Cherry and the Cakemakers

The other week, for the first time: I made cupcakes.

A few months ago, I finally moved to an appartment with its very own oven, something I guess that many people take for granted. For me, however, this opened up endless possibilities of homemade goodies that have already added more than a couple of centimetres to my waistline: pizzas, pies, Sunday roasts, baked potatoes....the list goes on.

I don't consider myself much of a whizz in the kitchen; I can whip up a half decent curry and people have been known to say I make the best Pot Noodle in town, but I am definitely more greedy than gourmet. I'm clumsy and awkward in pretty much every walk of life, so the kitchen is not the ideal environment for me. What I lack in common sense, I more than make up for in enthusisam, which over the years, has led to several cut fingers, burnt saucepans and one ghastly Bread and Butter Pudding baked with the cling film left on top.

One activity I have rarely attempted is baking. Any inclination has been thwarted by memories of dreaded high school Home Economics classes with evil Mrs Green's voice echoing, "Whose are these poor things?", as she points derisively at my unappetising tin of scones, causing much mirth amongst my classmates. Mrs Green (shudder) was far from encouraging and HE was abandoned in favour of Music, leaving me with nulle points in basic life skills, but the ability to play The Entertainer on anything with a reed.

Getting to grips with my new toy oven, the past few weeks have seen me face my demons and overcome my crisis in confidence, discovering a new passion and - dare I say it - aptitude, for making cakes. I've perfected a Lemon Drizzle Cake that melts in your mouth, done my Mum proud by mastering her much coveted scone recipe and even thrown together some rather impressive birthday cakes for friends and colleagues. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Mrs Green. It was definitely time to get a little more adventurous and the word on the street was cupcakes are where it's at.

When it comes to cupcakes, the authority on all things sugar and spice, is my cousin Emma. Her talent and creativity is remarkable and the rest of us can only stand by and hope we get to lick the bowl. Emma made her own wedding cake, which consisted of several tiers of beautiful individual cupcakes, and she has a weekly commission for the highly reputed Liverpool-based Dafna's Cheesecake Factory. When Emma decided to start up her own small business, my side of the family were only too happy to contribute ideas for a company name, the most ingenuous being 'Cherry and the Cakemakers' (you see she's based in Liverpool!) Liverpudlians are pretty inventive when it comes to naming things: Matthew Street's favourite tribute band Crowded Scouse, driving school El Paso, hairdressing salon Curl-Up and Dye....

Emma's fabulous wedding cake.
 I seem to have misplaced the photo of my baking attempts...

Back to the point, Emma's little business Cupcake Indulgence is thriving and she was only too happy to encourage me in my culinary endeavours, buying me a beautiful Hummingbird Bakery cook book for my birthday. The recipe that caught my eye was for the rather tasty sounding Earl Grey Cupcakes. Mmmmm. I planned to make a basketful for my friend Laurence's birthday and even spent a small fortune on some of those tiny edible silver balls that look so decorative. But not all things go to plan and, although the cakes themselves were nothing short of scrummy, I made a bit of a pig's ear of the frosting. It's a delicate, fiddly process to ice individual cakes and, as usual, I went in feet first and smeared on the sugary mixture as if applying cement to a driveway. There seemed little point in adding the decorations, but I went ahead anyway and managed to create yet another thing that looks like it's been done by a two-year-old. The cakes were devoured by myself and my husband and Laurence received a basketful of scones, that even I can't ruin. I spoke to Emma last night and she wisely advised me to use a piping bag and nozzle for any future attempts and promised to forward a Youtube link more than likely called 'Icing Cupcakes for Dummies'.

Would I try it again?: Mmmmm. I like it. I like it.

Earl Grey Tea Cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cakes:

3 earl grey tea bags

(I will use more next time as the flavour was a little subtle)

3 tbsp hot water (just boiled)

80g butter

280g caster sugar

240g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4tsp salt

200ml milk

2 large eggs

For the icing:

50ml milk

500g icing sugar

160g butter

Method:

1. Put the teabags in the hot water and infuse for 30mins.
2. Preheat oven to 190′C and line the muffin tin with liners.
3. In a mixer, mix together butter, sugar, flour, baking powder and salt until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.
4. In a jug, whisk together the milk and eggs, then pour in the infused tea, squeezing out every drop of liquid from the teabags. Save the teabags for the icing.
5. Pour 3 quarters of the milk mixture into the dry ingredients, mix slowly to combine first, then increase speed to mix till the batter is smooth. Pour in the rest of the milk mixture and mix until smooth and lump free.
6. Fill the muffin liners no more than 2/3 full, bake for 18 – 22 minutes, until well risen and golden. When cooked, cool on a cool rack entirely.
7. To make the icing, put the used teabags in the 50ml milk and leave to infuse for 30mins.
8. Mix together the butter and the icing sugar, now mix very slowly at first as it will go everywhere… if using mixer, remember to cover it with a tea towel first. Then mix in the tea flavoured milk until fluffy.
9. Ice the cooled cakes and decorate! Enjoy x