Raspberry and white chocolate mini cupcakes

 

I love a girly cupcake.  It's got nothing to do with Sex and the City or the decade long fascination with cupcakes.  I just love the aesthetic of them and the potentially endless varieties.

For my birthday afternoon tea, I went teeny and made raspberry and white chocolate mini cupcakes from a recipe on p113 of  Nibbles: 100 Sweet and Savoury Finger Foods.   These cupcakes were little bite-sized morsels of deliciousness.  Instead of topping them with white chocolate ganache, I made my usual Primrose Bakery vanilla buttercream, dyed the perfect shade of pink, and crowned each one with a little sugar flower.

Here's a peek at the baby cakes before icing:

and here they are in all their glory, fully dressed:

Tempted?  To make 24 of these tiny morsels, you will need:

24 raspberries (fresh or frozen)
75g white chocolate
60g butter
43g sugar
62ml milk
62g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius and line 24 mini muffin tin holes with paper cases, and place a raspberry in the base of each one.

Chop the white chocolate and cube the butter, and melt them together with the sugar and milk over a bain marie, stirring occasionally until smooth.  Leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl, then add the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.  Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.  Pour the mixture into a jug, then use it to fill the mini muffin cases with batter, filling them no more than three quarters full.

Put the cakes into the oven for 11-12 minutes or until cooked through.  Cool in the tin for 3 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

I then made a third of the mixture of the Primrose Bakery's vanilla buttercream (recipe here), and coloured it with a drop or two of liquid pink food colouring.  I then used a star tip to pipe the icing on top of the cupcakes, and topped each with a ready made sugar flower (I used these Queen brand ones that my Mum gave to me for my birthday - thanks Mum!). 

The end result is absolutely delicious, gorgeous little morsels - perfect for afternoon tea.