Golden cupcakes for Cupcake Hero

Some of you may know that I like challenges. I also like baking and — this is getting better and better: my favourite chocolate is white. So… what great luck to run into the Cupcake Hero 2.0 contest of the holiday season for which white chocolate is the required ingredient! Although I’m a rookie I can’t resist an attempt to become the holiday hero :)

So I’ve been thinking about matcha cupcakes but because of the winter season I decided on a recipe containing orange and whisky: golden cupcakes (based on a raisin cake without raisins ;) … in Dutch such a cake is called a turban btw :)

This weekend I finally had an excuse to bake: my cousin and his wife were coming over on Sunday to play mahjong. And here’s the result!

The topping is orange-whisky glazing with white chocolate and orange peel sprinkling. (Orange peel, that makes me think of the Variér Peel armchair that we’re awaiting!) Our visitors liked their treat very much and especially appreciated the contrast between the soft cake and its crunchy top.

Recipe for approx. 15 golden cupcakes
Ingredients

• 1 organic orange
• 250 g butter, room temperature
• 500 g granulated sugar
• 5 eggs
• 250 g self-raising flour
• 100 g dried apricots, in small pieces
• 25 ml whisky
• 100 g white chocolate, in pieces

Preparation

• Pre-heat oven at 175 °C.
• Clean the orange and zest half of it. Cut rest of the peel in small strips or sprinkling.
• Mix butter and 250 g sugar.
• Add the eggs one by one.
• Stir in self-raising flour and a pinch of salt.
• Blend in orange zest and apricot.
• Pour the mixture in the (silicon) cupcake moulds.
• Bake in oven for about 40 minutes.

Topping(s)

• Juice the orange.
• Heat remaining 250 g sugar in a saucepan (with thick base), on low heat and without stirring.
• As soon as the sugar starts melting (before turning to caramel), take saucepan of heater and stir in orange juice and whisky.
• Pour this mixture over the cupcakes when they are still warm.

Finishing

• Let the cupcakes cool down.
• Microwave chocolate for 2 minutes on 600 Watt. After 1 minute: stir every 15 seconds.
• Pour chocolate over cooled cupcakes.
• Sprinkle with orange peel.

Suggested improvements

• Soak the dried apricots in the orange juice-whisky mixture before use.
• Pour some orange juice and whisky onto the cupcakes, before getting the glazing on. The cakes will get a bit soggy that way but that’s okay!
• Don’t be too stingy with the orange peel.

These adjustments will get you a better balance between sweet, sour, bitter and the whisky ‘bite’.

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