This is my first recipe review from my monthly feature on the Hummingbird Bakery’s ‘Cake Days’ recipe book.
You may notice if you already have the book, that I’ve adapted the ‘Apple Blossom Cupcake’ recipe to include Blueberries. The main reason for this was that the recipe included a hard-to-find apple iced-tea powder.
After several visits to various supermarkets, I could not find this ingredient anywhere, therefore I imagine you’d need to visit a specialist shop to buy it. The last time I had apple tea I was a teenager on holiday in Turkey, and to be honest I’ve not seen it again since!
The recipe also suggested the apple powder could be replaced with cherry blossom teabags or orange blossom water. I’ve certainly heard of the latter, and on a final trip to my local Waitrose I discovered there was no cherry blossom, orange blossom or apple powder in sight, so I settled on Twinings Apple & Blueberry teabags instead.
For the cupcakes…
For those that haven’t baked Hummingbird cupcakes before, their technique is slightly different to the popular creaming or all-in- one baking method. Instead they mix the butter and sugar together with the dry ingredients before adding the egg mixture, which is pre-mixed together with the milk.
Personally I’m not a big fan of milk and especially the smell of milk being baked. The last time I baked cupcakes from the first ‘Hummingbird Bakery’ book, I remember using quite a lot of skimmed milk which gave off an unpleasant smell whilst the cupcakes were baking in the oven.
In ‘Cake Days’ they recommend that you use no other type of milk other than whole milk, so with an open mind, I added the whole milk as instructed. It also helped that the milk is mixed with the brewed teabags giving it a berry aroma.
On placing the batter in the liners, I filled the cases two thirds full and there was left over batter for four more cupcakes as indicated in the book.
Whilst baking, most of the cupcakes rose to a high dome, so next time I would place less batter in the cases. This also meant that I had to cut the domes off the cupcakes in order to ice them.
For the frosting…
Hummingbird’s butter cream frosting is quite sweet (and this is coming from a sweet tooth) as there is a higher ratio of sugar to butter. But with the addition of the Apple and Blueberry flavour, the frosting on its own tasted really delicious. I really liked it.
I’d definitely like to try this frosting recipe again, with a few tweaks on the sweetness perhaps.
Overall thoughts…
The flavour of the blueberry and apple hits your taste buds a couple of seconds after taking a mouthful, and the flavours really work together.
The sponge is light, moist with a hint of blueberry then apple, and worked well with the frosting. I didn’t have an issue with the milk, and agree that full fat milk gives better results than skimmed. I’d definitely make these yummy cupcakes again for family and friends.
So here is the recipe if you fancy trying these at home:
For the cupcakes
3 Apple & Blueberry teabags
3tbsp boiled water
80g (3oz) soft unsalted butter
280g (10oz) caster sugar
240g (8.5oz) plain flour
1tbsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt
200ml (7fl oz) Whole Milk
2 large eggs
For the Frosting
50ml (1.75fl oz) Whole milk
500g (1lb 2oz) Icing sugar
160g (5.5oz) soft unsalted butter
Method
1/ Preheat the oven to 190C, Gas Mark 5 or 375F.
2/ Line your tins with muffin cases.
3/ Place teabags in a bowl and cover with 3tbsp of boiled water, leave to soak for 25-30 minutes.
4/ Mix the butter, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a mixer or use a hand held whisk until it appears to look like fine breadcrumbs.
5/ In a separate bowl mix the milk and eggs together by hand, then add the liquid from the teabags and mix together.
6/ Gradually add the milk mixture into the dry mixture and mix on a low speed, once all the mixture is added, mix on a medium speed until everything is mixed in and the batter is smooth.
7/ Divide the batter into the cases filling them two thirds full ( I would personally try somewhere between half and two thirds full). Any batter remaining can be used to make extra cupcakes.
8/ Place in the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes. Once baked, remove from the tin and leave to cool before adding any frosting.
9/ To make the frosting, place the teabags (used to make the cupcakes) into a bowl with the milk and leave to stand for 30 minutes. Remove from the milk and squeeze out the teabag to release the remaining flavour.
10/ Mix the butter and icing sugar together in a mixer or by using an electric whisk, until the mixture is sandy in texture with no lumps. Gradually add the tea-infused milk and then mix on a high speed until light and fluffy.
11/ Slather on top of your cupcakes using a palette knife.
For the original ‘Apple Blossom Cupcakes’ recipe and other Hummingbird Cake Days recipes check out the book via amazon here:
Cakes look lovely Tracy – are those muffin cases you’ve used as I’ve been looking for some in bright colours – can you share your supplier? I now follow the Hummingbird recipe religiously for my cupcakes – the mix comes out really light and moist but you’re right about the whole milk – it does make a difference.
Hi Sarah, thanks for stopping by. Those are indeed muffin cases and the bright coloured ones are from a pack of 108 cases (12 cases in 12 different colours) from e-bay. If you search on e-bay, there is usually a couple of e-bay shops that sell them. All the best Tracy.