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'You're On Your Own, Kid' Cupcakes

Inspired by Taylor Swift's 'You're On Your Own, Kid', these gingerbread cupcakes are filled with homemade blackberry compote, topped with a blackberry/cream cheese swirled icing and decorated with an edible daisy chain friendship bracelet- perfect for when summer goes away, but the yearning (for cake) stays.
Course Dessert, Snack
Keyword Blackberry, Compote, Cream cheese, Cream cheese icing, Gingerbread, Sugarpaste daisy, Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift Cupcakes
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 30 minutes
Drying time 12 hours
Servings 12 cupcakes

Equipment

  • 1 19mm daisy plunger cutter (see Note 1).
  • 1 tapered/ball modelling tool (see Note 2).

Ingredients

For the sugar daisies:

  • 60-70 g sugar florist paste (see Note 3).
  • 10-15 g marzipan (see Note 4).
  • Icing sugar, for dusting.
  • Dried split peas (see Note 5).

For the blackberry compote:

  • 200 g blackberries (I used frozen, but you can use fresh if you have them).
  • 60 g caster sugar
  • 1 lemon

For the gingerbread cupcakes:

  • 200 g Stork (see Note 6).
  • 190 g caster sugar
  • 180 g self-raising flour
  • 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/8 tsp ground cloves
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 3/4 tbsp treacle

For the cream cheese icing:

  • 100 g unsalted butter, softened
  • 160 g full-fat cream cheese
  • 560 g icing sugar, sifted

Instructions

For the sugar daisies:

  • Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Spread out split peas (1 per cupcake) onto the tray, domed sides up, then set aside.
  • Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with icing sugar. Knead the sugar florist paste between your hands until malleable, then roll out as thinly as possible. Use the daisy-shaped plunge cutter to punch out 144 daisies (maybe a few extra, just in case!). As you make each daisy, push it out of the cutter into the palm of your hand, then use the modelling tool to press the centre of the flower to give it a cupped shape. Place each daisy upside down over a dried split pea on the lined tray and leave to harden for at least 12 hours.
  • Once the daisies have hardened, make the marzipan centres. Knead the marzipan between your hands until malleable, then take a tiny pinch of the paste and roll it between the palm of your non-dominant hand and the index finger of your dominant hand, to form a tiny ball. Carefully lift a daisy off its split pea, then press the marzipan ball into the centre, where the pea has made the indent. Repeat for all the daisies and set aside in a cool, dry place until ready to decorate.

For the blackberry compote:

  • Place the blackberries and sugar into a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir every now and then, until the mixture starts to bubble, then turn the heat down to low and simmer gently for 35-40 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the compote from sticking and to help break up the berries.
  • Once the fruit has all broken down and the compote is thick and jammy, remove the pan from the heat. Pass the compote through a heatproof sieve, pushing it through with the back of a spoon, to remove the seeds.
  • Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice to the strained compote and stir it through, then transfer the compote to an airtight container and store in the fridge until ready to use, or up to a week.

For the gingerbread cupcakes:

  • Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line a 12-hole cupcake tin with cupcake cases and set aside.
  • Place all of the cupcake ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk on low speed to incorporate all of the dry ingredients, then gradually increase the speed to full, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Whisk the batter until it is light and fluffy- this shouldn't take longer than about 1 minute.
  • Divide the batter between the 12 cupcake cases (I use an ice cream scoop to do this), then bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, until the cakes spring back when touched gently. Immediately transfer the cakes to a wire rack (to prevent any greasy cases), then leave to cool completely before filling/decorating.

For the cream cheese icing:

  • In a large bowl, beat the softened butter for 1-2 minutes with an electric mixer, until smooth and noticeably paler.
  • Add the cream cheese and mix into the butter by hand until incorporated.
  • Sift in the icing sugar and mix by hand until incorporated. Use electric mixer to beat for 10-15 seconds only, until fluffy, but still thick and stiff. Transfer the icing to a piping bag, fitted with a large, round nozzle, ready to pipe onto the cakes.

To fill the cupcakes:

  • Once the cakes are completely cool, use an apple corer/sharp knife to remove a small circle of cake from the top of each cupcake. Use a spoon or piping bag to fill the cavity with a small amount of blackberry compote, then trim the bottoms of the removed cake pieces and insert the tops back into the holes, to seal in the filling.

To decorate:

  • Pipe a large swirl of cream cheese icing onto each cupcake. Use a spoon or piping bag to drizzle a small amount of blackberry compote on top of the icing, then use a sharp knife/cocktail stick to swirl it in. Press 12 sugar daisies into the icing, all around the base of the swirl, to give the appearance of a daisy chain-inspired friendship bracelet.
  • Because of the cream cheese icing, these cupcakes are best served immediately, or within 1 hour of assembling, if kept at (a cool) room temperature. They will keep for about 2 days if stored in an airtight container in the fridge.

Notes

  1. Daisy plunger cutter: I used the 19mm cutter from this pack, but any daisy cutter will do. I like the plunge ones because the petals can be tricky to get out of normal cutters, but use what you have. 
  2. Modelling tool: this is optional- it just helps to give your daisies more dimension. If you don't have one, try using a chopstick instead. You could even skip this step and just set the daisies over the split peas instead, but the finished daisies will be slightly flatter.
  3. Sugar florist paste: Florist paste is different to sugar paste, fondant or modelling paste- it is more flexible and dries harder. That's not to say you can't use the other ones to make the daisies, it might just be a little trickier/more time consuming.
  4. Marzipan: I used marzipan for the centres of my flowers, because it is what I had, but you could use any sort of modelling paste (even a little sugar florist paste), dyed yellow, if you prefer. 
  5. Dried split peas: worry not- you won't actually be eating the dried split peas, they are just the perfect size/shape to dry the sugar daisies over to give them the right shape when they have hardened. You'll need one dried split pea for each daisy.
  6. Stork: as always, I like to use Stork in place of butter in my cakes, because I think it makes for a lighter, fluffier sponge. If you prefer, you can substitute the Stork for an equal amount of softened, unsalted butter. 
 
The recipes for the gingerbread cupcakes, blackberry compote and cream cheese icing have all been adapted from 'The Crumbs and Doilies Recipe Book' by Cupcake Jemma.