Spring has Sprung Cupcakes

Hey kidlets!
Winter is coming to a close over here so what better way to celebrate the coming of Spring than with a delicious batch of Springtime cupcakes. They are beautiful orange flavoured cakes with a touch of rose and a sweet icing on top with flavours of honey, rose and just a hint of strawberry.
Ingredients
for cakes (makes 12)
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 cup caster sugar
- Zest of one orange
- Juice of one orange
- 2 teaspoons rosewater essence
- 2 eggs
- 1 3/4 cup self-raising flour
- 3/4 cup milk
- Orange food colouring (optional)
for icing
- 75g unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 3 teaspoons rosewater essence
- 1 teaspoon strawberry essence
- 4 drops of rose pink food colouring
- Pretty sprinkles to decorate
Recipe
- Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Line muffin tray with twelve paper cases.
- Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add sugar and zest and continue beating until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each additional. Add orange juice and rosewater and beat until combined. Fold through milk and flour alternately in two batches. At this stage the mix should be quite runny.
- Divide the batter between cupcake cases and pop in the oven for about 15-18 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cake. Once baked, leave the cupcakes to cool before icing.
- To make icing, beat the butter until it is light and creamy. Add the flavourings (honey, rosewater, strawberry) and food colouring and beat once more. Gradually sift in icing sugar. I usually sift two tablespoons at a time.
- Once the cakes have cooled you can decorate with the icing and whatever pretty sprinkles or sugar flowers you can. I would have used sugared rose petals but unfortunately we don't have them so silver sprinkles had to do.
Enjoy!

Original Pink Musk Cupcakes

Musk sticks are very uncooperative ingredients. I've searched and searched for a musk flavoured cupcake recipe and I am yet to find one. So I'm happy to bring you my original musk cupcake recipe! The cakes are absolutely delightful. If you aren't able to get a hold of musk lollies - which is really unfortunate if you can't because they're really, really good - then feel free to leave them out. The rosewater still tastes really lovely by itself.
Ingredients
for cakes (makes 14)
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 3 teaspoons rosewater essence
- 130g unsalted butter, melted
- 140g musk sticks
- Five drops of pink food colouring
for icing:
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 4 teaspoons rosewater essence
- 3 drops of pink food colouring
- About 7 or 8 musk sticks, grated
- 7 musk sticks, cut into quarters, to decorate
Recipe
- Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius (or 350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Line muffin tray with fourteen paper cases.
- In a large bowl, combine SR flour and caster sugar and make a well in the middle.
- Mix together buttermilk, two lightly beaten eggs, rosewater, food colouring and melted butter and fold through flour and sugar.
- Using a mortar and pestle, break up all but about three of the musk sticks required for the cake batter. Mix the broken up musk sticks with a little bit of rosewater essence until they become a paste. Transfer this paste to a saucepan over medium heat. The musk sticks should melt down and become a sort of gooey mixture. At this stage you need to quickly tip this into the cupcake batter and stir through. With the remaining three musk sticks, cut into small pieces and stir through the batter.
- Divide batter between cupcake cases and pop in the oven for about 19-20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre of a cake. Leave them to cool on a wire rack.
- To make the icing, beat the butter until it is light and creamy. Add food colouring and rosewater and beat again. Add the sifted icing sugar in two parts, combining well after each addition. What you need to do not is grate about 7 or 8 musk sticks very finely (use the side that's usually used to grate parmesan cheese - very fine). Once the musk sticks have been grated, add this to the icing and mix through well. Decorate each cake with the icing (use a piping bag to get a really nice effect) and two musk stick quarters.
Ta dah! Perfect pink musk cupcakes!

Give the recipe a go and let me know what you think of it!

Hey Hello Jellybeans!

I've decided to start a blog dedicated entirely to my very own cupcake recipes.
My name is Monica. People sometimes call me Mon, Monster, Mon Bon, Monny Bonny, Monnypops, Pokemon and Monibus. I'm eighteen years old, living in Sydney and studying art education and design. I've always enjoyed baking but last Summer I took to baking cupcakes just a little more often than usual. What with the spare three months between the end of the HSC and starting university in February, what else was there to do? Probably a lot but I made cupcakes. Plus, my little brother gave me a cupcake recipe book for Christmas so I had to put it to good use. I've recently started to move away from following recipes and I've begun creating my own. I really do hope you guys enjoy these new recipes.