These are sausage and mash presented in a cupcake case rather than sausage and mash flavour cupcakes, not sure about this one, could be ‘interesting’. Part of my new Confused Food range. They are a fabulous talking point served as canapes in tiny foil cupcake cases (don’t use standard greaseproof cases as the fat from the sausages will mark and give the game away). They can be made in advance and reheated in the oven for 10-20 minutes depending on the size on 180c/gas 4/AGA roasting oven shelf on oven floor, covered in tin foil to prevent the potato from browning. Make sure they are piping hot before serving them.
The term ‘confused food’ derives from my concept that this food looks like one thing (a sweet cupcake) but tastes completely different (not a sweet cupcake but sausage and mash) so it fools your brain in thinking you’re going to eat a cupcake but then you are surprised when it’s savoury and nothing like a cupcake, geddit?
Ingredients: for approx 10 cupcakes or 24 mini cupcakes
500g potatoes
25g butter and little extra
splash of milk
2 onions, finely sliced
sunflower oil
1 teaspoon sugar
450g pack sausagemeat or equivalent in sausages with skins removed
salt and pepper
- Peel, chop and cook the potatoes in boiling water for 20 minutes until tender. If you have an AGA bring the potatoes to the boil, pour off most of the water, leaving around 3 cm in the pan, cover with a lid and put on the oven floor of the simmering oven for 20-25 minutes until tender.
- Drain, add 25g butter, a splash of milk, season with salt and pepper and mash, If you have a ricer use this to mash as you want the potatoes to be very smooth and creamy as you will be piping these onto the sausagemeat. Add more milk if necessary.
- Fry the onions in the oil and a knob of butter over a very low heat for 5 minutes until they are starting to soften, add the sugar and stir in and cook for a further 5-10 minutes until they have caramelised. Use the simmering plate of the AGA and keep an eye on them in case it’s a little hot.
- Shape the sausage meat into 10 round patties, around 3cm in diameter, if you want to make mini cupcakes then make them smaller, check them against the size of your cupcake cases but don’t put any raw meat in the cases. Fry or grill these until thoroughly cooked through. At this stage you can chill the patties, mash and onions until ready to use them.
- To assemble the cakes reheat the mash, onions and patties then lay each pattie into the bottom of a foil cupcake case, top with some caramelised onion, transfer the mashed potatoes to a piping bag and pipe the mash on top to resemble frosting. You could decorate with some peas but that may give the game away, or you could drizzle with a little brown sauce or gravy to look like chocolate sauce and really fool your friends.
