We asked Mrs Hewitt, Assistant Head for Primary 4-7 in the Junior School and a keen baker in her spare time, if she had any spring-time recipes that our families would enjoy making at home when they had time over the mid-term break.
We thought that Mrs Hewitt's Carrot Patch Cupcakes look fantastic, and since we were even lucky enough to taste one, we can confirm that they taste as good as they look!
To create your very own 'carrot patches', you can either use the recipe below to whip up a light and fluffy chocolate cupcake base, or you can use your own favourite chocolate cake recipe (or cake mix!) instead, before getting creative and decorating them to create your carrot patch.
Ingredients
Chocolate Cupcakes
225g self raising flour
100g good quality cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
350ml thin natural yoghurt or buttermilk
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp instant coffee granules
175ml vegetable oil
350g caster sugar
3 eggs lightly beaten
For Toppings
125g butter
500g icing sugar
milk as needed to loosen the icing
orange food colouring
1 tbsp cocoa powder mixed with a little boiling water to make a paste
fresh mint leaves
chocolate brownie cookies or biscuits
Cupcake Method:
1. Stir all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. In a separate jug mix together the yoghurt/buttermilk, vanilla, oil and eggs.
3. Whisk the wet and dry ingredients together until you get a smooth batter then pour into cupcake cases and bake in a medium oven for approx. 12 minutes (this will be different for different ovens!).
Tip – don’t overfill the cases!
To Decorate (creating your carrot patch!):
1. To make the buttercream, use an electric whisk to beat the butter until light and fluffy.
2. Add a splash of milk and a little of the icing sugar and whisk until well combined.
3. Continue to add a little milk and icing sugar and whisk until you have used all of the icing sugar and you have a smooth buttercream.
4. Split the buttercream in half and place in two bowls.
5. To one half, add orange food colouring (the gel kind is best), to the other add the cocoa paste.
6. Mix each batch of buttercream until evenly coloured.
7. When cool, spread the top of each cupcake with a little of the chocolate buttercream.
8. Use a piping bag with either a large round nozzle (– or no nozzle) to pipe a carrot top on each cupcake.
9. In a plastic bag, crush up the chocolate cookies to make chocolate soil.
10. Finish the cupcakes by decorating with the chocolate soil around the carrot and popping a sprig of mint into the top of each carrot.
Enjoy!
