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Ok, so my experiment wasn't such a big mess in the end ;) For those who don't know I decided to enter the Cupcake Round-Up which is being hosted by Cheryl of Cupcake Bakeshop and Garrett of Vanilla Garlic. Well, the theme was re-invention so I wanted to re-invent a classic English dessert into a cupcake.
I thought about a sticky toffee pudding cupcake but decided I wouldn't have time to experiment properly with that so it's been put on the back burner for now. Instead I thought of Eton Mess, which I've always loved! I wanted to use blackberries so it reflected the season but unfortunately I couldn't find any in the wild or in the supermarket so I had to make do with raspberries. The dish usually contains strawberries but Lisa is allergic to them and I wanted her to try these ones.
So here's the recipe (I took the vanilla cupcake recipe from joyofbaking.com - which can be found here - but I have changed it slightly)...
Eton Mess Cupcakes
Cupcakes
Supposedly makes 12 cupcakes but I managed to get 20!
½ cup margarine
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups plain flour
1½tsp baking powder
¼ cup milk
½ cup crushed up meringue, in large chunks ~ this measure depends on how much meringue you want in
½ cup raspberries
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C and prepare your cupcake cups (either by buttering the mould, lining with paper liners etc.)
Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Add to the margarine/egg mixture with the milk and beat until combined. Fold in the meringue.
Cover the bottom of one of your cupcake cups with mixture. Lay 2 raspberries in the middle of the cup. Cover with more mixture, making sure the raspberries are completely covered. Repeat this for all your cupcake cups.
Bake for around 15-20 minutes, or until nicely brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
That's how one of mine turned out and if you cut through the centre, you get lovely mushy raspberry...
Now, on the meringue front, when I ate one of the cupcakes, everything but the big bits of meringue had dissolved which is why I specified large chunks! Now, Eton Mess is basically cream, with meringue and chopped up fruit which is pretty much what I did. I post on a message board and a couple of months back I asked for suggestions on simple alternatives to cream cheese frosting and the lovely Katrina told me of her whipped cream frosting which I decided would be perfect for this!
Eton Mess Frosting
2 cups heavy cream
1/3cup icing sugar (confectioners sugar or powdered sugar)
1tsp vanilla extract
smaller chunks of meringue
raspberries
(I haven't put a weight on the last 2 ingredients as it's purely up to you dependant on how much you like said ingredients!)
Put cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until it forms peaks when you pull your mixer away.
Chop the raspberries into quarters and with the meringue, fold into the cream.
Dollop onto top of cupcakes and decorate with whole raspberries and a sprinkling of crushed meringue. Serve.
I did want to put more raspberries in the frosting so you could actually see them but I ran out - I had an Emily chomping them down next to me! Also, you could make some raspberry sauce and drizzle that over the top if you had time.
Now go make them!!
I thought about a sticky toffee pudding cupcake but decided I wouldn't have time to experiment properly with that so it's been put on the back burner for now. Instead I thought of Eton Mess, which I've always loved! I wanted to use blackberries so it reflected the season but unfortunately I couldn't find any in the wild or in the supermarket so I had to make do with raspberries. The dish usually contains strawberries but Lisa is allergic to them and I wanted her to try these ones.
So here's the recipe (I took the vanilla cupcake recipe from joyofbaking.com - which can be found here - but I have changed it slightly)...
Eton Mess Cupcakes
Cupcakes
Supposedly makes 12 cupcakes but I managed to get 20!
½ cup margarine
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups plain flour
1½tsp baking powder
¼ cup milk
½ cup crushed up meringue, in large chunks ~ this measure depends on how much meringue you want in
½ cup raspberries
Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C and prepare your cupcake cups (either by buttering the mould, lining with paper liners etc.)
Cream the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract.
In a separate bowl mix together the flour and baking powder. Add to the margarine/egg mixture with the milk and beat until combined. Fold in the meringue.
Cover the bottom of one of your cupcake cups with mixture. Lay 2 raspberries in the middle of the cup. Cover with more mixture, making sure the raspberries are completely covered. Repeat this for all your cupcake cups.
Bake for around 15-20 minutes, or until nicely brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
That's how one of mine turned out and if you cut through the centre, you get lovely mushy raspberry...
Now, on the meringue front, when I ate one of the cupcakes, everything but the big bits of meringue had dissolved which is why I specified large chunks! Now, Eton Mess is basically cream, with meringue and chopped up fruit which is pretty much what I did. I post on a message board and a couple of months back I asked for suggestions on simple alternatives to cream cheese frosting and the lovely Katrina told me of her whipped cream frosting which I decided would be perfect for this!
Eton Mess Frosting
2 cups heavy cream
1/3cup icing sugar (confectioners sugar or powdered sugar)
1tsp vanilla extract
smaller chunks of meringue
raspberries
(I haven't put a weight on the last 2 ingredients as it's purely up to you dependant on how much you like said ingredients!)
Put cream, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until it forms peaks when you pull your mixer away.
Chop the raspberries into quarters and with the meringue, fold into the cream.
Dollop onto top of cupcakes and decorate with whole raspberries and a sprinkling of crushed meringue. Serve.
I did want to put more raspberries in the frosting so you could actually see them but I ran out - I had an Emily chomping them down next to me! Also, you could make some raspberry sauce and drizzle that over the top if you had time.
Now go make them!!