We were invited out for dinner the other night and I wanted to take a dessert, so I looked online for some inspiration and found these beautiful date cupcakes at Your Cup of Cake.
Apparently the recipe is originally an Australian one, so it’s come full circle. Welcome Home!
I have made some adjustments to the original recipe.
Cupcakes:
1 ½ cup pitted, chopped dates
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup water
1 cup buttermilk
110g butter
⅔ cup brown sugar (as always, I have reduced the amount of sugar…it was 1 cup)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2¾ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1¾ teaspoon baking powder
Caramel Sauce:
⅔ cup brown sugar (see note on sugar for cupcakes)
1¼ cup cream
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
110g butter
Directions:
1. Pre-heat oven to 175°C and line muffin tin with cupcake liners. Makes about 20 cupcakes.
2. Bring water and buttermilk to boil. Place chopped dates into a bowl with baking soda. Pour boiling water and milk over dates, briefly stir, then let sit for 20 minutes. I was a bit disturbed by how this looked and smelt (I’ve never boiled buttermilk before), it was all curdled and not at all attractive, but it turned out fine.
3. In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy, about 4 minutes.
4. Add eggs one at a time and vanilla.
5. In a separate bowl, mix flour, salt and baking soda together.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients and the date mixture (alternating between the two) to the butter and eggs. (⅓ dry, then ½ dates, then ⅓ dry, ½ date, ⅓ dry.)
7. Fill cupcakes liners ⅔ full and bake for 13-16 minutes, or until cooked through.
8. While the cupcakes bake, make the caramel sauce. Place all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for 2 minutes.
9. When cupcakes are out of the oven, use a squeeze bottle to insert caramel sauce into each cupcake, or cut out a small hole on the top of each cupcakes and pour the sauce in using a spoon – I used a teapot with a small spout to fill the holes, I think that was easier than using a spoon and I don’t own a squeeze bottle.
Maple Cinnamon Icing:
110g butter
250g cream cheese
approx ½ cup maple syrup*
¼ cup icing sugar* (original recipe said 4 cups!! This can’t be right, can it?)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
some cream (optional, I added a bit of cream to mine)
Beat butter and cream cheese for 4 minutes. Then add maple syrup, sifted icing sugar, vanilla, cream and cinnamon.
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with some extra cinnamon.
* Taste the icing and adjust sugar/maple syrup to suit your tastes
How did they taste? They were beautiful – so delicious and moist!
G-Man says they were better than the Chocolate and Zucchini Cupcakes. I’m not sure about that, I still prefer the chocolate ones, but these were definitely up there!
What I’ve learnt from making these: I need to buy a squeeze bottle and I must work on my piping technique!
Update on the piping technique: I picked up this great tip on how to fill your piping bag, amazing! I wish I knew this sooner.
Linking to:
