MIXED SPICE & BRANDY BUTTER ICED CHRISTMAS CUPCAKES.

This recipe comes to you after a spur of the moment cupbard raid on sunday afternoon when I was in the mood to bust out the Kitchen Aid and the glitter sprinkles. I haven't baked for the sake of baking in forever and didn't even intent to pop the recipe up on here until I had tasted one and realised just how delicious these Christmas themed bakes really where.

Please excuse the somewhat grey photograph. Impromptu baking followed by an impromptu photo session and very little natural light come 3pm on a winters afternoon is not very conductive for creating beautiful food imagery. However, I tried my best to work with what I had and thought I would include this adorable mini Christmas tree to add to the festive-ness of these treats.

These cupcakes include a handful of my favourite things from this time of the year, cinnamon, sweet oranges and brandy. If you're a fan of these too this recipe will become a staple in your Christmas arsenal not only for this year but hopefully for many more years to come.

YOU WILL NEED:

200g dark brown sugar, 225g self raising flour, 250g unsalted butter, 3 eggs, 6g mixed spice, 1 orange, 225g icing sugar and 2 and a half TSP of brandy.
You could also add dried fruit such as sultanas and raisins if you fancy! 

METHOD:

Start by lining your cupcake tray with cases and pre-heating the oven to 180°C. First things first, you need to mix together 150g of the butter with the sugar. Add in the flour and mixed spice and then mix until combined. If you don't have mixed spice to hand you can create your own using a mixture of cinnamon, all spice and nutmeg. Next up you need to add your 3 eggs into the mix before adding in the zest and juice of one orange. Then give everything a good mix and add in some dried fruit here at the end if you fancy, I didn't purely because I don't actually like dried fruit, however I reckon these would be still be just as delicious with dried fruit if you are that way inclined. Split your mixture between the 12 cupcake cases and then place in the centre of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes. Once cooked and cool mix up some buttercream by combining 100g of butter with the icing sugar and brandy and then pipe onto your cupcakes and decorate with some festive sprinkles. 

There we have it, a super easy recipe and I seriously cannot get enough of these festive bakes. The subtle Christmas flavour combined with the brandy buttercream is a serious guilty pleasure and I for one will definitely be making more of these during the run up to Christmas Day itself!