Erin FoxPlum, cardamom and chocolate cupcakes
Plum, cardamom and chocolate are three flavours I love to combine in the autumn. These cupcakes are perfect on a cold, crisp autumn’s day with a steaming cup of coffee. If you’re lucky enough to find any damsons or damson jam, do use them, as their sharpness is wonderful with the cardamom, but ordinary plum jam works just as well. This recipe makes 12 cupcakes or 16 fairy cakes;
70% dark chocolate chopped
1 tbsp cocoa powder sifted
130g damson or plum jam
200g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
Seeds of 10 cardamom pods crushed in a mortar and pestle
150g unsalted butter softened
200g light muscovado
2 eggs beaten
200ml sour cream
Buttercream
200g unsalted butter softened
300g icing sugar sifted
Seeds of 5 cardamom pods crushed
3 tbsp plum or damson jam
Line a muffin tray with 12 cupcake cases and preheat oven to 170 degrees with fan.
Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted, stir in the sifted cocoa powder and jam, and leave to cool.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and crushed cardamom seeds – without the husk – into a bowl and set aside.
Cream together the butter and sugar for five minutes until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, beating well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Fold in the sour cream followed by the flour, baking powder and cardamom. Stir the chocolate and jam mixture in last and divide between the cupcake cases, filling each case two thirds full.
Bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a wooden skewer emerges clean, and allow to cool in the tin for five minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For the buttercream, beat the butter with icing sugar and cardamom for five minutes until pale and fluffy. Add the jam and beat again until fully incorporated. Pipe the buttercream on with a star nozzle attached to a piping bag or swirl it on top of each cupcake and top with an edible sugar leaf or a frosted damson. If using ordinary plums, cut a wedge to top the cupcake.
Frosted Damsons
Lightly beat a little egg white and cover a plate with white caster sugar. Roll a damson in the egg white and then the sugar and set aside on some baking paper to dry.
Sugar leaves
Roll out some Mexican modelling paste as thinly as you can and stamp out your shapes using leaf cutters. Carve the markings of the leaves with a sharp knife and then place in an unused paint palette to mould the shapes. Leave for a few hours to dry. Using a clean paint brush, paint the leaves with edible gold and copper shimmer.