Bakewell Cupcakes

I fell in love with Lilly Higgins’ Make, Bake, Love the first time I saw it. It’s so charming and fun, packed with lots of great recipes. The Cherry Bakewell Cupcakes stood out though and I couldn’t wait to make them. I love cherry bakewells though I rarely eat them for some reason. I need to rectify this!

Bakewell Cupcakes

Adapted from Make, Bake, Love by Lilly Higgins

Ingredients

220g caster sugar

100g butter,softened

2 eggs

160g plain flour

100g ground almonds

1 and half tsp baking powder

150ml milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

6 tbsp raspberry jam (I prefer seedless)

6 glace cherries, halved

100g icing sugar

1 tbsp boiling water

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and line cupcake tin.

2. Cream the sugar and butter together until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

3. Sieve the flour, ground almonds and baking powder into a bowl, then carefully fold in the egg mixture. Add the vanilla essence and milk and stir until just combined.

4. Add batter into the cupcake cases, filling only half way. Add a teaspoon of jam to each cake case and top with the remaining mixture. Bake for 20-25 minutes until cakes are golden.

5. Leave to cool fully on a rack. To make the icing, combine the icing sugar with the water and beating until the icing is smooth and thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. If it was too thin, add more icing sugar, if it is too think, add a small bit of water.

6. Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, ice them with the icing and top with a half a glace cherry.

The first time I made these I used jam with seeds in it but I didn’t really like it so I used seedless jam the second time around. I love the addition of the ground almond, it gives it an interesting texture.