Friday, July 10, 2009

Ginger and Walnut Cupcakes


It has been so long since I did some baking and brought it into work, that I thought I better do some. My poor work colleagues – when we started building the house, the builders got all the baking. Even though we finished that two months ago, I’ve been a bit remiss about bringing in morning tea.

So I decided to bring in cupcakes for morning tea today. Recently I got from the library a NZ book called Divine Cupcakes and it had a recipe in it for ginger cupcakes with ginger caramel icing and little gingerbread hearts on them – it really captured my imagination so I decided to do something similar for morning tea.



I actually used the gingerbread cupcakes from the crapbapple bakery recipe book. I played around with the recipe a bit, using sour cream instead of yoghurt and upping the spice quantities. The cupcakes have a little sliced crystallised ginger in them and also some walnuts which add a bit of interest. I used the divine cupcake recipe for the icing which makes a lovely creamy icing. I made little heart shaped gingerbread using a peggy porshen recipe. I normally use an Annabel Langbein recipe for gingerbread biscuits, but wanted to try something different and I really liked the peggy porshen recipe which uses muscavado sugar in it.

I think the cupcakes look so cute, and I am sure that everyone at work appreciated them too!

Ginger and Walnut Cupcakes (adapted from Crabapple Bakery Cook book)

150g butter
1 ¾ c sugar
4 eggs
1 ½ tsp vanilla
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 c flour
¼ tsp b soda
2 tsp ginger
½ tsp allspice
2/3 c natural yoghurt
1/3 c chopped crystallised ginger (I used preserved)
¾ c chopped walnuts

• Cream butter and sugar, then beat in eggs one at a time and lastly vanilla and grated ginger
• Combine dry ingredients and stir into butter mixture alternately with sour cream
• Stir in chopped ginger and walnuts
• Spoon into cupcake cases and bake at 170c for 20-25 minutes
• When cold frost with ginger caramel icing

Caramel Ginger icing

125g butter
200g brown sugar
80ml cream
1 tbsp ground ginger
500g icing sugar

• Melt together butter and brown sugar, then boil for 2-3 minutes
• Stir in cream and ground ginger. Leave to cool until lukewarm
• Mix in icing sugar, leave to cool and then beat until fluffy (I added a bit more cream to loosen the mixture)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are very cute Tammy! I'm sure your work colleagues loved them.

Sally

Anonymous said...

They look lovely,but I think walnuts might be the food that I hate most in the world.I love your blog Tammy.

Summer said...

I wish I worked for you!!

♥Rosie♥ said...

Those are really beautiful cupcakes Tammy. Lucky work work colleagues!

Fiona and Michael Brown said...

They are mega cute tammy! And I must try that icing recipe - looks really good - I like the consistency it gave you.

Anonymous said...

Your cupcakes look fantastic. I'm loving the caramel-ginger frosting. YUM.

Snooky doodle said...

Nice cupcakes. Lucky your co workers.

SassyCassie said...

I don't like ginger or walnuts, yet those look so adorable I could just eat them all up!

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

So purdy - I love the little hearts on top! Lovely sounding recipe...

Anonymous said...

These look divine Tammy - and I bet they tasted it too. What a good idea with the little hearts. Must remember that. Tammy you must be getting close to writing your own book - surely............. Xmas is coming and I know a lot of my friends would love to receive a copy from me. Hugs from Raewyn

Cakelaw said...

These are gorgeous Tammy! Your colleagues should think themsleves very lucky to have such delicious treats brought in for them.

Jennynz said...

These were sooooo yummy! I didn't think I'd like the crystalised ginger but I did. mmmmmmm. Definately make these again Tammy!