This bake fell conveniently near Christmas, and gives endless scope for Dickensian puns (see Bah-Humbug cupcakes.)
They manage to embody the toffee and mint of a traditional humbug in cake form.
They whip up easily in an evening after work. And judging by their rate of disappearance from the office, they are a popular choice amongst my colleagues.
Gill over at Tales of Pigling Bland made mini-cupcakes, which I think would be lovely for a dessert buffet table over the Christmas period, a festive bake for the office, or a make-ahead for Christmas Day or Boxing Day tea?
Having noted that cutting mint humbugs is tricky, I left mine wrapped, gave them a swift smack on each side with a meat tenderising hammer, and then unwrapped them.
Just don't hit them too hard, or the sharp shards of humbug go straight through the plastic wrapper and embed themselves in your worktop. Apparently.
I couldn't find dulce de leche for love nor money in the teeny-tiny independent supermarket I shop in, so we went with boiling a can of condensed milk in a water bath, topped up every 20 minutes, for 3 hours, and then resisting eating the entire contents with a spoon.
Other cupcakes that I've baked: Jaffa Cake Cupcakes, Devil's Food Cupcakes.
Ingredients:
Sponge:
70g unsalted butter, softened
210g plain flour
250g caster sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
210ml whole milk
1/2 tsp peppermint essence
2 large eggs
50g dulce de leche
Frosting:
500g icing sugar
160g unsalted butter, softened
50ml whole milk
1/4 tsp peppermint essence
20g dulce de leche
6 mint humbug sweets, smashed, to decorate
Next up: Banana Boston Cream Cake (ooh-err missus!)
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6 comments:
Those look really delicious! I'll bear in mind the whole shards of humbug thing, comes under the things you'd never thought of heading.
I made apple fruit cake and gingerbread dough today, done more baking in the last week than all year, my feet are still complaining
Indeed. One to keep in the knowledge files though.
Love baking, but it is a lot of standing...
Love your write up of this recipe :-)
They sound and look delicious!
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Aww, thanks! They were pretty yummy
I love the play on words for the name. Something quite different for this time of year.
Yes, rather fun.
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