Mulled Wine Cupcakes!

What do you do when you've promised to bake a little something for an engagement party at the beginning of winter, but have absolutely zero inspiration? You make Mulled Wine Cupcakes, of course!

Simple, but effective!

It's that time of year again where mulled wine returns to show its face in pubs and restaurants, and my place of work is no exception. I can be a bit fussy with mulled wine, but I really liked the taste of the one we serve. It tasted quite strongly of orange alongside the spice mix, which gave me the idea to prepare a batch of cupcakes flavoured with mulled wine! The perfect winter warmer, these cakes were arguably one of the best ways to enter into the festive period (or to step into Christmas, if you will)!

Before starting on the cake batter, I began by making my own mulled wine to use for the sponge. This mulled wine was very easy to make. I just had to combine red wine with orange zest and juice, cinnamon, and cloves, and leave it to infuse for about half an hour. If I were making a batch of mulled wine to actually sit and drink, I probably wouldn't use this recipe, but for a batch of cupcakes the flavours in this recipe work nicely.

The sponge mixture for these cupcakes is so simple to prepare too. By creaming together butter and sugar before adding eggs, plain flour, cocoa powder, the mulled wine, orange zest and essence, and cinnamon, you end up with a wonderfully warming spiced mulled wine batter!

The less is more approach 
worked really well with 
this design!

The real star of the show in my opinion is the spiced mascarpone and orange frosting I used to decorate these cakes. Cream cheese frosting is an absolute favourite of mine, particulaly on carrot cake, but I'd never thought of adding mascarpone to buttercream until I came across this recipe. The mascarpone, alongside ground cinnamon and orange zest, pairs amazingly with the flavours in the sponge, whilst the texture is incredibly silky and smooth!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to decoration I have a tendency to try and overdo it, often ruining the overall impact of my bakes. For these cakes, I really did strip it back, using only a sugared grape (grapes rolled in egg whites and sugar before being left to set) and a cinnamon stick per cupcake. Simple, but effective! Maybe some grated nutmeg or a dusting of cocoa powder would have rounded these cakes off nicely? 

This post has been mercifully short in comparison to the ones I've written recently, but don't think I'm running out of steam! I've got plenty of baking to be doing over Christmas, whether that be for certain presents I've got planned or for the starters and desserts that I've been put in charge of for Christmas dinner! I can't wait to see how these next bakes turn out!

Gibby x

 


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