Easter Carrot Cupcakes
Billington’s Easter Carrot Cupcakes - serves 26
Ingredients:
375g Billington’s Light Brown Muscovado Sugar
360g Vegetable oil
1tsp Nielsen-Massey vanilla essence
5 Medium eggs
375g Plain flour
2 tsps Baking powder
1tsp Sodium bicarbonate
1tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground nutmeg
1tsp Salt
430g Grated carrot
120g Coarsely chopped pecans
75g Desiccated coconut
75g Canned pineapple, pressed and drained thoroughly
3 12 Cup American sized muffin tins
26 paper muffin cases
Golden Cream Cheese Icing:
150g Cream cheese
150g Softened, unsalted butter
220g Golden Icing Sugar
1teaspoon Vanilla essence
Yellow Marshmallow Chicks:
20g Powdered gelatin
20ml Cold water
540g Golden Caster Sugar
160g Golden syrup
200ml Water
1tsp Vanilla essence
6 Drops liquid yellow food colouring
Cornflour to coat
Brownie pan: 2 of 10"12"2 inch pans
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees
2.In a big bowl, sift the flour, baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, spices and salt
3.In a separate bowl, whisk Billington’s Light Brown Muscovado Sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla essence, until combined.
4.Add wet mixture to dry ingredients and beat well.
5.Add carrots, pecans, coconut and pineapple, and stir until combined.
6.Line 12 cup American sized muffin tins with paper cases. Fill each cupcake line 3/4 of the way with the batter.
7.Bake 22-25 minutes-rotating trays at the 18-minute mark if you have an uneven oven. Test the cupcake with a wooden skewer-if it comes out clean with no wet batter, remove from oven-otherwise let cook for another 5 minutes.
8.Let cupcakes cool in tin for 10 minutes, then remove and let cool an additional 30 minutes, then frost.
Golden Cream Cheese Icing:
1. Beat cream cheese and butter well until smooth with an
electric mixer.
2. Add Golden Icing Sugar into 4 parts until well combined.
3. Stir in the vanilla essence.
Yellow Marshmallow Chicks:
1. In a large mixing bowl, add gelatin and cold water and stir. Let gelatin sit and swell or ‘bloom’. Line the brownie pan with greaseproof paper.
2. In a large saucepan, add 440g Caster Sugar, golden syrup and water and stir to combine. Brush the sides down with water to remove any sugar crystals stuck to the sides. Bring to the boil, add a sugar thermometer and cook to 120 degrees C.
3. In a food processor mix 100g Caster Sugar and 2 drops of yellow food colouring and blitz until yellow and fine.
4. Whisk thoroughly with a hand mixer (or in a stand mixer), slowly add hot sugar to the gelatin mixture. Whisk thoroughly until thick bubble gum like strands form. Add vanilla essence and food colouring.
5. Spray everything with pan spray - spatulas, brownie pan spoons, hands, etc.
6. Scoop marshmallow mix into brownie pans and spread evenly until mixture is about 2 cm high. Sprinkle liberally over the top with yellow sugar.
7. When rested, using a greased Easter chick cookie cutter, cut into shapes. Take cut chicks and dip in the remainder of the yellow sugar.