Whimsical Cookery is a site for adults who prefer to eat like children, or perhaps just need to cook for some children. This site contains an aversion to vegetables, a love of fried food and cupcakes, lazy shortcuts, some disturbing creations, and an ignorance of proper culinary practices...

Thursday 19 July 2012

Spiced Cupcakes w/ Ginger Root Buttercream Frosting & Crystalised Ginger Chip (UK)


I've been waiting ages to make these!  I love the flavor and heat of fresh ginger so much, I wanted to pull this into a cupcake.  I used Hummingbird Bakery's vanilla cupcake recipe as a base, and made a few spicy changes.

Yield: 10 cupcakes

You will need:
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
tiny pinch of salt
1/4 tsp powdered ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

40g unsalted butter
120ml whole milk
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
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500g icing/powdered sugar
200g unsalted butter
3 Tbsp fresh finely grated ginger
A sprinkling of powdered ginger
1-2 Tbsp whole milk
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10 thin coins of fresh cut ginger
60ml water
80g caster sugar (+sugar for dusting)
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I also came up with an egg-free version of this recipe, which removes the 1 egg, and changes the baking powder to just a pinch under 3 tsps.

For the cake:

1.In a bowl mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon.

2. With a fork (pastry blender, or electric mixer) combine butter with the dry ingredients until there are no remaining large bits of butter.

3. In a separate (small) bowl, combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice, and vanilla.

4. Add wet ingredients to the large bowl and mix until almost smooth.

5. Place cupcake wrappers in 10 of the 12 slots in a cupcake baking tray and pour mix until each cup is 2/3 full.

6. Bake at 170C for 14-16 minutes.

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For the ginger chips:

1. Cut 10 thin coins of ginger from a fresh ginger root.

2. In a small saucepan/milk pan add sugar and water.

3. Bring to a gentle boil and add ginger coins.

4. Boil gently for 15 minutes.  Keep an eye on it so that all of the water does not evaporate out by the end.

5. While this cooks, dust a sheet of wax paper/greased parchment with caster sugar.

6. After 15 minutes, remove the ginger chips and drop onto the sugared part of the paper. Sprinkle more sugar over the top and wait for them to cool.

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For the frosting:

1. Cream the butter with an electric mixer.

2. Add milk and ginger.  Mix.

3. Gradually add icing sugar until desired taste/consistency is reached.

4. Add a dusting of powdered ginger to the top and mix in.

5. Frost your cooled cupcakes and top them with a crystalised ginger chip!