SOFT CUP CAKES

Hello everyone,

I hope your weekend was more relaxing than mine... I've put together a little recipe for fluffy cupcakes, if I do say so myself. For those of you who follow me on twitter I was looking for a frosting recipe without butter, because I find that traditional frostings often give you a mouthful, and I feel like I'm just eating butter and don't want to tackle the cake underneath. I know, my cupcake pretensions are pretty high, but what can I say, I love it when it's not just pretty, but tasty too! So I've come up with a tasty, light alternative (in the mouth, of course... otherwise it's close to caloric suicide) for the icing, and a new cupcake recipe that's just as moist as you'd like it to be, and very easy to make...

For 9 cup cakes, you'll need..:

• 3 eggs,
• 100g butter,
• 180g flour,
• 1 pinch salt,
• 90g sugar,
• 3 tablespoons milk,
• 1 sachet yeast,
• 1 capful of orange blossom.

Start by heating your oven to 200°C. Sift the flour and yeast together and set aside. Beat in the 3 eggs and sugar, the mixture will turn white, at which point add the milk, salt and orange blossom, then mix well. Gradually add the powder, flour and baking powder. Finally, add the melted butter and mix until the dough is smooth. You can garnish your cupcakes with fruit, such as pears (as shown here... one pear is enough, cut very finely). Pour the batter into 2/3 of the cups, and bake for 10 minutes, checking with a knife blade.

For the glaze:

• 400g Philadelphia or St Môret cheese,
• 20cl liquid cream,
• 30g powdered sugar.

Using an electric mixer, whip the cold cream until stiff. Once the whipped cream begins to thicken, add the powdered sugar a little at a time. Still using the mixer, whip the Philadelphia to loosen it, then fold it into the whipped cream. You can add coloring at this point, to make them funky, but like me, you can also decorate with coconut shavings, coconut powder or even sugar pearls or beads... Enjoy!