Friday, April 10, 2009

Cupcakes Part 3 - Butterfly Cakes

Wow, I have to say these were a disaster!! So bad, I couldn't even bring myself to post a photo. They were supposed to be sponge cake, and they did have a very "spongy" consistency, however I don't think a cupcake with the texture of one of those green and yellow sponges that you use to do the dishes was quite what I had in mind. And they tasted very, very eggy. Forget trying to cut out little cones for the butterfly wings, these babies were so sunken.

Funnily enough the recipe has a proviso at the top "At the Crabapple Bakery we use the basic vanilla cupcake batter for our butterfly cakes, but here's a sponge cake recipe anyway...". Ummm, gee thanks. Well my verdict is save yourself the hassle and the 25 minutes of handbeating and do as the do at the bakery and use the vanilla cupcake batter for your Butterfly Cakes.

So old faithful standby Sultana Slice was called in to action. Thank goodness for old faithfuls!

Sultana Slice with Coffee Icing

125g butter, softened 1/2 cup caster sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence 1 egg 1 cup self raising flour 1 cup sultanas 2 cups icing sugar 2 tsp instant coffee granules 1 tblsp butter, melted Flaked or slivered almonds, toasted

Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until combined. Add the egg and beat in. Stir in the flour, then the sultanas. Press into a lined and greased square baking pan. Bake at 180 degrees centigrade for 25 minutes Leave in pan until almost cool For icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl, add the butter. Mix the coffee granules with a small amount of boiling water to dissolve. Add to icing sugar mixture. Whisk together, adding further boiling water until the desired consistency is reached. You will want this quite runny.

Ice slice when cool and top with toasted flaked or slivered almond.

This little slice never lets me down! I think some tasty variations would be dried apricots instead of the sultanas, with a lemon icing, or dried cranberries with a white choc icing.

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