Date cupcakes - why did they fail

So I thought I'd give you an update on the Mini Easter Egg Surprise Cupcakes that I made yesterday. I was really happy with how the cupcakes looked, how they photographed and how they tasted. The only negative aspect was that the Easter Eggs sank to the bottom of the tin, this made it quite difficult to remove them from well greased cupcake tin. In the future I'll use cupcake cases and if I want to make these cupcakes again at any other time of the year I'll use different lollies e.g. Jersey Caramels or Rollo's instead of solid Easter eggs.

So my cupcakes today have been inspired by Mr Opoes's favourite dessert 'Sticky Date Pudding' minus the butterscotch sauce. I knew Mr Opoes would like these however I had to look into what type of icing to use because the butterscotch sauce would be too heavy.

I found the recipe I wanted to use on a whisk & a spoon. Stephanie's blog has beautiful images, easy to read instructions and although the pictures are intimidating she uses everyday ingredients. I did make a few changes to the recipe because I wanted the cupcakes to be a mixture of the pudding and the cupcakes. So here's a picture courtesy of Stephanie's blog of what my Date Cupcakes should look like.

This looks delicious I'm thinking you could dust
each of them with icing sugar.

I haven't added any of my own pictures because I made mistakes while I was making these. My little girl picked up some type of tummy bug and I was concentrating more on her than on what I was doing. So my apologises but at least you can have a look at Stephanie's yummy picture above to get an idea of what the cupcakes should have looked like.

Date Cupcakes with Buttermilk Fudge Icing

Ingredients:

200g pitted dates, coarsely chopped

1/2 cup of boiling water

1/3 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 large egg, at room temperature

1 cup self-rising flour

1/3 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

pinch of nutmeg

1/3 cup of buttermilk

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to180°C. 

2. Line cupcake pan with 8 regular sized paper liners.

3. Place dates and water in a medium saucepan over a high heat. Bring to the boil. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool slightly.

4. Cream butter and both sugars for approximately 5 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well.

5. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.

6. To the butter and sugar mix add a third of buttermilk and a third of the flour mix. A start with the buttermilk and finish with the flour mixture. Mix lightly until blended.

7. Fold the date paste into the batter with a rubber spatula.

8. Divide the batter among the cupcake cups, filling each one to 3/4 full.

9. Bake in the middle of the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

10. Cool for 10 minutes, remove from the pans. Cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Buttermilk Fudge Icing

Ingredients:

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon light corn syrup

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup buttermilk, plus an additional 1 tablespoon, for thinning the icing

1/3 teaspoon baking soda, sifted

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

1. Combine the sugar, corn syrup, butter, buttermilk and baking soda in a large heavy-bottomed pot.

2. Stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat slightly and bring to the boil. Stir one last time as it comes to the boil, then DON'T STIR AGAIN.

3. Boil the syrup until it reaches 118°C on a candy thermometer (soft ball stage). Pour immediately into a mixing bowl and allow to stand for 5 minutes.

4. Stir in the vanilla, then beat on a medium speed until thick enough to spread, about 5 minutes.

5. If the icing is too thick, add the additional buttermilk, one teaspoon at a time.

6. Cover the tops of the cupcakes with the icing and cool before serving. Refrigerate to set the icing if it seems loose.

NOTE: If its too loose to work with, you can try chilling it for 10 minutes or so and re-whipping it before covering the cupcake top.

If this all seems to difficult just dust each cupcake with a little shifted icing sugar and serve. Remember to enjoy these cupcakes especially with the amount of time you have spent making, baking and icing them. I hope that your efforts pay off especially when mine didn't work.

Megan