I feel so good today. I’ve also just been informed that it’s Blue Monday (the most depressing day of the year), so I’m sorry if you aren’t feeling good today!
Let me tell you about it. Before Christmas I organised a goods drive for a homeless shelter in Whitechapel at my university (this is going to make me sound like such good person- cupcakes and helping the homeless, who am I?!) We collected three huge crates of food, toiletries and clothes, and today I lugged everything to Whitechapel to finally make the donation (about a month late. I’m a good person, yes, but totally unorganised!)
There is nothing more uplifting than taking a donation of food to a homeless shelter. The people there were so unbelievably nice and friendly and kind. Their job must be pretty tough at times, but they were just so lovely. The atmosphere in the building was also so wonderful. I really got a sense of community and everyone helping each other.
I left feeling so uplifted and just generally good about myself.
I hopped on a bus to go home and the Oyster card reader wasn’t working, so my trip was free. Karma? Definitely!
I want everyone to feel as good as I have felt today!
These cupcakes may not be quite as uplifting as giving food to the homeless, but they come pretty close. Hummingbird bakery cupcakes, with a surprisingly jammy centre and white chocolate and raspberry buttercream. Banish those January blues.
Happy January everyone!
Raspberry Cupcakes with White Chocolate and Raspberry Buttercream
(cupcake recipe taken from the Hummingbird Bakery cookbook)
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
40g butter, at room temperature
120ml milk
1 egg
Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixing bowl and mix until everything is combined. It will look a bit like the start of apple crumble or shortcrust pastry.
Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until it is just incorporated.
Whisk the egg and the remaining milk in a separate bowl, then pour into the flour mixture. Beat until incorporated.
Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and bake at 170 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until light golden.
Once completely cool, cut a small hole in the top of each cupcake. Fill the whole with a dollop of raspberry jam, and replace the ‘lid’. It will look like this:
White chocolate and raspberry buttercream swirl:
250g icing sugar
80g softened butter
150g white chocolate, melted and cooled
tablespoon of raspberry jam
Beat together the icing sugar and butter. Divide the mixture into two bowls.
Into one bowl, add the jam. Into the other add the melted chocolate, and mix both well.
Put the star shaped nozzle on a piping bag. Put the jam icing in one half of the bag, and the chocolate in the other. This is slightly tricky, but not unmanageable! When you squeeze it, both colours should come out together- so you might want to do a test run to make sure you have a nice distribution of each colour.
Then pipe swirls on the cupcakes.
Devour!
xxR
