Tuesday 2 August 2011

HONEY CUPCAKES WITH FIG JAM RECIPE



So I have been feeling creative of late...  its normally unlike me to not go off a recipe but I'm throwing caution to the wind as I feel I've mastered the art of a tasty cupcake.  I had some figs, I had some honey I had cream and some cream cheese. I fashioned myself a honey cupcake, swapping, a cup of sugar for half sugar half honey and using cream instead of milk. In side I popped a little fig jam I made, yes Im obsessed with figs at the moment I know.

Now I always do icing and this time wasn't going to be an exception, however, after whipping up some simple cream cheese icing with balsamic glaze and trying a cake with and without the icing I decided against it. The consistency of the cakes was more like a muffin actually -  although I cooked them for slightly less time that most recipes say -  18 minutes so they don't become too dry or firm. The fig jam had created its own delicious sauce throughout the cupcake and spilling on to the top. It was such a nice flavour and the icing only overpowered it and lost the honey flavours in the cupcake altogether.
In the end I finished the remaining cakes off with a squeeze of balsamic glaze (thicker than dressing) on top only to compliment the figs.

These didn't last long, by all accounts a successful cupcake experiment.


Honey cupcakes
Makes around 12 cakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup cream
1 egg
1 egg white
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)

Fig jam
1 cup figs
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup brown sugar


Method
Pre heat the oven to 180c
Line a muffin tray with your cases and set aside.

Start on your fig jam, roughly chopping the figs and adding to a hot pan with the water and brown sugar.  Mix together and let the jam simmer for about 15 minutes until the figs have sort of melted in to the mixture a bit and your left with a sweet smelling thick bubbly jam.  Remove from the heat and let it cool & thicken a little whilst you make the cake batter.


Sift the flour and baking powder in to a mixing bowl and add the sugar.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg & egg white for a few seconds, add the butter, cream & honey. Being in sunny Spain the butter was really soft, so I didn't need to melt it and it mixed with the ingredients easily. (Keep it out for a bit before you start baking to soften it if need be)
Mix these ingredients well together then make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour the wet mix in to this.

Use a whisk to incorporate all this together, give it a good couple of minutes to combine well.  TASTE... my number one rule! At this point I decided not to add vanilla, because the vanilla pods I have are really strong and I wanted these to taste like honey. I did add about a teaspoon of vanilla sugar and a tablespoon or so more honey. This is my taste though and I was pretty much making it up as I went along so go with your gut, no everyones tooth is a sweet as mine!

Once your happy spoon the mixture in to the muffin cases, about 3/4 full. Take the jam and using a teaspoon, spoon about 1 or 2 tsps of the jam to the centre of each muffin case, pushing in to the batter so there is some in side the muffin as it cooks as well as on top. Looks like this....


Once your done with this, pop in the over for 18-20 minutes. They'll be golden on top.. the centre of the cake should be dry on the inside (watch out for the jam) when you pop a knife or toothpick in and out. The jam will be runny and warm, having created a perfect self sauce. No icing required!

Voila!







7 comments:

chloe said...

I'm completely obsessed with figs and can't wait for them to come into season. This recipe looks absolutely delicious! It would make a great use for my fig jam that I usually end up eating mostly directly from the jar....

Bex said...

Yes Chloe, figs are brilliant in both sweet and savoury dishes, and so good for you!! I must swap sweets for figs from now on.. Also made a Fig and ricotta tart recently will post that soon x

Anonymous said...

Have made fig jam from my figs in the garden. And I have my own honey aswell:)Good idea to put them in cupcakes.I realize now that I never made cupcakes with fruit or jam...
Btw.did you guys get my e mail?

Bex said...

Hey Dzoli - sorry no email from you yet... you sent to gourmetloversblog@gmail.com?

Corina said...

These must be so good warm. I love figs too.

Anonymous said...

Hi, i just saw your flicker pictures, and can't stop admiring your work. Can i have your sticky date with butterscotch ising cupcake, mini dulche de leche cheese brownies and the tangerine kiwi muffins recipes? Plzzz? My email is Mahvishj@aol.com

Bex said...

Thanks, I haven't written up recipes for the cupcakes yet but the brownie is on the blog here http://gourmetlovers.blogspot.com/2011/09/dulche-de-leche-cheesecake-brownie.html

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