Maria's Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes

A community recipe by cloud9point1

Not tested or verified by Nigella.com

Introduction

Most of the cakes I make have a special secret ingredient that inspires them and these are no exception - as soon as I found raspberry ripple ice cream flavour squash in Morrisons I knew I had to find a way of incorporating it into a cupcake! The sweetness of the icing and fruity jam compliment each other perfectly, and the swirly pink and yellow sponge looks great. Very indulgent but so pretty and delicious (and easy)! WARNING: I'm not 100% sure of the measurements for the icing as I pretty much made it up as a went along, so they're only an estimate.

Ingredients

Makes: 12

Cupcakes

4 ounces self-rising flour
4 ounces superfine sugar
4 ounces butter
2 eggs
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cream soda (not diet)
1 tablespoon raspberry ripple ice cream flavoured squash (available in Morrisons)
6 teaspoons raspberry jam (strawberry also works well if needed!)
1 drop red food colouring
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Flavour Icing

4 teaspoons raspberry ripple ice cream flavoured squash (available in Morrisons)
2 teaspoons cream soda (not diet)
5 ounces unsalted butter (best to play it by ear)
10 ounces confectioners' sugar (best to play it by ear)
1 splash of red food colouring (could use raspberry juice/sauce instead)
1 coloured sprinkles

Method

Maria's Raspberry Ripple Cupcakes is a community recipe submitted by cloud9point1 and has not been tested by Nigella.com so we are not able to answer questions regarding this recipe.

FOR THE CAKES

Line a baking tray with 12 cupcake cases.
Whisk the butter and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until pale then whisk in the eggs.
Add the flour, baking powder, cream soda, vanilla extract and raspberry ripple squash and whisk again until batter of a soft dropping consistency has formed. Add a little extra flour if too runny.
Add a SMALL drop of red food colouring and randomly swirl it through the mixture with a teaspoon or skewer a few times - don't overdo this or the mixture will simply turn pink and you won't get the lovely swirly marble effect when baked!
Drop the mixture into the cupcake cases using a teaspoon until they're each about two thirds full.
Pop in the oven and bake at 180ºC for about 12-15 minutes until a cocktail stick inserted into the sponge comes out clean.
When baked, place on a wire rack and leave to cool. At this stage the cakes can be frozen for decorating at a later date if you wish.

FOR THE JAM FILLING & ICING

When they have cooled, use a teaspoon or small sharp knife to carefully cut out a hole (about 2cm in diameter and 1cm depth) in the top of each cupcake, being careful not to go too deep into the sponge.
Put about half a teaspoon of raspberry jam into each hole and gently push the sponge part that was cut out back into each cake.
Place half of the unsalted butter, cream soda and raspberry ripple squash into two separate bowls and stir/whisk while gradually adding half the confectioners' sugar to each batch. Add a tiny splash of red food colouring to one of the bowls so it turns a pale pink.
Here I used my wonderful Lakeland duo icing piping bag kit to make two-tone swirly pink and white icing but I realise most people don't have one of these so I'd suggest putting each colour of icing into separate piping bags and creating swirls by piping one colour on top of the other, OR you could simply spread the two different lots of icing onto the cakes with a palette knife and randomly swirl together using a skewer.
Add a few rainbow sprinkles to each cupcake before serving and enjoy!! :)