Strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese icing

Chocolate cupcakes with Oreos in the bottom, topped with vanilla butter icing, and covered in melted dark chocolate

Earl Grey cupcakes with Earl Grey lemon butter icing

Last week, Georgina found me on Twitter and ordered cupcakes for the weekend for a hen party.

She wanted some of the goodies to be gluten-free so that all her guests would be able to enjoy something yummy, so she ordered gluten-free chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter icing and the berry cake that was beta tested a while back- also in a gluten-free variation. She also ordered Earl Grey Tea cupcakes with a creamy lemon butter icing, and red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing.

Thanks for your order Georgina, I hope you and your guests enjoyed it all!

The recipe book describes this cake as a “Frankenstenian” melding of a cobbler, a Brown Betty pudding, and a Streussel, so I was intrigued!

Its a chocolate batter with chopped apple in it topped with roasted sugar tossed peanuts!! If you’re a fan of cake without icing, this little monster may be perfect for you.

Here it is after it came out of its baking tin!

And here it is cut so you can see the apple on the inside! Its quite dense so the apple doesn’t all sink to the bottom of the tin while its baking.

Seize the Chocolate beta tested it for me so you can pop over and see what she thought. When she collected it we had a cup of coffee and a slice of cake each… You know, to test the quality! She even froze it and thawed it successfully!

On Saturday night we went to a Christmas party and gift exchange with some friends, and as it was a bring-and-share I made cupcakes for dessert.

In fact, ALL the guests took dessert!

The chocolate cupcakes are stuffed with chocolate ganache and topped with white vanilla butter icing and a little glitter, and the red velvet cupcakes are topped with white vanilla butter icing. All the cupcakes were decorated with fresh cherries that I had dipped in melted chocolate!

Oh lawdy just look at these fruit tart cupcakes!!

Okay.

I confess.

I have a bit of a “thing” for custard, especially when its combined with pastry. One of my favourite desserts, or tea time snacks is a flaky pastry topped with custard and glazed fruit slices! This beta test is a cupcake version of that pastry!!

Hhmmm… perhaps I should tell Cara I flopped them and she can’t have them anymore…