Tastes Like Home
“The moist vanilla cake reminds me of the buttery bread, but it’s the homemade marshmallow frosting that makes these cupcakes something truly special. ” – Jessica Holmes
Jessica Holmes says…
I remember going to birthday parties as a child, and there was always one dish on the food table that was the first to go. Behind the shop-bought party pies and frankfurters, there was always a glistening plate of freshly made fairy bread.
You know the one – white bread smothered in margarine and covered in colourful hundreds and thousands.
I can still remember the pure joy associated with sneaking more than my fair share of fairy bread triangles at every party I attended.
Thirty years later, so much in the world has changed. But, even now, when I take my daughter to her friends’ parties, there’s one thing I’ve noticed – fairy bread is still always on the menu.
It makes me smile every time I see kids tucking in and savouring every bite, just like I did all those years ago. It’s surprising the nostalgia that can be connected to a piece of supermarket bread and cheap sprinkles. But that’s the power of food.
When I was dreaming up new cupcake recipes for my book, I couldn’t wait to take all the deliciousness of fairy bread and transform it into a moreish cupcake. The moist vanilla cake reminds me of the buttery bread, but it’s the homemade marshmallow frosting that makes these cupcakes something truly special.
The kids love to turn these cupcakes upside down and dunk them in a bowlful of hundreds and thousands.
What’s even better is that, just like a plate of fairy bread in the 1990s, they’re always the first thing to disappear at my party table.
Ingredients
Serves 12
115g (½ cup) unsalted butter, softened
150g (¾ cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
185g (1⅓ cups) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
120ml (½ cup) full-fat milk, room temperature
60ml (¼ cup) full-fat Greek or plain yoghurt, room temperature
Marshmallow frosting
4 egg whites
150g (3/4 cup) caster sugar or granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon vanilla
To decorate
120g (½ cup) hundreds and thousands
Method
Preheat the oven to 150°C fan-forced. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with cupcake liners. In a large mixing bowl, add the butter and caster sugar. Beat using an electric mixer on medium speed for 1–2 minutes or until pale and fluffy.
Add the egg and vanilla and beat briefly until combined. Add half of the flour, along with the baking powder, salt and milk. Beat on low speed until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining flour and the yoghurt. Beat on low speed until you have a light, creamy cake batter.
Spoon the batter into the liners, making each one two-thirds full. Bake the cupcakes for 20–22 minutes or until they spring back to the touch. Leave the cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack.
Make the marshmallow frosting. Fill a medium saucepan with water so it is a quarter full and place it on medium heat. In a medium heatproof bowl, add the egg whites, caster sugar and cream of tartar. Whisk together.
Place the bowl on top of the saucepan, ensuring the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water below. As the egg whites heat, whisk gently by hand the entire time. Heat the egg whites to 70°C. It should take around 5–6 minutes or so, and, by this stage, the sugar should have dissolved.
Remove the bowl from the saucepan and transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat on medium-high speed for 5–6 minutes or until the mixture is fluffy, white and voluminous.
Add the vanilla and beat for 30 seconds or so. The marshmallow fluff should no longer be warm. Transfer the marshmallow frosting to a piping bag fitted with a large round piping tip, approximately 1.5cm in diameter. Pipe mounds of frosting onto each cupcake.
Put the cupcakes in the freezer for 30 minutes for the frosting to firm up. Pour the sprinkles into a small bowl. Dip each cupcake upside down into the sprinkles and gently roll until the marshmallow frosting is completely covered in sprinkles. Let the cupcakes come back to room temperature before enjoying.
SOMETHING SWEET BY JESSICA HOLMES IS OUT NOW.
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Published in ed#765