT overprocess.  It will make the mixture tough.

 

7                    Fill the cupcake cases ¾ full and bake for 18-20 minutes (or bake mini cupcakes for 12 minutes) until a fine skewer comes out clean.

 

8                    Remove immediately from the muffin tray and cool on a wire rack until completely cooled. Decorate with piped butter cream frosting (green if you wish it to look like a Christmas tree), cochous to resemble coloured Christmas lights and a glittered fondant Christmas star.

 

 

 

These are a VERY delicious. This recipe is adapted from the Crabapple Cupcake Bakery Cookbook. Enjoy!!

 

 

You can freeze cake once it is cooled (about 1 month) and it will unfreeze in exactly the same condition.  You can also freeze the cakes WITH the buttercream already on them, but it makes it difficult to decorate the buttercream further. When they defrost, the cachous will not stick to the buttercream, and you will have to “crack” the buttercream to push the star into the top. Decorate with GLITTER from the cake decorating shops. Just a little on a paint brush, scattered on the top, makes them look spectacular.