These are lovely made with half wholemeal and half white flour, it makes them a little healthier.
Ingredients: for 12 cupcakes
225g self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
100g mixed dried fruit, raisins, sultanas, currants, cranberries, cherries
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon mixed spice
grated zest of 2 oranges
125g soft dark brown sugar
50g chopped hazelnuts (*optional, omit for nut allergies)
75g butter, melted
1 egg
175ml milk
Ingredients: for orange fondant icing
300g fondant icing sugar
A little freshly squeezed orange juice
Green food colouring if desired
Ingredients: for the melting snowmen
White, black, orange, red and green sugarpaste
Black food writer pen
Dried spaghetti
How to make melting snowmen Christmas cupcakes… WASH YOUR HANDS
1. Preheat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/gas 6 and put a shelf onto the centre runner.
2. For the cupcakes – sieve the self-raising flour into the mixing bowl along with the baking powder, stir in the ginger, cinnamon, mixed spice, grated orange zest and sugar. Add the chopped nuts if using.
3. Mix the melted butter, egg and milk together pour into the mixing bowl.
4. Mix everything together with a wooden spoon. It won’t look like normal cake mixture, it will look very lumpy and a bit odd, it’s meant to look like this, DO NOT try to beat the lumps out.
5. Split the mixture evenly between 12 cupcake cases in a muffin tray and bake for 15-20 minutes until pale golden and springy to the touch.
6. For the orange fondant icing – mix the fondant icing sugar with 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed orange juice, add more orange juice little by little until a thick consistency is reached. Colour the icing green if you would like it to look like grass – for the snowman to melt onto.
7. Remove the cakes from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack to cool slightly. Ice with the orange fondant icing and finish with the melting snowman
8. For the melting snowman – roll a small amount of white sugarpaste into a ball, roll another ball of white sugarpaste and roll flat with a rolling pin, use a round bladed knife to cut a wobbly edge around the outside. Model a top hat out of black sugarpaste and make 2 small balls for eyes and 3 slightly larger balls for buttons. Model a carrot with a little orange sugarpaste and a scarf with red and green sugarpaste.
9. Stick a piece of dried spaghetti through the cake and secure the white ball in position through the spaghetti. Drape the white wobbly edged sugarpaste over the top and pinch in around the ball so this looks like the head with the flat sugarpaste becoming the body. Sticky some more dried spaghetti through the head and secure the hat, then press on the eyes, nose and buttons using a little water to help them stick, drape over the scarf and draw stick arms and hands on with the food writer pen.