Are cupcakes still all the rage? I never really got that into them, perhaps because I’m terrible at decorating them. The icing has to be perfect for me to really enjoy them. Crunchy icing puts my teeth on edge. It needs to be a sweet, flavoursome butter cream or cream cheese.
These jam-filled pound cupcakes don’t need any topping because the interest is all in the middle. I used some of my home-made mixed berry jelly from last autumn – there are always a few jars in the store cupboard. You can use any fruit jam, marmalade or lemon curd instead. Or what about a spoonful of Nutella? Mmmmmmmm…
I used a pound cake recipe I found in Marvellous Mini-Cakes – a little book full of teensy sweet & savoury cakes. I used to think a pound cake was a cake that weighed a pound! In actual fact, it’s a cake traditionally made with a pound each of its four main ingredients – butter, sugar, flour and eggs… so I guess it’s really a 4lb cake!
As tempting as they may be, please don’t attempt to eat these straight from the oven. The hot, molten jam will scald the roof of your mouth!
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- 120g/4¼oz salted butter
- 120g/4¼oz caster sugar
- 2 eggs, separated
- 120g/4¼oz plain flour, sifted
- 2 scant tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
- jam
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
- Grease a muffin tin and dust with flour or add cupcake/muffin cases
- In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until the mixture turns pale and becomes smooth
- Add the egg yolks, flour and salt and combine
- In another bowl, whisk the egg whites
- Add them gradually to the mixture
- Add the baking powder
- As soon as you have stirred in the baking powder, put a dessert-spoonful of cake mixture in each cupcake hole/case
- Add a teaspoonful of jam to the centre of each cake
- Cover with the remaining cake mixture, ensuring that the jam is fully covered by the cake mix
- Put in the oven straight away
- Bake for about 20 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, prick with a skewer if it comes away clean, the cupcakes are done
- Allow to cool slightly before turning them out of the tin