Jelly and Custard Cupcakes – a taste of childhood….

Jelly and custard are a classic combination and two of my favourite childhood foods. Although few children would have had birthday parties when I was young, jelly and custard would have been the standard party fare at any I did attend. We would often have had jelly and custard at home anyway though – no wonder I have such a sweet tooth! I still love those flavours, so what better than to use them as a basis for a cupcake?

This is a simple recipe, created by making small changes to my basic cupcake recipe. Some of the self raising flour is replaced by custard powder and the jelly for the filling is from a batch I made last summer with fruit from the garden. I also reduce the amount of sugar I use as by their very definition the cakes are a little sweet!

The quantities here should make about 12 butterfly cupcakes.

For the cakes you will need:

2 large free range eggs

150g of self raising flour

50g of custard powder

140g of caster sugar

200g of soft butter

4 tablespoons of milk

For the filling you will need:

175g of icing sugar

25g of custard powder

100g of soft butter

a couple of teaspoons of milk

enough jelly or jam to be able to put about½ a teaspoon into each cake

Method:

preheat the oven to 180°C
line a muffin/cupcake baking tin with paper cases
weigh the cake ingredients into a roomy mixing bowl and beat them all together well until the mixture is smooth, creamy and well combined

divide the mixture between the cupcake cases and bake the cakes for about 15 minutes, or until they are only very slightly starting to brown (if the cakes are a little too long in the oven the cases have a tendency to peel away from the cakes)
remove the cakes from the baking tin and leave them on a wire rack to cool
when the cakes are completely cool, prepare the filling. Beat the icing sugar, butter and custard powder together well and add the milk to make a soft consistency
cut a slice from the top of each cake, cutting this slice into half to make “wings”
put a bit of jelly or jam into the cavity in the cake, top this with some of the filling and then put the “wings” in place