I have made these cupcakes a couple of times now, all for “special” occasions. Once for a family birthday, once for a friends birthday and for my dear friend Eliza today. They are a really basic cupcake with a twist because of the almond meal and sour cream. Light and sweet, not overly moist but it has a lovely crumb.
* 125g unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup (200g) caster sugar
* 3 eggs
* 1/2 cup (75g) plain flour
* 1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
* 1/2 cup (55g) almond meal
* 1/3 cup (80g) sour cream
* Icing flowers, to decorate
* Icing
* 2 cups (300g) icing sugar mixture
* 10g softened butter
* 2 tbs hot water
* 2-3 drops pink liquid food colouring
1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 20 1/3-cup (80ml) muffin pans with paper cases.
2. Use an electric mixer to beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the flours, almond meal and sour cream, in alternate batches, and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
3. Spoon mixture evenly among the lined pans and smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through. Remove from oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. To make the icing, combine the icing sugar and butter in a medium bowl. Gradually add enough water, stirring with a wooden spoon, until a smooth paste forms. Add the food colouring and stir until well combined.
5. Use a round-bladed knife or palette knife to spread icing over each cake. Decorate with icing flowers. Put aside for 15 minutes to set.
For the icing I made 2 different colours, a light pink and a bright pink. I just halved the icing ingredients and put them in 2 separate bowls, to one I added about 4 drops of pink food colouring and the other I dipped a wooden skewer into the food colouring bottle and just touched the end into the icing, this makes a really pale pink. You could use any colour you like, yellow would look lovely. The icing flowers I bought from Woolworths a pack of 15 for $4.99. I only used 10 as I didn’t put them on the ones for Daniel and myself. I saw some different designs at Pink Frosting in Fyshwick last week, sold in little packs for about $3.50 and I will try these out next time. The pink striped cupcake pans are also from Pink Frosting and are paper eskimo brand.
If you are looking for cupcakes that are a little different from the norm, these are perfect. The sour cream cuts through a lot of the sweetness, but the icing adds a little back in so they are quite well rounded and as I mentioned before the almond meal makes the crumb really lovely and soft. I like these by themselves or with a icy cold glass of lemonade or milk, something light and cold is perfect for these. Daniel is laughing at me for writing lemonade or milk, but I still think they are the best beverages to have with them.
As a present for Eliza I boxed these up in a gift box with some cellophane, they look lovely grouped together or lined up and the alternating colours look really pretty. They would look really good on a cupcake stand or tree if you made enough of them, I got 10 small cupcakes and 6 regular size. From memory it made 12 regular cupcakes the first time I made them. I really like these cupcakes and I hope you do too. 
Thanks for following scrumptious and delicous,
Love Sonia xx
