Honey, Almond and White Chocolate Cupcakes

Last September, a colleague of mine who lives on Anglesey, gave me some of her wonderful honey. It's pale gold with a beautiful floral scent and delicate taste. Although most of it went very quickly, I managed to keep some of it back, as I have been wanting to try baking with honey for some time.

While I was at university, I was lucky enough to live for a year in the beautiful city of Dijon. As well as having fond memories of the famous mustard (I lived opposite the Amora factory and was often greeted by the overwhelming smell of vinegar whenever I opened my window), the local speciality of pain d'épice featured largely in any social visits during my time there. It's a lightly-spiced cake, heavy with honey but like so many traditional cake recipes, it has quite a dry texture. Nice though it is (and it certainly goes very well with a glass or two of something sparkling), I wanted my first foray into baking with honey to be rather more elegant, with subtle flavours, suitable perhaps for a genteel tea.

These honey, almond and white chocolate fairy cakes were what I came up with and I have to say that they did live up to my expectations. The honey gives them a delicate perfume and the almonds add a pleasing crunch. They are topped with a ganache made of white chocolate which would not be my usual choice but I felt that white chocolate would work better with the dainty, understated flavours of the cake.



As this month's letter is 'A' in the brilliant Alphabakes challenge by Ros (this month's host) from TheMoreThanOccasionalBaker and Caroline  at Caroline Makes, I'm sending this as my entry. I'm also entering it into the Tea Time Treats Challenge, with the theme of Fairy Cakes, Muffins and Cupcakes , run by Karen of Lavender and Lovage  and Kate (this month's host) from What Kate Baked. 

As this month's challenge is Honey, I'm also entering these fairy cakes into April's We Should Cocoa challenge started and hosted by Choclette from Chocolate Log Blog and Chele from Chocolate Teapot. 

RECIPE - makes 12 cupcakes

• For the cakes

120g softened butter

100g caster sugar

120g self raising flour

half a teaspoon baking powder

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon runny honey

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

50 g chopped, blanched almonds

• For the ganache 

100ml double cream

200g good quality white chocolate, chopped

METHOD

12-bun muffin tin lined with 12 cupcake or muffin papers

 Pre-heat the oven to 180°C

Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Mix in the vanilla and honey. Sieve the flour and baking powder and fold in. Lastly, fold in the chopped almonds.

Spoon the mixture in to the cases, filling each case as equally as possible.

Put in the oven and bake for about 20 mins or until the cakes are cooked and golden brown on top.

Remove from the oven. Take the cakes out of the tin as soon as you can and leave to cool on a wire rack.

To make the ganache, heat the cream gently until almost but not quite boiling and pour over the chopped chocolate. Leave to stand for a minute or two and then stir until all the chocolate is melted. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes so that it thickens slightly which makes it easier to use. 

When the cakes are completely cold, spread thickly with the ganache. 

                                                 

Banana, Cherry and White-chocolate cupcakes

As I mentioned in my last post, I firmly believe that the way to get through January without succumbing to post Christmas blues is to indulge oneself; indeed the motto for January should be 'a little of what you fancy...'. After all, there's plenty of time in the rest of the year for strict denial and cut backs of all kinds.

The snow that everyone else in the UK seems to be enjoying is unfortunately staying stubbornly away from here but whilst waiting patiently for the magical transforming properties of that elusive white stuff, I thought that these little bundles of sweet, sticky pleasure might help to pass the time. They're filling so ideally suited to stave off a mid afternoon slump, accompanied by a cup of coffee or tea. I imagine they would be ideal to satisfy a post frolic-in-the-snow hunger pang too...

As someone who doesn't really like white chocolate, I seem to be using it quite a lot in my baking these days. I find that it works really well when you offset the intense sweetness - the sourness of the dried cherries does that perfectly here. Providing a bit of crunch in contrast to the smooth chocolate is likewise a good idea. To that end, I've added a few walnuts to Nigella's original recipe. I've also reduced the amount of white chocolate slightly.

 I'm entering this into the fabulous Forever Nigella challenge started by Sarah at http://blog.maisoncupcake.com/forever-nigella-faq and hosted this month by Sally at Recipe Junkie http://recipe-junkie.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/forever-nigella-22-food-to-cherish-your.html. This month's theme is 'Food to cherish your loved ones with' and these cupcakes certainly do that.

I'm also sending this over to Javelin Warrior's weekly challenge, Made with Love Mondays, a weekly series to promote, share, and celebrate foods made entirely from scratch.

RECIPE

125g unsalted butter

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas
60ml sour cream
2 large eggs
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
300g plain flour
40g dried cherries, chopped
40g white chocolate, chopped,
30 g walnuts, chopped

12-bun muffin tin with paper cases

 Preheat the oven to 180°C

Mash the bananas in a bowl with a fork.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan, then, off the heat, add the sugar, vanilla and mashed bananas.

Stir in the sour cream and the eggs and beat to mix.

Sieve the bicarb, baking powder and flour together so they're well mixed. Don't miss this step out because it ensures the bicarb is evenly distributed. Add to the wet ingredients together with the cherries, white chocolate and chopped walnuts.

Stir until the mixture is just blended and divide between the 12 muffin cases. I've started to use an ice-cream scoop to do this and it works really well.

Cook for 20 minutes or until golden and springy on top. Remove the cupcakes in their papers to a wire rack and leave to cool.